Writer's Block

My dorkiest interview

One of my dorkiest moments ever had to be when I got tapped to interview movie-star brothers Owen and Luke Wilson at the Maui Film Festival. Features editor Rick Chatenever asked if I'd like the assignment -- probably because he knew I'd get a kick out of the chance to spend a couple of minutes face to face with the heartthrobs.

I tried to play it cool, but I was definitely excited. It was going to be way more fun than my usual gig sitting in a County Council meeting, and I was looking forward to driving down to Wailea and soaking up some of the glitz. But I was nervous too -- writing about entertainment was far outside my budgets-and-zoning comfort zone, and I didn't know the ropes.

Rick explained how it would work: the stars would come out to pose and be photographed on some kind of red carpet, after which they would spend a few minutes with reporters answering softball questions, before heading inside to the main event. I would probably get to talk to them one-on-one as they went down the line of reporters, and they would probably be nice to me since they tended to be less wary of the "local media" than the jaded Hollywood reporters who would be there. Plus I was young and (relatively) cute, which wouldn't hurt. Piece of cake.

To prepare, I read a little bit about the movie the Wilson brothers were in town to promote. I planned a couple of questions in advance so I'd have something intelligent to say. And I put on what I thought of as one of my "nice" work outfits, a dark denim skirt and green sweater set from Ann Taylor.

But when I got there, the first thing I realized was that I looked like a dork compared to the other girl reporters, who were all wearing trendy and well-accessorized cocktail dresses, while I looked like I was going to a podunk planning commission meeting, which, come to think of it, was exactly the last place I had worn that particular ensemble.

I was also immediately intimidated and nervous not of the movie stars, but of the hip and knowing Hollywood reporters. They interviewed celebrities for a living, and most of them already knew each other from LA. I started to worry about whether they'd think my questions were stupid, then tried to talk myself into confidence by telling myself how much more "authentic" and "meaningful" my job was than theirs. I had flashbacks to my days as a Model U.N. nerd looking for a place to eat lunch among the popular kids.

To make matters worse I forgot my usual notepad at the office and had to scrounge a yellow legal-size notepad from my car, which is really hard to take notes on if you're not sitting at a desk. You kind of have to balance it on your arm and lean over to write legibly. It was awkward.

All the cool Hollywood reporters used recorders, so they glided through their interviews. Then it was my turn. The handsome stars were right in front of me. I felt my face turning pink. All the intelligent questions flew out of my brain, and I asked something lame like, "How do you like being on Maui?" and then hunched over my giant notepad to start scribbling. There was a long pause after they answered the question while I finished writing it all down. "Uhhh...tell me about your new movie?" Long pause. I was in stupidity feedback-loop hell.

Finally it was over and they moved down the line. The Wilson brothers were nothing but charming, and if they thought I was a complete idiot, they never let on. After all, they're actors.