'Volatile' Brand explains outburst
Russell Brand has described himself as a "volatile person" after he lost his cool with a journalist in Downing Street.
The celebrity activist became agitated when Channel 4 News reporter Paraic O'Brien asked him much he pays to rent his east London home during a protest over the cost of housing.
Brand, 39, pointed his finger in the journalist's face and called him "a snide".
Video grab taken from YouTube courtesy of Channel 4 News of Russell Brand, showing the moment he lost his cool with reporter Paraic O'Brien in Downing Street (Channel 4 News/YouTube/Russell Brand/PA)
O'Brien suggested that the housing problem was being exacerbated by the super-rich buying property in the capital.
Brand later discussed the interview on his YouTube news channel, likening it to a "quarrel at a jumble sale".
The comic and actor said: "I shouldn't be allowed on television. I'm so easily wound up. What does it matter to me, what have I got to lose, just from this one bloke?
"But I'm a volatile person."
He went on: " When you talk to a journalist I sort of think it's a combination of boring and really annoying, and my personality type is not well suited to that kind of environment."
During the interview, Brand told the reporter: " I'm not interested in talking to you about my rent, mate. I'm here to support a very important campaign."
When asked about the value of his home, he went on: "It's rented. We don't know the value, you would have to talk to my landlord.
"Blessedly, I can afford my rent and I'm prepared to stand up for people that can't."
Cutting the interview short, he added: "Snides like you, mate, undermine (the campaign). You're a snide. All right, let's do one."
O'Brien wrote on Twitter: " Is it my job to test tension between private circumstances and publicly-held views of celebrities? Yes."
Hundreds of residents and supporters of the New Era estate in Hoxton, east London, took part in the protest over fears that a takeover by US investment firm Westbrook could lead to a massive hike in rents.
Russell Brand was challenged on the rent he pays
