How to Interview Anyone

In the interest of public service, helping out aspiring interviewers who aren’t sure about the process, and making for more interesting reading of (or listening to) your stuff in the end, I’m going to share the most important tips about what I’ve learned about interviewing people from various walks of life, mainly in the arts, over the past four decades or so. (I interview for print, but the tips apply equally well to podcasts or video.)

Over the years I’ve interviewed universally known celebrities, cult figures, and folks known only to a small circle of friends and family alike, but some basic universal rules apply.

1. If you don’t know too much about the person but they’re at least somewhat well known, do some research online. Beyond Wikipedia, there may be clips on YouTube (prior interviews, if available, are especially helpful), newspaper and magazine articles. If your subject has written an autobiography, dip into that as much as possible as time allows. Be aware of what they get asked all the time. Take notes on which parts of their answers you’d like to further clarify, both for your sake and that of your readers/listeners/viewers.
2. This is important: Ask questions you want to know the answers to. This will help keep the interview interesting and on point not only for you but for your reader/listener/viewer, if you assume that what you find interesting your audience will too (which is something any interviewer should assume in any case; having confidence in your approach is essential).
3. If your person is a well-known celeb who gets asked the same questions over and over, dig a little deeper and try to come up with a topic or two they likely don’t often get asked about — an early, unsuccessful but creatively interesting project that they’re proud of, for example, or a little-known experience they once had working with another celeb when either they or the other celeb wasn’t that famous, or about their early, non-famous life in general. Or just ask about their philosophy of life (that never gets old). When I interviewed Carol Burnett — no stranger to interviews, and who happily answered questions from the audience every week on her TV variety show for nine years — I followed a friend’s suggestion and asked her about the time in the early ’60s when she was being considered for the lead in the original Broadway production of “Funny Girl” but begged off and suggested Barbra Streisand instead. And at the end of an interview I did with William Shatner back in 2013, when he informed me he would take one more question and no more, instead of asking him “What was it like playing Captain Kirk,” I mentally ran through options in several milliseconds before blurting out, “Do you see a difference between having regrets in life and being able to admit to having made mistakes?” To this day I don’t know how I came up with the question, but I received a thoughtful reply and have no regrets about having asked him that.

“I’m not making this up…”

4. Make it a conversation, not a job interview: Don’t just robotically read off a list of prepared questions one after another. Be an active listener. Don’t zone out when your interviewee is speaking, and be open to going off on tangents when you feel it will serve the cause (listen to any interview by Terry Gross on Fresh Air to get a sense of how that’s done).

5. Definitely record the interview, whether on video or using a digital recorder. Accuracy is important, but beyond that, you want to cover yourself in case your interviewee comes back at you after the interview is published or aired with “Hey, that’s not what I said at all.” (Rare, but it happens.)

6. This should go without saying, but don’t put words in your interviewee’s mouth, and don’t make shit up. This is a cardinal sin, and you’ll eventually get caught. Not to name names, but it’s happened at prominent newspapers to notorious and scandalous effect.

7. Breaking the ice with someone you’ve never spoken with before is always tricky. If appropriate, you might begin by mentioning something you have in common with your interviewee, even if it’s a concert of theirs you attended, a play they were in that you saw, or even that one of their costars or bandmates is your third cousin once removed. Hey, whatever works.

8. At the end of the interview, don’t forget to thank your person profusely for their time. If you’re especially lucky they’ll thank you for yours, and for a most enjoyable chat.