Following Ashley Graham's awkward interview with Hugh Grant at the Oscars, Claire Byrne asked Thomas 'Crossy’ Crosse and Stephen Byrne what they thought about the red carpet cringe and how much tea were they were prepared to spill on the celebs they have interviewed over the years.
Crossy and Stephen spent a few minutes picking apart the Grant/Graham interview fail, before getting into some of the highs and lows of their careers so far. Crossy thinks Graham should have been better prepared. Stephen agrees, but he also thinks Hugh Grant should have done better, considering he was in work mode on Oscars night:
"He’s there to do a job. He was asked to go and present an award. He could have said no to presenting the award. It was obviously an obligation that he had to be interviewed on the red carpet because he was going to be on the main stage. So just give a little and get through it."
Stephen thinks telling celebrities you’re Irish from the get-go puts them at their ease, and he who passed on that piece of wisdom to his former housemate Crossy, who says it’s been a useful tip that works every time:
"This man, when we lived together gave me the best bit of advice ever for doing interviews. When you walk into a room, ‘cos there’s probably 20 people there, always, always, always say you’re Irish. No matter what it is."
As well as playing the Ireland card, Stephen has a whole suite of techniques for making celebrity interviews run smoothly:
"I used to sometimes get really camp, if I knew that they’d vibe off that, so I’d go really really camp and gay and I’d just be like, lets have loads of fun! And it would so something. And then sometimes you’d get really serious, where you’d do a bit of research into their favourit sport team and maybe talk about football or something like that. There’s that layer of just… what will get them in."
Crossy struck gold with fellow Navan man Pearse Brosnan when he interviewed him in October last year about playing the part of Dr Fate in the movie Black Adam:
"So anyway, he’s from Navan, I’m from Navan. And I was trying to think of common ground. What can I say to him that will be different to everyone? And I was like he’s the first superhero from Navan."
Brosnan was completely disarmed by this strategy and even got emotional about plans to return to visit his grandfather’s cottage in Navan. Crossy’s icebreaker created a viral moment that has racked up tens of millions of views on YouTube.
Not all celebs can be charmed, and trying to play games with them in an interview is a bad idea. Crossy says that stars like Lady Gaga don’t appreciate being asked about anything other than the current project:
"If she’s doing a movie, you talk to her about the movie. If she’s doing music, you talk to her about music. A friend of mind – massive Lady Gaga fan – got to sit in front of her. Of course the first thing she was gonna say ‘I love your music.’ Bang – straight away – zero interest. Interview was awful."
Stephen says Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl is up there as one of the nicest prople he’s met in showbiz. He recalls arriving at Grohl’s studio in LA for an interview and Grohl running out to pick up food for both of them:
"I remember I went straight to his studio, and as I got in and he went ‘Is it ok if I get some food?’ and I was like, yeah, sure. He came back, 45 minutes later with loads of Taco Bell for me and him and we just sat there eating food and I was like, he actually went through a drive-thru himself and bought food for both of us."
Occasionally a celebrity behaves in a way that no amount of experience can prepare you for. Crossy had an encounter with a band member of Blue which took him by surprise:
"I’m not gonna say which one, because I won’t say that, but when I moved the microphone, he burped in my face, on purpose. Like thinking ‘Lad, lad, lad lad – this is gonna be hilarious!’ And I’m thinking, I’ve got to interview you now; you’ve just burped in my face and you’ve all laughed at this guy doing this thing. […] and I just thought, you’re not nice. You’re not nice"
If you want to hear about Crossy’s encounter with Jessie Jay, Stephen’s out of body experience with Oprah and why they both think that why people on the way up are the most toxic, listen back to the full interview here.