Seven ways to put your interviewee at ease
Each of these methods work for journalists or authors carrying out research
Whether you’re interviewing a famous person as a journalist, or interrogating a stranger about golf courses as research for your new murder-mystery novel, the quality of the results will generally be proportional to how comfortable your subject feels.
Let's dive straight into those seven ways to set your interviewee at ease, shall we? Oh yes.
1. Your greeting matters. I like to greet interviewees as if I already know them – obviously without being overly familiar. It’s about creating the pleasant atmosphere of greeting friends and being pleased to see them. Making an effort. Setting the tone. Generally speaking, appearing pleased to see them will help ensure that they’re at least halfway pleased to see you too.
2. Unless you only have a 10-minute window with Taylor Swift, don’t rush to start your recording device. Take your time. Relax. You don’t need to record that pre–amble banter. Master the art of casually chatting and smiling a lot, exuding excitement to be here - or gratitude if you’re author preparing to quiz a helpful research subject - while getting the device out of your bag and setting it up on the table.
3. Without wanting to get into the esoteric realm of positive and negative energy, it’s fairly obvious that the energy you inject into that room is likely to be reciprocated by your subject. If they’ve been sitting in a room all day talking about themselves and their work, causing their eyelids to feel heavy, then an enthusiastic, friendly journalist entering the room might help snap them back into something like full consciousness. If you’re excited – without resembling a tiresomely yapping Yorkshire terrier – then they’re more likely to feel the same. Excited interviewees talk more.
4. Quickly gain a sense of whether they’re the kind of person who will respond well to direct, sustained eye contact throughout, or will be uneasy if you continuously hold their gaze. Do whatever makes them feel the most comfortable, and their tongue will loosen as a result. As a rule of thumb, if they instantly make eye contact, then follow suit. Otherwise, apply eye contact in small-to-medium doses. Eye contact is powerful. It can establish trust, but also intimidate or feel oppressive. Remember: no matter how confident and self-possessed the subject may appear in front of an audience, or on film, in person they could be the shyest person you ever met.
5. Very much bear in mind that your interviewee is a human being, with moods and a personal life, just like you. If they’re not used to being interviewed by anyone, then make allowances for their nerves. If they’re difficult or grouchy, then bear in mind that you might have just caught them on an off-day. Don’t take this personally, and instead focus your efforts on brightening them. Or, at the very least, just maintaining the flow of conversation and getting the job done.
6. Towards the end of that opening pre-amble, mention how long a time-slot you have with them. If they’re a celebrity, they may not know. (Alternatively, if you’re interviewing a research subject, be sure to agree a minimum time with them in advance). By telling them, you give them a sense of perspective on how long you’ll be spending together – and roughly speaking, how fast the conversation should go. If you’ve an hour together, they can relax a little more and perhaps speak at length. If it’s just a ten-minute quickie, they’ll get the message that they’ll need to be more concise and probably talk a bit faster.
7. It can often be a good idea to broadly and swiftly outline your aims for this piece. This will help relax them if, for instance, they fear you have some kind of negative agenda. Tell them that you really want to present the most informative and entertaining profile of them as a person yet. Or that you really want to document how they’ve bounced back, after that regrettable incident with the prostitutes and the crack cocaine. If they’re a research subject, be sure to get them excited about your novel or script, right from the word go.
You've been reading an excerpt from my ebook How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne And Everyone Else, in which I set out to tell the reader everything I've learned about interviewing people over the last 35 years.
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