Nora Ephron: The Last Interview and Other Conversations

The Last Interview

by Nora Ephron

For fans of When Harry Met Sally and readers of I Feel Bad About My Neck comes an indispensable collection of wit and wisdom from the late, great writer-filmmaker

A hilarious and revealing look at one of America’s most beloved screenwriters. From the beginning of her career as a young journalist to her final interview—a warm, wise, heartbreaking reflection originally published in the Believer— this is a sparkling look at the life and work of a great talent.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Humor, Writing, Memoir, Biography, Biography Memoir

96 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2015

About the author

Nora Ephron was an American journalist, film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, and blogger.

She was best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in Seattle. She sometimes wrote with her sister, Delia Ephron.

Reviews

[Glenn Sumi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been on a bit of a Nora Ephron kick lately. I read two of her early essay collections – Crazy Salad and Scribble Scribble – back to back, finding in her wit, wisdom and unmistakable voice much needed comfort during this strange, strange time.

This e-book collects four interviews with the writer/director, who died in 2012. The first is from 1974; the others are from 2007, 2010 and 2012. It's a shame there's a gap of 33 years (!) between the first and second interviews. I would love to have read something, say, after Ephron had published her roman a clef, Heartburn, in 1983, the same year the movie Silkwood, for which she wrote the screenplay (and got the first of three Oscar nominations), came out. Or something from 1989, the year the iconic When Harry Met Sally..., which she penned, was released.

Of course, Ephron talks about all of these things in the 2000s interviews, as well as her first two marriages (to journalists), moving on from journalism to screenwriting to directing, and the challenges women face in all three of these jobs. There's also lots about her family, including her alcoholic mother, who was herself a successful screenwriter.

Ephron's personality comes through clearly in the Q&As. In one exchange, she corrects an interviewer a few times, telling him that Tom Hanks, for instance, never did stand-up comedy, or that she never described herself as a "radical feminist" ("I'm a feminist but never a radical feminist, to the best of my memory"), forcing the journalist to say, sheepishly, "Every time I quote something you said in the past I seem to get it a little wrong."

One of my favourite passages comes from the 1974 interview, where Ephron explains her writing process, which entails continually rewriting the earlier sections until she gets through transitions and to the end. She also compares how her work in journalism prepared her for writing screenplays. She made me think about blogging in a new way. There's even a very simple turkey recipe in the book that one day I may try. And I have an added admiration for actor Tom Hanks after reading something Ephron says about one of his contributions to Sleepless In Seattle.

Many of the later interviews deal with mortality – losing friends, chronicling the decline of her body. What's unspoken here is that, since 2006, Ephron had been living with leukemia, letting only her closest friends know. I'll finish by quoting her about the death of her best friend, which is a universal truth, simply but perfectly articulated:

It's just that she was my very best friend. And that's that. There's never going to be another one. The person you can really talk to about anything. The person who knows your kids, whom your kids love, think of as family, all the things that happen over the years and that's gone. It's an amazing loss and almost everybody my age has that, that hole, where there used to be somebody.

[Chelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one down on my quest to read as much of Nora's work as I can. This is a collection of four interviews given over the course of her career, and is interesting to see how she evolved over many years. In the beginning, there was a ton of sass and confidence, and toward the end of her life, she was calmer, laughed more, and was so humble. I love that Nora wasn't perfect. She had an edge, but she was passionate, open-hearted person I admire so much.

[Matt Chisling (MattyandtheBooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this all-too-brief collection of interviews, we the reader are blessed with some of Nora Ephron's finest outlooks on life. The Last Interview offers a conversation from each milestone of Ephron's career - journalist, filmmaker, and essayist, before ending with what was her last public interview.

You don't need this book to tell you that Ephron was a gifted storyteller and a prescient voice. But this collection of interviews expertly reminds the reader of how singular her voice and outlook was. Prior to her all-too-early death, Ephron seems hyper cognizant of her own mortality, even going so far as to publish an entire collection of essays about being in her final stage of life. That same warm awareness is present in this last interview (with Kathryn Borel for The Believer magazine), which left me feeling extra blue when I read it. In October 2020. Nora Ephron would've had so much to say about the world as it currently stands. Her outlook - likely to be acerbic, a little old-school, jovial, and possibly morbid - would've been a welcomed presence in this one world we have. Reading this collection made me miss her.

But would Nora Ephron want me to miss her? I'm no so sure. As this collection shows, Ephron didn't see herself as anywhere near as special as those who loved her did. Oh, sure, she thought she was talented and hardworking and deserving of her success. But special? I'm not sure. She would've been wrong of course. But you try disagreeing with Nora Ephron. :)

[Bree Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

“you have to write. And if you don’t have a job doing it, then you have to sit at home doing it.”

I’d been wanting to begin reading The Last Interviews and was extremely happy when I learned my local library had Nora’s.

I really appreciated the questions presented from each interviewer. It was a quick read and I adore Nora’s sense of humor!

[talia ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

in my nora ephron era <3

[Jaime]

"Borel: Have you noticed an evolution of how your ambition has been received? In the 1970s versus the '80s or '90s? I wonder if it was more punishing to be an ambitious woman in the 1970s, even though there are still myriad ways in which ambitious women are punished.

Ephron: Do you think it's ambitious women or successful women? I think you're very safe as an ambitious woman if you haven't succeeded." p 75

[Furrawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Material- just too short

Why not put every interview you can find and get permission to include??

What was there was fab. As Ephron might say, platonically fabulous.

She fedexed her favorite hotdogs from LA. Lol

Brilliant hilarious self-effacing sarcastic forthright a bit abrupt at times. Lovely. What a lovely woman. What a loss the world sustained when we lost her.

Seriously though, these books should be 500 pages or more. Gather EVERYTHING.

The interviews in this book are great. I learned a lot about Ephron and her writing process and how she thinks. I just wanted more. Sorry. I know. Broken record.

Just once more. This was too short. Needs to be longer.

[Katie Marquette · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems a *little* cheap counting this as a 'book read' when it was really a collection about five interviews, but it was insightful, witty, and thoroughly engaging. I love Nora Ephron's intelligence and charm, which comes through in droves in these essays. I admire her as a writer and she had plenty of great advice for aspiring journalists. Very honest.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

*hearts*
I read this book while standing in line to vote. I definitely teared up a bit. I miss Nora Ephron.

[Sahej Marwah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only because it's such an awful print. It's like playing crossword without the clues.

[Julianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I needed a slim book that wasn't going to ask too much of me. Done and done.

[Ynna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nora Ephron has remained untouched on my neverending list of feminist writers to explore and this was my first experience with her work. This book is simply a collection of interviews during Ephron's life in which she talks about her writing and career. There is some good advice peppered in these interviews. It's very short, an easy read, and now I want to read more Nora Ephron.

I think some people probably create a certain amount of uproar in their lives in order to have the next thing to write about.

[Lois R. Gross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a great fan of the late Nora Ephron, I anticipated this book differently. First, this is not only "the last interview", it is a collection of interviews that span the length of her career from New York Magazine writer to award-winning screen writer and director. You will learn more about her process than about her personal life, and for those who want to know the origins of "When Harry Met Sally" and "Sleepless in Seattle," this will be an enjoyable read. With her body of work, one would expect Ms. Ephron to be hyper-organized but, as she represents herself, she writes inspirationally and without formal outlines. Ephron touches on the inspiration of her alcoholic mother, screenwriter Phoebe Ephron, who expected rather than encouraged each of her daughters to have a career of note. She speaks to her supporters and mentors, husband Nick Palaggi, Mike Nichols, Tom Hanks, and sister Delia Ephron. While less humorous and revealing than one would expect (if you've followed her career, most of what is discussed is fairly old news), it does serve as a fond farewell to a pioneering feminist in journalism and cinema. A perfect companion to Ephron's collected works, published shortly after her death.

[Antonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a great fan of Nora Ephron, I couldn’t wait to read this. And I enjoyed every word. The book contains 4 interviews — from 1974, 2007, 2010, and 2012 (the last). The book is part of a (Last Interview) series from Melville House, and there are 15 titles (I think) so far. No big news here, but I love Ephron’s voice and copied out some of my favorite bits.

Sorry to say, there are only 84 pages, and 9 of those are title or blank pages. And the last two interviews are available online. That’s pretty disappointing, given the cover price of $15.95. Good grief!

[Chris L. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nora Ephron is a great interviewee and she has endlessly fascinating things to say about her and work. However, I have no idea why these particularly interviews were chosen, and why more contextual information was not given. If you're a Nora Ephron fan, there's nothing here that you can't find anywhere else.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last Interview compiles a selection of interviews with prominent figures. I can't remember how I first came across the series but I decided to give the series a shot, starting off with Nora Ephron. To be honest, although I absolutely adore You've Got Mail and enjoyed When Harry Met Sally, I'm not super familiar with Ephron and her body of work. But Ephron is smart as hell and funny and this collection of 4 interviews - Nice to See Nora Ephron Happy in Her Work (Michael S Lasky, Writer's Digest, April 1974); Feminist with a Funny Bone (Patrick McGilligan, Backstory 5: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1990s, June 2007); "I Remember Nothing": Nora Ephron on Life, Death and Hot Dogs (Kerry Lauerman, Salon, Nov 2010); and The Last Interview (Kathryn Borel, The Believer, March 2012) - was a joy to read.

I didn't know, for instance, that Ephron started off as a journalist and was, in fact, "one of the leading voices of New Journalism". Her first job out of college was being a copy girl and articles clipper at Newsweek, before landing a gig with the New York Post and then becoming a full-time freelancer. The 1974 article with Michael Lasky discusses Ephron's career as a writer and her writing process but includes such pithy observations:

"Being single is a distraction. I mean one of the things about marriage that is good for both men and women is that it frees you from all that energy that you use to put into dating. You can put it into work. You don't have to worry about who is going to take you to the dinner party tomorrow. It takes time to be single, it seems to me."

And Ephron recounting how she learned about identifying the lead of a story:
"I had this fantastic high school journalism teacher…the first day in the class we were learning to write leads. So he dictated this set of facts: "The principal of Beverly Hills High School announced today that the faculty will travel to Fresno on Thursday for a seminar on the new mathematics. Speaking there will be Edward Teller, Albert Einstein, and…oh Margaret Mead." So we all sat and wrote these leads and sounded almost exactly like what I just said. And we turned them in and he stood up and said, "The lead to this story is 'There will be no school Thursday.'" There was moment of the lightbulb going off in your head and I thought to myself, "Ohmigod, it's about the point!" Ever since then I am always sure that I am missing the point."

Or on opinion pieces being presumptuous in assuming readers are going to care about the writer's opinion:
"You better make them care about what you think. It had better be quirky or perverse or thoughtful enough so that you hit some chord in them. Otherwise it doesn't work. I mean, we've all read pieces where we though, "Oh, who gives a damn."

Ephron subsequently started writing for film, then directing; her first screenplay was Silkwood, which garnered an Oscar nomination in 1983 and she garnered her second nomination for her 1989 mega hit When Harry Met Sally. Her 2007 email interview with Patrick McGilligan discusses her approach to scriptwriting. Ephron notes that she never wanted to be in the movie business growing up but always wanted to be a journalist. And it was her journalist training that helped her write scripts - writing about many different things taught her things about many issues, and she also learned about structuring pieces to have a Beginning, Middle and End, which is what a screenplay also requires.

Ephron delves a fair bit into the process of making When Harry Met Sally, including what Tom Hanks taught her:
" Tom felt that his part was underwritten - which it was, by the way, and he didn't commit until he and I and Delia [Ephron] had spent quite a lot of time together going scene by scene through the script…what I learned from Tom was a thing that's really important, which is that scene after scene, you have to give the main actor something to play, he can never be passive in the scene, etc, even (or especially) when he's sharing it with a very cute little boy." I felt a great urge to rewatch When Harry Met Sally after reading this interview.

In her 2010 interview with Kerry Lauerman and 2012 interview with Kathryn Borel, Ephron reflects on her life, including this observation on feeling younger than one's physical age:
"it's one of those things that young people don't understand, that old people feel as if they're still young except in certain ways, which are all too horrible. Like the fact that you simply physically aren't what you used to be. But you really are the same person as you always were. And much wiser and yet not. But younger people have no sense at all about older people. None. No imagination at all."

And on just doing whatever it took to get the job done, using her life - her disappointments, her pain and anguish - as material for writing:

"I've had friends who occasionally call and say, "I'm blocked!" And I've said, "Well, how are you going to pay the rent?" To me it was so obvious, you just had to work through it"

This was a brilliant collection of interviews; they gave a good feel of Ephron's personality and wit and were a thoroughly enjoyable read. And after reading this collection of interviews, I'm adding Heartburn, Wallflower at the Orgy and Ephron's Esquire piece on breasts to my to-read list.

[Juan Camilo Velandia Quijano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nora Ephron was, is, and will always be amazing. Having said that, to read her witty answers to a couple of interviews is always a pleasure. Just as her writings, whether articles or films, her sense of humor is always present. It's a joy to have the transcription of fabulous interviews where she talks about being a journalist, a screenwriter and a movie director. Her career was fabulous, her life was amazing, and this book is a little proof of it.

[Lori Maxfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Nora Ephron so it was fun to read this very short book of interviews she has done over the years. Interesting because the various interviews were spaced out over her entire career, the earliest being conducted in the 70's, and the latest being the year she died. In any case, reading her actual books is much better then these interviews, but this was a fun addendum to read for the Nora Ephron fan.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe 3.5, rounding up. A compilation of interviews with Ephron at different parts of her life. I was looking for another book that my library doesn't have and landed on this one. In the last she was a few months from hospitalization and death. It's sweet to read her voice from the 70s. She's so abrupt.

[Staisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐️ - I found this collection of interviews to be really fascinating. Reading about Nora’s career from the beginning and then the end in a more casual conversation style was so interesting. I’ve never really thought about the writing process before so I enjoyed her explanation of how she writes. Her success over a 50+ year career is a clear testament to how truly talented she was.

[Kylie Combs · Rating 5 out of 5]

God, I just love Nora Ephron... This is such an interesting series, and offered even more than I expected. Really glad I found this one and that it exists, even tho I wish she were still here even more.

[Rosie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last interview in the book was my favorite. In defense of Nora, I don't think the interviewers asked the right questions, maybe there was just no chemistry? But she gave EXCELLENT advice for aspiring writers & it made me want to read her essays.

[Marilyn Boyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a fan of a lot of Ephron’s work, but hadn’t read these interviews before. They give greater insight into the context of her work and some of the writers and editors around her. It’s a quick read , but I dipped in and out over the ten days - no problem getting lost!!

[Danielle McClellan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice to go back and hear Norah Ephron’s matter of fact take on life. I love these last interview collections. This spans Ephron s life. The clear ways in which she remained the same person at 70 as she was at 35, and the differences.

[Mira · Rating 4 out of 5]

At some point Nora says (in relation to founding her voice) that she doesn’t think anyone would ever look at her writing and say ‘No one could have written that but her!’ And on that point I’ll have to, most passionately, disagree.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick little book that gave a nice glimpse into Ephron's outlook on life and general personality. I would have wanted more, but enjoyed seeing the conversational side of her.

[Camille Maio · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned some interesting writing tips from Nora Ephron in these interviews, but there was nothing that made it particularly memorable.

[Quynh Le · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aspiring writers, go pick up this one and learn from the great. The woman had done it all and done it well, journalism reporting, essaying, screenwriting, directing...

[Leah NYC · Rating 4 out of 5]

The interviews ranged in quality, but her final interview is definitely worth reading.

[Cindi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned nothing new in this book of interviews about one of my favorite writers. If you know little about Ephron and her world view you wil.