How Do You Cite an Interview in MLA Style? Different Formats & Examples

Referencing has remained a crucial part of research writing from the days of the Greeks to scientific developments of the 18th or 19th century and even in the 21st century as well. If we ponder back to the times of Plato, Max Weber, J. Robert Oppenheimer, etc, and their writings published in the form of scientific papers and books.

The use of relevant references has been evident in their prose documents, which indicates the importance of learning how do you cite an interview in MLA style. Make sure to have a firm grip on MLA 9th editions’ interview citation rules to make your dissertations or papers more authentic or valuable for the audience.

We have jotted down formatting styles for different interview sources with practical examples below for you.

Why Do You Need to Cite Interviews in Your Research Studies?

Suppose you are an astrophysicist and writing a study related to the recent developments in astrophysics to share your viewpoint or theory about the Exoplanet. After outlining the basic framework or path to follow, you have realised that mentioning the thoughts or views of renowned astrophysicists Neil deGrasse Tyson, Adam Frank, Imre Bartos, etc, is necessary for your scientific prose.

How do you cite an interview in MLA style? Knowing that using their words in the text is necessary to validate your ideas. That’s why you need to learn how to cite an interview in MLA 9th edition format to write an impact-making astrophysics paper for the research world generally and, more specifically, for the people associated with astrophysics.

Cite an Interview in MLA Style – Basic Format to Follow

After consulting the Handbook of MLA citations, we have found the following elements required for citing published interviews in MLA style. You need to use the name of the person being interviewed as an author for citing an interview using MLA style in the text for adding in-text citations.

Treat the person being interviewed as an author of the book for adding in-text citations for an interview in MLA style or works cited list entry.

In-Text Citation Format

Add the last name of the person being interviewed in parentheses against the quotation words.

Works Cited List Entry Format

First, write the last name of the person being interviewed

Then, write the title of the interview closed in quotation marks (In case no title is available, use the word “Interview” instead)

If you have conducted the interview by yourself then also add your name and the interview date as well.

If you have taken the interview from a published source, then write the name of the interviewer and full details like the URL of the source as well.

Examples of Interview Citations in MLA Style

In-Person Interview

Green, John. Interview. Conducted by Colleen Hoover, 23 December 2024.

In-Text Citation

(Green)

Published Interview

Schulman, Michael. “For Isabella Rossellini, Acting Goes Beyond Words.” The New Yorker, 22 Dec.2024,www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/for-isabella-rossellini-acting-goes-beyond-words.

In-Text Citation

(Schulman)

Citing In-Person Interview in MLA Style

Suppose you are planning to conduct an interview to write references in your journalism dissertation and ask any citation expert what is the MLA format for personal interviews? The answer from that expert would be simply add your name along with the name of the person being interviewed and the date on which the interview took place.

For Works Cited List Entry

You need to start the entry by writing the full name of the interviewee, then add the word “Interview” followed by your name or the person who has conducted the interview, and then write the date on which the interview took place.

Clary, Alexa. Interview. Conducted by Joseph Strauss, 5 Dec. 2024.

For In-Text Citation Entry

You just have to write the last name of the person being interviewed in parentheses to add in-text citations for interviews in MLA style.

(Clary)

Citing Published Interviews in MLA Style

Adding MLA-style citations for online interviews or published in books, magazines, journals, and so on is quite similar to adding citations of books and quotes from different sources.

Researchers who want to increase the academic value of their research studies can add relevant references available in the form of interviews in their literature review by following the guidelines below. For citing interviews from books or articles in MLA style you need to first identify the source of the interview that is published online.

After figuring out the source, add the name of the person being interviewed and then the title of the interview or even the word “interview” in quotation marks followed by a date, and you are good to go.

For in-text citations, in order to format interviews in MLA style, you can add the last name of the person being interviewed in parentheses and the page number as well, if available.

From Magazine

To add citations from online magazines, newspapers, or blogs, you are required to write the name of the publication source, the date on which it was posted, and the URL of the source.

Ashbourne, Lorraine. “‘I Get Spotted in the M&S Knicker Department’: Interview by Rebecca. TheGuardian,26Dec.2024,www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/dec/26/i-get-spotted-in-the-ms-knicker-department-lorraine-ashbourne-on-her-2024-tv-takeover.

For in-text citations, just write the last name of the person being interviewed, like (Ashbourne) in parentheses.

From Book

If you want to use an interview published in any book as a reference in your data analysis of the study.

For MLA works cited entry for interviews from the book, you can add the title of the book in which the interview is being published, name of the book author(s) or editor(s), name of the publisher, publication year, and then the exact page number or numbers on which the interview appears.

In case the name of the book author or editor is the same as the person’s interview that is going to be used as a reference, then you can skip this part to avoid repetition.

Foucault, Michel. “Polemics, Politics, and Problematizations.” Interview by Paul Rabinow. The Foucault Reader, Pantheon, 1984, pp. 380–391.

For in-text citations, just write the name of the person being interviewed or the page number like (Foucault 382)

From Blog/Website

How do you cite an interview in MLA style from a blog or website? The answer is quite simple: you need to follow the above-mentioned format of books with the addition of some elements like the date of the site being accessed.

Now your citation is ready for the works cited list, and in-text citations for your body of the research essay, and so on.

Blog

Mike, Josephine. “Mike’s Everyday Life.” Interview by Elizabeth Scarlet. The Hypothetical Interviewers’ Column, May 2020, http://hypothetical_interviewers_com_CJohnson. Accessed 25 Dec 2024.

For in-text citations, just write (Mike)

Website

DealBookSummit2023ElonMuskInterview.www.rev.com/transcripts/dealbook-summit-2023-elon-musk-interview-transcript.

For in-text citation (DealBook Summit 2023 Elon Musk Interview)

From Journal

Adding a citation from an academic journal is not so difficult because it just requires the name of the journal in which the interview is being published, volume and number, date or year of publication, and the page range as well.

If you are accessing the interview from an online source, then you have to add the DOI or stable URL as well in the citation.

Salt, Rossouw. “How Bodies Come to Matter.” Interview by Chase Cattoni and Benjamin Butler. Signs, vol. 23, no. 2, 1998, pp. 275–286. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3175091.

For in-text citation (Butler 280)

From Video Interview

Sometimes, while writing your research paper like Web of Science, IEEE, and so on, we find some interviews we have seen on online video streaming platforms quite relevant with the situation and start searching for how to cite a video interview in MLA style.

Stop searching anymore because we have laid out a format on how do you cite an interview in MLA style easily. Read the following instructions and enjoy writing rich in content studies.

To add citations in the works cited list or in-text, you need to write the name of the platform from which the video interview is being accessed, the name of the user who has uploaded it, the date on which it was uploaded, and lastly, include the URL as well.

For in-text citations, you can use a timestamp or relevant parts of the video.

Chomsky, Noam. “Piers Morgan Vs Noam Chomsky | the Full Interview.” Interview by Piers Morgan. YouTube, uploaded by Piers Morgan Uncensored Channel, 5 June 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ-Crh3rdQA.

(Chomsky 03:00-18:00)

From Email

We have consulted the Handbook of MLA guidelines to share MLA citation examples for interviews being conducted in the form of emails. How do you cite an interview in MLA style against the email? The format is slightly different from the common format used for books, journals, or video interviews.

Start with writing the name of the interviewee’s name, a brief description of the interview title closed in quotation marks. Then, identify the email type, like “Received by”, followed by the complete name of the interviewer and a comma.

After the comma, the researcher is required to write the date of interaction between him/her and the person being interviewed and then place a comma. Lastly, write “Email Interview” followed by a period.

Example

Frank, Miller. “Re: Job Application for the Editorial Press.” Received by Sarah Smith, 26 December 2024. Email Interview.

Frequently Asked Questions