The Top 10 interviews Adam recently watched

And an ad from today and 40 years ago

Jan 03, 2025

You may know Adam Harrison Levy for this Ride Along column in our papers, but today he is doing something a bit different during this less-trafficked holiday week.

We asked our writers to give us Top 10 lists. He decided to give us the Top 10 short interviews he’s watched lately.

Here they are:

My Top 10 Recently Viewed Interviewss

By Adam Harrison Levy
Journal & Press

Dear Readers,

What follows is a list of ten interviews that make for eclectic viewing -- some humorous, some political, and some cultural. Browse at will and find one or two that might cut through long Christmas movies, loaded family conversations, or scrolling on TikTok or Instagram.

These are not the best interviews, or the most influential, but what I've been looking at recently, two of which were inspired by current movies about Maria Callas and Bob Dylan.

These interviews are, on the whole, historical - from the 50s, the 60s, 70s and 80s and just a few later. That is how the dice fell (perhaps a nostalgic turn of mind as we hurtle into an unknown future) but not planned.

If you have any suggestions for interviews that made an impact on you, please send your suggestions to the editor at editor@journalandpress.com.

Frost / Nixon, 1977

In this interview (this is an edited excerpt from the Nixon Library) Nixon comes as close as he could to admitting his culpability in the Watergate scandal. His careful choice of words seems quaint by today's barroom standards. Wait for the end when he uses the astonishing Shakesperean metaphor of the sword.

Brad Pitt / Zach Galifianakis Between Two Ferns, 2014

Brad Pitt probably knew that he would be skewered but you can tell a lot of this episode is spontaneous. This is the best use of chewing gum for laughs during any interview I've ever seen.

James Baldwin / Nikki Giovanni, Soul, 1978

For an in-depth and sophisticated conversation about race and identity, it doesn't get any better than this. Baldwin is astonishingly articulate and moving. The young poet Giovanni is admiring and a wonderful listener. It's beautifully filmed as well.

Andy Kaufman / David Letterman, 1980

This is one of the most uncomfortable talk show performances I've ever seen. Is Kaufman acting? Or is he genuinely down on his luck and having a breakdown? He turns the normally upbeat television format on its head. The end of the interview, when he panhandles in the audience, is both pathetic and hilarious.

Jack Nicholson answers a phone call from Anjelica Huston, 1982

Nicholson is so suave and so wicked when the phone rings in the middle of the interview.

John Ford/Peter Bogdanovich, 1971

Even for those of you who don't know or care for John Ford's Westerns (Stagecoach, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) this interview is an example of an epic fail. Ford replies to Bogdanovitch's questions with hilariously curt one-sentence replies.

Tom Cruise/Oprah Winfrey, Oprah Winfrey Show, 2005

Cruise is famously unhinged during this interview, he gets down on his knees in front of Winfrey and jumps up on the couch like an overexcited dog. He had recently fallen in love with Katie Holmes (or so they say, it looks to me like he's on some substance besides hormones).

Maria Callas / Edward R. Murrow, Person to Person, 1958

Murrow interviewed an impressive number of famous people in the late 1950s on his program Person to Person including Duke Ellington and Harry Truman but I went back to watch this interview with Maria Callas after seeing the recent film Maria starring Angelina Jolie. Murrow probes Callas for being "temperamental" but she doesn't fall for the bait and keeps up an elegant exterior. Her most memorable revelation is that she shops for clothes in Europe but prefers American undergarments.

Bob Dylan sketches his BBC interviewer while being interviewed, 1986

Brilliant! Dylan subverts the power dynamic of this interview by drawing the interviewer during the interview. The interviewer stumbles and fawns and can't get traction while Dylan subtly plays with him while giving absolutely nothing away. Another interview choice by the release of a new movie, A Complete Unknown.

Jeremy Paxman/Michael Howard, BBC Newsnight, 1997

The politics of this interview are not essential to know, except that Michael Howard was starting a campaign to run for Prime Minister of England. What is essential is to witness how Paxman, at the end of the interview (wait for it!) nails Howard's evasions with a series of 12 repeated questions. No American politician could stomach such a grilling, and no current American journalist would have such polite but ruthless persistence. After this interview, Howard dropped out of the race.

Adam Harrison Levy is a freelance author and journalist (The Guardian, BBC). He teaches writing at the School of Visual Arts and offers workshops and private lessons in Salem, NY.