When you interview someone who is well known for a magazine the pressure of asking the right questions is tough. Seeing how far and wide your words and thoughts can reach when you interview a celebrity is astounding.
There seems to be a sense of entitlement from some magazines and newspapers. A sort of ‘we made you, so we can ask you whatever we like’ attitude. They justify outing cheats and prying into intimate details of peoples life, as doing ‘us’ a favour, carrying out a public service.
I feel like I am toying between the lines. On one hand I am your average young girl who has grown up in a celebrity infused world and genuinely enjoys reading and hearing about these people whose lives are so different from my own, its escapism in the purest form.
Whereas on the other hand I am hovering on the outskirts, looking in on a world that I am, albeit on the lowest ranks, starting to intercept . Talking and meeting people I never thought imaginable. Trying to retell their stories with their dignity and my morals intact.
Whilst reading the interview Harvey Marcus did with Rihanna in the December 2010 edition of Marie Claire Magazine, I came across a paragraph where he too questions our need to know everything about celebrities.
On asking her about Chris Brown, he says,
“This far in she has no duty, no responsibility to anyone to meet any further enquiry on the subject. So much was written, broadcast about Rihanna and Chris Brown in the ensuing months that to re-examine that period today- especially as she appears so at peace with the world- seems to serve no function other than to satisfy out celebrity addiction; administer another quick fix at her expense. But she knows, and I know, I am going to ask her, all the same."
I found this so interesting, that while he acknowledges the fact that it is more than unnecessary, cruel even to continue to make her talk about a period in her life that she clearly finds upsetting, he also implies the fact that he doesn’t really have a choice as without a quote from her talking about the said incident, I’m sure the magazine would not have sold nearly as many copies as it did.
I want to cultivate a way of getting to know these people through my interviews that I feel isn’t crossing boundaries.
And maybe and most importantly I have to learn not to underestimate the modern celebrity too much, maybe they come fully packaged with the over share button ready to be pushed when they hit the big time. And maybe I have to accept that when celebrities chose their career path, they in turn give up, willingly I may add, a little bit of themselves with it.
And I suppose not every case of over sharing and intrusive questioning has a negative outcome. Take the aforementioned Rihanna interview; she freely admits that without the media intrusion in her life she would never have found the courage to leave an abusive relationship, does that make the intrusion right, who knows, I’ll leave that up to you to decide?
By Emma Frew
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