By Orrin Konheim
Considering I’ve devoted a significant portion of my life to writing about entertainment, I’m especially agog at the prospect of getting to meet a celebrity face-to-face (or on zoom or the telephone or whatever) and pepper them with questions. Even if I didn’t care about the cult of celebrity, interviewing a famous person pays off in numerous ways. The ability to get an article greenlit, to get page views on an article, or to up your profile are all enhanced with a famous name. Still. as a sensible reporter with a finite bandwidth to pursue my writing goals, I have to be pragmatic.
If I see an actor like Nicholas Cage in a film and think “gee, I really want to interview him,” I think twice. Hollywood personalities are extremely busy with very narrow time windows. While high level celebrities give hundreds of interviews as part of their contractual obligations, they rarely have the desire to do more.
Aim within your range and specialties. What dictates whether to invest the effort is my level of enthusiasm for the material and the demand for the interview. If you are enthusiastic enough about the subject, you might be able to make an up-and-coming sketch comic from the Upright Citizens Brigade seem as worthy as an SNL cast member.
In my running of a series of Zoom Q and A sessions with figures of the entertainment industry, I’ve targeted members of the Upright Citizens Brigade series Characters Welcome as well as the BYU-run sketch show Studio C which has 2.6 million subscribers and actors with national credits and a decent amount of press. Same goes for certain TV shows: I might request the show’s directors, writers, or historical consultants rather than the actors.
I tend to seek people with whom I can claim a connection, which often means I maintain activity with certain journalistic outlets. I write a column at an outlet that writes about TV so that I am more apt to line up TV interviews. I’ve written a few articles about Judaism which recently enabled me to book a guest from the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel recently.
Aside from your area of specialization in your writings, geography is also humongous. When I learn that a Hollywood talent has a tie to markets I’ve written like Savannah, Georgia, Richmond, Virginia, or the DC area, I spring into action.
As for how to get the stars’ attention, there are three methods. They generally have an agent listed on IMDB pro. Alternatively, you can contact the show’s own communication team. Another option is the talent themselves. Many working actors often have their own web pages with which to promote themselves.
Some stars are Twitter-friendly in which they’ll respond to and message fans. Nowadays, that social media interplay might expand to Facebook, Instagram, or Tik Tok. Occasionally, I’ll have a star message me out of the blue, or engage with me on Twitter if I’m tweeting or posting a review about their show or film. If that’s the case, I’ll try to develop rapport and, after a while, spring a question about interviewing them. Since I review TV shows, I might post a favorable review of their show.
Be prepared with clips of your interviews or your specialization on a topic. If it’s a video interview, have samples. Mention the specific purpose of your interview, what you will cover, the audience, and how you think it might enhance the publicity for their projects. I normally state that I’m a big fan, being specific about the way I admire their work. This doesn’t mean that I plan to do a softball interview, but because I have above-average knowledge of film and TV, I want them to know that they will be engaging with someone who’s intelligent about what will be discussed.
Be prepared to nail down time expected for an interview. I learned in one of my first celebrity interviews to take time seriously. Stars and their PR people do not have extraneous time.
But don’t jump the gun. I once had an interview cancelled for prematurely announcing on Twitter how excited I was to land an interview with a certain Hollywood talent. Play by their rules.
Things get easier. I’ve had interviews materialize after a good job with one client, then the agent pitching me an interview with another client. Be prepared and vigilant: The hoops involved in interviewing celebrities are never easy.
Orrin’s interviews includes:
The most recent thing and the biggest thing is Caroline Aaron of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPXKWbUqUTY&t=443s
I interviewed Aisha Tyler of Archer, Friends, and Whose Line Is It Anyway.
https://www.tvfanatic.com/2015/02/archer-q-and-a-aisha-tyler-on-meeting-lanas-parents-workaholic-t/
Oren Brimer became a writer and producer for the Pete Holmes show as well as the show Crashing. I interviewed him a little earlier in his career when he had one of the hottest comedic videos on the web.
https://www.independent.com/2012/07/20/ucsb-grads-batman-webisodes-go-viral/
Greg Garcia was the creator of My Name is Earl and Raising Hope:
https://northernvirginiamag.com/culture/news/2014/10/27/comedy-man/
I interviewed Blair Tindall who was the inspiration for Mozart in the Jungle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWoyvYYNtBc&t=472s
Others include Elaine Carroll (YouTube star), Ben Relles (creator of Obama Girl on YouTube), Frank Calliendo (Mad TV, The Frank Show), Amber Nash and Lucky Yates (Archer), Ron Funches (Curb Your Enthusiasm, AP Bio, The Trolls).
BIO: Orrin Konheim is a freelance writer centering in local journalism with publication credits in over three dozen publications over the past dozen years including the Washington Times, the Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Gothamist, and Virginia Magazine. His body of work can best be seen at https://muckrack.com/orrin-konheim.
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