Director

I met with a hiring manager for a Director-level role. Decent company, interesting space, the pay was below the market rate. I kept an open mind and was interested enough to explore. Early on he asked me, "why this company?" I said (along the lines of the following): "I'm looking for new opportunities to continue my career in [industry]. I like the company's value proposition and the role seems to align with my background. I'd love to learn more about the role and the team." (Honestly, my interest level was 60-65%, so I really couldn't fake my enthusiasm.) He said, "I'll talk about the role and the team at the end." He then came back to the same line of questioning in the middle of the interview. "Why this role?" "How do you see your experience fitting the current stage of the company?" The whole thing felt like he was waiting for me to put on an act that I was so deeply passionate about this company at such an early stage. (I felt like I was being pressured to commit on a first date.) I was exploring. I wanted to gather some information before deciding if I wanted to take the next step. It was a 45-minute call. He grilled me with questions on one project. "who were the stakeholders on that initiative?" "how was the X team involved?" for 40 minutes straight. I got 5 minutes for questions at the end. All the responses I got was "cool" "okay." I felt like I was talking to a wall. At a certain point I genuinely wanted to end the call, but I didn't want to seem rude or reactive, so I stuck it out. Two questions for the sub. 1. Is there a way to steer this kind of conversation toward a real dialogue, even mid-interview? I want the human exchange of perspectives, not a Q&A interrogation. My goal for each interview is to have a good conversation regardless of the outcome. 2. If it's clearly not working, how do you exit gracefully without looking like you are hurt or something? At this age in life, I really just want good vibes Would love to hear how others have handled this.