3 vintage celebrity interviews I love

Plus, a bit about my own experience writing profiles and my favourite celebrity writers

The celebrity profile is an endangered species. Questions are frequently requested in advance (NB: most publications refuse) and clock-watching publicists hover nearby. I once interviewed the tattoo artist Dr Woo in LA (who had a waiting list of 2 years at the time) and his publicist called time half-way through the interview. What? I replied, baffled. Turned out she’d included the part where they picked me up from my hotel, parked in the underground car park, made our way up to the bar, and ordered drinks. That interview never ran.

Another time, a well-known individual’s publicist asked me to do an interview for a newspaper, but said they’d need to approve the copy, before it went to print. (I declined.)

Generally speaking, I’ve been lucky: Kate Winslet, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Chloë Sevigny, for instance, all met me sans entourage and gave me more time than allocated. (Although Sevigny very obviously did not enjoy being interviewed - which I entirely sympathise with.) Some actors deliver the goods in just 5 minutes, others take 20 mins to warm up. We only had 10 minutes with Margot Robbie when we interviewed her 6 years ago for The High Low - surrounded by publicists, in a hotel room, me 10 days away from giving birth - but she was such fun, it felt like half an hour.

The only interview I’ve done where I’ve been thinking “how in god’s name am I going to get a whole profile out of this” was with Jennifer Connelly, after a Louis Vuitton show in Paris. I only had 20 mins, I recall, and she was very guarded. I was also sitting a step below her - the seating for the fashion show was all steps - and I came to realise afterwards, that in the most literal sense, you and your subject have to be on the same level.