Questions to Ask an Actor in an Interview
Questions for a reporter, podcaster, or student interviewing an actor: how a specific role was built, what happened in rehearsal and on set, how casting works now, and how to get past the answers they have already given four times that morning.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What was the first thing in the script that made you want the part?
Why ask it
Asks about a moment rather than the project, so the answer tends to be a line or an image instead of a synopsis. It also tells you what they thought the story was before anyone shot it.
What did you have to learn how to do for this role?
Why ask it
Accents, instruments, driving a particular vehicle, handling a scalpel. Practical preparation produces concrete answers and usually a story about failing at it first.
Which scene took the most attempts before it worked?
Why ask it
Actors remember these precisely. The answer usually reveals something about the scene's construction that no reviewer noticed.
Was there anything on the page you argued about?
Why ask it
Invites disagreement without asking them to criticize anyone. If they say no to everything, ask instead what they asked to change, which is the same question with softer framing.
How much of the performance was decided in rehearsal, and how much on the day?
Why ask it
The ratio differs enormously between directors and between stage and screen. It is a question that gets a technical answer rather than a promotional one.
Was there one note from the director that changed how you played the whole part?
Why ask it
Asking for one note produces a quotable specific. It also shows how the direction actually reached the performance, which is the part audiences never see.
Whose work on set changed your performance in a way the audience will never notice?
Why ask it
Costume, hair, a camera operator, a dialect coach. Actors are usually glad to name them, and the answer opens up how collaborative the work really is.
What do you do in the ten minutes before a difficult scene?
Why ask it
The narrow time frame stops the answer becoming a general statement about process. Expect something small and practical: silence, a walk, music, a particular thought.
How do you put down a role that lives somewhere unpleasant?
Why ask it
Ask plainly and let them decide how far to go. Some describe a routine, some dismiss the premise entirely, and the disagreement between actors on this is itself interesting.
What happens to your process when the schedule changes at short notice?
Why ask it
Filming order is rarely story order and call sheets move. How they handle that shows the craft under pressure rather than in ideal conditions.
What was the audition or meeting for this like?
Why ask it
Casting stories are specific, often funny, and are the part of the industry readers understand least. Ask what they actually did in the room.
Is there a part you did not get that you still think about?
Why ask it
Most actors have one, and the answer is honest in a way that a question about successes cannot be. Let them decline without pressing.
How is your preparation different now from when you started?
Why ask it
Answers usually describe doing less: fewer notebooks, less backstory, more attention to the other actor. That change is a better window on craft than a description of method.
What does a good director do that a weak one does not?
Why ask it
Keeps it about practice rather than personalities. You typically get something precise about time management, or about being told what a scene is for.
How do you know when a take was good?
Why ask it
Actors disagree sharply here, and many say they are the worst judge of it. The answer often turns into how much they trust a director or an editor.
Is there a performance of yours you would like to do again?
Why ask it
This asks for self-criticism, so it needs to come late, after they trust the conversation. Refusing to answer is a fair answer and worth recording as one.
What has changed about getting cast in the last five years?
Why ask it
Self-taped auditions, streaming release patterns and shorter shoots have altered the working life of actors materially. Ask what changed for them, not for the industry.
What part of the job would surprise people who only see the finished thing?
Why ask it
Usually the waiting, the paperwork, the physical discomfort, or how little of the day is spent acting. It gives you the texture that reviews leave out.
What kind of work do you want that nobody is offering you?
Why ask it
More revealing than asking about a dream role, because it points at how they are being typecast and what they think they are not being trusted with.
What question do you get in every interview that you wish people would drop?
Why ask it
A good closer. It gives you something for the piece and it tells you which of your own questions landed as routine.
Interviewing an Actor Well
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Preparation and Approach
Watch the work, and watch one scene twice
Nothing changes an actor's engagement faster than a question about a specific choice in a specific scene. It proves you did the work and it is the fastest way out of the press-kit answers.
Find out how long you have
A junket slot may be seven minutes with a publicist counting. Plan two questions for that, not ten, and put the one you most want at the front.
Ask about process rather than meaning
Actors are often unwilling to explain what a film means and happy to explain how a scene was built. The second produces better copy anyway.
Check what you may not ask
There may be spoiler embargoes or an agreement about a subject. Establish that in advance so you do not spend your slot on a question that gets refused.
What Goes Wrong
Asking them to describe the plot
They will do it, tediously, and you will lose two minutes. Summarize the premise yourself in the question and ask about something inside it.
Drifting into their private life
Relationships, family and appearance are the fastest way to close down an interview, and the answers are rarely worth the cost to the rest of it.
Filler questions
Dream roles, favorite genres and advice to beginners get recycled answers because they have been asked a hundred times. Cut them for something only this person can answer.
Comparing them to another actor
It reads as flattery or as insult and rarely produces anything usable. Ask about their own earlier work instead if you want a comparison.
Two Interview Shapes
A short promotional slot
- 1Open with the first thing in the script that made them want the part.
- 2Follow with one specific scene and how it was built.
- 3Ask what they had to learn how to do.
- 4Close with the question they wish interviewers would drop, which usually ends the slot warmly.
A longer profile conversation
- 1Start with practical preparation and rehearsal, which is easy ground.
- 2Move to the specifics of set: notes from the director, collaborators, the takes that failed.
- 3Then go to career shape: casting, the part they did not get, what nobody offers them.
- 4Leave self-criticism and the work they would redo until the end.