From watching my in-depth interview with professional moderator Mara Webster, you have a background understanding of what preparation is required, and how one approaches their guest for a celebrity interview.
This article takes it a step further by using not only examples of Mara’s interview videos but how to compare her style to that of other professional moderators with the same people. It is interesting to see how these moderators approach their guest with what questions under what venue and circumstances, but also how the guests’ answers vary depending upon the moderator’s questions, their own interpretation or preparedness, acquaintance, the venue, and the project being promoted itself.
Part A of this article features Rebecca Hall’s
interviews from 2020 about her acting in Tales From The Loop and then in
2021 as the writer & director of Passing.
Part B features Steven Yeun for his interesting roles in numerous dramas and comedies, and of course in The Walking Dead, the latter of which allows analysis of
Comic Con interviews. Part C features Hillarie Burton’s interviews over
the years from acting in One Tree Hill in the early 2000s, then as an
actor for the late 2020s’ Christmas-themed movies; with a side-note to her
first career as an MTV VJ for TRL alongside Carson Daly. And Part D
features the incredible Jenelle Riley for her prolific seemingly non-stop work
on behalf of Variety.
(Part A is here and Parts B thru D will be posted separately.)
Part A – Rebecca Hall
A great place to start is Mara Webster’s interview with Rebecca Hall for Tales From The Loop for the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Conversations-At-Home in March/April 2020. You can watch their full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twujzahgses *And you can read my closer look at one of the show’s episodes here.
After a welcoming introduction, Mara and Rebecca briefly discuss their quarantine experiences as a sort-of mutual ice-breaker; keeping it light and not too personal. Immediately they share a good laugh about making pasta and bread. Mara jumps right into discussing the anthology series’ unique inspiration of artist Simon Stalenhag’s nostalgia-futurism paintings, how Rebecca initially responded to the story, and how she prepared for her role Loretta. Mara starts to move the interview’s focus more towards Rebecca’s relationships with the other cast members and creatives behind the show, bringing in discussions about the episodes’ various directors. This then allows Mara to ask Rebecca about her work as a first-time director and producer, Lastly, Mara reincorporates Tales From The Loop by asking if those directing learning experiences may have changed her approach to acting. Mara and Rebecca close on a positive note as Mara says she’s going to re-watch the first episode to better understand the other following episode’s stories.
Some immediate thoughts that come to mind from watching their conversation is that Rebecca’s answers are not interrupted and Mara gives a slight nod when she’s finished speaking. This is a sign of respect and acknowledgment. The trajectory of her questions was well-planned to focus on Rebecca’s work as an actress specifically for the project being promoted but also allows the conversation to move into whatever new project Rebecca may be currently on; especially since there could be an extensive period between completing what’s being promoted to its release, allowing performers to then go to their next work. But, by bringing the conversation back to Tales From The Loop at the end, the point is made Rebecca is ‘there’ talking about that.
Another interview Rebecca gave to promote Tales From The Loop was with Yahoo’s BUILD Series’ Ricky Camilleri. As you can tell from her computer camera position, the background, and her clothes, she did this on the same day as Mara’s; also with a running time of approximately 30minutes. You can watch their interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhJWUGLmzpc
Ricky welcomes Rebecca and he gives a quick description of Tales From The Loop being a “mind-scramble”, listing two other co-performers, and then asks Rebecca how she got involved. She tells of getting the emailed script with a description of being based upon the artworks and her initial reaction. When she’s saying “And then when I read the script…” Ricky interrupts her to ask if examples of the paintings were included with the script – which she did as links in the email. Without returning to what Rebecca was going to continue saying, he moves forward more in this direction about the artworks and then leads into how it affected her performance. (Not that he was trying to be rude, but how would the interview have carried on if Rebecca finished her sentence?) His questions then pivot more into Rebecca’s work as a director for Passing, and then back to her acting process but more focused on a prior role in Christine (2016), which only slightly allows a bit of comparison between that character and Loretta. The interview comes to its end with a rather abrupt stop, and they wish each other well – hoping that by the time Passing is released, they’ll be able to talk in the studio. (Unfortunately, at this time, the pandemic is still preventing in-studio interviews.)
There is a much greater comfort level between Rebecca and Ricky because they’ve previously spoken at length in other interviews over some years. She tells Ricky more personal details about her quarantine time: being with family, a joke about getting from the kitchen to her office, and having a house with a garden. And perhaps it’s that comfort level that allowed Ricky’s slight interruption without her dismay.
But while Ricky kind of moves on from Tales From The Loop into more of Rebecca’s directing experience within the first half of the interview, Mara didn’t do so until the latter third. So, Rebecca’s answers about her relationships to the show’s creators and cast along with stories from set (like the practical effects of snow instead of CGI), her thoughts about the locations and tone, as well as about the composer and score, were more detailed for Mara than for Ricky.
In both though, Rebecca uses the same words like “intrigue/intriguing”, “strong visual aesthetic”. And in both, she gives the same answer that her approach to becoming Loretta versus prior characters was that the form of the project may change (whether it’s a television series, or a theatrical movie) but takes the same style of preparation and approach into each character.
A noticeable difference in Rebecca’s answers was that she spoke more about the “enigmatic alchemy” of acting and the “mask” of performance with Ricky than she did with Mara. I don’t think this was because of one moderator’s particular strength or weakness but perhaps more a reflection of Rebecca’s relationship to the character she was discussing: Loretta with Mara and Christine with Ricky. The latter may have been a more concentrated and strenuous experience for Rebecca than becoming Loretta especially given the significant intensity Christine required. So, from her memory of working on one character versus the other, there may have been more emotion and thoughts associated with talking about Christine.
When Ricky and Mara asked Rebecca about her experiences directing, for both she spoke more about how she’d been significantly learning the previous unknown aspect of editing. With Mara she more so focused on how her understanding of acting changed in that there’s an entire web of ways which may call for a performer to make certain choices, maybe not realized until it’s being plugged into the edited story. With Ricky she focused more on what idea is on your head may not be how it works out in reality.
Another theory to keep in mind when watching interviews, even when filmed on the same day, is the space of time between the interviews even if only 20 minutes. She could have answers and descriptions already prepared, she could have reconsidered one answer and went with a different take or aspect. There’s no so-called right answer in these interviews. But it is interesting to see what similar phrases or different stories someone might say between two moderators.
As it’s now been nearly a year after her interviews with Mara and Ricky for Tales From The Loop, Rebecca Hall is back on the remote-interview circuit, this time for her movie Passing, which was recently released at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival’s virtual screening series.
We can see how she interviews not just as a performer but also as a first-time writer & director.
When she did briefly discuss Passing’s story with Ricky, she was still editing remotely and hoping to “lock” (get the final cut) a few weeks from then. But you can tell she wasn’t fully secure in describing the story’s plot and characters, at least compared to more recent discussions. In the year since, she’s become more clear and confident, but there’s still some hesitancy and pauses in her voice; like she’s still defending herself for making this movie.
Passing is based upon a novella about two Black women who were light-skinned enough to pass for being white in 1920s Manhattan, and what decisions they make with having that ability on a daily and life-long basis.
As you will notice from watching the numerous interviews Rebecca gives about Passing, they always start with addressing how and why she felt personally connected to the story, because being a British white woman at the helm of an African-American story would raise some eyebrows. Rebecca needs to immediately say, ‘Yes because…’ she has African-American ancestry. Her Black maternal grandfather from Detroit was light-skinned enough to pass as white. She says that from reading the novella she was finally able to start better understanding (emotionally, psychologically, physically, etc.) her lineage. But she also doesn’t want to take away or appropriate the Black voice, and needs to admit that she does not live or identify as a Black woman. Rebecca needed to very sensitively phrase her words about her connection to Passing in a more serious way than maybe any project she had been previously interviewed about.
Of course, as Passing’s filmmaker, she has a greater responsibility and pressure to promote her own work of which she has held for a decade and that comes with the uncertainty of going after a distribution deal, than rather for her previous interviewing history by promoting a project she only acted in that is going directly to theaters and/or a main streaming service. (Thankfully, according to reports, Passing is in contract with Netflix.)
Additionally, while Rebecca’s interviews for Tales From The Loop were one-on-one, she was part of group interviews for Passing. Her cast and co-producer(s) could further support Rebecca by describing her directing style, how comfortable they were on set with her leadership, and how she envisioned the film.
In the Variety interview moderated by Angelique Jackson, the video seems to have been edited down, seemingly having removed Angelique’s reactions or acknowledgements after guests’ answers, allowing more time for the answers themselves which discuss their (Rebecca, Tessa, Ruth, and Andre’s) portrayal of race in the film, America, and Hollywood. The same can be said for their interview with Deadline’s Amanda N’Duka. In these two interviews each less than 15 minutes, they wanted the actors’ own perspectives of approaching their roles and how the race conversation was addressed through character. Ruth and Tessa as the leads were able to share their experiences and appreciation to play Clare and Irene (respectively) not just as Black passing for white but their personal qualities and values of what they wanted from life. All those in these interviews acknowledged how complex identity is and how the conversation continues, in a ‘long-story-short’ way.
With longer running times, The L.A. Times and IndieWire’s interviews are approximately 25 to 40 minutes allowing those longer stories to be more thoughtfully told.
Rebecca’s explanation for her connection was its most concise and well-phrased answer for Jen Yamato with the L.A. Times, but also at length as she moved from making her points A to Z. Producer Gina Yang Bongiovi had to address her own initial concern of a white woman helming the project, but upon Rebecca’s reveal, she was more understanding and accepting. Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson’s answers for their participation in the movie were not only urgent and positive but also had been expressed with intellectual appreciation for their characters (“This has got to be an essential part of my career!” (Ruth) “I just have to do this!” (Tessa)) and the topics the movie were going to cover in its unique ways. Jen asks Rebecca how she used her acting experience towards the writing/adapting of the story’s interiority to the screenplay and its filmed visuals to be conveyed in performing without dialogue. Rebecca’s answer takes a path that talks about how the film looks and is shot but also the time she had spent with the story and its adaptation process, and more fully understanding the characters’ perspectives. “I knew how quiet I wanted it to be…say to the audience you have to listen…so much not spoken, so much that is controlled.” Continuing back to the performances, Jen asks Tessa and Ruth how it was to be directed by another actor. Both agreed on the strong level of trust between them, and laughing at how figuratively and literally Rebecca would guide them in the blocking (because of the aspect ratio). When talking about the space of the aspect ratio as well as the spaces of locations they filmed in, Nina and Rebecca were happy to say they were able to film in Harlem but “bring in a fantastic design team…minimal choices in a room without laboring it…I didn’t need enormous set pieces…”. Jen says that as they’re about to wrap she asks about how the characters remained with Ruth and Tessa. With Tessa’s answer, she mentioned one of the scenes being filmed for a jazz party and how proud she was to be part of it. Closing out the interview, she simply wants to know about the film’s dedication, “For Maria”. This seems to be the one question Jen asks in her interview to knowingly get a personal answer, and to gratify her own curiosity about some detail aside from the ‘regular’ kinds of questions she asked. Rebecca dedicated the film to Maria her mother, and for all that means. “It’s still a difficult thing to talk about in my family, and so I wanted it to be a gift for her.” Upon wishing them all thanks and wellness, the interview closes out.
For IndieWire, the moderator is with audio-only while Rebecca, Tessa, Ruth, and Andre Holland (who plays Brian) all appear. (*The YouTube video does not give credit to who the moderator is, but finding the article’s transcribed/edited written version says is by Ryan Lattanzio. Because the moderator’s voice sounds middle-aged feminine, “she” is used here until corrected.) It’s in this interview that Rebecca’s most serious tone and pauses are noticeable. And how much more detailed and personal the novella is to how she could envision the adaptation, “it took me time to gain the confidence…make the one that you know how to make”. The moderator takes in her answer with emphasized acknowledgment, more than any other moderator does in these examples. She then moves on to discuss the story with Tessa and Ruth. And then asking Rebecca, Tessa, and Ruth if the Black Lives Matter resurgence has had any effect on the story or thinking. Tessa certainly takes the stage giving her answer. The moderator then moves topics drastically into the technical aspect of how the “ending scene was blocked and staged at the party at the window”. Without being able to talk spoilers, this is obviously an important scene to be the only scene the moderator asks them about. Then the moderator apologizes to Andre for not asking him questions earlier, because perhaps of a video-technicality but having the opportunity to answer (when so often in these interviews he is overlooked or not given as much time to talk). But the moderator continues to engage him about his character’s perspective differs from Tessa’s and Ruth’s. Coming towards the close of their interview, the moderator asks Rebecca what advice she has for other (first-time) filmmakers. Rebecca says it’s to “hold true to your gut” for the emotional reaction, and the moderator prompts Rebecca for more thoughts which then gets to a heartier answer. The last question for everyone is “what more would you like to see done” in regards to more voices being heard, and asking Andre to answer first. The interview cuts out at the end of Tessa’s response so there is no hearing, “Thank you and good-bye”.
It must of course be noted that the style of these kinds of interviews are more informational than entertainment. The moderators are friendly and appreciative to have their guests usually expressed at the start of welcoming them, then usually asking a general open question on their involvement, followed by relationships with others on the project, maybe some technical questions, and then wanting to discuss the cultural importance of the project. Also, the tone of how questions are asked may depend upon the tone of the project itself. Tales From The Loop and Passing are by no means considered comedies so the humor in the interviews maybe funny memories and a few inside jokes from behind-the-scenes. These kinds of promotional interviews are not exhibiting on entertaining programs but rather for industry professionals and cinephile fans. As per even this post, these interview videos’ audiences are going to be watched for knowing specific details of a production rather than what might be seen on Entertainment Tonight, E! News, and other programs.
Interviewers Mara, Ricky, Jen, Amanda, Angelique, and Deadline’s
mystery moderator all came prepared with certain usual questions and a few
unique ones each in their own style to make for an interesting conversation which
Rebecca (along with Tessa, Ruth, Nina, and Andre) answered with thoughts and details
in a manner not typically seen in more mainstream interviews. Some moderators’
chronology of questions followed a logical path while some other moderators
jumped-around between topics. I’m personally partial to the former style but
those who go by the latter can keep someone on their toes. What matters most is
that the interviewer helps the guest reveal greater insight into the work that went
into a project so its audience can have more appreciation.
UPDATE from October 2021:
Last night I attended a screening of Passing with a Q&A hosted by Mara Webster. In attendance were Rebecca Hall, Ruth Negga, and Bill Camp, along with Tessa Thompson via video conference; and Andre unfortunately missing. Now having seen the film that they are discussing in detail above I can say that whether you have 15 minutes or 45 minutes available, the best interview hosts shouldn't waste time on 'the usual' questions. And Mara knows that.
She jumped right into the conversation with a question for Rebecca about the framing aspect ratio of 4:3 along with the obscured edges offering literally and metaphorical blurred appearances and its presented ambiguity. Rebecca said that every part of the film's being, and the staff department heads needed to always think about "everybody is passing", and how you're "peeling back the layers", and how the audience needs to "interact" and "do the work" of reading between the lines, not to just take it all at face-value (so to speak). With Mara's question to Tessa about the internal spaces of Irene's world, she (first introduces her adorable dog who had been with her during principal photography), emphasizes how despite the dense novella and adapted screenplay were in the 'short' 93 pages, there was a complete "emotional landscape" to work within. For Ruth, Mara asked her to discuss the "juxtaposition" of Clare's confidence and charisma versus her vulnerability. It was a matter of "never making the obvious choice". Whatever you'd expect of Clare as if she were like anyone else, Clare was her natural self doing the unexpected. Ruth further touched upon how for Clare, passing provided a "thrill" a "skirting with danger". Turning to Bill Camp who played the white male writer Hugh Wentworth, Mara picked out how the character thinks of himself versus how others describe him, as part of what choices he made for Hugh's portrayal. Bill pointed out how he is in relation to Clare as competing for an audience's attention (especially Irene's), and yet also truly being in love with Irene not just being fascinated or impressed by her - which can be supported by their exchanges at the jazz party and later at a tea party.
One of the last conversation's points was when Rebecca recounted how difficult it was to describe the "tone" of her film, and only from hearing a piano song called "Homeless Wanderer" could she finally say, "Like that!" It was composed by an Ethiopian woman from the 1960s, and was incorporated into the picture as Clare's theme but played as if repeating in Irene's head. This detail is not something a regular interview would yield, goes to show not just what good questions can lead to but also how involved and passionate Rebecca was when developing the project and through its final edit.
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