This school year Dodge College continued hosting the wildly popular Chapman Master Classes, which, up until now, have been a series of virtual interviews with some of Hollywood’s biggest movers and shakers: Bryan Cranston, Lena Waithe, and Ted Sarandos to name just a few.  

And now comes the big twist: select Fall 2021 Master Classes will be hosted live and in-person by The Hollywood Reporter’s longtime awards columnist Scott Feinberg, who recently joined Dodge College as a trustee professor and will be teaching the course The Hollywood Greats: The Art of the Interview. Scheduled for Term Module II (October 20 – December 18) as FTV-329-15 for undergraduate students and FTV-529-15 for graduate students as 1.5 credits.

With legendary names like The Sopranos creator David Chase and A-list stars such as Halle Berry and Jamie Lee Curtis headed to the Folino, Feinberg’s classes will be essential. Everyone can attend the Q&As, but if you want a guaranteed seat, you must enroll in the class.

Feinberg is also the host of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, which has featured a countless number of A-List celebrities in Hollywood. He will record live podcast episodes in front of a student audience at Dodge College. Through watching Feinberg’s podcast tapings, students will be able to learn more about the Hollywood interview process, and afterwards will have the additional opportunity to ask their own questions.

Feinberg was encouraged to join the faculty at Dodge College by Dean Stephen Galloway, a former colleague and mentor to him at The Hollywood Reporter, where he worked as the executive editor before leaving for Chapman. With these Master Classes, Feinberg aims to help bridge the gap between film school and Hollywood for the students.

“It makes it all seem real,” said Feinberg. “The goal of the podcast is to humanize the guests, so that you can understand these are people just like you and me, just certain things had to happen for them to end up where they did.”

He hopes that through hearing each of the guests’ stories, students will be able to see that their dreams within the film industry are attainable with hard work.

And despite having already interviewed so many Hollywood legends, Feinberg still approaches each guest interview with a sense of excitement.

“The truth is that I’m still excited about many of the people I interact with,” said Feinberg. “It’s less about me being star struck, and it’s more about how it’s so exciting that this person is in front of me, that I want to make the very most out of the hour that we have together.”

Making each and every interview count is the goal for Feinberg, who tirelessly researches every person he is interviewing. Before walking into the interview room, he will have read everything written about them by every major news outlet he can get his hands on.

Feinberg emphasized how critical preparation is to his interview process, as just one small piece of information that he might comes across in his research can make all the difference.

“You can’t really just wing it. The difference in the quality of the conversation is going to be obvious to anyone. You can get away with it, but who are you cheating? You’re cheating yourself in a way if you really care about it. ” said Feinberg.

“There is no shortcut.”

The full schedule of Master Classes can be found here.