It’s a question that we often hear during our media training courses. The answer is that most celebrities certainly do get coaching for media interviews – and we’re very often the providers. Obviously, we can’t say which celebrities we’ve trained to do media interviews. Still, the fact is that we’ve worked with actors, directors, TV presenters and authors, preparing them for media interviews.
We’ve also trained scientists, doctors, chefs and businesspeople who are publishing a book, starring in a new TV programme or finding that their social media presence is expanding so rapidly that journalists want to interview them for print outlets plus radio and TV programmes.
Why do celebrities need media interview training?
Essentially, celebrities need to be trained to give good media interviews for the same reasons that anyone else does. The first is defensive. Google “celebrity media interview gaffes”; you’ll be inundated with examples of actors, models, singers and even TV presenters themselves who have handled a question badly or got drawn into discussing something irrelevant or embarrassing. In other situations, they might face a question from a reporter that they weren’t expecting and really don’t want to answer, so they find themselves freezing or losing their temper. Suddenly this becomes the big new story, not the new film, book or album they’re supposed to be promoting.
Alongside this, our media training for celebrities enables them to identify and tell the stories and anecdotes that journalists are always looking for that make for an excellent celebrity interview. We work with actors to help them to talk about their research for a role and to find those funny little stories from filming or rehearsal that they’ll enjoy telling and that their audiences will love.
How does media training for celebrities work?
We work closely with celebrity publicists to plan the media training sessions and ensure that their client is entirely comfortable with what we’re going to do. We also want to find out more about what interviews have been arranged. During the media training session itself, we start by asking our celebrity clients what they would like to cover, what issues concern them most and what would be most useful to them. This ensures that the media coaching is bespoke to their exact needs.
We then look at what reporters and celebrity interviewers are looking for in a media interview with an actor, author or anyone promoting a new film, TV series, book or campaign. We provide our participants with some simple techniques for taking more control of media interviews as we identify the stories and anecdotes they can introduce and train them to tell these stories well.
We practice for as long as the participant wants until they and their publicist feel that they’re really confident with their answers and they’re ready to do an interview. The actors, writers, film directors, musicians and other celebrities we provide media training for are used to practicing, rehearsing and honing their work, so this comes naturally to them.
Our celebrity publicist clients like that we’re a niche, agile media training consultancy, as this means that the person they speak to delivers their training. We create each course to meet the exact needs of our clients rather than providing standard formats as many of the larger agencies do. It also means that because we don’t have sales teams to support, meaning we’re more affordable than the big consultancies.
Tricks of the trade – Communication
Because all of our media trainers have done media interviews in the real world for a range of outlets, they know what a reporter will ask and what they’ll want to hear. Based on their experience, they can identify what will work as an answer and what won’t. We can share with the celebrities that we provide media training for the little tricks of the journalist’s trade – how they get someone to say something they hadn’t planned to and how to draw them down a path they really don’t want to go down. More importantly, we explain how to counter these tricks, how to stay in charge of an interview and how to get across your key message about your new project.
Who does media training for celebrities?
Because all our media trainers are working journalists, they’ve interviewed actors, singers, well-known chefs, celebrity doctors and health experts. They know how to work with celebrity publicists and what their editors and readers, or viewers will want to hear. But not every journalist, however, experienced they might be, can teach.
That’s why our media trainers are carefully chosen and trained so that they can provide authentic role-play interviews but then also give constructive feedback and offer learning points afterwards. They have tools, techniques and templates to help celebrities go into media interviews confidently, are aware of how the interview will work, clear on what they want to say – and ready to avoid getting drawn into talking about something they don’t want to discuss.
Media Trainers London
Whether you’re a celebrity publicist, an actor, a director, a musician, a singer, a TV presenter, a social media star or anyone else who is about to do a media interview, our training courses can help you. Get in touch now.
