I think it’s absolutely valuable to show personal projects in an interview. The above quote resonates particularly strongly as I believe the personal projects show that you are genuinely interested in being a designer, and that you have taken the initiative to identify and solve a problem in your own time.
I’d focus on showing relevant work and shy away from showing a large amount of in-direct interests like pure photography or art. Save them as talking points that you can show if requested rather than consuming valuable real estate in your portfolio. Make sure that if you do show indirect interests that the quality is on par with your portfolio.