LeBlanc speaks out on Top Gear debacle
MATT LEBLANC has described working on Top Gear as like walking into a ‘s***storm’.
The Friends star joined the rebooted motor show alongside Chris Evans in 2016 after Jeremy Clarkson and his co-stars Richard Hammond and James May’s contracts were terminated following allegations of verbal and physical abuse.
But Matt said he had no idea at the time what he was letting himself in for.
Speaking to The Times, Matt said: ‘I didn’t realise I’d be stepping into the middle of a media s***storm.’
The reboot and Evans in particular came in for a critical panning — and yet LeBlanc said he didn’t have a clue his co-presenter was planning to walkout after the debut run.
‘I didn’t know he was leaving. I get along fine with the guy. I read it in the paper,’ Matt said.
Speaking about how the show has evolved since then, LeBlanc admitted that in the first series he was ‘just there to deliver some jokes and drive some cars’.
He described Chris as ‘the guy in charge’, before distancing himself from any idea that Evans was a control freak.
‘I think the second season, after Chris Evans left, it became more of a collaboration,’ Matt said, before clarifying that he felt the current team — with Chris Harris and Rory Reid as his co-stars — was a ‘more productive and more creative’ mix.
Author: Anna Thomson
