Celebrity Interviewing 102: Moderator Interview Styles (Part A - Rebecca Hall)

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.

CELEBRITY INTERVIEWING 101: A Conversation with Mara Webster of In Creative Company

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!

Blog YouTube Link 

CELEBRITY INTERVIEWING: Overview

Hello Readers! In this next session of articles, we are going to explore Celebrity Interviewing!

101 will feature a video recorded interview between myself and my former colleague Mara Webster, who will discuss her career as a moderator of film and TV panels at some of the top film festivals, as well as her recent enterprise, In Creative Company’s YouTube channel. You can get a head start watching them here: https://www.youtube.com/c/InCreativeCompany

102 will feature analysis of other panel moderators’ interview styles, from other YouTube video channels, Film Festival and Comic Con panels, etc. I will compare interviewers’ styles, types of questions, guests’ answers between various interviews, and audiences.

103 will feature analysis of Daytime and Late Night show celebrity interviews. As these hosts are mostly performers themselves, it’s important to analyze how they communicate on a ‘colleagues-like’ level, what ‘entertaining bits’ are featured, guests’ participation and types of answers.

UPDATED PLAN BELOW as of 6/26/2021:

104 will feature radio host interviewing with some advice from former Z100 DJ Bethany Watson!

105 will feature the Actors-On-Actors interviews. Even under an publishing’s umbrella, when actors have a chance to connect with their former cast-mates, those they’ve admired, or acquaintance/degree separation colleagues, the kinds of questions are more informational but also have a camaraderie unlike other interviews.

105 will feature the Red-Carpet interviews we see at Award Shows. With the shortest times to talk, formulaic questions, and yet keeping the most positive tone possible, what valuable information can be pulled from these interviews?

And then a Concluding article which will include paying homage to the late James Lipton, and the red carpet blunders. 

The goal of this series is to examine an area of the entertainment industry that is usually overlooked. Celebrity interviews are not only a career for the interviewers, but also the best way for people involved in projects to promote their work across mass media to (potential) audiences. Also, I can’t help but note how celebrity interviews have changed in the Covid-19 Pandemic. Interview videos found on YouTube will be the main source of watching and studying, whether as the interview’s initial exhibition or after it’s aired on television. Whatever shows are available on current streaming platforms will also be reviewed. Not only will I include references to American examples, but also to foreign examples that will most likely come from Britain. Other foreign sources will have English subtitles. (This topic may become an additional / its own article.)

Aside from 101, I hope to include interviews (either via video or written) with other professionals in mass media. 

Although I anticipate to complete this series prior to the Academy Awards’ 2021 Oscars ceremony (anticipated to be held April 25^th), there will be many celebrity interviews to watch in the coming weeks/months, not just those from years past. This series took much longer to work on that anticipated but it looks like it was well worth it because I'm really proud of what's been written here so far. I've had the opportunity to speak with Jenelle Riley, and also get a few tips from Z100 Morning Show's former host, Bethany Watson!

Please Stay Tuned!

Covid-Cinema: Part X, Conclusion - We Watched It All

 2015 Emmys | Andy Samberg's Opening Routine

When Andy Samberg opened the 67th Emmy Awards Show in 2015 with one of his classic The Lonely Island-like short films, he is sitting with five other friends at the dining table. They are talking about the television shows they've seen recently but Andy says he hasn't seen (any of) them but is planning to. Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Orange is the New Black, Empire, Transparent, Ray Donovan, Downton Abbey, Girls, The Americans, Bloodline, So You Think You Can Dance, Kimmy Schmidt....

As he hears their list become a cacophony of titles, the camera zooms in on his anxious face, and he shouts out, "STOP"!

He breaks into song. "So many shows and so little time..."

He's decided the only way to keep up is to lock himself away in a TV Viewing Bunker, with DVDs of all the shows he needs to watch, with enough food to keep him fueled (but not nourished). He wears his hair short, jeans, and a sweater over his white collar button shirt.

One year later he emerges from the bunker with long-grown hair and beard, wearing a tank top, Hawaiian shirt unbuttoned, shorts, and socks. He has crazed eyes, and proclaims, "I watched every show!" He lists out all of the streaming services, and his DVR says "You watched every show!" 

Covid-Cinema: Part IX – The (Mis)Representation of PPE and Social Distancing in Network Primetime TV

This post is about how the Fall 2020 Network TV primetime shows represented the Covid-19 pandemic’s Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) worn by the characters in the contemporary stories’ episodes. 

Covid-Cinema: Part VIII – Quarantine and In-Person Filmmaking Experiences – with INTERVIEWS!

This (admittedly, very long) post will focus on the experiences of filming a project during the pandemic. Let’s look at the big picture of what happened when films and television shows shutdown in March before they were supposed to wrap. Let’s dive into the world of smaller budgeted projects that were developed and filmed during lockdown. And, let’s discuss the new Safety & Health protocols that the entertainment industry collaborated on so that new and resuming projects can adhere to a set of standards that mitigates risk. [While putting together this post, I came across an article from Variety: “Inside Hollywood’s Expensive and Exhausting Road to Making Movies During Coronavirus” that focuses on Universal Studios’ Jurassic Park: Dominion with its Blockbuster budget and the much lower $300K budget independent film Rift as their examples of the new safety systems. It’s an interesting read.] 

You’ll not only see there are numerous limitations as well as opportunities birthed into this new era of filmmaking for all budget levels, but also I’ve conducted interviews with those who have shared with me their unique experiences. 

Thank you to those who participated, your perspectives are invaluable! 

Sana Soni and Mikail Chowdhury are co-producers of The Myth of Control, made during lockdown. Sana first learned of the novel coronavirus in mid-January. After landing in India, having just seen Matt Damon’s Contagion on the plane, she saw an article about it from The New York Times: “It was surreal.” In March, she had to cancel her upcoming April wedding and reconfigure her move from London to Washington D.C.. Also being at a turning point in her career, the quarantine gave her an opportunity to “navigate film sales/marketing/acquisitions/distribution in this strange new world. I spoke to a lot of people about my ideas about creating an online film market…I signed up for every online panel I could find on the business of film, excited that I could attend without being physically present. I started to reach out and make lots of new connections…It was a scary but exciting time.” 

Summer Crockett Moore and Tony Glazer manage UMBRAStages in New York. They were personally “terrified” with the future being so uncertain but they “knew it was going to be big”. The night they closed the studios due to state-wide mandates, Summer planted a few succulents in their garden, had a martini, and Tony made a firepit, so they can take a breather before having to act on whatever comes next. But for their production company Choice Films, emotions and plans fluctuated between staying creative and handling logistics. Instead of jumping into that dream project those first few weeks, Tony found time later into quarantine “to complete a couple projects that we are now in production/development.” 

Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks made two short films Pains and Bed (which I had provided signatory clearance to) as well as an independent feature-length film during the pandemic, Alone With You. Emily’s first recollection of the virus goes back to the end of February while visiting family in South Carolina. Her relatives and the community that gathered for a gymnastics competition discussed it in conversation, and when coming back to New York there were airport announcements reminding people to wash their hands. She’d also seen some social media posts of memes with “what songs to sing other than ‘Happy Birthday’”. But even in mid-March, no one could have considered how widespread the virus would become or how she’d then be “glued to the news 24/7”. Favoring the horror genre for when making her own projects before the pandemic, she and Justin of course mourned what they’d been preparing to make in 2020 but naturally continued “to find a way” (our paraphrasing Jeff Goldblum’s character in Jurassic Park) to keep making projects themselves, as safely as can by self-taping, being their own crew, and with minimal remote or in-person services with other hired performers.

Covid-Cinema: Part VII – YouTube 2020 Comedy

They say, “Comedy is tragedy plus time”. But, when the world is faced with a very immediate pandemic that requires (the vast majority of) the population to stay (mostly) indoors indefinitely, time has a funny way of being experienced. A day can drag on but a week can speed by. Making the most of it other than managing family, work, and household chores is best spent escaping into something that can make you laugh. And there’s so much to laugh at and with available on YouTube. 

YouTube is the ultimate repository for video uploads made across the spectrum of contributors from the amateur self-made to the conglomerate-professional. The heart of what YouTube is, is as Joseph Gordon-Levitt said in his Hot Ones episode: you can find a video about ANYTHING! And while there’s an audience for (almost) anything, the most popular videos will be viewed, commented on, and shared by and between people – “going viral”. 

What also separates YouTube from more conventional streaming services, is that the platform values the short-form story, users’ creativity, and users’ interactions. Granted, it’s been at the center or involved in various controversies (regarding intellectual property, etc.), but the average person signs on to watch what creatives are uploading: music videos, web-series, film & TV clips and trailers, and especially various comedic content. 

While Part VI looked at two different long-running web-series produced by professional companies, this post will look at two separate kinds of videos that have a direct connection with this year’s pandemic events: comedians’ pandemic explanation videos and Eurovision music videos in lieu of the annual in-person contest.