Whenever you conduct an interview with a celebrity, you always hope for the best. Celebs come in many different shades, however. After all, they're only people and, as we all know, not everyone is a 'mensch'.
Having worked in the film business for some time now, I've dealt with mostly generous personalities. Most stars are quite approachable and polite. It's their handlers (publicists, assistants,etc.) than can be a rough and rude. That's because their function is to protect the star. If you think about it, the celeb has probably been approached by more than their fair share of nutcases and users. After enough of these encounters, a star can come off as distant when you meet them for the first time even if it is in a professional capacity. Again, you hope for the best.
Consider the case of Dan Aykroyd.
Dan Aykroyd was kind enough to give us some time today so that we may interview him for the MASTERS OF HORROR DVD. As I have said, I am producing a series of featurettes for this DVD that focuses on each of the 13 directors. For Dan (yes, I can call him Dan if I want to), I was going to ask him about working with John Landis.
Due to his schedule (and I'm sure a reluctance to spend his afternoon in the interview chair -- believe me, a movie star spends more time being interviewed than they do acting in movies), Dan's publicist scheduled three back to back interviews. Each was to last 15 minutes. We were the last one to go.
My crew warned me that this was the worst position to be in. When you're the last interview, the celeb is usually tired, cranky or both by the time they get to you. My crew has worked many press junkets and know of this first hand. Still, being a bit green to the whole interviewer thing, I held out hope. We've had many famous people in the chair and they've all been very forthcoming especially once we mad them feel at ease. I've also worked on movie sets where stars are quite chatty with the crew. I know it's in their nature to be good, normal people.
Respect is truly the random element, though. As some of you know, celebs don't always look on the press with kindness. That's because most press types try to milk all they can out of a celeb. True, it's their job, but it's antagonistic to the celeb at best. My crew and I are not press and I hoped this would come through to Dan. Like I said, we're really quite friendly once you get to know us and that is why the stars we interview often reciprocate.
Dan showed up a half hour early... alone. This means he was without his publicist... the one that would protect him from the first crew taking 25 minutes as opposed to the agreed upon 15. The publicist arrived half way through the stolen 25 minutes and was able to keep them from going any longer.
This, of course, put Dan in a bit of a mood. Part of the bargain all three crews made with him was that we would each keep to the 15 minutes he granted us. Dan is very professional and already someone had gone against his grain.
Dan came out looking at two other interviews before he would be set free. If each did what the first crew did, he'd be there for another hour. For all to hear, Dan asked his publicist what we were going to interview him for. "They're here for the Landis tribute piece.", she replied. "Let's keep it short.", was Dan's proclamation as he entered the second interview. Message received.
But the publicist laid down the law just in case we missed Dan's subtle hint. We would only be allowed 3 questions. Her terseness was understandable. She had a potentially grouchy client on her hands and she didn't know us from Adam. Most interview crews have a built in relationship with publicists. A foundation of trust. We hadn't earned that at this point, so we were to be corrected even before we started.
We quickly acquiesced once Dan burst out of the second interview. "We're done! Next!" This was not announced with any sense of relief or joy. The second crew had fully pissed him off. That's because they weren't supposed to interview Dan. They came to tape a simple birthday greeting for Jonathan Winters and tried to sneak in an interview. How rude!
Now, Dan wasn't really all that mad. Shouting (and the occasional hissy fit) is an old celeb trick whereby they can regain control of a situation (or, in the case of certain actresses who play sister witches on TV, a way to hide the fact that they have no idea what's going on). In this instance, however, Dan was doubly laying down the law. He didn't want a third crew to renege on their agreement.
He had no reason to worry. I'm proud to say I was able to ask him my questions succinctly and respectfully. I could visibly see him start to ease up once we got going. He answered more than 3 questions and, even though we were done in 6 minutes, Dan gave us all we needed for the Landis piece. He even gave us a Hitchcock impression that was quite good.
Then he was gone. No goodbye. No handshake (though he did greet each and every one of us when he first arrived). Dan Aykroyd was more than generous with his time. I can't really say it was a pleasant experience for either of us. Next time (if there is a next time) I hope... well, I just hope we get to go first.
