Documentary examines David Frost’s ‘Warmth and Wit’ interview style of bygone era
Muhammad Ali was sitting knee-to-knee with David Frost, throwing verbal punches and sparring against racial integration, when he deployed a characteristic metaphor: A strong cup of coffee is black, and stirring in white milk dilutes it.
“Well, it tastes better,” Frost hit back, drawing some laughter from the audience and, if only for a moment, landing a blow on Ali.
The 1968 sit-down was the first of a dozen interviews between Frost and Ali that were captured in a new documentary series, “David Frost Vs,” shown and discussed at the National Press Club Headliners screening on Thursday, April 10.
It was the start of an unlikely lifelong friendship between the British journalist and legendary boxer that mirrored Frost’s intimate discussions with figures like Elton John, Jane Fonda, Yasser Arafat, and, of course, the famous interview with Richard Nixon.
“He held Ali to account there, but with a warmth and a wit that allowed things to keep on going,” Wilfred Frost, executive producer of the series and Frost’s son, said during a discussion after the screening.
“When you want to challenge someone, you can either do it by slamming them in the face and saying you're wrong, or you can kind of point out that they're wrong and let them come around to that point of view themselves,” Frost explained.
Frost, who obtained and mined an archive of more than 10,000 interviews conducted by his father, discovered poignant moments that contained striking parallels to today’s culture: racial tensions, social justice protests, U.S. political upheavaland violence in the Middle East.
His father’s interview style; described in the Ali episode as disarming, inquisitive, and caring; broke down walls that even the most guarded celebrities and politicians can hide behind, Frost said.
The access illuminated the soaring highs and the devastating lows. Frost conducted four interviews when Ali was banned from boxing, a more downtrodden and reserved version of him. Just a few years later, Frost held the only mic as Ali unleashed a fiery victor’s speech after upsetting George Foreman.
'Never sought confrontation for sake of confrontation'
Wilfred Frost, a broadcaster for Sky News, said his father’s critics often say he got too friendly with his subjects for an objective journalist. But it was David Frost’s genuine interest in all people — no matter how famous they were — that drove him.
“Dad would say, it's about opening them up, not closing them down,” Frost said. “Dad never sought confrontation for the sake of confrontation, which I think does happen quite a lot today. People make it about themselves, not about their guests.”
The evolution of the media world has made much of this interview style a relic, Frost said. There simply isn’t the time to develop an on-camera relationship with subjects as the 90-minute interview show format has shrunk to a few minutes, with pressure from bosses and viewers to grab short soundbites to share online.
And what was once a television market of just a few evening programs has proliferated into 24/7 news channels, podcasts, and YouTube shows, many of which are filtered through a partisan lens and designed for outrage, he said.
“I just try to resist it at every turn,” Frost said. “I'll be happy if I'm judged, over the course of this year or this decade, when I'll prove that I push back, even if I don't immediately now, because I want to let the answer breathe.”