The first movie star I ever interviewed was Anne Hathaway. I was 15-years-old, with pimples and gelled hair, and I was bloody nervous. I’d pulled a sickie at school to do the interview, and I hoped the truth wouldn’t get back to my teachers. I wasn’t the only one who was a bit wet behind the ears though – Hathaway was hardly a seasoned pro herself; she’d just broken onto the big screen scene with The Princess Diaries and was only 17-years-old.

I used to go into interviews with a bunch of questions in mind – something I never do now. These days it is all about the conversation. The first ten questions you can think of have probably been asked a hundred times before. Your interview isn’t about fact-checking, it’s about getting an essence of someone.

Entering Hathaway’s Opera Quay hotel suite – my heart pounding like a tribal drum – I assumed I’d be the one asking the first question… but it was her.

“Do you want some chocolate?” she asked. “Let’s check out what’s in this hotel room.”

So we cruised around the mega-suite looking at all the free stuff. We found a gift basket from Disney filled to the brim with little champagne bottles (neither of us old enough to neck one), fruit and a small mountain of chocolate bars. We helped ourselves to the chocolate. Watching the child-like enthusiasm with which she ripped in spoke volumes about her – she was still getting used to the star treatment, and couldn’t hide her excitement about this upward trajectory she’d hit onto. The zeal of that chocolate hunt probably told me more about where her head was at that day than anything she could have put into words.

If you’re just starting as a film journalist my advice is to let moments like this sit. Explore them. Go with them. This stuff is gold. Remember, ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ – one of the seminal pieces of celebrity journalism – was written without getting a single interview with the subject. Words are deceitful. The body is truthful.

Of course, when you’re hanging out with your subject you still have your antenna on – you’re remembering pertinent bits. But it’s important not to go in with pre-conceived notions – you have to get a feel of a person, soak in their aura.

I’ll never forget how Anne Hathaway hugged her knees up to her chest in our interview, pulling constantly at the tongues of her hot-pink Puma sneakers. I was mesmerised by her doing this, and struggled to keep my mind on The Princess Diaries, my voice breaking time and time again as I dug out questions. I can barely remember what we talked about – I had to look at the transcript to remember details we’d discussed about Brett Easton Ellis books, Woody Allen movies and the relentless PR machine at Walt Disney Studios.

To this day the thing I remember the most is not anything Anne Hathaway said – it was those hot-pink Pumas.

- It’s Not About The Camera

0 Comment   |   Posted in Blog June 15, 2010