interviews

Jane Goodall Answers Our "Silly" Questions

Rich Juzwiak · 04/18/14 09:45AM

All I needed to know was that Dr. Jane Goodall was available for interviews, and I was there, even if it was only for 10 minutes, even if it was in the Midtown Buca di Beppo.

Tribeca: Ira Sachs' Love Is Strange Is More Than a Gay Movie

Rich Juzwiak · 04/17/14 06:25PM

The premise of Ira Sachs' sixth feature, Love Is Strange, recalls a type of story we read in the news with increasing frequency: George (Alfred Molina) marries his husband Ben (John Lithgow) and loses his job teaching at a Catholic school as a result. That sounds like a recipe for a heavy-handed message movie, but the beauty of Love Is Strange (and it really is a beautiful movie – hands down my favorite I've seen so far this year) is its subtlety.

The Year's First Must-See Horror Movie Is So Much More Than That

Rich Juzwiak · 03/28/14 11:55AM

Jennifer Kent's Australian thriller The Babadook is of the big success stories from this year's Sundance Film Festival. The story seems standard enough: A boogieman character named the Babadook terrorizes a single mother, Amelia (Essie Davis) and her son Samuel (Noah Wiseman), who's so poorly behaved, he's a bit of a monster himself. But the film has surprising depth.

Bill Gates Is Kind of a Dick

Hamilton Nolan · 03/14/14 02:20PM

Bill Gates is a technocrat. A very, very rich technocrat. His charity work will probably save millions of lives. But, as a new interview with him reveals, he's really not much of a progressive at all.

How to Land an Interview With Charles Koch

Hamilton Nolan · 02/27/14 05:00PM

Evil cartoon villain Charles Koch, one half of the Amazing Billionaire Koch Bros., does not give a lot of interviews. You can hardly find a photo of the guy. But one outlet has landed a coveted Charles Koch interview "get"—the Wichita Business Journal. How did they do what so many other news outlets could not?

Here's Kanye West Rationally Explaining His Creative Frustration

Rich Juzwiak · 02/26/14 02:31AM

On Tuesday's Late Night with Seth Meyers, Kanye West truly cracked the Matrix. Without raising his voice or spiraling into narrative curlicues or providing any of the intensity necessary to render this 2+ minute verbal essay on his creative prowess a "rant," West lucidly explained what he's been saying for a while now: He feels stifled by powers that be who expect him to work in a certain way because of his established profile. He feels limited in his permitted expression, particularly when it comes to fashion.

Rich Juzwiak · 01/20/14 03:30PM

"I just close my eyes and act like I'm a 3-year-old. I try to get as close to a childlike level as possible because we were all artists back then," begins Kanye West in his Interview interview with Steve McQueen. It only gets better from there, with Kanye being equally reasonable and outlandish, just like we like him.

Watch Jay Z Hang Out With Two Women Having Oral Sex (NSFW)

Rich Juzwiak · 01/10/14 12:21PM

"Distract your subject with hardcore lesbian sex happening right next to him" doesn't seem like a viable interview strategy, but then 2 Live Crew mastermind Luther Campbell is no ordinary interviewer. The, uh, chat above happened in 1997, around the time of the release of Jay's second album, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1. The rapper/mogul pair attempt to discuss Jay Z's music, but that proves impossible, which is the point, I guess? If everyone had two women hooking up next to them, no one would get any work done.

A Conversation with the King of Old New York, Abel Ferrara

Rich Juzwiak · 12/12/13 12:40PM

Talking to director Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant, King of New York) is about as close to having a conversation with a human embodiment of pre-Giuliani New York as you can get. It is trying and you have the feeling that you could get attacked at any second. Not that I would have wanted it any other way.

"I Don't Know How To Say It": Our Exclusive Q&A with Britney Spears

Rich Juzwiak · 12/10/13 10:00AM

"She wanted to make it very personal," said Britney Spears' manager Larry Randolph of the diva's eighth studio album, Britney Jean. Randolph said that back in September, right around the announcement of Spears' two-year residency in Vegas. Last week, the album finally arrived in stores and we are now able to hear for ourselves these confessional songs that are "all custom made for her, based on what's going on with her life and in her head."

Watch Kanye West Repeatedly Get His Ass Handed to Him

Rich Juzwiak · 11/26/13 05:09PM

Kanye West has been so present in the media lately, between promotional appearances and his regular mid-concert "visionary streams of consciousness" (as he calls them), that any interview warranting a mention must be pretty damn special. His showing earlier today on New York's Power 105 is one such interview. For over 40 minutes, the hosts (especially Wendy Williams' former sidekick, Charlamagne the God), pummeled Ye with questions, frequently pointing out his contradictions. These included:

Nanny-Nanny-Boo-Boo, Fuckers: A Conversation With Kathleen Hanna

Rich Juzwiak · 11/26/13 03:10PM

On Friday, IFC will release to select theaters and via On-Demand, Sini Anderson's 80-minute documentary on the life and career of Kathleen Hanna, The Punk Singer. The film traces Hanna's early days at Olympia, Washington's Evergreen State College through her tenure leading iconic riot grrrl group Bikini Kill, her post as the lead singer of Le Tigre, and her current band the Julie Ruin. Feminist rock icons like Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker, Joan Jett, and Kim Gordon are part of the film's venerating chorus, and Hanna's personal life (including father-based trauma, her marriage to Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz, and her debilitating bout of Lyme disease) is explored in greater detail than ever. Throughout The Punk Singer, its subject remains as outspoken as we've come to expect.

Malcolm Gladwell, Professional Softball Player

Hamilton Nolan · 10/07/13 10:34AM

Wildly successful proverb investigator Malcolm Gladwell is a writer for The New Yorker, the most prestigious magazine journalism outlet in America. Despite this fact, he says that—as a policy—he does not do journalism.

A Discussion with the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne

Max Read · 09/27/13 01:15PM

We've got someone exciting dropping by today: Wayne Coyne, the frontman and songwriter for indie-rock legends the Flaming Lips, will be joining us at 3 p.m. to answer your questions. Just ask in the comments using your Kinja account, or create a burner account to ask questions anonymously (instructions here).

"Is There Such a Thing as Black Pop Culture?": Director Shaka King

Rich Juzwiak · 09/18/13 02:00PM

It's rare to watch a stoner comedy and think that its director will make a great interview. But Newlyweeds, writer-director Shaka King's independent comedy/drama (opening today at New York's Film Forum), is a rare kind of movie, one that depicts lives and relationships you see infrequently (if at all, on film), and there's an urgency to King's voice underneath the weedy, mellow vibe.

Maggie Lange · 08/28/13 04:42PM

James Deen, a man who does sex, talks about sex, again. This time he asks the question of porn watchers: "Are you looking at it as something beyond entertainment? Do you think you can drive your car down the stairs like in The Bourne Identity?"

Kanye West Only Wants To Help People, Wears a WWJD Bracelet

Rich Juzwiak · 08/23/13 01:55PM

The public unveiling of North West wasn't the only thing that made Kanye West's hour-long sit down with his baby's grandmother notable. The whole thing had a the stilted air of an infomercial (missed opportunity: a segment in which the quasi-in-laws vacuum-sealed shit for a segment). Kanye was alternately sedate, engaged, sulking (sometimes he'd go from being engaged to sulking over the course of a single, benign topic), and paranoid about the press. Highlights are above, bullet points are below. Pick your poison.

Hannah Anderson: Why I Texted My Kidnapper

Maggie Lange · 08/22/13 08:19AM

Kidnapping survivor Hannah Anderson spoke to Today this morning to clarify certain details of her ordeal—specifically the reasons behind her phone, text, and mail contact with her kidnapper—though she says that she's not ready to discuss the full story yet.

Sober Lindsay Lohan Gives Dry Interview to Oprah Winfrey

Rich Juzwiak · 08/19/13 07:56AM

"Normalcy is not interesting," said Lindsay Lohan toward the end of her sit-down with Oprah Winfrey on Oprah's Next Chapter, which aired last night. The actress sounded not just granted with serenity, but self-awareness — her interview was slow and bland. It was seasoned with information that was already evident to anyone paying attention to the hopeful former-troubled-star: Lohan is an addict whose poison is alcohol, she finds going to court humiliating, and she is eager to work/maintain her sobriety that's a result of her recent three-month trip to rehab (with one month spent at Betty Ford and the other two at Cliffside Malibu).