Olivia Rodrigo was interrogated for a half hour at the border by federal agents


Olivia Rodrigo has been riding some big highs lately — like selling 1.4 million tickets for her GUTS World Tour, releasing her concert film of that tour (out on Netflix now), and of course, meeting the King of Australian king penguins, Pesto the giant baby penguin (we’ll still love you once you fledge, baby boy!!!). But there still have been some low moments, too, even if Olivia has picked herself back up and taken things in stride. Sometimes literally, like when she fell through a hole on stage mid-performance at a show in Melbourne, that fans helpfully caught on camera from multiple angles. I still can’t believe how quickly she popped out of that hole and kept going; I wouldn’t have been that nimble even when I was her age. And now Olivia has shared another less-than-stellar incident. She was just on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to promote the GUTS film, where she told a very unsavory story about being interrogated for a half hour by federal agents at the Canadian border:

Speaking about her tour to Jimmy, Olivia began: “I got in trouble with the law for the first time in my life.”

“We’re going from Canada to Portland or something, we’re at border control, I give them my passport, like: ‘OK, whatever,’ then they knock on the door and they’re like: ‘We need Olivia,’” the star explained.

“I’m like: ‘I just played a few shows, maybe their daughter wants an autograph,’” she continued. “I come out, it’s 3 a.m. and I’m delirious, and they take me to a room, and it’s an interrogation room and there’s a big cop with a gun and he’s like: ‘Have you ever been arrested?’”

“I’m like: ‘No! I haven’t been arrested!’” Olivia recalled. “He’s like, ‘Are you sure?’ and I’m gaslighting myself, like: ‘Oh my god, maybe I was arrested and I didn’t know it!’”

“He’s like: ‘You know, you can go to jail for lying to a federal officer, this is really bad,’” Olivia went on. “I’m freaking out, like: ‘I’m not going to get into America!’ I’m so scared, I’m, like, having a panic attack.”

She then concluded: “After 30 minutes of interrogation, he looks at me and goes: ‘What’s your name?’ [I said] ‘Olivia Rodrigo: R O D R I G O,’ and he’s like: ‘Oh, there’s a girl who looks just like you that’s the same age that’s been arrested multiple times and her name’s Olivia Rodriguez.’”

Visibly still in disbelief over the whole ordeal, Olivia admitted to the host: “Jimmy, I was pissed! I’m like: ‘You didn’t look at the name on the thing and you’re interrogating me for 30 minutes?!’ but phew, crisis averted.”

The segment ended with both Olivia and Jimmy wondering who the real Olivia Rodriguez is as they warned her to keep a low profile.

[From BuzzFeed]

Ugh. To borrow the parlance of Olivia’s generation: this story gives me “the ick.” She did say it was three in the morning, which means the officers were tired too. But reading and confirming a person’s frickin’ name has to be the very basic of first steps. It barely even adds up, because Olivia had already handed them her passport! Who flagged her name, anyway, and was it from reading the passport or from hearing an agent say her name? I want a full-scale investigation into this!! I’m glad Olivia called him out after the cop copped to getting the wrong name! Again, double checking the name with the alleged criminal you’re looking to bring in, really is the absolute lowest of expectations for law enforcement. At least Olivia was able to make good late night TV fodder out of this. She was so funny describing how easily she started second-guessing herself, “Wait, have I been arrested?”

Later on in the interview, she also shared a sweet follow up to that whole falling-in-a-hole-on-stage episode. After she finished the concert, Olivia went to the hospital to make sure she didn’t have a concussion. The nurse who tended to her was Filipino and had the same name as her late grandfather, so Olivia thought it was him giving her a nod from beyond that she’s ok. Aw, that story gives me “the feels.”

Photos credit: Miles Leavitt/Netflix, Emilio Madrid/Getty Images for Netflix

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23 Responses to “Olivia Rodrigo was interrogated for a half hour at the border by federal agents”

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  1. Josephine says:

    Outrageous and does not add up. They swipe your passport. No way could that man have gotten the wrong name. It feels like someone just wanted to be an a** to a beautiful woman and hold her in a small room. Also assuming that he thought she was Latina so he could get away with it.

  2. ELX says:

    That jerk probably knew exactly who she is and was getting off on her fear.

  3. ML says:

    When I was a kid, I needed to go to the emergency room for cleaning and stitches for a puncture wound. The nurse assisting the doctor looked like my aunt with the same warm brown eyes: I totally get easier because of the person reminding you of a lived one. Glad she’s okay!

    Airport customs: A lot of expat women have experienced being stopped in the US when traveling alone with kids if they don’t have the same last name as their husband and kidsz this happened to me, too and my kids were 4 and 2 at the time and really scared when we were separated for 30 minutes. This has also happened to people I know with adopted kids of a different race.

  4. sevenblue says:

    I couldn’t believe the border story. I would think artists like her, worth million dollars to a lot of people, wouldn’t get interrogated like that without her people present. It is 100% racial profiling. We only hear about it because Olivia is famous and can tell her story on a late night show, but I am sure there are many people who experienced the same thing.

  5. Kat says:

    My Australian husband and I were held at the Canadian border for over an hour one time when crossing back into Canada from the US. He gets bad anxiety so I was helping him answer questions and then they seperated us. We have had a few stressful experiences at the Canadian border.

  6. Kiera says:

    The Canada border can be tough. I had to drive some kids that were going to a summer camp I was working at from Montreal to NY state and I got interrogated for an hour. All the kids had passports, I had a passport, list of the kids names saying I was picking them up from the camp and each kid had separate documents from me with them saying they were going to the summer camp. No reason we should have been held that long.

    An hour at midnight at the border was spent with me convincing them I was not trafficking these kids. It was insane.

  7. Stef says:

    If she’s leaving Canada to go into the USA, it’s American border guards she was dealing with, not Canadian. Shed only be dealing with the Canadian border guards if she was coming into Canada, not leaving it…

    • Sue says:

      Yes, this is accurate. I am in New York and live on the border and cross to and from Canada frequently. And the U.S. border patrol is much harder than Canadian. The wait to get into the U.S. is typically much longer.

      • Matilda says:

        I and my friends have been harassed many times driving into Canada. Many of the border patrol have a chip on their shoulder. I was once YELLED at for writing the day/month/year instead of month/day/year. I was told that we Americans don’t run the world. They pulled my boyfriend aside and took his van apart when we crossed the border thinking they would find drugs (which they didn’t) it ruined what was supposed to be a romantic trip for us.

      • Amanda says:

        Agree. Have only ever had trouble with US security guards, never with Canadian ones, and the EU was even less stressful than Canada.

  8. Kate says:

    I cross at that crossing all the time and can tell you with absolute certainty that those guys are overwhelmingly small town MAGA bros who absolutely did not think she was anyone else and absolutely did want to be able to tell their friends they harassed her.

  9. Jack says:

    I feel so bad for her! Horrible situation!

    On another note – that black dress is amazing and she looks so fabulous in it!

  10. maisie says:

    yah, don’t you know that all brown people look alike? this has been happening to them forever. I have a good friend who’s Cuban. He looks a lot like Andy Garcia, has a Spanish name. Gets profiled ALL. THE. TIME. apparently for looking “Arabic”. It’s nuts.

  11. Drea says:

    I’ve crossed into and back from Canada MANY times in my life, and I can believe this story. The USA agents are jerks and not well-trained. I’ve never been taken to a room before, but you literally never know what you’re gonna get from them. The most random questions, being yelled at for stupid things, getting things taken from you that are totally legal to bring across the border, and so on.

  12. Mariam says:

    I don’t get why government employees are so rude and mean whether it’s at the DMV or at the border they just suck.

  13. Juniper says:

    Many years ago, before 9/11 when I was in university, you were able to cross back and forth and it wasn’t a big deal. The US/Canadian border is ridiculous now. My husband and I were detained and our car was searched at the Windsor/Detroit crossing coming back into the United States. We were going to an event in Michigan for the weekend, but wanted to check out the Motown museum first. However our flight got in super early so we decided to cross the border to get breakfast, check out the casinos, and get duty free liquor. The agent couldn’t process us being over the border for only 3 hours. It was terrible.

    • Riley says:

      Resident of the US here…the US agents when you come into the US from Windsor or Sarnia are always the WORST! Been doing those crossings for many, many years and it has always been like that.

  14. Me Again says:

    I drove my ex-partner and father of my 2 kids across the border into the US. He was there with his new wife and her daughter. We hand the border guard our odd assortment of passports and I make a joke about the mixed bundle of nationalities and relationships. I turn to my ex to say something, and as I’m turning back to the border guard, I saw 5 heavily armed officers approach our car. We were taken out and one of the officers parked the car. After 3 hours and a missed train to NYC we found out that my ex had the same birth date and a SIMILAR name to a wanted felon in the US. How they thought this felon ended up in Canada with a British passport and a slightly different name is beyond me. Oh, another similarity? Both black. Made my blood boil.

  15. Jaded says:

    I was once crossing the border from Canada into the US with my BFF who had dual Canadian/American citizenship because she was married to an American (very high up in American Airforce PR). The pimply-faced kid at the border looked at her Canadian passport and said sarcastically…”What makes you think you going back to the US?” She calmly brought out her American passport and said…”Because I live there with my husband, Lieutenant Colonel [insert name here] of the American Airforce.” He was stuck so he looked at my passport and snapped…”So why are YOU going to the US?” “I’m visiting with my best friend who lives there. For a week. Then going back to Toronto where I live.” I still don’t understand why he was such a rude little prick to two middle-aged, well-dressed women with up-to-date passports and totally polite and cooperative. I think he was probably drunk with power and trying to throw his weight around. He lost.

  16. Jen says:

    People, if she was entering the US, it was American guards doing this. JFC.

  17. bisynaptic says:

    Nah, the border agents were probably just giving a young woman with a Latino name a hard time… and made up the “Rodriguez” story to gaslight her.