1/? the thing about louis' interviews is that he is so alike harry in the sense that he doesn't wanna talk about his personal life. the difference is that while harry doesn't answer ANY question (which makes his intentions obvious for everyone listening) louis DOES answer everything they throw at him, it's just the same recycled stories. but for the gp or even the interviewers it doesn't sound weird like it does to us, the fans who watch every step he takes. of course every artist out there +

(this got long, so I’ll put it under a cut)

2/? will repeat some stories in different interviews because that’s just promo strategy but they’re often told differently and repeated when the question is similar (because we know questions get repeated a lot) and not applied to different questions yknow. i think we can see that clearly with liam and niall. anyways i think the point for louis is not only to say private (like it seems to be for harry) but mostly to feel like in control of stuff. in control of his narrative and how people +

3/? perceive him and imo that makes him more comfortable and allows him to be laid back in interviews. because it’s obvious for me that between the four guys he is usually the most strained in interviews (even when he’s super confortable) while liam and niall especially appear to be almost always super chill and unbothered? thats just my perception anyway. and thats obviously not a problem or any criticism to him! promo cycle sounds super boring and nerve-wracking and after everything +

4/? he’s been through i dont blame him for that; i think he does what he has to do in order to make him more comfortable with this moments (in 1d group interview his strategy seem to be make jokes for example) and im proud of him for founding a way out to bear it you know! lisa said in her tags: “i often get the idea that he’s afraid of performing badly so he’d rather back out when it comes to things like this. he’ll put his whole heart in to music and performing maybe because he knows +

5/5 knows that he’s good but something out of his comfort zone he’ll step out lean on charm and laugh it off its all or nothing” regarding the play doh thing and i think it sums up his behaviour in interviews. so basically liam seems to think honesty about EVERYTHING is the way to go, niall is amazing at sounding like he’s being honest even when he’s not, harry doesn’t wanna be honest and louis wants to open his heart with his lyrics but not in interviews bc the honestly in his music is enough.

+++++++++++++++

There’s a lot to unpack here, and this hit just as I finished watching two full (and vastly different) Louis interviews, so I feel almost qualified to answer, lmao. My take is slightly different, but kind of in the same vein? Interviews are PR performance, pure theater, so I tend to watch them for entertainment more than for any deep insights (and this is true for any artist; I know most people here don’t follow anyone else, but I guarantee it’s a game that is gamed across the board, this is work, the most tedious part of the job, etc.). But getting back to the D, yeah, they all handle it in their own ways: Harry is a terrible liar (in the sense of answering a direct question with a lie, he can’t do it…swerve? YES, but that’s not the same thing), Niall and Louis have zero problems on that front (Niall recently admitted that he and Louis made sport of saying random shit in interviews just to see where it would land, AND GOOD FOR THEM, they don’t owe us “the truth,” especially about anything personal), and Liam typically goes with what he’s supposed to say, but with nobody driving the ship these days, he says whatever he wants to in the moment, damn actual sense or timelines. It’s fascinating because they’ve all been media-trained to within an inch of their lives, but they also came into megastardom during the age of digital microinspection. Every interview, every soundbite is zoomed in on, giffed, edited, and recast, so someone like, say, Louis, who already has perfectionist tendencies, will tend to be VERY careful in how he answers (yet he won’t necessarily answer truthfully, if that makes sense). I also pay attention to how he says it–like you mentioned, he leans on the charm or a laugh, but I’ve noticed (and he also recently admitted) that he tends to do that ESPECIALLY when he’s saying something kind of sharp and sarky. It softens it so he doesn’t look like a dick, but it also absolutely highlights his brilliance. God, I could sit there and admire what he’s like all the live long day. For all of them, I guess the thing I admire is that in the face of this hours-long mindless tedium, they’re all extremely present (or they phone it in, but they never sound bored): they all act like this is the first time someone asked them this particular question, they all give it some thought, none of them roll their eyes, etc. I work with idiots from time to time, and I can’t do that. There are actual living, breathing actors who can’t do it!! Where am I going with this? Idk, but this is why I like to watch everything in full; it’s usually lots more entertaining and you get a feel for the performance writ larger.