Writing an Interview with a Celebrity

Mary Elizabeth Winstead on the red carpet at the Grindhouse Premier in Austin, Texas.
Opphavsmann: jeffbalke, flickr

Mary Elizabeth Winstead on the red carpet at the Grindhouse Premier in Austin, Texas. jeffbalke, flickr

Preparation: Research and Questions

To write a good interview, you need to do proper research and gather relevant information, both on the person and the things you will be talking to the person about.

Next, you need to prepare your questions carefully. When you interview someone, it is important to vary your questions. Some yes-no questions are fine, but too many of these make an interview boring. The trick is to get the person talking without you having to pull every word out of him or her. Remember that you can use wh-questions (when, why, where, what, and how?) as well as closed and open questions.

Example: Closed question (does not leave much open to discussion):
Q:Who’s your favorite actor?
A: Johnny Depp.

Example: Open question (gets the interviewee to talk more):
Q: Tell me about your favorite actor:
A: I love Johnny Depp. He was so wonderful in Pirates of the Caribbean. He really made me laugh. Actually, I also like him because he reminds me of my uncle...

Make sure you keep the purpose of your interview in mind when you write your questions (why are you doing it?). You must also think about who your readers are. You want your readers to enjoy what you have written. What expectations do they have? What might they be interested in finding out more about? This will give your interview “that little extra”.

Writing Your Interview

When you have done an interview, the next step is to organize it into a text. The text of your interview should have a beginning, a middle, and an ending:

Introduction (beginning): Tell who you interviewed. Describe the setting (where and when the interview took place) and the interviewee, and if this is relevant (his or her expression, what he/she is wearing, how he/she is sitting, etc.)

Body (middle): Questions and answers.

Conclusion (ending): Round off the interview with your own conclusion(s). If you can think of a good final punchline – a humorous comment or something similar, use it to wrap up your interview.

You should give your interview a title, but it is a good idea to wait until you are finished. In this way it will be easier to come up with one that illustrates what the interview is all about.

Language: Avoiding “Norwenglish”

Do the tasks in the right menu before you write the interview:It is important to be aware of Norwegianisms if you want to use English correctly. For example “she sat on the coffee*” does not mean “hun satte på kaffen”- it means “hun satt på kaffen”, which is ridiculous! (*You can say: “she put the coffee on”.)

You act in a film, but you play a role and you star in a movie if you play a major role.