How to Interview Anyone

Catherine Bray, the editor of Film4.com, is one of the finest interviewers we know, so when we heard her praising Jason Arnopp’s new book, How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne and Everyone Else, we just had to ask her to review it for The Spectator Arts Blog.

Whether they admit it or not, most arts journalists begin their careers knowing only slightly less about their chosen vocation than Piers Morgan knows about the art of the self-effacing understatement. At least, that’s what I like to tell myself. The first interview I ever did, aged 21, for movie magazine Hotdog, was a phone interview with The Lord of the Rings actor Miranda Otto, then starring with Tom Cruise in the Spielberg remake of The War of the Worlds. I called 20 minutes late, without enough questions prepared and, out of sheer nerves and general cluelessness, proceeded to ask her about Cornish pasties. Mea culpa, Miranda.

Author and journalist Jason Arnopp , who amongst other projects writes for the world of Doctor Who, remembers his younger self’s 1994 encounter with the late Canadian blues guitarist Jeff Healey with similar regret. ‘I was young, he was blind and it was a very awkward experience, not helped by the fact that he was in a bad mood.’
 
And if Arnopp had been able to travel forward in time (he’s involved in the Doctor Whoniverse, after all), and take the advice of his own book, what would have been different? ‘It would either have helped me salvage the interview and enliven that conversation, or I’d have known to write the awkward conversation up as an awkward conversation, rather than trying to whitewash it, resulting in a distinctly average piece.’

Sure, maybe I could have avoided my Miranda Otto pastry prattle debacle if I’d done a journalism degree (anyone got a spare £10,000 or so lying around?) or used common sense (UK quota of which has been entirely used up by people in online comment sections who know how the country ought to be run). But if I’d read Arnopp’s book, based on his 23 years and over 1000 interviews worth of experience, chances are I’d have had a better practical idea of what to expect, what to get ready in advance and how to convince an interviewee you know what you’re doing.

The book is full of tips and tricks essential to the newcomer, but also offers a fresh take likely to be of use even to seasoned pros, plus 50 useful general interview questions in the appendix.

So why has Arnopp, whose second career as a scriptwriter has been steadily taking off over the last couple of years, decided to share his wealth of journalistic experience now – and for the low, low price of £3.90? ‘Because I’m just an altruistic, caring, generous kind of guy!’ he replies. ‘No - I think it’s partly because books, whether papery or electronic, have become devalued in the last couple of years.  This is probably due to the rise of the iPhone app for 59p or thereabouts. It’s unfortunate that we’ve started to mentally align books with apps in terms of value for money, but I think the low price-point of apps has hurt books.’

How To Interview Doctor Who certainly represents value for money to budding arts journos, while for the general reader it’s a look under the bonnet at the engine driving the press and publicity machine that carries so many careers to destinations both sought after and remote.

It’s also written in a style incorporating just as many unlikely extended metaphors as the one in the preceding sentence, which, depending on the reader, makes for either a pleasurable trip with regular comfort breaks replete with welcome B-road diversions, or could feel like the prose equivalent of a hundred mile sing-along of ‘The Wheels On The Bus’ with improvised solo sections.

It’s a function of how the book came into existence that it marches to the beat of its own chatty, anecdotal drum. Arnopp says he didn’t want to pitch it to conventional publishers. ‘I might one day, but having recently been involved with the often testing business side of the film world on Stormhouse, the movie which I wrote and executive-produced, it seemed all the more attractive to create something over which I had almost total control.’

The appeal of e-book finances was also a lure: ‘I love the fact that, after the hard work of writing a book, a writer can now directly publish with minimal effort, only having to surrender a portion of the proceeds to Amazon, PayPal or whoever. For now, How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne And Everyone Else is mine all mine.  My own little corner of the internet and hopefully an ongoing investment.’

Get in there while you can. Arnopp says, ‘I might well raise that price a little in the autumn, because the initial uptake has been good so far.’ As well it might for a how-to written by someone who actually knows.

You can buy How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne and Everyone Else by Jason Arnopp on http://www.jasonarnopp.com .
 

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