NPR Radio Interview Analysis

Meet ‘Glee’ Star Jane Lynch, TV’s New Queen of Mean
10-7-09 with Melissa Block, All Things Considered

Melissa Block, interviewer, began her show on All Things Considered with a great deal of information about the career of the star of ‘Glee’, Jane Lynch. With numerous television and movie appearances to draw from, Block painted a picture of the vivacious and dynamic character actor through a number of quotes, alongside sound bites, from the various well known works of her career.

Block asked questions that were far from serious, really very open ended, leaving plenty of room for much of the humor interjected by Lynch. As the interview went on, Block seemed to play into the character side of the discussion that Lynch was presenting by asking questions that prompted the interviewee to mirror her TV role from time to time with her responses. In contrast to the humor, Block also followed up with questions that framed the actor as professionally trained, illustrating the credibility of her talent. This attempt appeared to be a transition into the “meat” of the interview, leading the topic of discussion towards the path that brought Lynch to become such a successful actor. Even with this approach, there was room for laughter and elaboration from Lynch. Block’s efforts to follow up after questions consisted really of just reiterating her original question posed and then to tie it into the next question.

I think, if a strategy was in play, that Block was hoping to coax out some of the humor of the character; she succeeded. I don’t think that Lynch gave any inadequate answers; she worked very creatively with the questions asked of her. This made for a very comfortable relationship between the two women; they seemed to have at least been acquainted prior to the radio interview. I think this element, the relationship established, as well as the way in which the interviewer loosely corralled the discussion, allowing it to take its own, natural shape is what I found most useful for application in the interviewing process.

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