Page 15 - CSA Speaker Bulletin October 2019 | CSA Celebrity Speakers

CSA SPEAKER BULLETIN INTERVIEW
importance of diversity to the MeToo
campaign. Both needed to happen
but they rocked Hollywood to its core. Border Patrol helicopters tousled
The changes in career opportunities
and recognition for women, people of
colour, the LGBTQ+, and other under-
represented communities is immense.
Hollywood, which may have
seemed like a concept stuck in the
Golden Age of yesteryear for some
decades, has evolved at an ever
increasing rate in recent years. The
pace of change has accelerated
as technological change pushes us
harder towards a place where the
future is now. What we can conceive
can be created seemingly which
makes me worried for our ability to
form new types of creative expression
quickly enough. But with VR we have
found a device, a concept and art
form all rolled into one that is on
the cutting edge of technology yet
pushes emotional boundaries in vital
and visceral ways.
Can you tell us a little
about philanthropic and
cause-related content and
how it can benefit people
around the world?
I will probably never go to Mexico
and stand on the border at night as
a refugee trying to enter the USA, but many stars; what is the
for anyone who saw the VR exhibition
at LACMA by Alejandro Inarritu of
the extraordinary Carne y Arena you
will have been left in no doubt about
the power of VR to persuade, cajole,
move, mesmerise and shock. As for
cause related issues, it really moves
the needle. Having no idea what to
expect, I experienced Inarritu's story
of migrants on the Mexican border
both clueless and shoeless; after
removing my footwear and donning
my headset I found myself tiptoeing
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across a midnight landscape of sand
and rocks, while the ‘wind' from
my hair and whipped around my
ankles, accompanied by the din from
the thunderous flying engines which
thumped in my chest.
"Content can
be used well to
help position
or reposition
a brand in its
market place."
My fellow VR travellers, parents
and children alike, cowered behind
boulders bringing the all-too-real
awfulness of the scene up far too
close and far too personal. Guns
were brandished, people shouted,
children cried and it all simply broke working on major shows
my heart; if there had been anyone
at the end of the experience asking
for money to support displaced and
dispossessed peoples I would have
emptied my purse there and then.
But how wonderful to have been
fully transported to another time and
place; the power of VR is not to be
underestimated.
You have moderated
events and interviewed
best approach to ensure
that you get the best
from people on the day?
Prepare, prepare, prepare. Know
where people are going to sit,
the order they come on stage, the
background colour of the set, the
music you will use to ‘play them on’,
whether they might have trouble
climbing stage steps, whether they
are hard of hearing or need a lapel
mic instead of a handheld mic. Those
are the basics. After that, it's all
about the interview and knowing
how to extemporise, and knowing
the subject. Always add humour as
it calms people down, always smile,
rarely look at your notes and be
self deprecating. Always be more
interested in them than yourself.
Years of writing interviews for David
Frost and working with chat show
host Michael Parkinson stood me in
good stead for taking on Hollywood’s
finest.
From all your time
and with some of the top
names and celebrities,
is there one anecdote
which stands out above
all others?
Crikey - it would take me a ton of
time to find the best - there have
been so many. Losing Joe Cocker
for three days before the Lennon
concert in Liverpool, not recognising
Lenny Kravitz when he walked on
set, organising phone calls from the
White House which ended in disaster,
waiting three infuriating hours for
an Oscar winner and then not even
mentioning she was late, forgetting
to book an audience of 300 people
for a show with two hours’ notice,
being hexed by a white witch we had
just interviewed, seeing spoons bend
in my own hands after Uri Geller
handed them to me, losing all lighting
live on air and completing the show
on a couple of torches and one lamp.
I have many more!
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