In The Spotlight:
A chat with Newshub’s Kate Rodger.
Kate Rodger is Newshub’s Entertainment Editor. Before the global pandemic she would often travel abroad for celebrity interviews. These days she is used to talking to overseas celebrities via video chats. Kate was born in Fiji and moved to New Zealand when she was five. She lives in Auckland with her partner Tristan, their eight-year-old son and Tristan’s daughter, 12.
How long have you been at Newshub/TV3/Three? Seventeen years. I kind of talked my way into a role and fleshed out a very strong movie aspect of it about 15 years ago so it’s been a long time. You think I would have grown out of it by now or been turfed out by now but I just love it too much.
How has Covid-19 affected your job?
Massively. Almost 90 per cent of my job had morphed itself into pretty much a job where I spent a huge amount of time in an aeroplane, because the interviews don’t come to me. So the content that I turn around – separate from my film reviews – is, of course, interviews with filmmakers, everyone from the big ones and the Meryl Streeps and the Angelinas and so forth to New Zealand filmmakers as well. But in order to get that international content, I have to fly to wherever it is. Sometimes it’s just Sydney but more often, it’s LA or bizarre places like Cairo and Berlin and a lot of London and American travel. So the minute Covid hit, that was it, I couldn’t get on an aeroplane.
Do you have any tips for a good Zoom interview?
I have to make sure, generally speaking, that I’ve got the room to myself, that I don’t have dirty laundry in the back of the shot. And also, I’m terrible at doing my own makeup. We have the most amazing makeup people at Three. So I resort to having a collection of spectacles that I put on, so you can’t tell that I haven’t done my eye makeup and I just wear a bright lip (colour). Even though people like to do it (Zoom call) in their undies
wearing a jacket, I tend to do them fully clothed, because you just never know what’s going to happen.
Of the celebrity interviews you’ve done, which was your toughest?
I tend to struggle a bit with the odd alpha male I suppose. I’ve interviewed Daniel Craig about four times and the first time I got to interview him was for Casino Royale which was directed by New Zealander Martin Campbell. Through that connection, I was able to get 40 minutes with him (Craig), which is absolutely unheard of for a film interview. It was in Australia, and he strode into the room in this three-piece beautiful suit. He was so alpha and so dominating. He was not giving me any oxygen or giving me a lot back. If we hadn’t had 40 minutes I never would have got anything out of him. But it took probably a good 15 minutes before he relaxed into it. He’s whipsmart. He’s actually a really clever and ridiculously talented guy. But he clearly wasn’t a fan of doing media. So it took us a long time to ease in and the last 20 minutes was fantastic.
You had your son at age 45. What is the best thing about being an older mum?
I just kept putting it off and putting it off until I realised I couldn’t have kids any more, until I accidentally did have one at 45. But I think I’m a much better parent because if I’d had a kid at 25... I was a terrible human being at 25. I was so self-absorbed and at 35 I was living in London being even more self-absorbed. So I think my lifetime of experience has made me a better mum. Our household now has a soon-to-be teenager, testosterone coming out of an eight year old and a 53-year-old woman in full-flight menopause and, by crikey, Tristan just circles the campfire wondering which fire he is going to put out next. So I don’t know the answer to that except that it is what it is and I love it.