‘Access Hollywood’ Host Scott Evans on Launching ‘House Guest’ and Hosting Kamala Harris
Side hustles can be hard for hosts. Their on-camera jobs typically require long hours, lots of preparation, frequent travel and back-to-back shoots or red carpet events, leaving little spare time. But somehow Scott Evans, the well-liked and long-serving host of Access Hollywood, found a way to make his work in Webby Award-winning ways as a…
Side hustles can be hard for hosts. Their on-camera jobs typically require long hours, lots of preparation, frequent travel and back-to-back shoots or red carpet events, leaving little spare time.
But somehow Scott Evans, the well-liked and long-serving host of Access Hollywood, found a way to make his work in Webby Award-winning ways as a domestic extension of his day job. Evans created the digital interview show House Guest by inviting celebrities and notable names over to his actual home for a backyard hang that features all the trappings of a lively gathering, like food, drinks, games and honest conversations.
“We’ve been hosting lunches, brunches and dinners at the house for a while so I decided to gather people in a meaningful way, create a safe place where people can really be comfortable and then capture it on camera,” explained the Indiana native. “We make something to eat, something to drink and then we chop it up. You might get to see them in a whole new light or confirm even more why you love them in the first place while also hearing about some of the best lessons they’ve learned.”
House Guest, which celebrated a one-year anniversary over the summer, has hosted the likes of Oscar winner Regina King, Keke Palmer, Tony winner Cynthia Erivo, Emmy winner Niecy Nash-Betts, Saturday Night Live star Leslie Jones, Aisha Tyler, Tina Knowles, Amber Riley, Chloe Bailey, Meagan Good, Muni Long, Taye Diggs and more. Evans’ audience seems to be loving the view into his backyard as the clips receive millions of views and no shortage of loving comments. “Scott’s channel feels like visiting your favorite cousin’s house,” someone recently posted on YouTube. That’s exactly what Evans was going for when he bet on himself to self-finance the operation and leaned on his entertainment contacts to book bold-faced names for lengthy chats outside of his Access Hollywood day-to-day.
He’s just about to drop his biggest interview yet with vice president Kamala Harris, who swung by his home for a news-making conversation (over her favorite pizza, which Evans made special) about her presidential bid, the new memoir 107 Days and what’s next for her outside of Washington D.C. Ahead of the interview drop on Thursday, Evans hopped on the phone with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about his preparation, his revelations and whether or not Rihanna is on the RSVP list.
What pushed you to launch this in the first place?
I was ready for more of the kinds of conversations I was already having with talent but that weren’t making it into the final piece on air either due to story count, timing, editorial focus, that kind of thing. There’s a lot of magic left on the cutting room floor. A lot of the content that feels uplifting, encouraging and joy-filled isn’t always at the forefront, and so I wanted to do something that felt very me. I also wanted to create something that harkened back to the greats that could be one part Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa and one part Arsenio Hall. I wanted to create that space, especially because there are fewer and fewer of these types of opportunities, especially for people of color to be highlighted. How can we get more in control of that content and get it in front of people who are longing for it? And how can we put a positive spin on it as opposed to the more dramatic or mess that is already out there?
I didn’t even think of that, but yeah, it does have a tone unlike other shows that are so popular online now because they can be messy or dramatic for the sake of going viral. House Guest really matches who you are as a human being …
And it matches the kinds of conversations that I already have, whether it’s with a celebrity or with a young person in the industry who is coming into their own and wants to glean something from an executive or a veteran in the industry. I was always looking for guidance from people, asking, “How are you making it through this?” “What are you leaning on?” “What are the things you do that make this situation bearable?” I wanted to be able to create a space for people to feel comfortable to share experiences and to just feel better about our days.
What kind of host are you?
I seek to create the kind of space where everybody feels like it’s their house. Come over and get super comfortable. Come in sweats or designer wares, whatever is most comfortable, but come ready to have a good time. What I learned in my years of doing interviews on Access Hollywood is that if you mean to create a space where someone is going to offer some part of themselves in a way they haven’t before or they’re going to speak on a subject that they otherwise haven’t, you have to be prepared to share yourself. We are in no way, shape or form trying to make anyone look bad or crazy or emotional, nothing like that. I’m also willing to share just as much as they are.
Is there an interview you found most revelatory, either from the guest or yourself?
We did an interview early on with Andra Day, and so many people were in the comments surprised that she was not a British woman and that she’s a Black woman. This is a woman who won a Golden Globe for playing Billie Holiday but her backstory for some reason was not getting across to the audience. The House Guest interview allowed people to see her in a totally different way in all of her Andra Day glory. We bonded over the shared parts of ourselves, our inability to sometimes stay focused on what’s in front of us and we just went with the conversation where it was supposed to go.
How is your preparation for these interviews compared to your day job?
It’s a little bit more intense because it’s on my own. When you’re working for an entertainment news organization, there are “must get” topics, or relevant news questions. But with this, I can go wherever I want to go, as long as it is appropriate or well-received with the guest. It’s been great to have the opportunity to dive into parts of someone’s story that are new or that are interesting. I’m thinking about Michael Evans Behling, who talked for the first time about his adoption journey. While some people may have known he was adopted by members of his family, they might not have known the circumstances or details. He shared openly and honestly about that without me having to prod or inquire because he felt ready to share that part of himself. Every once in a while as talent walks out of the room after an interview is over, their publicist or assistant will say to me, “I don’t know how you got them to talk about that. They’ve never said that before on camera.”
When Regina King came on, she opened up about her son and memorializing her son to the world. But she was also processing for the first time on camera, how much she wanted to share. In the middle of it, she said, “I was unprepared for what I would share.” There were things she may not have wanted to talk about but within 15 minutes, we were talking about all of it. She thanked me for taking such good care of guests and for being someone to depend on and lean into with tough subject matter. I did my very best. But there was a moment when she looked at me and said, “There are moments, Scott, when you remind me of Ian, and it’s a really beautiful thing.” I lost it. I lost it.
Wow. That’s a testament to who you are, your integrity and skill as an interviewer, which is evident across your many, many interviews. What else has been key to your success?
There are so many mixed messages out there, especially on social media, about who you are, who you can’t be, who you’ll never be, what you need to change in order to achieve this or that before it’s too late. So much of it is counting you out when you’ve already done that to yourself. So for me, I stopped listening to music or any other messages like that when I’m driving around L.A. for work because it sometimes made me arrive to my location [in a hyped up way] like I was ready for the club or for some other kind of feeling. I’ve found that managing my environment while I commute has brought about a real shift that translates into my work. It feels easier, more real.
What are you listening to when you’re driving across town?
If I’m about to have a guest on, I’m listening to their audiobook or their work. I just blasted through one of Chelsea Handler’s books, Life Will Be the Death of Me. I’ve told so many friends about the subject matter and energy of her books. I re-read Michelle Obama’s Becoming, Jenifer Lewis’s The Mother of Black Hollywood: A Memoir. Viola Davis’s Finding Me: A Memoir and Whoopi Goldberg’s Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me. Game-changers, game-changers. I love hearing from people, in their words, what helped them in their lives, how they overcame pitfalls or shortcomings, because it helps me navigate my own.
Any other personal highlights from people you’ve had on House Guest over the past year?
Yes, sometimes it’s not people who are the most famous or doing the splashiest work but I know they will be people that we will look back on years from now, like, “damn.” Diarra Kilpatrick from Diarra From Detroit. She was a fantastic episode, which had everything from the heartfelt to the hilarious to the tragic. That describes so many of our stories and it felt very real. Also the Keke Palmer episode because she said, “Whatever we got to do to make it happen, I’m coming to sit with my guy. I see all of my friends with my guy. He’s my guy.” She creates these moments, that while marvelous, hit you dead in your heart. I got to hear her talk about the decision to own her story so that someone else couldn’t, her decision to protect her own narrative, and it was something I’ve never seen or heard her talk about before, certainly not in that way.
Hearing you say “my guy,” I have to ask about Rihanna. Every interview I’ve seen, her face lights up when she sees you. It’s a different energy. I can’t put words in Rihanna’s mouth but it feels like, to me, that you are her guy, too. I imagine that she’s a dream House Guest guest?
I already told her that if we have to come to her, we’ll do a guest house House Guest. When I learned that my father’s heritage went further back than Panama, to Barbados, I shared that with her kind of in the moment, almost on accident. And she meant what she said when she offered, “I’ll take you back.” I didn’t say anything because we were still on camera but within days, her team called to say, “Are you packed?” I was like, “For what?” But we went, and I’ve since been back three times. I’ve taken my mom and brothers to Barbados to show them their heritage and our connections to that island. We’re now at a point considering if we should have a place there that we own to really make this a part of our story in a meaningful way. I’ll never forget that about Rihanna.
Harris and Evans during an episode of House Guest.
Let’s talk money. You finance this operation by yourself. Why and how expensive is it?
It’s a lot. Each episode is quite a bit. We’ve been fortunate here lately to work with brand partners that really believe in the work that we’re doing. They’ve released the reins to help us create the show we want to create without too much interference on messaging because they really get it. It’s also been a dream to win a Webby Award [for Interview, Talk & After-Show, Series and Channels]. That was unreal.
So how do I say this? The cost of the show is not nothing, but we spend what it takes to make sure that it’s a show at the level that it needs to be. It also feels like an interruption from the majority of clips coming across your timeline. When you see our YouTube thumbnail, it stops you and helps you feel that you’re right there with us. And that’s not cheap. But every watch matters. Every comment matters. Every share matters.
You’ve passed the one-year mark, won a Webby and keep landing big-name guests. How long do you plan on keeping House Guest open for business?
We’re in it for the long haul. House Guest is just one of the ideas that we have about projects that we’d like to do, shows that encourage, uplift, entertain, put smiles on people’s faces. We’re developing projects in the sports space, other formats. Keke Palmer was dead serious when she said that we should do a variety show by bringing our friends and fellow performers together to do something really cool. Some companies have already expressed interest in helping us develop that and getting it across the finish line. House Guest isn’t going anywhere but stay tuned because there’s much more to come.
Aside from Rihanna, who is a dream guest?
Rihanna, first and foremost. But also the Obamas. I’m curious to see what they would be like in this format, especially after the launch of Michelle and her brother’s podcast. To be included in the Ebony 100 alongside them was nuts, to be honest. But the reality is that I can’t answer this question without saying the big three — Beyoncé, Rihanna and Lady Gaga. At any point, ladies, come over. The invitation is open.
Harris and Evans.
Credit: Ryan Handford/Courtesy of Scott Evans
