After watching Netflix’s and Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Bly Manor, I started reading Imdb.com’s trivia page for the show, as well as watching all of the YouTube videos with the cast so I could learn more insight into the production. And I came across an interview video between Kate Siegel and Mara Webster! Mara and I are former colleagues at the New York City office of SAG-AFTRA, where I worked as a business rep for the Entertainment Contracts Dept. and she was the programmer for the Foundation. Having attended so many of the Conversations events where Mara moderated interviews with performers, writers, directors, and producers, I had always admired her interviewing style. It was so great to see that Mara had started her own enterprise, In Creative Company, to continue doing what she does best!
On January 13, 2021, I interviewed Mara over Zoom to talk with her more about her career as a celebrity interviewer! It has a 1 hour 45 mins running time, mostly because I had so many questions that covered a range of topics and Mara was gracious with her time answering!
You can watch our conversation here!
If you go to the In Creative Company’s YouTube channel as well as to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s YouTube channel (links are below) to watch Mara’s interview videos through summer 2020, you too will see how interesting her questions are to the guests and how much they appreciate her unique questions in return! She’s had the opportunity to sit with such a diverse list of people in the entertainment industry; from the A-List Celebrity to the Newcomer, across a variety of content in various venues. Coming from a strong film and literature studies education in Britain as well as a decade’s worth of experience working at film festivals like TriBeCa and Sundance, she has honed her skills to show both great acumen and engagement with her guests.
Talking with Mara was an excellent insight not only into how interviews are prepared but also how she has to approach her famous guests with an authority of her own. Additionally, as she discusses how her style and sorts of questions needed to change depending upon the umbrella organization which she was interviewing for, she also needed to take into consideration the venue’s audience. At a film festival for TriBeCa, the crowds are a mix of cinephiles and industry professionals for which a broader scope of topics can be covered. For her interviews at the Foundation’s Robin Williams’ theater in Manhattan, the audience were SAG-AFTRA members with whom the focus can mostly keep to the guest performers’ acting education, audition experiences, process and preparation for becoming the character, and other such specialized questions.
But now as a self-employed moderator, she is empowered to
determine what topics to focus on. She not only asks her guests the broad but
also the specialized questions, depending not just on the guest, but also the specific details she has
noticed from watching their filmography. Since her first video’s upload less
than 6 months ago, she has interviewed A-List celebrities such as Hugh Grant, Jennifer Connolly,
Daveed Diggs, Christoph Waltz, Kate Winslet, Noomi Rapace, and Laurence Fishburne.
She has also interviewed many up & coming young performers like Samuel
Arnold (Julien from Emily In Paris), Mia Healey (Shelby from The
Wilds), Midori Francis (Lily from Dash & Lily), and Haskiri
Velazquez (Daisy from the reboot of Saved By The Bell). Among others to
note on her channel are: Tom Ellis, Nicole Beharie, Chris Sullivan, Andrew
Rannells, Michelle Buteau, Harry Shum Jr., Erin Moriarity, Jonathan Majors, The
Try Guys, and Marsha Stephanie Blake (who was in Amazon’s I’m Your Woman
as Teri as well as in Netflix’ Social Distance anthology show).
These interview videos, not just from Mara but those that are like hers, that are available on YouTube free of charge to watch, is that the viewer can be from anywhere in the world and is given a more in-depth perspective into the still elusive worlds of acting, directing, producing, etc. These 20 to 30 minute conversations offer more detail not only into the project but also the guest’s mindset working on the project in a way that more mainstream celebrity interviews can barely come close to achieving.
The Daytime and Late Night talk shows’ celebrity guest interviews have a high predictable formula with more surface answers. These are usually no more than 10 or 15 minutes but include scene clips, have the guest do some kind of entertaining-bit, and are interrupted by commercials. They are fun to watch but not very informative. What is also a big difference between the mainstream celebrity interviews compared to the YouTube film festival/panel discussions are that those Daytime and Late Night show hosts are current or former performers themselves. They project a camaraderie and equalness but also air of Hollywood insider too. Whereas, a moderator like Mara or other entertainment journalists like Jenelle Riley from Variety, keep to a highly interested and positive but reserved or-not-quite academic tone. They are not there to play with their guests. They provide the guest a safe-space to share more fuller and richer stories than they would give to Jimmy Fallon or Jimmy Kimmel.
In Creative Company’s interview videos are an invaluable archive of diverse voices and perspectives into the entertainment industry. Please visit these links so you can subscribe to their YouTube channel and subscribe to receive their newsletter on their website here:
https://www.increativecompany.com/
https://www.youtube.com/c/InCreativeCompany/videos
https://www.youtube.com/c/SAGAFTRAFoundation/videos
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