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When Ben Lyons set out on his career in producing he possibly never expected that he would one day come face to face with some of the world's most glamorous and famous people from the entertainment industry.But by landing a presenter job at E! Entertainment's Daily 10 in 2006 as their resident film expert Ben looked set to follow in his film critic father's footsteps.I caught up with Ben to discuss his producing past, his job at the Daily 10 and best and worst interviews.
You didn't begin your career hosting you have done producing in the past why did you make the switch?
I made the switch randomly somebody offered me a job and I was like who am I to turn it down, it was my first job after producing music videos and music television, it was at MTV and I had to interview Will Smith, Angelina Jolie and Jack Black it was like woah welcome to the business.I was young, twenty two years old or something, and it was like it's something that could be fun, give it a shot why not? And I realised that it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be and people thought I was decent at, besides my mother.Your dad was an NBC film critic do you get any criticism that you have got where you are today because of your connections?
Well you know it's funny people ask me that a lot 'Oh the only reason you have your job is because of your dad' and obviously a big part of why I got looked at in the first place is because of who my father was.But I think it's a doubled edged sword because eventually you have got to do the work yourself and people are looking at you to do a better, or as good a job, as he has done, and he has been in the business for thirty five years and done over ten thousand interviews, so if I showed up and expected to have the same type of career without putting in the work and effort it would be ridiculous.
The one who really raised the bar for both myself and my father was my grandfather. My grandfather Leonard Lyons wrote for the New York Post for forty years six days a week, before Blackberries, before the Internet and all that stuff, and he cover people like Frank Sinatra, Ernest Hemingway, Marlena Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe. These people were iconic figures, and not just actors, Pablo Picasso was a friend and Mark Segal stayed at my grandparents house during the world war II just because he could get kosher food.
So my dad had to grow up in the shadow of him and I've grown up in the shadow of both of them. But it's been great I'm so lucky to have a father, who is not only connected in the business, but supports me in whatever I want to do, if I wanted to go and be a dentist he would be as excited about me doing a root canal as he is me doing a sit down interview with Johnny Depp.
You joined the Daily 10 in 2006 how is all that going?
The Daily 10 is so much fun I can't speak highly enough about our three hosts and we have become like a really big family. And it's funny when we are on our set it feels like we are making a little college tea show, we are all friends and we are hanging out with the make-up guys and the crew guys and stuff, then we realise that oh wait a minute people actually watch this show around the world, I was walking down Oxford yesterday and somebody said 'Your the presenter from E!,' and I was like yes.
But the Daily 10 has changed my life on every level. I think that we are one of the only gossip themed shows that kind of approaches the stuff with a little bit of reverence, at the end of the day we are talking about movies, TV and music it's not that serious, a lot of the other presenters take it like they are reading the evening news and it's as important as what is going on in Iraq and Iran and it's really not.
I think the folks at the Daily 10 get it and they understand that this is fun it's pop culture, and what's cool is Catt, Sal, Debbie and myself too we are all fans of these people, and we really appreciate the access that we get to them and we get a big kick out watching each other geek out, Catt is a really big Johnny Depp fan so when she met him in Pirates she was all excited and we were excited for her. And I know it's really corny to say yeah we are like one big family and we get along but it really is the case, Sal is like my big brother.
Is Daily 10 where you expected to be when you began your career because you did intern at Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella Records?
I worked ay Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella records, talk about a crazy office environment, you are sitting there going on a fax run and all of a sudden Ja Rule walks in smoking weed like 'Hey Man' and you are like what the hell is going on. I used to run packages of weed to DMX, that was part of my job, every week I used to drop off a huge manila envelope that kind of smelled funny in the elevator.
But when I started at E! the Daily 10 wasn't even on the air yet, it hadn't been conceived, was doing little things here and there, for the Oscars or going to one of the countdown shows, then the show came about I just kind of ran with it. Who knows where it will take me, or what will do next, or how long I will do it but I'm doing it now.
It's literally changed my life on every level personally, financially, with my career, the relationships, the people I have gotten to meet, I was on a plane the other day and I was like I'm going to come up with a list of people that I have interviewed and it's ridiculous, I feel so lucky it's like everyone I have every been a fan of I have got to sit and talk too, it's strange if I go to see a movie and I haven't interviewed a person from it, and it's only been a year that I have been doing it. I have got to talk to all my heroes so I'm forever grateful to that show.
You also set up your own production company Ruff Sketch how did all that come about?
Well it came about from wanting to go out there and do so, so many times people are intimidated by the entertainment business and they say 'Oh I don't know how to get in I don't have a father who worked in the business for thirty years how can I do it?, and I think you know what? Just go out there and do it, everything starts with an idea.
I own the right to a few books that I hope to turn into movies one day. And my producing background has really helped me in front of the camera because I know what the producers mind is like in the edit room when they are cutting the pieces and stuff, because I sat in the edit room and cut pieces before.
I do not see myself on TV interviewing people for thirty five years like the big has I would like to fall being the scenes and do some producing and marketing and those behind the scenes of the entertainment business, because I find them just as interesting as doing the interviews.
You have interview plenty of celebrities who has been your best interview?
Well I was supposed to six minutes with Kanye West, and I'm a huge Kanye West fan before the last album, before he released, an album from my days at Def Jam when he was producing huge fan, and some times I get moment when I think God what if he's an ass hole and the interview doesn't go well how can I ever listen to this guys music again? The interview was supposed to be six minutes and it went for forty five, I was like a kid in a candy store. We just did Johnny Depp this afternoon it was absolutely fantastic really fun, easy to talk too.
Honestly lots of people say aren't these people ass holes or difficult? And really everyone is pretty cool you do your homework, you respect their privacy, you show that you know your films are passionate about films and everybody really responds. Cameron Diaz was a lot of fun, George Clooney is another one I have a really crazy story I was flying to New York to do an interview with George Clooney, never met him before never seen him or anything like that, I said 'Hi Mr Clooney I'm Ben Lyons from the Daily 10 I'm a big fan of your work' he goes 'Yeah yeah Ben I saw you the other night you were running around with the cast of 90210 that was a great piece' I was like get out of here George Clooney watches the show? The same thing happened with Mark Wahlberg, my screen name in high school was Dirk Diggler I'm a huge Mark Wahlberg fan, I sit down in the interview 'Mr Wahlberg big fan nice to meet you' he said 'Oh Ben great interview with Stallone last month I was watching the show your great' and I was like get out of here Mark Wahlberg knows who the fuck I am this is so weird. So those have been some of the highlights.
You know who has impressed me the most out of everyone I have interviewed? It was Daniel Radcliffe. Daniel Radcliffe is a special special kid. I visited the set of Harry Potter, it was the second set I had ever been on and it was my first time in London, and usually when we come to movie sets, in L.A at least, they are so familiar with having cameramen and presenters there that you spend forty minutes, you get your interview, and you leave. They had us on set for ten hours.
This kid is a forty five year old man trapped in an eighteen years old's body he is the most genuine, down to earth, real, honest kid that you will ever come across and a really talented, the fact that he can go to Equus and smaller movies in between the Potter's he is going to act for the rest of his career.
So at the time I was dating a girl and I brought her to London and she visited the set six to eight months later I'm doing the Harry Potter interviews and he goes 'Ben how is your lovely girlfriend doing?' He remembered my name, he remember I had a girlfriend I said 'Well sadly we are no longer seeing each other she is doing well though,' and he was like 'Oh come sit on uncle Danny's lap do you want to hug it out, do you want to have a cry about it?'
He was so cool, he was so fun and that's a kid like your like who is this little Harry Potter kid what is his deal you know? But he was more cool, calm and collected than any A-List movie star that I had ever seen introducing himself to every extra, every crew guy he was just one of the gang it was unbelievable you wouldn't believe that he is worth more money than you and I will ever see in our lives.
Who has been the worst interview there has got to have been somebody?
There's got to be somebody right? Do me a favour Jamie Foxx take the sunglasses off in the interview put the Blackberry down please come on, Jamie Foxx for me was disappointing. It's like dude take off the sunglasses you're indoors how can you even see me right now? I wonder how many pairs of sunglasses that guy has?
What was it like having Angelina Jolie flirt with you when you interviewed her for MTV?
Look at you doing the homework love it you know that was before a lot of the craziness with her and Brad Pitt started, I think she was filming Mr and Mrs Smith at the time. She was a movie star, she was an Oscar winner, she was a United Nations ambassador of Goodwill but she wasn't the most famous woman in the world like she is now. What I noticed about her is she is just a goth chick from the valley who woke up one day the most beautiful woman in the world and was almost uncomfortable in her own skin, she wore jeans and a sweater looked absolutely gorgeous, all she wanted to talk about was her kids and goth stuff and sex, I approached it very professionally lets talk about films blah blah blah.
But it would be interesting to sit down with her now, after three or four years now, and she has obviously lived a very different life and see how she would act a little bit differently. But that was my third interview I had ever done so I was like what did I get myself into.
And has an interview with someone ever changed your opinion of that person?
There have been certain actors that you didn't know what you were going to get out of them, you maybe didn't like the movie, but then they give you a great interview. There's a guy called Josh Duhamel, he was in Transformers and he is in a show called Las Vegas.
Yeah he is dating Fergie (Black Eyed Peas)
Yes he dates Fergie that's right. And I was like man who is this clown who is dating Fergie what is his deal you know? But not only did he give me a great interview and was really cool but he pulled aside an was like 'man you have got to tell me what was it like growing up with Jeffrey Lyons as you dad that sounds so cool' so I was telling him stories about my dad and he was loving it just as much as I was loving getting to interview him for Transformers, which was the biggest movie of the year, and I was like wow this guy isn't a deutsche bag he is a pretty cool dude, and it happens once in a while.
Catch Ben Lyons on The Daily 10 weekdays at 6.30pm only on E! Entertainment Television
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw