‘Our Favorite Interviews’ 2022: TV and movie staples make the cut
As another year winds down, it’s time to reflect on some of our favorite conversations with personalities during the past 12 months.
Judy Woodruff: Leaving the “PBS Newshour” anchor desk soon, the veteran journalist reflected on being saluted at the Daytime Emmy Awards with a lifetime achievement honor. “You can’t help but look back. I’ve been doing this for five decades, and how fortunate I’ve been. I just feel incredibly blessed to have had this front-row seat on what’s happening in our country and around the world.” (Bobbin)
Zoe Chao: The charming “The Afterparty” actress explained how she called on every tool in her performing tool kit for the Apple TV+ comedy. She also said it challenged her ability to keep her place in the series’ shifting timelines and perspectives. “I think it’s a reminder that we are all the center of our own story, but in everybody else’s we are – you know, we go from supporting cast to stranger. And that’s a really nice, I think, reminder of the human experience.” (Dickie)
Dame Julie Andrews: The legendary actress marveled at receiving the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award in a special shown on TNT and Turner Classic Movies. “It’s just stunning to me that (my career has) gone this long, and that I seem to have done so much over the years. I realized, ‘Wow, I really did work very hard for a while!’ I learned a lot from just watching others and picking up on things.” (Bobbin)
Jane Seymour: Always a generous interviewee, the star and executive producer of the Acorn TV dramedy “Harry Wild” mentioned that she found a new Irish vacation spot in the coastal city of Dorcey, near where the series filmed in Dublin. “It’s sort of the Malibu of Dublin, really, Dorcey. It’s just this tiny little fishing village. It’s lovely and the food there is exquisite, and the wine and the beer ... and everything is great.” (Dickie)
Jimmy Smits: The Brooklyn native and “NYPD Blue” alum is back in the policedrama genre with “East New York” on
CBS. “It’s the story of New York as a series of immigrant communities, a whole crosscultural thing. It’s a place I have such love for, but you can feel the deterioration that’s happened there.” (Bobbin)
Cooper Manning: The affable co-host of NBC’S “College Bowl” had much hubbub going on in his home when he conducted a late-summer Zoom interview supporting Season 2 of the quiz show, which forced him into an unorthodox location – an upstairs closet. “My kids won’t go back to school yet and so I was running around, I popped in here because it’s like mayhem downstairs. So I found the quietest spot I could find.” (Dickie)