Body Language & Composure
What your body says when your mouth is saying the right things.
The Composure Tax
Under pressure, your body betrays you. Hands fidget. Eyes drop. Shoulders tense. Breathing shallows. You might have the perfect answer, but if your body says 'I'm uncomfortable,' the audience believes your body over your words.
This is the composure tax — the cognitive load of managing your physical presentation while thinking about your answer. The only way to reduce it is practice. Not thinking about practice. Actually doing it, on camera.
PressPrep records your webcam during practice sessions specifically so you can see what the audience sees. Most people are shocked the first time.
Eye Contact
In a studio interview, look at the interviewer, not the camera (unless you're told otherwise for a remote/satellite interview). In a doorstep or press conference, address the questioner.
The most common eye contact mistake is looking down when thinking. It reads as evasion. If you need a beat to think, maintain eye contact and pause — silence is more confident than looking away.
In New Zealand, culturally, sustained eye contact is generally expected in a media interview. It signals confidence and honesty.
Hands and Gestures
Open palms signal honesty. Steepled fingers signal confidence. Crossed arms signal defensiveness. Touching your face signals anxiety. These are clichés because they're mostly true.
The best hand position for a seated interview: loosely clasped on the table or in your lap, with occasional open-palm gestures to emphasise a point. For a standing doorstep: hands by your sides or one hand holding notes.
Avoid: pen-clicking, ring-twisting, hair-touching, and the classic politician's 'thumb-on-fist' point. These are all anxiety tells.
Breathing Under Pressure
When the adrenaline hits, your breathing goes shallow and fast. This affects your voice (higher pitch, faster pace), your thinking (less clear), and your appearance (visibly stressed).
Before any interview, take 3 slow, deep breaths. Box breathing works: in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4. Do it in the car park, the green room, anywhere.
During the interview, use the bridge moment to take a breath. 'And the key point here is...' [breath] '...we've already taken action.' That pause sounds confident to the audience.
Voice Control
Adrenaline raises your vocal pitch. Consciously lower your register slightly before and during the interview. Not artificially deep — just back to your natural baseline.
Pace is even more important. Under pressure, most people speak 20-30% faster than normal. Consciously slow down. What feels painfully slow to you sounds perfectly normal to the audience.
Filler words — 'um,' 'ah,' 'you know,' 'sort of' — multiply under pressure. The fix isn't to suppress them; it's to replace them with silence. A pause is always better than a filler.
The Microexpression Problem
Microexpressions — the flash of anger, surprise, or contempt that crosses your face before you control it — are the hardest thing to manage. Journalists watch for them. Cameras catch them.
You can't eliminate microexpressions, but you can prepare for the questions that trigger them. If you know the journalist is going to ask about the budget blowout, rehearse hearing that question until it doesn't surprise you.
The goal isn't a poker face. It's familiarity. The question should never be the first time you've heard it.
Key Takeaways
- Your body language speaks louder than your words. Practice on camera.
- Maintain eye contact during thinking pauses — don't look down.
- Slow down: you're speaking faster than you think.
- Prepare for uncomfortable questions until they no longer surprise you physically.
Put it into practice
Try The Crisis Journalist with your webcam on. Watch the playback — focus on the moments you felt most uncomfortable and note what your body did.
Practise with The Crisis Journalist 🔴