What I Learned about Interviewing from 'Hot Ones'

I'm recording oral-history interviews for my dissertation, so I've been interested in how journalists craft their questions compared to how qualitative researchers do it.

Apparently Sean Evans, the host of the YouTube show Hot Ones, studied broadcast journalism. So I was interested his questions.

Also, it's quite an interesting interview environment... If you're not familiar, Hot Ones is an interview show where the interviewee eats progressively hotter chicken wings.

Here's what I noticed watching Hot Ones with Jake Gyllenhaal... and also a few caveats.

1) Make the interviewee take a position. It prompts the interviewee to dig deep. They can talk through their reasoning and their reflections.

One of Sean's first questions to Jake Gyllenhaal asks him to reflect on director Guy Richie's style: "Did you find [Richie's directing] to be more daunting, more challenging, or more liberating in a film that's otherwise so technical and intense?"

Jake Gyllenhaal recalls Guy Richie giving him a short script. Guy Richie even told him not to memorize his lines. Jake Gyllenhaal's answer brings us behind the scenes.

2) Ask the interviewee to describe a transformation. They then tell a story.

Jake Gyllenhaal drops a wing, but Sean keeps the show going: "Of all the characters you've played, which one did you say had the biggest transformation or evolution from the way that it was written into the script to what ultimately ended up materializing on screen?"

Jake Gyllenhaal remembers how he approached his character in Prisoners and what he decided to pull out of it. We might've seen the final product in the movie, but the question makes Jake guide us through his process as an actor.

But a few things...

First of all, it's Hot Ones! The guests know it might get ridiculous! The set-up is much more absurd than most of the interviews I do. Chicken wings make no part of my study. (Should I start using chicken wings as compensation for participants?)

Also, the guests are performers--actors, musicians, TV personalities. Part of their job is to give good interviews, so they rehearse in ways that the people I interview don't.