Alex Jones issued a swift apology on The One Show after mistakenly referring to Oscar winner Mikey Madison by the wrong name during an interview. The slip-up happened while she and co-host Roman Kemp chatted with Madison and Jeremy Allen White, stars of the upcoming film The Social Reckoning.
Interview with The Social Reckoning stars
Madison plays real-life Facebook engineer and whistleblower Frances Haugen, while White portrays tech journalist Jeff Horwitz. During the conversation, the hosts pressed the pair on how they approached playing real people. Madison revealed that director Aaron Sorkin advised her not to meet Haugen.
“There was a big part of me that really did want to meet her because she's such an incredible person but when I signed on to do the film, Aaron Sorkin was very clear that he didn't want me to play like a representation of her,” she explained. “He really wanted me to build a character from the script and so I was worried that I would meet her and fall in love with her and want to try and bridge the gap too much and so I decided to hold off. But since then we've been communicating.”
Name mix-up and reaction
Later in the interview, Alex referred to Madison as “Madison” while discussing Jeremy Strong’s portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg. She quickly corrected herself, saying: “Mikey sorry, not Madison.” Madison responded: “No that's ok, at least you didn't call me Mickey.”
Alex replied: “Oh has that happened?” Madison confirmed: “Yes, it does happen. Still, even, which is interesting but it's ok.”
Viewers also noticed the blunder. One wrote: “Well done Alex got her name correct after the first failed attempt. Good to see you know your Hollywood Stars names.#theoneshow.” Another commented: “Oops. Guest name wrong.” A third viewer said: “Embarrassing. There was an awkward Alan Partridge vibe to the interview.” A fourth defended the presenter, saying: “In fairness to [Alex] Jones, Mikey isn’t a natural name for a girl so her mind probably just gravitated towards the Madison which is a somewhat better-known female name.”
The One Show airs weeknights from 7pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
