The Hardest Interview I've Ever Done!

The hardest interview I've ever done was with Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin. Here's the story:

NewMan magazine had been invited to a junket in Taiwan to do an exclusive interview with Corwin back in 2004. I had assigned my writer to do it, but his passport had expired, so I had to go with just a couple of days' notice.

PROBLEM WAS, it was at the height of the Bird Flu pandemic in Asia. And I was having a fever and a cough. So when I got on the flight and started coughing, people were looking at me worriedly. I spent the rest of the flight holding back my cough, which was torture.

Then we had to get down in Hong Kong. And they were doing a thermal scan. That's it, I thought. I was going to be stopped and quarantined here! As I passed the scanner, I saw the red light lit up!

But luckily, it was an elderly lady in front of me who was pulled aside. Phew! But still, the flight continued to be torture for me, as my fever got worse.

We got into Taipei slightly late, and my interview had been slated for that very afternoon. When I got to the Grand Hyatt hotel, I received a message that Jeff had already been waiting for me. So I just threw my things into the room, took out my tape recorder and notebook and went up to the suite where all the PRs and Jeff were waiting for me.

Out of breath, I started to interview him, while trying hard NOT to cough. My eyes were watery by then and the fever was getting worse. But we still sat there for over an hour and Jeff was just a really nice guy. if only he knew what I had gone through!

But what's he really like, you ask? I must say that unlike the hyper Ian Wright, Corwin was a pretty calm and quiet man. He answered my questions with a lot of thought and was polite and proper throughout the chat.

And for someone who spends most of his time in the deepest jungles imaginable, the dude looked pretty well-groomed. And he didn’t smell at all!

The next day though I got to see a different side of him. We took the same van to go to this café to launch his new program, and he turned out to be a cool dude after all. A big film fan, Corwin was spewing movie trivia throughout the entire trip with a few impersonations thrown in.

But I remember he was a bit fussy with his Starbucks coffee…

Excerpts of the interview from the March ’04 issue of NewMan magazine:

Do you have anything against the circus?

Yes, I do. I don’t have a problem with the concept of a circus. What I have a problem with is exploiting wildlife for entertainment. Especially when there’s a level of suffering for the animals. I don’t think monkeys should be on roller skates and orangutans shouldn’t be in human clothes.

What do you miss most when you’re deep in the jungles?

My family – my wife and seven-month-old baby daughter. But I travel with a great crew and we have a lot of fun too. We’re like family on the road.

What was your reaction when you found out that you were named one of People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People?

It was cool cos that took the subjects of nature and animals to the forefront. I’m not an actor or a movie star; I’m a biologist! And to make biology beautiful or sexy for a day was rather cool, but I think you have to keep things in perspective.

What sort of pets do you have at home?

I have a cat. And that’s it.