Getting Good Interviews

My mission when I only have 20 minutes with a star is to get one strong story angle, and multiple interesting sound bites, but as journalists we never know how celebrity interviews will play out.

The other week I interviewed Gwyneth Paltrow, who delivered on all counts. She hadn’t seen my questions (that were sent in advance), but clearly didn’t need to prep. Without any prompts she gave detailed answers with examples using no wasted words. Her comments came across as thoughtful and sincere. Granted, she was never going to be vanilla, but I have found that Hollywood stars can be quite guarded, and therefore give less than you’d like. In fact, some of the biggest names I’ve interviewed have given the blandest commentary, leaving me (and, probably, my readers) deflated.

At 51, having spent half her life in the spotlight, Gwyneth’s extensive media training and experience undoubtedly plays a big part in her interview delivery. But I also felt a similar win recently from interviewing someone at the start of her stardom; 25-year-old Sofia Richie Grainge. Her delivery possessed many of the same attributes as Gwyneth’s (passion, candidness, apparent authenticity), which is everything we want.

Anyway, why is this of interest to you? Often talent – representing beauty brands, in this context – just lends itself well to press interviews. But for those that might not, it could help to emphasise what we’re looking for – which, inevitably, reflects well on their commercial deal. I think ‘colour’ is the key word, whether that’s being descriptive, sharing examples or swerving clichés. It’s going beyond the bare minimum, which, weirdly, doesn’t happen as often as we hope.