Red carpet host Keltie Knight talked in frustration about the broken interview system at red carpet events in Hollywood. Despite investing so much in the event, she says reporters leave with barely any material to write about.
“The issue is we do a red carpet, say, from 5 to 6 p.m. If you show up at 5 p.m., you’re a loser. The most famous person comes last,” Knight claimed at an interview with The Cutting Room Floor.
“We have paid large amounts of money—we hired a sound guy, a lighting guy, and a camera guy. We hired glam for me, wardrobe for me, and we hired me. There’s a lot invested,” she explained. Because unlike other reporters, red carpet hosts have to match the air of the event. Their wardrobe has to be worthy of the Emmys or Grammys, and there is so much to consider in preparation for these events.
“The first people that come are like the ninth cheerleader from the right on Glee and are still making it happen,” Knight said of the people coming early to the red carpet events. To put it nicely, these are people who have yet to make a significant dent in the industry.
“TikTok stars who are not in the movie but have the same publicist as someone. At 5:15, maybe some of the Dancing with the Stars kids come. Some of the Mormon wives show up. It’s like 5:30, and you’re like, ‘Where are stars?””
Stars arrive at the last minute
She continues, “All of a sudden, it’s 5:45, stars arrive, and they start doing photos. It’s now 6 o’clock, and we have not started doing interviews. We gotta promote this movie, so Star A and Star B come, and they start at Entertainment Tonight.” Knight explained that there is a queue, and the big-name outlets come first—Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, and then up until there’s no time left for further interviews.
When the stars are pulled in for the movie premiere, whoever’s left in line can no longer ask questions. Knight explains, “So now, you have 30 outlets that have spent all of this money, and these are websites that are struggling—these are media outlets that are struggling, and there is no surprise that everyone from Vogue all the way down is struggling in this economy.”
The death of red carpet interviews
With barely any questions an outlet can ask, how many articles can even be produced? And if there are any produced, how much substance can be squeezed out of four interviews? Knight gives an answer.
“I have friends that work for major publications—Elle and Glamour—and they’re like, ‘I got four interviews at the Golden Globes.’ You stood there for five hours, and you got four interviews? There’s not enough meat on the bone to even make the ad money back,” Knight said, clearly exasperated by the system.
She ends, “It’s deeply, deeply broken. We cannot support you unless you give us time. There will be no one left on the carpet because it’s expensive. It’s expensive to follow you around the world and do red-carpet content.”
Celebrities tend to promote movies on social media. Arguably, they likely attend at the last minute to avoid being overly exposed to the media crowd. But the reporters are on the scene mostly to ask about the movie premiere or the actor’s latest role—with enough time, even reporters could ask better questions on the carpet. But if they’re constantly being shuffled and every outlet is given a tight schedule to work with, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear dull questions and low-quality output.
Promotions are a two-way street, and celebrities are equally obliged to push the movie they recently starred in. But if the current system keeps up, red carpet interviews might actually disappear in this decade.
(featured image: Darya Sannikova)
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