Here's one thing they don't teach you in journalism school: that in this spread-out country of ours, a lot of your reporting and interviewing is going to take place on the phone. (Or, in this Internet era of ours, by email.) That's especially true for culture writers. It'd be nice if you could meet all the folks you interview in person, but travel schedules (and newsroom travel budgets) don't always allow for that in time to get a story into the paper in advance of an event. So I've become an expert of sorts at picking up a phone, establishing some sense of camaraderie with a subject in about, say, 35 seconds, and getting as meaningful an interview as I can within a finite amount of time. (The bigger the name, the likelier you'll have a shorter time to talk, sometimes as little as 15 minutes.)
I don't love phone interviews, but they have their own charms, especially when you get to talk to gracious and interesting people. As a slice-of-life from my week, I'll share with you highlights from three fascinating people with whom I talked.
12:15 p.m. Tuesday: My phone rings. "Hi, it's Renee Fleming," says the multi-million dollar voice at the other end of the line. This world-renowned opera star is coming to Fresno for the first time Dec. 17 -- and what a concert it promises to be for Fresno Grand Opera. (The Fresno Philharmonic will be conducted in a homecoming of sorts by Raymond Harvey.) I was supposed to talk with Fleming at noon my time, but she was running a little late from a rehearsal with James Levine and the Boston Symphony.
Fleming is an absolute delight on the phone: warm, responsive and -- best yet -- she sounds genuinely excited about coming to Fresno. "I love exploring new places and meeting new audiences," she says. "It's less pressure for me than when I return to something like the Met." I chat with her about her electric performance in the Met's "Eugene Onegin" earlier this year, one of the high-definition broadcasts showed in hundreds of movie theaters that have been such a hit for the opera company. We talk about her Fresno concert, life on the road, her computer literacy (she's an email fiend) and her two children. Up till this point, I've only seen Fleming appear live once -- in a performance of "Il Pirata" at the Met in which her voice and stage charisma blew me away -- and when I hang up the phone, I think to myself: I've got to get more of her albums!
8:30 a.m. Wednesday: On the phone is James McAvoy, a movie actor from Scotland who wowed audiences in the acclaimed "Last King of Scotland" (he starred opposite Forest Whitaker) and entranced Jane Austen fans playing opposite Anne Hathaway as the love interest in "Becoming Jane." Now he's in a new movie called "Atonement" opposite Keira Knightley that will likely be opening in Fresno in January. I saw the movie Tuesday morning in preparation for the interview and will write a review when it opens here.
McAvoy is as hip and droll as a rock star. He frequently cusses, which I understand is quite a Scottish attribute, adding to his raw charm. (When I ask him what he hopes audiences take away from the emotionally powerful World War II-era film, he replies, "I hope they are left absolutely in f------ pieces. I hope it destroys them, like it destroyed me.") I ask him if his own working-class roots helped him play his "Atonement" character, who comes from a lower social standing than Knightley's character, and he launches into a spirited discourse about class consciousness in Britain. I have a feeling he could be a major star in the next few years if he plays his projects right. He's a smart and funny guy on the phone, and it doesn't hurt that when he appears on screen with Knightley, it causes one of my press colleagues to ask, "Could they have found two more beautiful people?"
11:50 a.m. Friday: On the phone from Dublin is Julian Erskine, the producer who helped develop the fledgling 'Riverdance" phenomenon from being a five-minute interlude on the Eurovision song contest into a 13-year-old worldwide sensation. The show is mounting one more massive three-year "farewell" tour of all the cities it's played in the United States -- and believe it or not, the very first city it's playing in is Fresno. (It runs Dec. 19-23 at the Saroyan Theatre.)
Erskine is a kick -- no pun intended -- as he relates what it's been like to oversee "Riverdance" these many years. He's especially excited that at the Fresno performance, the two big solo songs in the show will be performed by Fresno's own Michel Bell, a former Broadway star and singer for The Fifth Dimension. I already interviewed Bell on the phone a couple of weeks ago in preparation for my "Riverdance" story, and I look forward to getting people in Fresno caught up with his career.
So there you have it: three phone interviews squeezed in among the movies, plays and review writing of a typical week. I'm excited because next week I get to talk with actor Tim Roth, who's in Francis Ford Coppola's new movie "Youth Without Youth." If anybody out there is a big Tim Roth fan and has a question you want me to ask, let me know.
I am a huge Ewan McGregor fan. So if you ever interview him on the phone or in person, I'd be glad to just sit there with you and smile! Thanks for the run down of your interviews this week. Must be exciting to talk to such interesting people. I don't know how you get it all done every week!