Whether you like or hate celebrities, or simply don’t care about them, one thing will always be true…
Celebrities are considered to be at the top of the social food chain, especially with the online following they have.
But should you talk about celebrities in conversations? Wouldn’t that make the conversation a shallow, boring one?
The surprising answer is yes. Here’s what Daniel Kruger, a University Of Michigan psychologist said:
“One is just learning what high-status individuals do so you might more effectively become one, and two, it’s basically political. Knowing what is going on with high-status individuals, you’d be better able to navigate the social scene.”
That’s why celebrities are great conversation fodder no matter where you go.
In this article, I will share a list of celebrity-related conversation starters and questions to help you spark conversations and keep conversations going.
Your favorite celebrity
- Who was your favorite celebrity as a kid?
- Who’s your favorite celebrity and why? (Note: you could specify further by asking about their favorite actor, singer, etc.)
- Which celebrity do you no longer admire?
- Who’s your non-celebrity role model?
- Who do you look up to in your career/life? How have they influenced you?
- If you bumped into your favorite celebrity, what would be the first thing you say?
- In your culture, is there a celebrity that more people should know about?
- In your niche, who’s the celebrity that everyone quotes?
The upside and downside of fame
- Would you ever want to be famous? Why?
- What would you want to be famous for?
- Would you rather be famous or happy?
- Would you rather be rich but unknown or famous but poor?
- Would you rather have a million fans or ten people who love you?
- Would you rather have one year of worldwide fame or ten years of countrywide fame?
- If you could be any celebrity for a day, who would it be? What would you do?
- If you were a celebrity, how would you live your life differently? What would be the first thing you do?
- How would fame change who you are as a person?
- How would your fame change your family and friends?
- How would your fame change who you befriend/date?
- What would you hate about being famous? (Here’s what celebrities say.)
- If you were a celebrity, how would you deal with hate comments?
The influence of celebrities
- Why do people worship celebrities? Is that good or bad?
- What does celebrity worship say about our society?
- Which celebrity has used their fame for good?
- Do celebrities have a responsibility to be role models? Why or why not?
- Who’s the most overrated celebrity?
- What would you use your fame for?
- If you were a celebrity, what cause would you support and why?
- Have you ever bought something because of a celebrity endorsement?
- Fill in the blanks: The best celebrity to endorse <product> is <celebrity name> because <reason>
- Celebrities dating fans – OK or eww?
- If you were a celebrity, would you ever date your fan?
- How might you misuse your fame, if no one would find out?
- Would you ever date a celebrity? Why or why not?
Questions to ask your fav celebrity
OK, let’s just say you had the honor to interview your favorite celebrity. What would you ask them? And how could you make them go “wow, that’s a great question”?
Based on my experience interviewing successful CEOs and experts, here’s a list of questions I brainstormed and sourced:
- How did you become who you are today?
- Who’s your celebrity?
- What’s something that you wish more people knew about you?
- What do people misunderstand about you? What would you say to them?
- What’s your greatest struggle?
- What’s the one message you want to share with the world before you die?
- If you could change careers for a day, what would you want to do?
- What’s one question that you wished you were asked? (h/t: Dennis Yu, CEO of Blitzmetrics)
Note: these questions won’t ever replace pre-interview research. It’s through research that you discover important moments in the celebrity’s career and life that are worth going deeper into.
Here’s what Jeremy Weisz, a top interviewer, said:
“When I had the founder of Atari on [my podcast], I had learned that when he was Steve Jobs’ mentor, Steve offered him 33 percent of Apple for 50k and he turned it down… So I asked one question: Why?
The point is, I did deep research, which allowed me to find a past moment that I was curious about and ask them about that…what’s a lesson they learned or anything they’d do differently”
When and how to use these questions
- Ask one question at a time. Gauge their response before going deeper. If they seem disinterested in the topic, switch to something else instead.
- Balance between asking and talking. Make sure that you share your answer to the same question, or comment on their answer, so that the conversation doesn’t become an interrogation 🙂 I’ve been guilty of that.
Related article: 6 ways to keep a conversation going without asking too many questions
- Most importantly, modify the questions based on what feels most natural. Different people have different ways of saying the same thing, after all.
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