Friday, 19 June 2009

My First Interview

I had my first interview this morning.

Really? Cool! Who with? Vogue?

No.

Marie Claire?

No.

The Daily Telegraph?

No. I don't fiddle with my taxes or expenses.

Hello?

Yes I'm here.

Hello the magazine!

No.

FHM?

Oh please!

Who then?

Southwark News.

South what?

No. Me neither. It's a local paper. Part of Heinz's grassroot (read free) PR around their new "invisible bottle" advert for ketchup in which I play a starring role.

Oohh. Did you get to sit in a posh hotel lobby?

No. It was a phone interview. Had a call from a girl at the Heinz press office this morning, apologising for the phone interview not taking place last night as scheduled (they were meant to call between 5 and 9pm... you'd think that was a big enough window...) and wondering if I was free "now." As she'd interrupted my American Accent practice session, I thought I might as well go through with it "now."

Two minutes later, my phone rang again. The journo was on a bus. And only had a few pence credit left on her mobile. (I'm not making this up.) So it had to be pretty quick. She asked me how long I'd lived in the area (a long time), how long I'd been acting (not very long), how I got the part (my agent was doing his job), where I was from (kept it vague - she said I sounded South African), and finally, what I contributed to Southwark as an area (council tax). Then she said thank you, good bye. I said thank you and good bye. And she hung up.

It was overwhelmingly anticlimatic really. Plus I have PMT and a mysterious crink in my neck so I wasn't at my most sociable. Could I possibly have made more out of it? No.

Still, the Heinz ad is getting huge coverage. I've had an editor I know contact me about it, ex-colleagues from my advertising days, the manager at my local Virgin Active gym, a total stranger in my Pilates class, my favourite yoga teacher George etc... I'm just hoping the casting directors are seeing it too and making a mental note to cast me in EVERYTHING from now on.

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