Famous journalist Myra Ali has interviewed famous actors, models and chefs, from Zendaya to Michael B. Jordan. Myra is known for her empathetic, entertaining and venerable interviews. Myra lives with a rare skin condition, “butterfly skin” (epidermolysis bullosa), a life-threatening skin condition that causes blisters and tears on her body.
KEELY: Tell me about yourself and how you became a journalist.
MYRA: I was involved in the charity Debra U. K. , a charity that helps other people with epidermolysis bullosa, the skin disease 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, the mother of Nikki Holland actor Tom Holland was the photographer. After the event, he commented that I was smart in the interviews and asked me if I wanted to interview Tom Holland and Zendaya for the new Spider-Man. Movie, of course, I said yes! It was my first press conference and received a massive response. After that, I got in touch with magazines and was able to interview the most sensible actors for the London Film Festival, such as Timothy Chalamet, Lily Rose. Depp, and then Marie Claire asked me to write an article for them about my fitness and my career, since then it hasn’t been very sensible.
KEELY: You live with a rare skin condition, what advantages do you think this experience brings to your work?
MYRA: My skin problem is very visible, most people think it’s a burn, it’s a painful and unpredictable condition. However, the merit it brings me in my paintings is that the actors accept as truth with me from the beginning, they know that I am not just looking for a story. It’s almost like there’s instant acceptance between us and they can tell I’ve been through something, so [celebrities] are more willing to share their story with me. Also, the top actors and publicists are happy to give me an interview, it happened recently in November when I was interviewing on the red carpet and Colin Farrell’s publicist had told all the reporters that she wouldn’t give any more interviews with me yet, she said he had said he was going to give you an interview. They took me to a separate position and I interviewed him, I felt very lucky.
KEELY: You communicate blatantly about your intellectual health, what advice would you give to aspiring young news hounds on how they can do that while navigating this complex career choice?
MYRA: Aspiring journalists want to know that this is not a simple race, that there is a lot of festival and a lot of rejection. You want to have a difficult skin in this industry: to protect your sanity, it is more productive to never take personally, rejections are part of life. The most important thing is to move forward and if that’s the case, some say you can’t do anything, think of other tactics or methods to get what you want. If you want something bad enough, it will pass.
KEELY: What are some of your favorite interviews?
MYRA: My favorite interviews have been with Tom Holland because he’s great and I feel like I’m chatting with a friend. Make me feel comfortable.
KEELY: What’s the most unexpected thing you’ve learned about someone in an interview?
MYRA: That it doesn’t matter if you get noticed or not, we all have a story and we are all on an adventure with an eye on achieving certain goals. Even actors suffer a lot of setbacks and have to get up, the media creates the ghost that they are separate from us, but actually, when we take a look at someone’s story, we are very – the only difference is that they are on TV.
KEELY: Anything you want to add, moderation!
MYRA: Being a disabled entertainment journalist has definitely empowered me and I love my job. I like the fact that I am noticed first as a journalist and then as a user with a skin problem, disability never defines you, disability can in fact be a merit because it stands out because it will have an effect on the user who is interviewing and the viewer watching, other non-disabled hounds do not have this merit.