Savannah Guthrie said she usually doesn’t stress out when it comes to interviewing big stars and world leaders. However, the Today cohost revealed which major name recently made her the most “anxious.”
“I [recently] did one with Bill Gates, and there’s just a lot you could talk to him about, and we only have seven minutes. You don’t know what you’re going to get. You can have your plan, and then [it] runs right into a real human being,” Savannah, 53, told Us Weekly in an interview published on Wednesday, February 26.
The longtime broadcast journalist revealed she makes sure to do her homework ahead of any major one-on-one.
“I don’t get nervous when I sit down, and the lights come on and [it’s] ‘Let’s go.’ I do get anxious about big interviews,” she explained to the outlet. “If I have a really big one, my husband’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, steer clear.’ He’s sliding food under the door and I’ve got all my papers laid out.”
When it comes to getting her subjects to open up, Savannah has found politicians can be the most difficult.
“There are topics people want to talk about and some that they don’t. Any interview where I feel like they want to dodge [a question], that’s anxiety producing,” she shared. “I find myself in these confrontational moments a fair bit, especially with politicians. I myself am quite nonconfrontational. I don’t like it at all. But, in that moment, the job is more important. I’m here. I’m supposed to get the answer.”
Savannah has been hard at work delivering tough questions to some the most famous people in the world since becoming the cohost of Today in 2012, upon Ann Curry‘s exit. Prior to that, the former attorney joined the third hour of Today in June 2011.
The NBC star honed her skills at interviewing politicians after joining the network in 2007 as a legal analyst and White House correspondent before making the move to the legendary morning show.
Besides being anxious about interviewing Bill Gates, the members Duran Duran caused Savannah to completely blank out when they appeared on Today in 2015. The guys had a brief chat with the Australia native before performing several of their classic hits along with a new tune from their album Paper Gods.
“OK, I’m flustered!” Savannah admitted as she stood on the stage with lead singer Simon Le Bon and the rest of the ’80s heartthrobs. Simon, 66, declared, “It’s amazing that a band in its 35th year can do this.”
“It’s crazy because once you’re there, you can’t even honestly summon the feelings that you would’ve had if you had told your 12-year-old self,” Savannah gushed to Entertainment Tonight at the 2022 Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame Awards about how she felt meeting the members of Duran Duran.
“You did,” then-Today cohost Hoda Kotb chimed in. “You geeked out.”
“I would be like a puddle on the floor. I was kind of a puddle,” Savannah added about how nervous she was to meet the “Hungry Like the Wolf” icons after growing up being such a huge fan.
