The New York Times - 06.08.2019

A2 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2019

This article was adapted from In Her Words, a Times newsletter on women, gender and

society. The interview has been lightly edited and condensed.

One of the perks of working in a place like

The Times is that you often find yourself in

the elevator with fascinating people: writ-

ers, editors, politicians, Jay-Z. Very quickly,

though, those elevator rides can result in

small-talk disaster — as our elevator sys-

tem is very, very slow. We decided to take

advantage of that time to bring you the

Elevator Interview, where we fire ques-

tions at a few of our favorite Times writers

and editors to find out how they get it

done. First up: Taffy Brodesser-Akner,

Times Magazine staff writer, celebrity

profiler extraordinaire and author of the

new book “Fleishman Is in Trouble.”

How do you start your mornings?

I start and end my day watching television.

I wish I could say something more inspir-

ing, but I have a ritual, where I wake up at

5:30 and incentivize my kids that if they

do, too, we can watch an episode of some-

thing. Then I go through the day knowing

I’ve spent quality time with my children.

It’s quality no matter what, but you can

also choose cultural artifacts like, say, the

Rocky movies, that have value currency to

them. And I’ve done something that is just

for myself, which is both spend morning

time that isn’t adversarial with my children

and watched something good.

Do you have a secret to getting inside your

subjects’ heads?

I think it’s as simple as good research, a lot

of thinking, really surrounding yourself in

the person’s output, and then the ability to

look at a person through the prism of hu-

manity and kindness. I also am a big be-

liever in taking control of a story, meaning

not just yielding to the quotes someone

gave me and putting them in some kind of

order. I think stories have character arcs

and beginnings and middles and ends — I

learned about how effective those things

are in film school. At its core, a good story

is a question asked in the beginning that’s

been satisfied to the end. If you find the

essential question of someone’s life, you

can usually determine the person’s answer

over the course of an interview. That’s all I

ever want out of a story.

When you sit down to write a story, do you

ever doubt that you’ve got what you need?

I have a crisis around every single story I

write — that I’ve lost an ability, that I’m

just flailing this time. A thing that helps me

but that will sound nuts is this: When I

was in film school in the ’90s, we talked a

lot about the hero on his, always his, jour-

ney, in the face of adversity. I learned how

to write a very fatuous script about what a

person does in moments of great stress. I

think if you look at every single moment of

adversity or self-doubt in your life and

imagine yourself as the hero of a ’90s

movie — a thriller, a rom-com, a satire,

whatever — it’s easy to answer the ques-

tion: What does the hero do next? You

figure that out and do it. It always amounts

to the same thing, which is to rise up and

do the hard thing anyway.

Do you have a bedtime ritual?

At the end of the day, I stagger into bed

very dramatically and watch something

then, as well. I try to remember to take my

makeup off. I do not compromise on brush-

ing my teeth and taking my contacts out. If

you set the bar of self-care very low, like

subterranean, all of it is achievable.

Inside The Times

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Times Magazine staff writer, starts her day watching television.

VINCENT TULLO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Profile Writer,

On Getting Inside Subjects’ Heads

To sign up for In Her Words, visit nytimes.com/

newsletters.

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Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief

executive,has earned a reputation

as a tenacious politician in her

nearly 40 years in government.

But her close ties with China’s

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