Krishnan Guru-Murthy on the art of the tricky interview
No one knows better how to handle an awkward interviewee than the Channel 4 New host. Speaking to RT’s View From My Sofa podcast, he reflected on the lessons he has learned.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy has said that he would handle some of his big interviews "slightly differently" today, adding that he's better at "defusing situations" than he was previously.
Speaking to Radio Times magazine's View From My Sofa podcast, Guru-Murthy said that while interviews "rarely go to plan", he would approach some of his better known interviews differently today.
"I think it's one of those things that depends on the circumstances and the person and your level of experience at the time," he said.
"With the notable ones that I look back on, I would probably handle them slightly differently now years on to how I did then," he continued. "I'm probably a bit better at defusing situations than I was.
"But sometimes, you know, things go south – not because of anything you've done, it's just because of the person and their reaction to things. And I look back at the vast majority of my interviews and kind of think, 'Yeah, that was all right,' you know?"
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Notable interviews by Guru Murthy have included his 2013 chat with Quentin Tarantino, who refused to answer a question on whether film violence is linked to real-life violence, and a 2015 interview which saw Robert Downey Jr cut the conversation short and leave the room.
Guru Murthy added: "You can be hypercritical and you can always say, 'Well, why didn't you say this? Why didn't you do that? Why didn't you calm it down a different way or whatever it might be, and then the interview would have carried on.'
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"But I think you just have to accept that things happen in the moment. You react the way you react, they react the way they react. It has an authenticity to it and as long as you didn't make a terrible mistake, then you just live with it."
The journalist spoke to View From My Sofa prior to his suspension from Channel 4 over using an expletive to describe Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker in October.
Listen to the episode below:
You can listen to the full interview in this week's edition of the Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast. If you're looking for something else to watch, check out our TV Guide.
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