Stranded by the FAA Ground Stop, Daniel Kaluuya and Tyriq Withers Gave the Internet’s Funniest Airport Interview
Leave it to Daniel Kaluuya and Tyriq Withers to turn a travel nightmare into the internet’s favorite clip of the day.
The two actors were stranded at Eugene Airport in Oregon on Friday night after being forced to deboard their Los Angeles-bound flight during the FAA’s nationwide ground stop — issued just before 4 p.m. and lifted around 8:30 p.m. — and instead of fuming at the gate, they gave an on-camera interview to local station KVAL News that had the reporter cracking up.
Withers thanked “God and the FAA for protecting us,” then riffed on a viral 2016 meme — “if you can’t go to Bella Noche, where the hell can you go?” — landing on: “if you can’t go to the airport, where the hell can you go?”
Kaluuya, laughing beside him, said he felt “grateful”: “Think about how many lives were probably saved because of that decision.”
The clip took off across social media on Saturday, the rare feel-good footnote to a chaotic night of grounded flights across the country. Brooks Nader was also stranded — on a private jet, en route to an LSU game.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/2050470705667237/
Sometimes the best content isn’t on the itinerary. It’s at the gate, waiting out a ground stop, with two movie stars and a local news camera.
Sources: Page Six
Daniel Kaluuya, photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons.
