FundsforWriters

Tips and tools for serious writers to advance their careers!

Our free weekly
newsletters reach

28,000 subscribers

and counting

  • Home
  • About FFW
  • Grants
  • Contests
  • Markets
  • Newsletters
  • Submissions
  • Blog
  • Advertising
  • Contact

How to Book Hollywood Talent for Interviews

Orrin Konheim / 2023-11-02

November 2, 2023

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.

5525224 © Dmv-bros | Dreamstime.com

Filed Under: Uncategorized Post a Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Buy Me A Coffee

 

Free FundsforWriters

Weekly issues
A free weekly newsletter that lists semi-pro or higher paying markets and contests as well as grants, crowdfunding, contests, publishers, agents and employers. Available to those with writing products/courses/conferences/etc. for advertising. Purchases short features from freelancers. View Archive.

Subscribe Now:










Privacy Policy

25,000 Reasons to

Advertise With Us

FundsforWriters reaches people with a passion for writing. Let writers know about your product or service through online or newsletter exposure. Since FFW limits its ads to writing-related services, you do not see those get-rich-quick schemes or anyone’s novel or poetry chapbook for sale. We are here to help you earn a living and be a better writer.

learn-btn

Donate to FFW

Support our award winning publication

FundsforWriters is a free publication that takes numerous hours a month to plan, research, write, and produce. If you have benefited from this publication that comes to your inbox faithfully each week, please consider making a monthly or one time donation.

  • - Caroline Sposto, Emerald Theatre Company

    Thanks to the publicity from your newsletter, our little Memphis, Tennessee event received scripts from Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, the UK and New Zealand. This wealth of wonderful material yielded quality vignettes that made the best local actors and stage directors (including a popular local radio personality) eager to donate their time and talent. Their presence, in turn, sold tickets. We played to packed houses and everyone had a great time. The bottom line is, without you, we would have had something rinky dink -- with you we had something substantial. The publicity you provided on the front end made all the difference in the world!


  • -Laura Kepner, Safety Harbor Writers and Poets

    Hope gave the keynote workshop at the Safety Harbor Writers Conference: Solving the Mystery of Writing, in Clearwater, Florida. Hope could have left after her keynote address, but instead, she stayed throughout the day and made a point to talk to individual writers one-on-one. At the end of the day, Hope participated in a panel and stayed for a Q&A. She left such a good impression on so many that I believe my conference would have been a success had she been my only presenter.


  • – With deep appreciation, Laura Lee Perkins

    I am sitting in a ferry terminal, waiting for the next boat to take me to the Turkeyland Cove Foundation Writer’s Retreat on Martha’s Vineyard Island. Am I excited? You bet I am! Why? Because this is the first time in my life that I have been offered the gift of time and space for an entire two weeks to focus on what I love to do most: WRITE! I was accepted months ago and “anticipation” has been my middle name.
    The timeliness of this couldn’t be more perfect. Maine Authors Publishing just released my collection of twenty-two inspirational essays a few days ago! “Lighting Your Spiritual Passion” One of those essays was chosen for 3rd place in the Writers’ Digest Contest Inspirational category a couple of years ago, spurring me on to publish a collection of essays. When I opened the AMAZON page for my newest book, I cried with relief and joy.

    The common thread here is you, Hope Clark, and your FundsforWriters. You inspire me to have more courage, to reach higher, and you offer me threads of hope that I, too, can continue to grow and contribute something of worth to the world. Do you have ANY idea how much you mean to all of us who sit at our computers on Friday afternoon, waiting for your email to come in? I cut and paste every opportunity into a computer document that remains “open” on my desktop so that I can refer back to it any time I feel discouraged. Thank you for your dedication to sharing the roller-coaster ride of writing. You are a gifted teacher and mentor.


  • – Melanie Steele

    Advertising with FundsforWriters has brought amazing people to my writing retreats. My ads generated a strong, immediate response from Hope’s active, engaged fans. Hope is a pleasure to work with, and I highly recommend FundsforWriters as smart, effective use of marketing resources.  www.forthewriterssoul.com/retreat


  • – Reece W. Manley

    Total Funds for Writers pays for itself almost immediately. Hope and her research skills are phenomenal. Thanks to TFFW I have sold four articles, all with clients who did this amazing thing called paying me. It’s quite delightful – money is querky but boy its fun stuff to have! If you haven’t signed up for TFFW, you’re just not serious about your career.


Let’s explore the world of writing together

Subscribe | Advertise © 2000-2025, C. Hope Clark and FundsforWriters.
Designed by Shaila Abdullah, a certified women and minority-owned business.