Once upon a time, I had a job where I never had to venture outside, where I did little but worry about creating a calendar of events. Then, things changed.

No, I didn’t switch companies or, at first, seemingly even jobs, but due to geographic shifts in where people lived, there was no one present in or around New York to regularly do junket interviews. And so, like greatness for some (not suggesting myself), this was thrust upon me and I was terrified. Terrified.

The first movie I had to do a series of interviews for was Walter Salles’ “On the Road,” and I was told that I would be sitting down with Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Kirsten Dunst, and Kristen Stewart. This was 2012, Stewart was one year beyond “Twilight” and had “Snow White and the Huntsman” that summer. Hedlund I was aware of from the “Tron” sequel, Riley had done less at that point, and Dunst was… well… Kirsten Dunst, who didn’t know her?

I was, as I’ve said before, more than a little petrified. Willie Beamen had nothing on me that December morning.

Long story short, the first person I sat down with was Stewart and I somehow made my way through the interview. It wasn’t graceful, it wasn’t artful, and I’m sure it wasn’t very good. Happily, it was a one-camera setup (on her) and so people could only hear my stuttering, not actually have to see the words fail to come out of my mouth as well.

Over time, I improved. There are folks who can conduct a four minute interview better than I can, but with hours of prep beforehand I can hold my own. Not only that, it has become something I love doing and I harbor a not-so-secret desire to figure out a way to turn conducting interviews into a full-time job.

Still though, as I’ve expressed before, I’ve always wanted another shot at talking to Kristen Stewart. Not because she would have remembered our interview—I wasn’t bad enough to be remembered—but because I did.

Happily, wonderfully, brilliantly, last week I had the chance to talk to her again. She has a new movie coming out this week, “American Ultra” with Jesse Eisenberg, and so I sat down with Stewart and her co-star last week (FYI, her pointing in that still above is not her remembering me). It went far better the second time than the first.

But, you can be the judge of the second interview…

http://widgets.ign.com/video/embed/content.html?url=http://www.ign.com/videos/2015/08/17/american-ultra-jesse-eisenberg-and-kristen-stewart-interview

photo credit: IGN

Categories: Random Thoughts

Tags: American Ultra, Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, On the Road