How Not to Interview a Famous Person
As a magazine editor, I am often tasked with the seemingly enviable job of interviewing celebrities. Interviewing famous people sounds really exciting, but I think to do it well you have to have the right personality type, which I have narrowed down to some combination of the following: unrepentant ass-kisser and/or shameless invader of privacy. I fall a teensy bit into the former category, but mostly I am just uncomfortable. Talking to a celebrity is only exciting if they are not being forced to do so by their publicist(s), and every single accidental run-in I have had with celebrities has ended in humiliation (I once tripped over Larry Flynt's wheelchair and spilled red wine on a starlet wearing something extremely expensive... and white, although not, thankfully, both on the same night). Sure, there is the fantasy that they will totally spark with you and you will become BFFs and/or lovers, and the interview will just fly by because you are having so much goddamned fun.
No.
They will be polite, but the more famous they are, the more reticent they will be. They will repeat the same sound bites over and over. If you ask a question you think is funny, they will sometimes look confused. Also, the written question is much different than the spoken question. You will find yourself tripping over the words that sounded so eloquent and thoughtful on paper, sounding inadvertently like a robotic stutterer who cannot use contractions. For some inexplicable reason you will feel the need to read them their own biography by way of introduction: "So, you grew up in Stamford milking cows before moving to Guadalajara to become a performance artist ..." They nod, blankly, waiting for the question, but you did your Wikipedia research too well and have a good paragraph before there is any punctuation.
Plus, 99% of the time the publicist will be on the phone with them (One fabulous exception to this rule was when I received a call directly from Ludacris. "What's up, Una, it's Ludacris," he said. I think I may have giggled.) But most often you pick up the phone expecting to talk to, say, Martin Freeman, then hear the tell-tale echo of speaker phone, followed by "Hi, it's Jenny! I'm here with Martin. I'll just be listening in, you guys go ahead." Talking to anyone in this scenario would be awkward, but engaging in what is essentially an imitation of a conversation under these circumstances is much worse. Every awkward pause, every failed joke is magnified by the number of ears listening in.
I think everyone has a word or phrase that they use far too much. For me, with authority figures, this word is "absolutely." If I am asked if something can be done, I say "absolutely." If I am told an opinion that I agree with even half-assedly, I offer a hearty "absolutely" as a show of my support. And in interviews, any halfway intelligent thing said by the subject is agreed with in this manner. The problem is, it's my only fall-back word. "Yeah" and "Mmmmm hmmmmm" seem too informal, so I might say "absolutely" -- with varying degrees of inflection, to spice it up -- 25 times in the span of 10 minutes. It's out of my control. At least my version of Tourette's is only expressed in pleasantries.
So, in summation, an interview with a famous (or even semi-famous, or even not famous at all) person, for me, is not an awesome and enlightening conversation with a fellow human. It is an embarrassing and humbling exercise in social skills (or lack thereof) under the duress of forced merriment and familiarity. This is why I stick to self-posessed essays. Just for the record.
Follow Una LaMarche on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sassycurmudgeon
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I loved this. And I am sure you're a great interviewer. Self-effacement goes a long way when you're dealing with celebs. Back in the day before I realized journalists were the spawn of satan, I interviewed Janet Jackson. It was fun, natural, and seamless. Our half hour flew by. The article practically wrote itself. Okay, maybe I fell into "ass-kisser" territory.
The only time I remember quaking in my boots was when I photographed a movie star at his home. He was not very accommodating, and I wasn't a fan of his work. I actually knew very little about him other than his name. So my advice to anyone who will listen is use The Google BEFOREHAND to see if your client, like mine, won an Oscar. I had to spend some time talking about people we both knew before he began to trust me, which left about 5 minutes to shoot. He secretly flipped me the bird on one side of his face in one of the photos. I didn't notice until a friend pointed it out.
Great article. I think I'll print it out and pin it to my memo board. As an English major in college, I had to interview someone and it was torture for me (and hopefully not the subject!)
Una - another excellent post! Please stay at HuffPo - they need more witty, thoughtful posters like you!
Having been on the receiving end (although certainly not famous), it's always a duel. The interviewer wants blood and you want to keep from bleeding. And then you say to yourself, "Blood sells" and you give in to the paper cuts.
I've interviewed many celebrities in my work as a film journalist, and my fave all-time story came from sitting down with a handful of journalists (or should I say "journalists"?) to chat with Jean-Claude van Damme about his latest opus at the time, Hard Target.
When one woman asked him if he had any concerns about the violence in his movies, he replied that, "There has been violence since the time of the ramen." I asked what that had to do with Japanese noodles, and he said, "No, since the time of the Ramen Empire!"
Aside from the fact that violent behavior obviously predates Orange Julius Caeser, I had to chuckle, because the Muscles from Brussels had already been living in the U.S. for twelve years by then, and could barely bang out a coherent sentence in English.
My celebrity story: I heard Alan Ginsberg perform William Blake's poetry ~1980 at Duke where I was visiting friends for the weekend. At the reception following the performance, earnest young scholars interrogated Ginsberg about Life and Art. Finally he excused himself, only to find a young woman (me) blocking his escape route. With a resigned expression, he awaited my query. "I just wanted to say thanks", I said, and kissed him on the cheek. His body unwound, his face relaxed, and all of a sudden, an actual person was looking at me. He said, "Hey, we're going to be getting together at ---- later, why don't you meet us there?" I said, "Sure," and sped him on his way. I missed the party, but cherish the memory.
Personally, (although I know it is your job to interview them) I try to ignore celebrities I see around. I am sure they get enough attention and if it were me, would want to sometimes just be left alone.
Una,
I used to write for a bunch of independent music magazines, and so over the years I'd had the good fortune to interview people like Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) and Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth), etc. So I definitely know what you're talking about. However, I will say that many times my interviews ran over time because a) I'm a great conversationalist and am very lovable and b) I was a musician asking other musicians about music, not a writer asking a craftsperson of a different stripe questions I thought would help make a good story or clarify something most people would want to know about the artist's latest project and c) I was generally talking to a celebrity of a much lower caliber. But mostly it was "B". I was able to disarm and engage them by asking them questions they hadn't heard in one form or another all day and that they had real opinions and feelings about.
Why not try asking them what they’d like to say?
Then interject questions, in order to clarify the monologue.
See Jane Devin's Profile
I laughed and felt your pain equally. I used to work promoting events such as concerts and boxing matches. I'd try to suck the useful information out of hyperbolic press kits and meld it to more fascinating information from mini-interviews, but sometimes it was futile. No matter what I asked, the interviewee would turn it back around to some rehearsed sound byte that had already been heard a hundred times before.
My favorite people to interview are those that aren't trying to sell anything -- they just have a story that they want to tell. I hope to meet a lot of people like this when I hit the road in October for a year-long cross-country trip. Although not as popular as celebrity interviews, I find the stories of unknown people are often much more fascinating.
I always try to put people at ease when they approach me.
Me too.
It usually involves removing body piercings.
Oh Una, I love this posting. Here's my celebrity story!
For 20 years I worked for the USG as a Foreign Service secretary. During my tour in Paris, I worked directly for the Consul General. One day my boss came to me and said, "Ilia Nastase is going to come in this morning to get a visa in his 'Honorary Consul of Romania' passport. I need to be in a meeting with the Ambassador so just bring him up, take his paperwork for processing, set him down on the sofa with a cup of coffee and the International Herald Tribune and try not to talk his ear off." (I was known for my social butterfly tendencies then and, sigh, even now.)
So, Mr. Nastase arrived and I did everything I was supposed to do including keeping my yap shut while going about my business. After the second cup of coffee Mr. Nastase pulled up a chair next to my desk and said, "Excuse me, do you know who I am? Don't you have anything you want to ask me?" My boss returned to the office to find Ilia (we were on a first name basis by that time) and I deep in conversation. With a huge smile on his face, my boss said to me "I knew you couldn't leave hime alone!" Ilia laughed and said, "It was me. I can't believe you told her not to speak to me!"
Love that one halfitaliangirl!
In particular one of my celeb interviews was atrocious. Lasted 45 minutes, he rarely took a breath ,and fit in about 2,000 talking points in he'd committed to memory. Because we were both so well-versed & interested in the topic, I allowed myself to get stuck in the all-wonk-all-the-time quagmire also. Bad mistake! Should have sacrificed some of the important points to try harder to tease out a little more personal connection and self revelation. I hate to even listen to it and have inadvertently (yeah, right) misplaced it. Grrrr!
And I can't blame it his "minder", because he insisted on doing the interview without her present. (Talked to her later, though, and in some ways, she was even more interesting than he, and quite well-informed)
I guess it's the new mark of distinction to rate having a "minder", along, whether or not they actually do their jobs...
Well, it could be worse. I don't converse with celebrities, but my conversation with regular people is now polluted with "awesome." My kid's teachers use it. He responds to it. I say it all the time. Can you just imagine?? Nice piece. Kind of what I would have expected interviewing celebrities to be.
Meeting famous people can be fun, too! Best accidental run in/autograph request - 20 yrs ago- John DeLancie (of Star Trek Next Gen, Guiding Light fame) in Chicago-O Hare on Thanksgiving weekend. Recognized him walking the opposite direction - dropped my stuff at our gate with friends I was traveling with, SPRINTED back the direction he was heading, FOUND him standing in line for a hot dog, and quietly approached and asked, "excuse me, are you John DeLancie?" - he smiled and nodded (I think he was in shock, as most Star Trek geeks probably would have asked "Are you Q?"). I asked for his autograph, which he very graciously gave while still waiting to order his food. I then sprinted back to my friends with my trophy. He then WALKED PAST my gate - I pointed quietly, and my friend made some loud sound - he just looked over and smiled. It was super classy and lovely of him. Made me feel great and not foolish at all.
When you think about it, celebrities, especially in America are mostly merely creatures of publicity and marketing, like any other commercial product.
and honestly I don't know anyone should interview them other than for them to promote their current project. If it is not about their work who gives half a de.ad r.at....
i can't reply .... i don't have a circular icon ...
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