“The big get.” In media lingo, that means the interview with the person at the center of a big story.
Think Monica Lewinsky after her affair with then-president Clinton, or the actor Alec Baldwin after the cinematographer was shot and killed on the set of his movie. Or Britain’s Prince Andrew after his friend Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges.
Interviews like these can entail months of negotiations, calls, emails and meetings to persuade that person to go on the record. That is what happened in 2019, when BBC journalist Emily Maitlis sat down with Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, at Buckingham Palace.
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Then-BBC Newsnight booker Sam McAlister had spent almost a year talking to Prince Andrew’s private secretary and the prince himself. The result was an infamous interview in which Prince Andrew described Epstein’s actions as “unbecoming,” said thefinancier’s home was a “convenient place to stay” during a trip to New York, and said he had a condition that meant he couldn’t sweat.
The booking and the interview have now been dramatized in the new Netflix film Scoop, released this month. McAlister spoke with All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly about how she got the interview, and how she kept a poker face as the interview played out before her eyes.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.Interview highlights
Mary Louise Kelly:Sam McAlister:KellyMcAlisterAnd that moment is really where he’s [either] going to laugh, and he knows that we have integrity and trust and we’re honest with him, or he’s going to slam the door in our face. Now, luckily it was the former. But you never, ever know if someone’s going to say yes until you get that final call.
KellyMcAlisterKellyMcAlisterKelly:McAlister9(MDAyMjQ1NTA4MDEyMjU5MTk3OTdlZmMzMQ004))
