Image: John Hanrahan and Roger Moore
Jay Houhlias
John Hanrahan went from growing up on a sheep and cattle property to sitting opposite some of the world’s biggest movie stars, asking questions we were all longing to know the answers to.
Throughout his career, John has interviewed some huge names – Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren, Sean Connery, Mel Gibson and Barbra Streisand just to name a few. Each year, he would accumulate anywhere between 120-130 interviews with actors, actresses, producers, and directors. He says, “I found that most actors are quite shy people – but, of course, they spend their lives pretending, professionally, to be someone they’re not. You’re often poking into their private lives and psyches, so I always ensured I treated them with respect, just like anyone, but they too have foibles, and occasionally more so than everyone else. I had my share of alcohol infused interviews and rude stars with overblown egos.”
One of John’s favourite interview experiences was a hilarious run in with Christopher Reeve, who opened the door “barefoot and with a glass of wine.”
John recounted his experience to Sydney Observer:
“Warner Brothers and Roadshow offered me the chance to fly to New York and interview Christopher Reeve. It was just after he’d done the first Superman. Everything was organised, I arrived in New York and got a taxi to the address with my TV cameraman. I met the Warner Brothers PR person, and we headed upstairs to Christopher’s room. I knocked on the door, and Christopher opens, unshaven, hair askew, trousers rolled up to his knees, and in bare feet and holding a glass of wine.
The PR person then says, ‘oh my god, Chris, I’m so sorry, I forgot to ring you to remind you about the interview!’
He was so cool though, he just said, ‘yeah no trouble, let me freshen up. Give me 15 minutes and come back up.’
So we went down and came back up 15 minutes later, and he was great. He was an absolute gentleman, down to earth, no complaints or qualms at all. He was utterly professional and a really charming guy. It was such unique situation, and he handled it so well and with such distinction.”
John’s current project is a YouTube channel where he plans to bring many of his years of fascinating interviews together. The channel, which already has more than 30 video and audio interviews published, is called ‘John Hanrahan’s Movie Star Interviews’. (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4CaGCJq4ENrC_J-ia4P_VA/videos)
We can definitely say that there will be no shortage of material for John!
