I dreaded interviewing stars in lockdown – but it’s bringing a new intimacy to our journalism

It’s an infinitesimal concern to have, in the context of everything that’s happening, but when I realised that there’d be no face-to-face interviews with artists, actors and cultural figures – in any publication, not just ours – for the foreseeable future, I was worried.

I’ve always found telephone interviews frustrating; when you can’t tell whether the other person has finished talking or just pondering whether to share a more intimate detail, the accidental interruptions aren’t just awkward but detrimental. Even video interviews, with their glitchy connections and delayed speech, are poor substitutes for the real thing. As a reader, I’ve always found profiles where the journalist and subject haven’t actually met face to face far less enjoyable.

Then again, if it wasn’t for lockdown Robert Pattinson probably wouldn’t have set fire to his kitchen in front of a journalist while trying to make a grotesque sugar and cornflake-coated pasta invention. And Brassic star Joe Gilgun wouldn’t have drifted around his flat smoking weed, chatting to seagulls and giving my colleague Annie Lord a tour of his houseplants as he opened up about bipolar disorder.

Instead, those interviews would have most likely happened in a generic hotel room, after the “talent” had been suitable kitted out and made up, a huddle of other journalists in the corner waiting to take their turn.

At a time when we’re all feeling more vulnerable than ever, there is a comfort and an intimacy to speaking to someone in their own home – seeing a glimpse of their washing up, their chosen wall art, or a pet cat. There’s something very personal about asking them how they’re finding this strange new world, and hearing that the life of a star is now startlingly similar to your own. Even if they’re about to play Batman.

Yours,

Alexandra Pollard

Deputy culture editor