CBS.com: Have you been snapping lots of cool photos for the website again this season? We loved those!
Phil Keoghan: Yeah definitely, we've got plenty of photographs and I'm really happy with what we've got. It's amazing where we go, where we get to go. We just get to see great things.
CBS.com: Is filming THE AMAZING RACE a grueling experience for you?
Phil Keoghan: Oh yes. People sometimes say to me, "Oh, what are you doing when the Teams are racing? You must be hanging out or checking out these great places." This particular series was as tough as the first one. The first one was really tough because we had no idea how to deal with the stresses and strains of travel. There was one period at the beginning of this series where we'd gone through seventy-two hours and we slept one hour on a plane, and then the last Team arrived into this particular Pit Stop at three in the morning, and I then got in a van and drove eight hours to the next location to start the next show, and that was at eleven o'clock in the morning so I had only been in the van to sleep, sitting up, and then we went all the way through that day, finished that show, and then I got on a plane that night and flew to another country! There was a period of time there where I have no idea how much I slept or where I slept or where one day rolled into the next. I have to go everywhere they go and I have to be at the Pit Stop for each team. So the logistics of trying to get ahead of them is very stressful, particularly at the beginning where you've got so many Teams and the spread is so much, because the first Team arriving and the last Team arriving--there could be a big spread there. So yes, I would venture to say that one of the aspects you have to deal with on this show is sleep deprivation.
CBS.com: Who was it in THE AMAZING RACE 2 that called you the Grim Reaper? That was hilarious!
Phil Keoghan: The Grim Reaper? Was that Gary and Dave who called me the grim reaper? I think in the first series my nickname was The Philliminator. The fist series, I didn't welcome all the Teams in. I was only there for the last Team, and I think they used to think I was going to sneak out from behind the bush and eliminate the Teams. The reason I didn't meet all the Teams initially was because we didn't know whether I could actually be there, whether the logistics were going to allow for me to get there to meet all the Teams. But the Teams knew that when they saw me there, they were out. So I was like the Grim Reaper, the bearer of bad news. What I think makes it different this time-and, I think, a little more suspenseful--is no matter what, I'm standing there, whether they're the first Team or the last Team. So sometimes I give away a prize--that's obviously good--but they may think they're last and they see me standing there. Now, they don't know, so I have a little fun with them, with the dramatic pauses.
CBS.com: Yeah, and the serious looks…
Phil Keoghan: This is the look with the eyebrows, see? [furrows eyebrows] Apparently that's the Philliminator look. I've been told that that's the look I give.
Q: You always look really serious, and then you say, "You're in first place."
Phil Keoghan: Right. I like to have fun with them. I like to toy with them a little bit. we're making television, after all. Right?
CBS.com: I read that you had originally wanted to be a cinematographer.
Phil Keoghan: Well I was a cinematographer. When I finished school I knew I either wanted to be a cinematographer or [do] some kind of performance thing. I wasn't sure. I initially got a job working as a film camera assistant working on drama and documentaries and clapper-loading, and I was like an apprentice for a couple of years. I was also doing performance work during that time, but I came from behind the camera to being in front of the camera. But yes, I have a love of photography. I just love taking photographs.
CBS.com: According to your bio, you got your big break when you stepped in front of the camera and you looked really good there.
Phil Keoghan: I was at a Christmas party and there was a show that was auditioning for new hosts, and someone didn't turn up. This producer had asked me about dong some stuff in front of the camera before, and I didn't take him up on the offer. So while I was at this party he came up to me and said, "Look, somebody didn't turn up and we're casting for this show. Would you come and do an audition?" And I'd already had a drink, one drink, and so I said, "all right!" [We] went back into the studio and I said, "What do you want me to do?" And he said just talk into the camera; tell the camera anything you want to tell it. And I knew all the guys behind the camera, so I sat there and just talked to the camera and rolled the tape out. Then I went back to the party, and a little while later the guy came out and said, "Oh, we want to give you the job." I was nineteen, and I was like, "all right…great!" So suddenly I was--it was in New Zealand--I was on this network show with two other people. People would write in and get us to do things. That was my first break, I guess.
