'Interview' review — influencer culture and internet celebrity are under the microscope in this tense two-hander

Read our review of new play Interview, starring Robert Sean Leonard and Paten Hughes, now in performances at Riverside Studios to 27 September.

Like a vintage bottle of wine, the premise of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh's 2003 movie – remade into an American hit by Steve Buscemi in 2007, and now into a stage play – matures nicely into our digital-first era where celebrities are taking back ownership of their stories from the press, influencers wield power, and content posted by individuals with large followings has the potential to gain more traction than that in national newspapers.

But while internet culture has further stoked the story’s yo-yoing power balance, adaptor-director Teunkie Van Der Sluijs does little to bring the two-hander’s characters into 2025, leaving them feeling like hangovers of Noughties archetypes: Pierre is a misogynistic, dismissive male journalist peeved at being sent to write a puff piece about Katya, a 28-year-old kittenish actress, who toys with men who enter her orbit.

Still, American film star Robert Sean Leonard and rising actress Paten Hughes bring a great crooked chemistry to Pierre and Katya. Neither has any interest in the other’s work, and both to some extent feel superior. Pierre is a scathing political reporter for fictional publication the New York Courier, fuming to be writing about an actress for the Sunday magazine and not to be in Washington DC covering the impeachment of the Vice President.

Though his character is initially unlikeable, Leonard paints a moving portrait of a man falling apart, frustrated at his fading professional relevance and traumatised both from his experiences as a war correspondent in Ukraine and his daughter’s battle with anorexia (an embellishment from Van Der Sluijs that aligns nicely with the sense of toxic social media culture). A terse call with his editor leaves him a crumpled, teary-eyed, deflated mess who’s easy to pity – until he snoops through and steals Katya's private files, reminding us he’ll snatch a story at any cost.

Van Der Sluijs’s Katya is equally crafty. She goes live online to her followers midway through the interview, informing Pierre this “collaboration” could bring his article an additional 20,000 readers. “I don’t make the rules, I just know how to play the game,” she comments shrewdly. Hughes embodies her part wholly, but she’s working with a two-dimensional, provocative imitation of femininity (I lost count of the number of times she lay back kicking her legs in the air) that amounts to a thin character.

What should have been a 25-minute interview runs over and crosses multiple lines as drinks are poured and secrets spilled. Watching both slot into their respective stereotypes, with Katya challenging Pierre to kiss her, and Pierre proving unable to resist, seems blandly disappointing today in a way it presumably wasn’t 20 years ago.

It also seems unlikely, in 2025, that Pierre would be interviewing Katya at night in her home – a space too intimate and personal when he’s come alone. Still, this static setting means it works well on stage. Derek McLane’s Brooklyn apartment set looks the part with exposed brick walls, an open-plan kitchen and a freestanding bathtub. Idontloveyouanymore’s video reinforces the power of internet celebrity: the vlogs, social media feeds and live recorded footage projected onto the back wall are all a reminder that the camera is in charge.

Interview offers plenty to chew over in our shifting media landscape. If only its characters could keep up too.

Interview is at Riverside Studios to 27 September.

Photo credit: Interview (Photos by Helen Murray)