On May 15th 2010, I met with Lake Montgomery and started a journey of twenty five interviews for the book ‘Amsterdam… The Essence’. The final one was with star of theatre and film, Halina Reijn.

So how do you go about arranging an interview with a Hollywood actress?

For me, the first priority has been to do everything in a professional manner. Let’s face it, people like Halina are asked for this stuff almost every day (after we met, she went directly to be interviewed by Linda magazine, a publication with around 1 Million readers). So I feel a high responsibility to get it right and make the interviewee feel that they are involved with something serious.

Therefore Anique van der Hulst made the approach to her management, so that a professional Dutch voice is the first thing they hear from The Essence™. She called them and followed up with a summary of the book, plus the names of other people who have already been interviewed. This caught Halina’s attention in the first place – indeed, when I began to show her the book drafts, she said, “it looks interesting, that’s why I agreed to this interview.” Good work, Anique!

I also asked Joost van Manen to take pictures. He’s a fashion photographer with a speciality in portraits – an ideal combination of skills for this situation. Halina’s been photographed thousands of times before, so I felt having a guy who has taken portraits of Bruce Willis, Cameron Diaz and Frank Rijkaard would give an additional air of professionalism.

Joost also advised on the venue and suggested the Eye Film Institute in Vondelpark, next to the Vertigo café. Anique contacted them and arranged with the press officer, Marnix van Dijk, to have one of the Cinemas exclusively for the duration of our interview. Marnix was incredibly helpful and the location was perfect.

We also checked out different locations in the building for the best way to make the time work for best for us. My priority is to have a relaxing environment for the interviewee and to ensure they can talk openly without worrying about passers-by. It’s also important for us to get some good shots of the two of us talking, so Joost again used his expertise to help set up the first part of the interview outside of the cinema. Getting there an hour early was worth every minute.

On occasion I’ve been pretty nervous when meeting some famous people for the book. But with everything in place and planned, as it was in this case, it’s easy for me to feel relaxed for the interview, which is also important.

Finally, the content of the meeting comes down to the talk we have about Amsterdam and their idea of the essence of the city. So I have to be alert and aware at every second, to make sure the subject is focused on Amsterdam as much as possible. I was not a professional interviewer when I began, but over the course of the last months I developed a way of drawing out their stories, and received some nice comments about the fact that the interviews are different to the usual questions they’re asked about.

Halina herself was fantastic. Her stories were great (you’ll be able to read them in 2011, when ‘Amsterdam… The Essence’ is published) and despite her Hollywood success in films like Valkyrie with Tom Cruise, she is very firmly grounded by the Amsterdam spirit. She co-operated on an extended photo shoot as Joost did his magic, and this interview was perhaps the easiest and highest quality of all the twenty-five.

And that’s hardly surprising, considering the professional preparation by The Essence™ team.

Current status

My agent is still in discussion with two publishers, both of who have specialism in design-oriented, unconventional travel books. These things take time and I am learning to be patient while those discussions go ahead. Meanwhile, I am engaging an editor and focusing on developing the manuscript, so that when the publishing contract comes, I’m ready!

I’ll keep you posted on further developments. In the meantime, follow the progress on Facebook here.