I recently decided to make an attempt to interview one of my favorite TV stars. Chef Michael Smith is a Food Network star. He has numerous TV shows, a webseries, a five bestselling cookbooks. He is well known and most definitely has celebrity status among certain crowds. Smith happens to live in my province so naturally I figured I would at least TRY to get an interview with him.
The process of getting an interview with someone of celebrity status seems like it would be difficult. In reality, it is quite an easy process, as long as you are used to hearing "no". I went to Smith's website and found an e-mail address for "bookings". I e-mailed them, explaining I was a journalism student and wanted to interview Smith for a piece I was working on.
In Journalism you quickly learn that in a lot of cases you need an expert voice in your story. Mostly if you are writing a piece on something specific. In this case, I was doing a piece on local farmers, and the use of local food in restaurants. This piece would really hit home for a lot of people as PEI is largely based on farming and fishing. Smith happens to be a HUGE local food advocate so interviewing him as my expert voice would have been a perfect choice.
I sent off my e-mail, expecting to either receive a "no" or simply to get no reply at all. To my surprise, the next day I got an e-mail back saying that they would be "more than happy to set up an interview." I couldn't believe what I was reading. I thought I had mentally prepared for the interview, but in reality, I had mentally prepared to be turned down. I was quietly freaking out!! Everything crossed my mind, from questions I was going to ask to what I was going to wear.
As the day of the interview got closer, the more nervous I became. My wonderful fiance Ian (who you will likely hear about often in this blog) drove me to the location, which turned out to be Smith's own house. We pulled into the drive way and my nerves hit me all at once. I had to take Pepto-Bismol and Gravol just to settle my uneasy stomach. Many people had told me that Smith was an amazingly nice person, really down-to-earth and really genuine. This information did not help my nerves whatsoever. Questions of doubt filled my head..."What if he thinks I am completely unprofessional?" "What if he thinks I am just wasting his time since I am only a student?"
Lucky for me I had Ian in the drivers seat encouraging me to do it and telling me how great I would do. It didn't really help, although I lead on that it did. Finally after 10 minutes of loudly freaking out, I gathered my voice recorder, notebook and pen and starting walking toward the door. I was greeted my an extremely nice lady named Jennifer. Jennifer works for Smith and is who I was in correspondence with before the interview. She gave me a tour of the property and took me downstairs for the interview. At this point I was slightly more relaxed, until we walked into the office area and I saw Michael Smith sitting at a computer talking with an adviser working on his new book. There he was, right there, in person and I was about to interview him. I must be dreaming. Luckily it was not a dream. Once he finished up what he was doing, Jennifer introduced us and I began the interview.
I feel like he could probably hear my nervousness in my voice in the beginning. After I asked him the first question, I sat and listened to his lengthy answer and all of sudden was completely relaxed. He answered my questions so much in depth that it made me feel like an actual reporter. He helped me through the entire process and was just as nice as everyone made him out to be.
So what exactly is the point of this long blog entry about such a short interview? The point I am trying to make is that nerves are something that every reporter feels when interviewing someone, celebrity or not. Also, I realized AFTER the interview that he knew from the get go that I was a student in my first year of journalism, therefore he likely knew that I did not have the experience that some other interviewers have had. The fact that he agreed to sit down for an interview with a student speaks volumes. All in all, the interview went swimmingly and I have an awesome story out of it. He also took the time to give me names and numbers of various contacts to get more in depth information for my story.
Sometimes it is hard to remember that celebrities are just people! To them, they are just as normal as you and me. In fact, most of the time it is down right impossible to remember that simple fact.
I watched a video one day that said...as a journalist, if you don't get nervous before an interview, you aren't a real journalist, or even human. Being nervous before an interview is something that every reporter and journalist experiences, it isn't something that will stop, but it is something we can learn to deal with. I was very close to calling off my interview with Chef Smith because I was so nervous, I was borderline scared, almost to the point of a panic attack. But I sucked it up and I went through with the interview and was beyond happy with my choice.
As I was leaving I just casually mentioned that my fiance drove me there as I did not know that part of the province, I also mentioned that he was a culinary arts student. When Smith heard that he got me to get Ian from the car and bring him inside. He met Ian and talked to him for at least 5 minutes about culinary and about his past in the industry. It was a really kind gesture on Smith's part, it also proved the point that he is a normal everyday person.
In the end, I did the interview, it went amazingly well and I have an open invite to return if I need another interview! This is now a valuable contact to have in my future ventures, it also looks good in my portfolio that will someday determine my employer. Was it worth the rough time I went through with nerves? Of course!! I have an even bigger interview coming up in about a week. This interview is HUGE. But I will post about that later. Although, I truly believe that the experience with Smith will help me in my future interviews.
Check out Chef Michael Smith on the Food Network and check out his website at www.chefmichaelsmith.com. Also, remember to follow me on Twitter @dreamars.
--Drea
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