From Sophia Loren to Toni Morrison: Legendary interviewer Alain Elkann has talked with them all

Franco-Italian journalist and writer Alain Elkann may not be familiar to some Americans, but in Europe he is a mix of Barbara Walters, Oprah Winfrey and Anderson Cooper.A mind of unlimited inquisitiveness, Elkann has interviewed the world’s leading creatives, politicians and business-leaders over the past three decades.

Many appear in Elkann’s new book, “Alain Elkann Interviews  Vol 2″ (Assouline, out Nov 17).Here, Elkann recounts some of the greatest moments of his still-thriving career — including the one great sit-down that got away.How could I ever choose the most interesting people I have interviewed over the last 30 years.

Some of them have sadly died.Others are still very much alive.

Two great actresses, Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren, just turned 90, and I interviewed both of them.Brigitte Bardot was nice and polite and we spoke about her passion for dogs and animals. I went to interview Sophia Loren for her 60th birthday in 1994 in her elegant Geneva apartment — a big bookshelf full of Oscars.

I wrongly thought it would be an exclusive scoop for La Stampa, the newspaper I work for, but I later found out that she did similar birthday interviews with our competitors Il Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica. The architects Norman Foster and Renzo Piano are also close to 90 — and Frank Gehry is 95! All three remain impressively active, full of energy, and they talk when interviewed as if age didn’t exist.Renzo Piano always dresses with pale blue shirts and sweaters, which match his blue eyes.

To reach Renzo’s house above Genova, you have to take a transparent tube-like elevator that moves up a hill to his studio and office — both of which appear like a series of greenhouses. Sadly, others I’ve interviewed have left us, but our conversations remain.I remember my interview with the black writer — as she insisted she be called a ‘black writer’ — Toni Morrison, very ill in her bed just a few weeks before she died in 2019, i...