Celebrity recollections #3
In 2003, when I was on What DVD magazine, a publicist called and asked if I’d like to interview Sir David Attenborough. By that stage I’d been in the job the best part of a year and I thought I was beyond any kind of fanboy response, but suddenly my stomach was full of butterflies. I had grown up watching Attenborough’s award-winning documentaries on TV, and over the years he had become an intellectual hero of mine. What was dry and tedious material in another presenter’s hands became fascinating and compelling when the English naturalist delivered it with his trademark inflection. Did I want to interview him? Uh, yeah.
I was disappointed to discover it would be a phone interview (I had hoped to shake his hand) but I quickly got over that and began to prepare some questions.* Because of the time difference, I had to call him at 6pm. The studio’s publicist had given me an international number, and when I began to dial it, the office where I worked was almost empty. The jitters flared again as the phone rang. Then Attenborough answered in those unmistakable tones and I was realising a dream few others ever would.
I soon wished I hadn’t.
Throughout the interview he sounded out of patience, as if I was some sort of telemarketer who had called him during breakfast and not the editor of Australia’s leading DVD magazine. When I asked him, for instance, whether there were any moments that stood out in his distinguished career he replied sarcastically, “Well, somewhere between a million and a million and a quarter.” When I asked him why he thought he was so popular as a presenter, even among those who didn’t normally watch documentaries, he replied testily, “Doing it for so long.”
I was almost glad when I had enough to fill a page (and to be fair, the proper answers he did deign to provide were excellent). But despite the way he had spoken to me, I decided to be magnanimous and ended the interview with something like: “Thanks very much for your time, David, this has been a real pleasure.”
His response?
“Yes.”
And on that note, he hung up.
Now, I understand that celebrities get sick and tired of talking to the media. During a publicity tour, they often have to spend days or weeks answering the same questions over and over again (so I was always chuffed if one of them said to me, “Oh, that’s a good question” or “This was a good interview”). But that’s the nature of the beast, and if Sir David didn’t want to do it any more, I didn’t see why I should take the brunt.
There was an unexpected coda to this story. Two years later, I got to interview Attenborough again – this time in person. He was a little more personable face-to-face, but then he had to be, since there was also a publicist in the room. It didn’t matter anyway; my hero worship had died a few years earlier in a Bondi Junction office building.
* One question – which I believe my grandfather suggested I ask – was, “Is global warming real?” Attenborough’s response was a key reason I began to question the science behind climate change theory and eventually became a sceptic: “Well, if there is evidence of it I haven’t seen it.” Ironically, just a few years later, Attenborough was ‘toeing the party line’ with The Truth About Climate Change.