Olivia Rodrigo was mistaken for a criminal and interrogated by police while on tour: ‘I’m freaking out’
“I’m like, ‘I’m not gonna be let into America.’ Like, I’m so scared. I’m having a panic attack.”
Olivia Rodrigo is opening up her first-ever run-in with the law.
The “Favorite Crime” singer revealed on Tuesday’s episode of The Tonight Show that she was interrogated by police for at least 30 minutes after being mistaken for a criminal named Olivia Rodriguez while traveling from Canada to the United States as part of her Guts World Tour.
“We were at border control, I give them my passport, and they’re like, ‘OK, whatever,’” she told host Jimmy Fallon. “And they knock on the door and they’re like, ‘We need Olivia.’”
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At the time, Rodrigo thought that it was going to be a friendly encounter. “I’m like, ‘I just played a few shows; maybe, like, their daughter wants an autograph,’” she recalled. “And 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 like, a big cop with a gun. And he’s like, ‘Have you ever been arrested?’”
Rodrigo, naturally, went into panic mode. “I’m, like, ‘No, I haven’t been arrested,’” she explained. “He’s like, ‘Are you sure?’ I’m like gaslighting myself, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, maybe I was arrested and I didn’t know it.’”
The officer then decided to put on a little more pressure on Rodrigo. “He scared me. He said, ‘You know, you could go to jail for lying to a federal officer like this. Like, this is really bad,’” she said. “I’m freaking out. I’m like, ‘I’m not gonna be let into America.’ I’m so scared. I’m having a panic attack.”
It wasn’t until 30 minutes into their interrogation that the officer asked to clarify her name. When she spelled it out for him, he replied, “‘Oh, there’s a girl who looks just like you, that’s your same age, that’s been arrested multiple times, and her name’s Olivia Rodriguez.’”
Rodrigo did not find the connection funny. “Jimmy, I was pissed,” she exclaimed. “I’m like, ‘You didn’t look at the name on the thing? You’ve been interrogating me for 30 minutes!’”
Thankfully, the crisis was averted and Rodrigo was able to safely enter the country and keep the show on the road.
Fallon, however, took a moment to issue a lighthearted warning to the real criminal who may still be out there somewhere. “Olivia Rodriguez, if you’re watching, be careful,” he joked. “That’s the moral of the story — be careful. Stay away from Canada.”
Watch Rodrigo discuss being mistaken for Rodriguez in the clip above.