Celebrity journalist, Myra Ali, has interviewed top actors, models and chefs, from Zendaya to Michael B. Jordan. Myra is known for her empathetic, entertaining and venerable interviews. Myra also lives with a rare skin condition, ‘butterfly skin’ (epidermolysis bullosa), a life-threatening skin condition that causes her body to blister and tear.
Ryan Reynolds, Myra Ali and Samual L. Jackson
KEELY: Tell me about yourself and how you got started as a journalist.
LOOK: I was working with the Debra UK charity, a charity that helps people with epidermolysis bullosa, the skin condition I have. And in 2019 I was asked to interview a celebrity chef in London, for a charity campaign they were doing, while I was there, Nikki Holland’s actor Tom Holland’s mother was the photographer. After the event, she commented that I was very good at interviewing and asked me if she wanted to interview Tom Holland and Zendaya for the new Spider-Man movie, of course I said yes! That was my first press trip and it had a great response. After that I reached out to magazines and got to interview more A-list actors for the London Film Festival like Timothy Chalamet, Lily Rose Depp, then Marie Claire asked me to write an article for them about my state of health and my career since then. So it’s been non-stop.
KEELY: You live with a rare skin condition, what benefit do you think this lived experience brings to your work?
LOOK: My skin condition is very visible, most people think it’s burns, it’s a painful and unpredictable condition; however, the benefit it brings me in my work is that the actors trust me from the start, they know I’m not just looking for a story, it’s almost like there’s an instant trust between us and they can tell I’ve been through something so [celebrities] they are more willing to share their story with me. Also, most of the actors and publicists are happy to give me an interview, this happened recently in November where I was interviewing on the red carpet and Colin Farrell’s publicist had told all the journalists that he was not going to give any more interviews, but with me he said that he said that he will give you an interview. They took me to a separate place and I interviewed him, I felt very lucky.
KEELY: You’re outspoken about your mental health, what’s some advice you can give young aspiring journalists on how they can protect theirs as they navigate this complex career choice?
LOOK: Aspiring journalists should know that this is not an easy career, there is a lot of competition and a lot of rejections. You really have to have thick skin in this industry – to protect your mental health, it’s best to never take anything personally, rejections are a part of life. The key is to move on, and if so, someone says they can’t do something, think of other ways or strategies to get what they want. If you want something bad enough, it will happen.
KEELY: What are some of your favorite interviews?
LOOK: My favorite interviews have been with Tom Holland as he is always so nice and it always feels like talking to a friend. Colin Farrell was also a gem in my interview video, he’s so nice and really goes out of his way to put me at ease.
KEELY: What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about someone during an interview?
LOOK: That it doesn’t matter if you are famous or not, we all have a story and we are all on a journey to try and achieve certain goals. Even actors take a lot of hits and have to stand up, the media creates the illusion that they are separate from us, but in reality, when we look at someone’s story, we are very similar, the only difference is that they are on TV.
Jacob Batalon, Tom Holland, Myra Ali and Zendaya
KEELY: Anything and everything you’d like to add, no holding back!
LOOK: Being an entertainment journalist with a disability has certainly empowered me and I love my job, I love the fact that I am seen first as a journalist and then as someone with a skin condition, disability never defines you, in fact the disability can be an advantage. as ur makes you stand out as you will have an impact on the person you interview and the viewer watching, other non-disabled journalists do not have that advantage.
‘ This article may contain information published by third parties, some details of this article were extracted from the following source: news.google.com ‘
