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Logan Paul’s New Interview About His Documentary Raises More Questions Than Answers

by Lizzy Rosenberg

What comes to mind when you hear the name Logan Paul? Do you think of a talented YouTube comedian? Or, do you think of someone who is "exploitive and culturally insensitive"? The latter might be due to to a series of culturally insensitive videos he filmed in Japan last year. Many would agree that each of these videos were incredibly ignorant, however, if you aren't entirely sure where you stand with the internet famous celeb, Logan Paul's interview with Casey Neistat is definitely worth watching. It might give you some perspective on how he has — or hasn't — changed since he became "the most hated man in the snap of a finger."

The interview between Neistat, who is also a YouTube personality, and Paul was a mere 30 minutes long, and coming from someone who holds a hefty grudge, that definitely isn't enough time to forgive somebody. Even so, Paul's words might end up changing your perspective on who he is as a person. However, as Neistat grills Paul about his upcoming documentary, his previously poor behavior, and his journey towards redemption, it also might make you think that Paul is a load of bologna, so who really knows? Either you'll either take something from it, or you won't. It was at least relatively interesting, so check out uncut interview below.

Neistat started out the interview asking about Paul's upcoming documentary about the "rough year" he's had following his downfall. (Paul began 2018 on a bad note when he released a vlog that apparently showed a man who died by suicide, and the response was overwhelmingly negative.) He asked if it's simply a biased technique to ask for forgiveness. While Paul claimed that the documentary is totally objective — and that he merely aims to show what he went through — Neistat seemed to think otherwise. Paul insisted that he doesn't "think people should, can, or will sympathize" with him, to which he said that it's "an unbiased, objective story that captures how something like that can happen." He continued, "At the end of the day, I'm the one who has to look in the mirror and say that was my decision." Which, in reality, is the truth.

Neistat, however, remained perplexed as to what the documentary could possibly be about. If it isn't a plea for forgiveness or a ploy to convince people that he's genuinely sorry, then what is it?

In response to this, Paul said he isn't making a documentary on how difficult his life has been, but instead on "a young man from Ohio," who was "falling into the social media machine over the past four years," before "essentially losing it all overnight." It doesn't necessarily sound like he's learned his lesson, per se, but it does sound like he misses the fame, which I suppose would be terribly unfortunate.

In terms of the Suicide Forest video backlash, Paul blamed his poor choices on the fact that he and his team were kind of caught up in creating content, and they didn't realize how something like that would affect their viewers. There was no moment to breathe or take a step back from his work, he said, and many creators might able to see where he's coming from, on a smaller and less shocking scale, that is.

Paul said,

Everyday we were creating a new piece of content meant to bend the limit and push it right over the edge. We got so caught up in creating that we didn’t stop to think about what were were making and whether it was right. We were on autopilot, which is extremely dangerous when you’re broadcasting to an audience of five to seven million people every day. There was no thinking. It was ‘create content, create content, create content.’ There was no, ‘Take a step back and breathe.’

Neistat continued grilling the star about his thoughtless antics in Japan, which spanned from running around in a series of culturally insensitive outfits, to jumping on cars, pretending to catch Pokémon. In Paul's response to Neistat, he denies the fact that the outfits were culturally insensitive, because they were on sale at a store right next to the temple they were visiting. Reiterating that the store was for tourists, he asked, "Do we not buy the outfits? They were on sale there."

Paul continued picking at the differences between "culturally insensitive" and "insensitive," to which he explained, "The brand that I was at the time was all around insensitive, but that's the person I am no longer trying to become, and will no longer represent on the vlogs."

So, did he actually learn his lesson? Does he know the meaning cultural insensitivity? Nobody is quite sure, TBH.

In terms of how Paul has changed since those videos, and since his YouTube ad revenue was suspended (the ads were restored on Paul's YouTube channel on Feb. 27, per Variety), he said he's trying to become a better person with his lifestyle choices. After tasing the rat, he said he's become vegan, and he's also gotten himself an "extremely wise girlfriend" who "helps [him] become the person [he] wants to become." However, he said, "All of that is overlooked when you've made a mistake."

Although each of these things are probably better for him in the long run, I'm not sure these actions can convince people he's changed. Can it?

Paul says he wants to "become better, [he doesn't] want to let [his] mistakes define [him]." Twitter, however, seems to think otherwise, as you can see from the responses to his interview below. Elite Daily reached out to Paul's representation for clarification of his comments in the interview but did not hear back at the time of publication.

Some, on the other hand, have hope for the YouTube star.

To many viewers, it seems as though Paul is putting on his usual façade to win back his fans' affection. At this point, it's pretty unclear if he'll ever recover from any of this, or if his career will continue to consist of seemingly disingenuous public apologies. Who really knows?