I thought about the problem for a while, and then it became obvious what to do: use TelePrompTers in a way that they have never been used before. When you think of prompters, you always think about them in connection with text: a politician reading a speech, a news anchor reading copy. The idea is that he can be reading the text and looking into the lens and making eye contact with his audience. He can read the type across the lens of the camera while he's being videotaped at the same time.
When I used this thing the very first time [for 1997's Fast, Cheap & Out of Control], I thought, "This is risky. What if my subjects run out of the room screaming? What if this is just too damn weird?" But it worked perfectly from the very first interview. I did this film for the [2002] Academy Awards, and among the people I put on the Interrotron were Mikhail Gorbachev, Donald Trump, Iggy Pop, Walter Cronkite, and Al Sharpton. They were actually all in the same room at one time.
So far, the only person who has ever raised any objection about the Interrotron is [former Defense Secretary] Robert S. McNamara [the subject of The Fog of War]. He said, "What is this?" And I said, "It's my interviewing machine." And he said, "I don't care what it is, I don't like it." And then he relented and we spoke together for a total of 20-plus hours.
My production designer has said the beauty of the Interrotron is that it allows people to do what they do best: watch TV. I say it's much better, because it's the TV that wants to find out more about you. It's the TV that cares.
