When I got into Grant’s hotel room, I told him this was my first ever interview, in the hope of softening him up If Ashley Graham has learned anything this week, it’s that interviewing celebrities is not for the faint-hearted.
She pushed on, beaming: “It still must have been fun though, you had fun right?” Grant, looking away, responded: “Erm… almost”. She gamely ploughed on, while viewers chewed their knuckles from the awkwardness: “What are you wearing?” Grant replied: “My suit.” So there I was, in my first journalism job in my mid-twenties, sitting in a luxury hotel suite waiting for him to discuss. I was living the dream: my notepad of insightful questions, my Dictaphone loaded with fresh batteries. This video interview would be a triumph!Just then, the very experienced national newspaper journalist who had been with Grant before me stumbled out of the interview room looking pale.
But it quickly took a turn for the awkward: we got through 15 of my questions within four minutes, because his responses were so monosyllabic. The cameras kept rolling as I floundered.