#Not just generally a 'social media manager' or something. I think that would drive me into the throes of madness

[icewindandboringhorror]

I was just thinking what a cool job this might be.. what if you were just the person who makes little still images of cute animal figurines doing various activities to post on social media...? like.. show up to work and just spend the whole day like "hmm... this table should be placed to the left a little.. let me set this miniature bagel down in this way... this tiny rabbit should be wearing a scarf", setting the backgrounds, the lighting, etc. ... dream job perhaps lol...

[redroomreflections]

Hotel California | Track 5: Heartbeat Havoc

Natasha Romanoff x fem!reader

Summary: Natasha Romanoff, frontwoman of the punk rock band Velvet Rebellion, falls hard for a woman she believes is too good for her. Their intense relationship unfolds in the chaotic world of rock 'n' roll, where they struggle to balance fame, personal demons, and their undeniable passion for each other.

W/c: 6.3k

Chapter 5/12

Masterlist | General Masterlist

Note: it's only up from here

18+ Minors DNI (mature)

Themes: love, fame, sex, drugs

"So, the release went well, but now we need to capitalize on the momentum. What we don't want is for you to disappear after the premiere," You leaned back into your chair, twirling a pen between your fingers as you spoke on the call. Your tone was confident but measured, ensuring there wasn't too much enthusiasm. You knew your client well enough to know this was a serious conversation.

Tanya Lawrence, an early twenties actress who had just starred in a blockbuster film, was on speaker, along with her agent and manager. You were coming up with a game plan to keep her in the spotlight and sustain the momentum—not only to continue promoting the film but to elevate Tanya herself.

Tanya's voice was thoughtful as she replied, “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that. But I don’t want to do the same press rounds everyone else does. I mean, how many times can you sit on a couch and tell the same story?”

You smiled, fully expecting her reluctance. Tanya was always searching for something fresh. It was part of what made her appealing, but also part of the challenge of keeping her relevant without overexposing her.

"I hear you," You said, jotting down a note on your tablet. "The late-night circuit can get a bit tired, but we still need to keep you visible. How about this: we skip the talk shows and go for an exclusive feature with Vogue or Elle? We’ll craft a personal story—something deeper than just promoting the film. We’ll show your evolution from indie darling to blockbuster star. It’s more narrative-driven, more you."

There was a pause, then her manager chimed in, his voice skeptical but intrigued. “How personal are we talking?”

“Not too much," You assured him. "We’re not looking to dig into her private life—just enough to give the audience something to connect with. We’ll focus on her as an actress and philanthropist. Maybe highlight her charity work? The key is controlling the narrative.”

Tanya's voice came through, warmer now. “I love that idea. I’ve been wanting to talk more about the foundation. If we can connect that, it would feel real, not like I’m just selling myself.”

You nodded, already sketching out the potential angles. "Exactly. And we can play it across platforms—get some behind-the-scenes content on social media to drive engagement, maybe even a short Instagram series showing a day in your life. That way, you’re not just doing the standard PR push but building a brand around authenticity.”

The enthusiasm on the other end was palpable now. Tanya's agent was already chiming in with ideas on how to expand the campaign, and her manager was starting to see the vision.

"You’ve always got the best ideas," Tanya said, and you could hear the smile in her voice.

You chuckled. "That’s why you keep me around."

The call wrapped up, and you took a moment to breathe. Another client managed, another fire successfully put out. You were in the zone—this was what you were good at. A notification lit up the screen as you closed your notebook and checked your phone.

"Is Love in the Air? Natasha Romanoff Seen Leaving Concert with New Flame"

Your stomach did a little flip. The photo was grainy and interesting for today’s time, but you knew it was the two of you leaving the concert venue last weekend. It hadn’t taken long for people to start talking, and you weren’t sure how you felt about it all. You tried not to think about the sudden influx of followers you’d gotten or the interest of every possible gossip rag in suddenly taking a deep dive into your life.

As a publicist, you were no stranger to media frenzy, but it was different when you were the story. You’d spent years helping clients navigate this kind of attention, knowing exactly how to spin, deflect, and maintain privacy. But now, as the headlines circled you and Natasha, it felt oddly invasive.

You sighed, locking your phone and rubbing your temples. This wasn’t exactly how you imagined things going with Natasha. A quiet fling, maybe, or just a few months of fun before things inevitably fizzled. But the way her hand had lingered on yours that night, the way she looked at you when she thought no one was watching—something about it felt more... real. And now, the world was catching on.

Focus, y/n, you told yourself, pushing the thought aside. You weren’t going to let this derail your work. Natasha had dealt with the media for years—she could handle it. The question was, could you?

Your office door creaked open, and Monica strolled in, her usual swagger in every step. She leaned casually against the doorframe, crossing her arms with an amused smile.

“You see the headlines?” She asked, eyes twinkling with mischief.

You shot her a look, already knowing where this was headed. “You mean the ones making me sound like some groupie?”

Monica laughed, moving to sit across from you. “Please, Natasha Romanoff’s mystery woman has a much better ring to it. Plus, who says groupies can’t be successful?”

You rolled your eyes, but a smile tugged at your lips. “I didn’t ask for this attention, Mon.”

“You’re dating a rockstar. What did you expect?” she teased before her tone softened. “But for real, how are you feeling about it?”

You hesitated, twirling the pen in your fingers, not quite sure how to put it into words. “It’s... strange. I’ve always kept my private life private, you know? And now I’m on the front page, just because I went on a date.”

Monica nodded, her expression shifting to something more serious. “It’s a lot. But you’re the queen of handling this kind of thing. You’ve dealt with bigger fires. And Natasha... well, she’s used to it.”

You sighed, leaning back in your chair. “Yeah, but this feels different. It’s one thing to be in control of someone else’s narrative, but when it’s you...”

Monica tilted her head, studying you. “You really like her, don’t you?”

Your heart skipped a beat at the question. You hadn’t even allowed yourself to fully consider that yet. Did you? The two of you were just getting to know each other. It wasn’t supposed to be serious. But the way you smiled at the thought of her, the way your stomach fluttered when her name popped up on your phone—it was all too familiar.

“I don’t know,” you admitted quietly. “It’s moving fast.”

“You fucked didn’t you?” Monica began to grin.

Your eyes widened. “Jesus, Monica." You cursed. You looked back to your office door, the one she'd decided to leave open, and then back to her. She folded her arms knowingly and you sighed.

"Maybe?" You responded with a smirk. "Or... several times? I lost count that night."

"Oh my god!" Monica cackled. "I knew it. I'm so proud of you."

"Proud shouldn't be the word used for that," You shook your head. "Oh, and Sam decided to bring Isabella home early the next morning so they met each other much sooner than I expected. She also introduced herself as my girlfriend."

"Ooh, and how did Sam react?" Monica knew your ex-husband just as well as she knew you.

"He was shocked but also not shocked." You begin. "I just hoped it wasn't something that made Natasha question what we have going on. I mean anyone would be threatened to have the ex just casually standing in the living room."

"Nah, the woman is head over heels," Monica assured. "Besides, Sam's a good guy, and he's not a possessive ex. So, back to the importance, was she good?"

You couldn't help but smirk. "Yes, she was very good."

Monica smiled, nodding approvingly. "Good. Well, I'm happy for you. It's been a while since you've had some good sex, and even longer since you've had a good woman."

"Somehow you and my daughter are the same person just in different fonts," You mused at her words. "You have no idea how much Bella asked about her."

"What can I say, we both have good taste," Monica smiled. "Anyway, back to work. I'll let you enjoy your celebrity-adjacent status. It’s interesting really how you’ve managed to stay so lowkey. I mean Sam is famous, your parents are famous…”

You chuckled. "It's a blessing and a curse. You can't blame them for being overprotective though. They just wanted to protect their daughter and granddaughter from the limelight. It's why I stayed off the radar."

Before she could question it further, there was a slight knock at the door. An unassuming man with a delivery hat and a gorgeous bouquet caught your attention.

"Are you, Y/n?" He asked.

"Yes," You replied, a little surprised. You watched as the man set the vase down, signed for the delivery, and thanked him. Monica watched in interest.

"What's that for?" Monica asked.

"I have no idea," You replied, a little puzzled. You plucked the card from the bouquet and unfolded it, curious. As your eyes skimmed the neat handwriting, your heart skipped a beat.

“Just in case you needed a little brightness in your day. My time with you was amazing, being with you makes everything even better. — N”

You couldn’t help the smile that tugged at your lips, warmth spreading through your chest. Natasha had a way of being sweet without overdoing it—something that caught you off guard every time.

Monica raised an eyebrow, leaning over to get a glimpse of the card. “Ohhh, so the rockstar is a romantic.”

You laughed softly, tucking the card back into the bouquet. “Apparently. She’s full of surprises.”

Monica grinned, leaning back in her chair. “Girl, you’ve got it bad.”

You tried to ignore the flush that crept up your neck, your eyes drifting back to the bouquet on your desk. Maybe you did.

**********

Natasha wiped the sweat from her forehead, adjusting her grip on the barbell before settling into her seat. The gym was practically empty, just the way she liked it. Wanda was a few feet away, doing leg presses with ease while music pulsed through the space, the rhythm of the beats syncing with the steady clank of weights hitting the floor. Just as Natasha was about to dive into her next rep, her phone buzzed on the bench beside her. She hesitated for a second, but the moment she saw your name flash across the screen, she abandoned the barbell with zero hesitation.

Y/N: Thank you for the flowers 🌸 They’re almost as beautiful as the woman who sent them. Almost.

Natasha smirked as she leaned against the bench, typing back with one hand while the other still held onto the towel slung around her neck.

Natasha: Almost? I must be slipping. I’ll have to step up my game. 😏

She hit send, already imagining the soft laugh she knew you would give at the response. She wasn’t usually one for the whole romantic gesture thing, but with you, it felt... right. You were different, and Natasha could feel herself getting pulled deeper into this thing between you.

Wanda finished her set and glanced over, eyebrow arched as she caught Natasha mid-text. “You’re supposed to be working out, not flirting,” Wanda teased, giving her a knowing look.

Natasha didn’t bother hiding her smile. “Can’t help it. It’s... motivation.”

Wanda chuckled, moving to grab her water bottle. “Yeah? Motivation or distraction?”

Natasha shrugged, her eyes flicking back to her phone as it buzzed again.

Y/n: If this is you slipping, I can’t wait to see you in top form. Maybe tonight?

Natasha’s breath hitched slightly at the invitation, her mind already racing ahead to the possibilities of your date later. She glanced over at Wanda, who was watching her with mild amusement.

Natasha: Tonight, then. I’ll pick you up. Get ready to be impressed. 😉

Wanda raised an eyebrow as she stretched her arms. “You’re really into her, huh?”

Natasha paused, glancing at her friend before nodding. “Yeah, I think I am.”

Wanda smiled, something in her expression softening. She knew how guarded Natasha could be when it came to dating, so it was a relief to see her opening up again.

"Good," Wanda said simply. "I think you two look cute together. She's a breath of fresh air."

"Yeah," Natasha agreed. "She's different."

Wanda's smile grew wider. "You're different with her."

"Different how? I mean you've only seen us together once," Natasha wiped her brow again.

"Just different, a good different. You've got that glow that you used to have when you and Carol were first starting." Wanda pointed out. "You know before shit hit the fan."

"Hmm, maybe. We'll see." Natasha took a swig from her water bottle. "She's cool. She's secure in herself which is a pretty huge deal. It doesn't come across as cocky or anything."

"That's important. Especially in our field." Wanda nodded.

Natasha smiled to herself as she thought about the last time you’d kissed her goodbye. Your lips had tasted like mint toothpaste, your hands gentle and warm against her skin. It was such a simple thing—just a goodbye kiss—but it had stayed with her all day. She couldn’t wait to spend more time with you tonight.

"Well, I’m happy for you," Wanda said, breaking Natasha from her thoughts.

"Thanks," Natasha replied, feeling her cheeks warm as she thought about you again. "I'm... happy too."

It was true. Happy wasn’t a word Natasha often used to describe herself when it came to relationships. Her past romances had always been complicated, intense, and full of drama. It was almost a given that things would eventually blow up—whether it was her fault or the other person’s. But with you? It felt different.

She wanted it to be distinguishable.

For once, Natasha didn’t want a relationship that was marked by chaos or suffocating intensity. She didn’t want someone who would cling to her or become overly dependent, and she didn’t want to lose herself in someone else’s need for attention or validation. She’d been there before—too many times—and it always ended with someone getting hurt, usually her.

But with you, it felt like things could be... simple. Easy, even.

You weren’t trying to force your way into her life or demand all her time. You didn’t seem interested in changing her, and you weren’t fazed by her fame or reputation. If anything, you were the one who kept a distance from the spotlight, which Natasha found both refreshing and grounding. She liked that you had your own life, your own career, and your daughter to focus on. You didn’t need her to complete you.

That’s what Natasha craved—someone who wanted her but didn’t need her in the way that had always made her feel trapped before. She wanted love, yes, but not the kind that suffocated. She just wanted something real, something healthy. She wanted to feel safe and comfortable, the way she already did with you.

For the first time in a long time, Natasha felt like this could work. It was early, sure, but she couldn’t help but hope that maybe this time things would be different. Maybe this time she wouldn’t screw it up.

She glanced at her phone again, re-reading your last message. Her heart did that annoying little flip it had been doing more often these days, and she chuckled to herself.

***********

You stood in front of the mirror, staring at the dress you’d just slipped into, second-guessing yourself for what felt like the tenth time in an hour. It was a deep burgundy, with a flattering neckline, but was it too much? You tugged at the hem, frowning.

“I don’t know about this one,” You muttered, glancing over your shoulder at Monica and Isabella, who were both sitting on your bed, staring at you with varying levels of judgment.

Monica leaned back against the headboard, arms crossed. "It’s cute, but it feels a little... formal."

"Yeah, Mom," Isabella added, making a face. "It’s like you’re going to a wedding."

You sighed dramatically, turning back to the mirror. "Why is this so hard?" you grumbled, tossing your hair over your shoulder. "It’s just a date."

Isabella giggled, swinging her legs back and forth. "Not just any date. It’s Natasha Romanoff!"

Monica snorted. "Right? Rockstar extraordinaire."

You rolled your eyes, walking over to the closet and grabbing another dress off the hanger. "She’s just... Natasha," you said, trying to sound casual, but the butterflies in your stomach betrayed you. The truth was, Natasha wasn’t just any date. She had a way of making you feel both grounded and completely out of control, and that was terrifying.

Monica raised an eyebrow, a smirk tugging at her lips. "Uh-huh. Keep telling yourself that."

You tossed the burgundy dress on the bed and slipped into a simpler black one. “Okay, how about this?” you asked, turning to face them again.

Isabella tilted her head, considering it. “Better,” she said. “But... kind of boring.”

Monica nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it’s cute, but you can do better. You’re going on a date with a rockstar, not attending a PTA meeting."

You huffed, pulling the dress off and tossing it aside, feeling a mix of frustration and nervous energy. "I just... want to look good," you admitted. "Not too overdressed, not too underdressed. Just right."

Monica smiled gently, getting up from the bed and walking over to your closet. "You’re overthinking it," she said, flipping through the hangers. "Natasha likes you, right? So whatever you wear, she’s going to think you look great."

You sighed, sitting down on the bed next to Isabella, who leaned against you, her little arm wrapping around your waist. "You think so?"

"Definitely!" Isabella chirped. "Plus, you always look pretty, Mama."

You kissed the top of her head. "Thanks, baby."

Monica finally pulled out a deep green two-piece pantsuit, simple but elegant, with just the right amount of edge. "What about this one?" she asked, holding it up.

You stared at it for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Yeah... I like that one."

Monica tossed it over to you with a grin. "Perfect. Now go get ready so I can get the scoop later."

You laughed, slipping into the outfit and smoothing the top down over your belly. "You’re not getting any scoop."

"We’ll see about that," Monica teased, winking at Isabella, who giggled.

As you slipped on a pair of heels and checked your reflection one last time, Isabella tugged at your hand. “Mom?”

“Yeah, sweetheart?”

"Do you like Natasha?" she asked, her voice innocent but curious. "Like... like like her?"

You paused, looking down at your daughter’s wide eyes. Monica raised an eyebrow, waiting for your response. It was a fair question, and one you’d been asking yourself a lot lately.

"I do," You finally said, feeling a little nervous saying it out loud. "I really do."

Isabella smiled. "Good. I think she likes you too."

You chuckled, smoothing a hand over her hair. "Yeah? You think so?"

Isabella nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! I saw the way she looked at you when she came over last time. She was smiling a lot."

Monica smirked from the corner of the room. "Out of the mouths of babes..."

You laughed, trying to ignore the way your heart fluttered at Isabella's words. Was it possible Natasha was already falling for you too?

A knock on the door made you jump, and Isabella squealed, running towards the door. "She's here!"

You took a deep breath, smoothing the front of your shirt and trying to calm your nerves. "Tell her I'll be right there."You called after her.

Isabella was more than happy to answer the door for Natasha. She swung it open with gusto, Bear hot on her tail, as she greeted the woman.

"Hey," Natasha said with a big smile.

"Hi, Natasha," Isabella said with a toothy grin. "Mama's almost ready. You can come in." She leads Natasha over to the living room and sits across from her on the couch. "Before she comes out I want to ask you a few questions."

Natasha was taken aback in an amused sort of way. "Questions?"

"Yup," Isabella said, a serious look on her face. "If my mom makes you mad, are you gonna write a mean song about her?"

Natasha had to hold back her laughter. She loved Isabella's forwardness and honesty. It was refreshing. "No. I don't write songs about people I care about. Plus, I'm not sure your mom could ever make me mad."

"She has her moments," Isabella shrugged. "Another question, Why do you like my mom? Not just for her body or her money or anything. I've been reading a lot of old school magazines lately and I have all of the information."

Natasha bit her lip and cleared her throat. "Uh, well, your mom is very kind and sweet. She's smart, and she has a really good sense of humor."

"And you're not using her for money?"

"Of course not."

Isabella seemed satisfied with her answers. She nodded. "Okay. Good. I like you, Natasha."

"Thanks, kiddo. I like you, too," Natasha chuckled.

"Do you think I could score backstage tickets to your next concert? I promise I'll behave."

"Isabella..."

Isabella rolled her eyes at your stern tone as you rounded the corner. "Fine." She sighed.

"Hey," You said softly, walking up to the pair, a small smile on your lips.

"Wow." Natasha breathed, taking in the sight of you. You looked incredible. "You look... good."

"Thank you so do you," You leaned into her embrace when she stood to kiss you on the cheek. You subtly glanced at her outfit, glad that you'd picked your casual one too. Natasa's dark denim jacket draped effortlessly over a loose white t-shirt. She wore Black skinny jeans, slightly distressed at the knees, and hugged her legs, giving her a subtle edge without trying too hard. Clean white sneakers grounded her look. A simple silver chain glinted at her collarbone, and her hair fell in tousled waves around her face, giving the impression that she hadn’t overthought any of it—yet still managed to look effortlessly striking.

"Thank you," Natasha said.

"You're welcome," You hummed as you pulled back from the hug, the scent of her perfume filling your nose.

"Okay, we'll be fine, Mama." Isabella gave a thumbs up. "Go have fun. Don't stay out too late."

You laughed. "We'll try not to," you promised. "And no ice cream past ten, okay?"

"Okay," Isabella rolled her eyes.

"Don't forget Bear's walk," you added.

"Mama," Isabella whined. "We got this. Go!"

"Alright, alright," You chuckled, turning to Natasha. "Ready?"

"Lead the way," Natasha smiled.

"Have a good time, ladies!" Monica called as the two of you made your way out the door.

Natasha held your hand as the two of you walked to the car, her fingers rubbing your knuckles soothingly.

"So where are we going?" You asked, glancing over at her.

Natasha grinned, squeezing your hand. "It's a surprise."

"Oh, a surprise?"

"Yup," She said. "Wait," She said just before opening the door. You turned to face her questioningly. She leaned forward, pressing her lips gently against yours.

Your heart skipped a beat at the unexpected move, and you let yourself sink into the kiss, savoring the way her lips felt against yours. It was soft and sweet.

"I figured you wouldn't want to do that in front of your daughter," Natasha mumbled awkwardly.

You laughed, resting your hands on her shoulders and pecking her lips again. "That was very thoughtful. Are you really not going to tell me where we are going?"

"I could tell you, but where's the fun in that?" She smiled, opening the car door and ushering you inside. As the car rolled down the busy streets, you found yourself stealing glances at Natasha. The way she carried herself, with a mix of confidence and ease, was enchanting. Her posture was relaxed but commanding, and even the simple act of driving seemed to radiate a kind of effortless cool.

The radio played a mix of tracks that Natasha had curated—a blend of classic rock and some modern hits that seamlessly complemented her edgy style. You could see the genuine enjoyment on her face as she sang along to the lyrics, her voice harmonizing effortlessly with the tunes. It was moments like these that made you appreciate the depth of her passion for music and the way it intertwined with every part of her life.

As the car pulled up to the restaurant, Natasha turned to you with a soft smile. "Hope you like this place. I've been wanting to check it out for a while."

You read the giant side on the outside of the building, The Cooking Institute.

"Cooking classes?" You guessed aloud. Natasha glanced over at you.

"I hope that's okay," She said quickly, suddenly a bit unsure of her plan. "I know it's a little unconventional, but I figured it could be fun. If not, we can just grab a drink somewhere or-"

"Natasha," You cut her off, resting a hand on her knee. "It's perfect."

Her shoulders relaxed, and she gave you a relieved smile. "Great. I'm glad."

You were soon ushered inside by an eager host, who led you to a spacious kitchen, equipped with every cooking appliance imaginable. You expected to see more guests inside of the space but instead only found an instructor.

"Welcome to Cooking Institute," The woman, who appeared to be in her mid-40s, greeted the two of you with a warm smile. "My name is Lisa. We're so excited to have you."

"Is this only for us?" You questioned Natasha.

"I rented it out for the night," She shrugged. "So, we could have some privacy."

You nodded, appreciating the gesture.

Lisa clapped her hands together. "Well, I'll let you two get settled and we can get started." She gave the pair of you a thumbs up and made her exit, leaving the two of you alone in the kitchen.

"So," You glanced over at Natasha. "What's the plan here?"

"Well," She grinned. "We're going to cook some food."

"Gee, I never would have guessed," You teased. "But what kind of food?"

Natasha's eyes twinkled with amusement. She leaned against the counter, her excitement barely contained as she outlined the evening’s menu. "Alright, here’s the plan," she said, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.

"We’re starting with a Classic Wedge Salad—simple, and something I can make with no problem." She paused, savoring the anticipation. "Next up, we’ve got Cheesy Potatoes Au Gratin." Natasha’s smile widened, clearly proud of the menu.

"And then," she continued, "we’re making Oscar-Style Beef Filet. It’s a bit fancy but worth it." She chuckled at the look of awe on your face, clearly pleased with herself. "So, ready to get cooking?"

You nodded, laughing. "This sounds amazing. Let's do it."

As the night progressed, the two of you quickly fell into a comfortable rhythm. It was easy, being around her, and the conversation flowed naturally. The host led you both to your designated cooking station, complete with all the utensils and ingredients needed for the evening’s menu. Natasha's eyes sparkled with anticipation as she glanced around, her enthusiasm contagious. You could see the genuine pleasure on her face, which made you smile even more.

"How do you like your steak?" You asked.

"Medium rare," She said.

You nodded. "Same. This looks so amazing. I can't wait to taste it."

"Me too," Natasha admitted, glancing over at you. "I love a good steak."

You smiled, shaking your head in amusement. "Of course you do."

"What?" She chuckled.

"Nothing," You said. "It's just... you're very cool, Natasha Romanoff."

She grinned, leaning closer to you. "Well, thank you. That's very sweet."

You bit your lip, feeling a blush creeping up your neck.

"See, blushing," Natasha said smugly.

You nudged her, trying to hide your grin. "Stop it."

She smiled, her eyes softening. "Never."

As the meal came together, you were surprised by how much fun you were having. It turned out your cooking ability was light years beyond Nataha's. Which wasn't that surprising. It's not like she had a child to cook for or anything.

"Nope. You've got it all wrong," You said, trying to keep a straight face.

"What?" Natasha looked at you, perplexed.

"The salt, Natasha," You chuckled. "You need a lot more salt."

"Are you sure?" Natasha looked down at her mashed potatoes.

"Yes, I'm sure," You replied, trying not to laugh. "You can't eat those."

"Aw," Natasha frowned.

"It's okay baby," You assured her, patting her shoulder. "I'm here to help."

Natasha grinned. "Okay, Chef."

You smiled, leaning over and kissing her on the cheek. "You're cute."

"Thank you," Natasha said.

"Alright, enough messing around," You declared, picking up the wooden spoon. "Let's keep this going." As you both continued to cook, the kitchen became a lively space filled with laughter and playful banter. Natasha's attempts at seasoning and timing were endearing, though they often resulted in humorous mishaps. The contrast between her occasional culinary blunders and your surprisingly deft cooking skills became a running joke.

Often there were times you two forgot Lisa was even there, too wrapped up in each other to notice her. Finally, your meal was finished and you both sat in the dining area to enjoy it.

"Okay, I've got to admit, that was pretty amazing," Natasha said, sipping her wine.

You smiled, savoring the bite of tender beef. "It really was. Thanks for bringing me here."

"You're welcome," Natasha said. "I'm glad you liked it."

You looked up at her, your heart beating a little faster. She was looking at you with such fondness that it made your chest ache. "So, I figured we should get to know each other a little better."

"You mean we don't already know each other well?" She smirked, referring to your night together.

You blushed. "You know what I mean. I mean, the basic stuff. What's your favorite color? Your favorite movie? Things like that."

Natasha nodded, smiling softly. "Sure. My favorite color is blue."

"Like the ocean?" You asked.

"Yeah," she replied. "What about you?"

"Green," You answered. "Like the trees."

"Interesting," she murmured. "Movie?"

"I'm a big fan of romcoms," You confessed.

"Really?" Natasha asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Yeah," You shrugged. "The Proposal. Anything with Sandra Bullock or Jennifer Lopez and I'm sold."

Natasha laughed. "Good to know."

"What about you?" You questioned.

"Well, I'm a sucker for anything with Ryan Gosling." She grinned.

"Good choice," You agreed.

"Favorite food?"

"Anything sweet," She winked.

"I can work with that," You chuckled.

"Favorite TV show?"

"That's a tough one," She paused, thinking. "House."

"Nice," You said.

"Favorite song?"

"Don't you already know?" She arched an eyebrow.

"Yes," You laughed. "But I want to hear you say it."

"Fine," She sighed dramatically. "The Scientist by Coldplay."

"You have a good taste," You mused.

"I think so," She said, winking at you.

"I like The Night We Met," You replied.

"Really?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah," You said. "It's a great song."

"It is," She agreed. "I just didn't think you had a real liking for that particular genre."

"I'm full of surprises," You wiggled your fingers.

Natasha took a sip of her wine. "Clearly."

"Okay, last one," You said. "Favorite band."

"The Beatles," She replied without hesitation.

"Nice," You said.

"They're classics," She shrugged. "Can't go wrong with them."

"That's true," You said. "I think I have a lot more to learn about you, Natasha Romanoff."

She smiled softly. "Same goes for you, Y/N, Y/L/N."

As the two of you finished dinner, the conversation shifted into a more relaxed tone.

"So," You said, leaning back in your seat. "What's next on the agenda?"

"That depends," Natasha replied. "Do you trust me?"

You grinned, your heart skipping a beat. "With my life."

"Well, then, let's get going."

As the night progressed, you found yourself growing more and more intrigued by Natasha. She was intelligent and witty and had a surprisingly dry sense of humor. Her eyes lit up when she spoke about the things she was passionate about, and it was clear she was truly a free spirit. You could see why she had risen to fame so quickly.

***************

The next stop was Echo Park’s Swan Boat line, the sight of the bustling park filled with families and couples enjoying the evening brought a smile to your face. The iconic swan boats bobbed gently on the water, their white feathers illuminated by the soft glow of park lights.

"This is beautiful," You breathed, taking in the sight.

"It is," Natasha agreed, slipping her hand into yours.

"You ready to get out there?" She asked, grinning.

"I'm a little nervous but I'll get over it," You held her hand. You joined the queue, the line stretching a bit as people chatted and waited for their turn on the boats. As you neared the front of the line, you noticed a group of teenagers in front of you. One of them, a lanky teen with a mop of curly hair, kept glancing back at Natasha with a mixture of curiosity and excitement. After a few moments, his eyes widened, and he nudged his friend, whispering loudly, “Hey, isn’t that Natasha Romanoff?”

Natasha caught their gaze and offered a friendly if slightly reserved, smile. She knew being recognized was part of her life, but she also valued moments like these where she could enjoy a quiet, semi-anonymous outing. There was a moment when both of them argued about who would talk to her before they made a choice.

The teen, gathering his courage, turned around and said with a shy grin, “Hi, um, I don’t mean to bother you, but are you Natasha Romanoff?”

Natasha chuckled softly, her eyes twinkling with amusement. “Guilty as charged. How are you doing tonight?”

The teen’s friends crowded closer, their excitement palpable. “We’re huge fans! This is so cool,” one of them exclaimed.

"Would you guys mind taking a picture with us?" Another asked, pulling out their phone.

Natasha's smile grew warmer. "Of course not. " She pulled you in close, wrapping an arm around your waist. You tried not to blush as the teens gathered around you, their phones held high.

"On the count of three, smile!" The first teen instructed. You obliged, smiling brightly as the phone flashed.

"Thank you so much," he gushed. "This is so awesome. My friends won't believe this."

Natasha grinned, giving them a wink.

"Are you guys on a date?" One of the teens, a girl with an oversized hoodie and glasses asked.

"Maybe," Natasha's eyes sparkled. "Or maybe it's just a casual hangout between friends."

You laughed, shaking your head. "I can tell you that I'm a fan of hers." You played along.

"Me too!" The girl squealed. "I'm your biggest fan, Ms. Romanoff."

"I'm flattered," Natasha chuckled. "Well, have a good night, everyone." She pulled you toward the front of the line as it was now your turn to ride.

"Thank you, Ms. Romanoff!" The girl called out. "This is the best night ever!"

"Any time," Natasha called back. You couldn't help but smile as the teens began animatedly talking amongst themselves.

"That was nice of you," You murmured.

Natasha's gaze softened. "They were sweet kids. Besides, I don't mind the occasional photo op. It's all part of the job. You ready?"

You looked at the small boat tethered to the dock, a mix of nervousness and excitement fluttering in your chest. "Is it safe?"

Natasha laughed softly. "It's perfectly safe. I promise."

With a deep breath, you nodded. "Alright, let’s do it."

You both climbed into the boat, Natasha taking the oars and maneuvering it gently away from the dock. As the boat drifted into the middle of the pond, the moonlight cast a soft glow over the water, creating a serene and almost magical atmosphere.

The gentle lapping of the water against the boat was soothing, and you glanced at Natasha, who was focused and confident as she rowed. After a few moments, she set the oars aside and leaned back, her gaze meeting yours.

"How are you holding up?" she asked, a teasing smile on her lips.

"Surprisingly well," you replied, your heart racing a little from the adventure. "This is actually kind of thrilling."

"I'm glad," Natasha grinned, reaching for your hand and squeezing it.

You gazed up at the night sky, admiring the twinkling stars and the bright moon. It was a beautiful night, and you were happy to be sharing it with her.

"I know this is a little cheesy," She started, her gaze turning soft. "But I've always loved the idea of a first date."

"I love a good first date," You chuckled. "I think you knocked it out of the park for sure." You said.

"I'm glad," She whispered. "I was hoping you'd like it."

You smiled, your chest tightening with emotion. You felt a connection with Natasha that you couldn't explain.

"So, my girlfriend..." You grinned, alluding to Natasha's introduction of herself to Sam.

"It has a nice ring to it," She laughed aloud. "I saw you fumbling and took the opportunity."

"Thank God for it," You shook your head. "I don't think I would have known what to say."

"You would have figured it out," She assured.

"Not fast enough," You replied. "I want you to be my girlfriend." You said with such confidence Natasha's head whipped over to you.

"Wait, really?" She asked. 

"Really," You nodded.

Natasha smiled, her cheeks flushed with pleasure.

"I was hoping you would," She replied.

"Well, consider me your girlfriend," You declared, feeling your stomach do flips.

Natasha's gaze met yours, and she leaned in, kissing you tenderly. The kiss was soft and sweet, filled with the promise of something more.

"Thank you," She whispered, her breath warm against your skin.

"You're welcome," You murmured, your heart pounding.

You sat in comfortable silence for a few moments, simply enjoying each other's presence.

"So," She finally spoke, her voice quiet. "Where do we go from here?"

"I guess we figure it out together," You replied, your gaze locked on hers.

"I can't wait," She said, her eyes shining.

---> next part

[fcb-mv33]

Erik van Haren, De Telegraaf, Netherlands: “Max’s qualities as a driver are beyond dispute. Just look at his consistent performance curve and the way he always challenges himself, every weekend. What I also like about him as a reporter is that as a person he is broadly the same as the 16-year-old boy I interviewed for the first time in early 2014. He is not afraid to give his opinion and really stands for something. Especially in these times, with all the reactions on social media, I really appreciate that.”

Mervi Kallio, Viaplay, Finland: “The dominance of Max Verstappen this season has been amazing. He has had the best car of the grid but he has also operated in such a great level. He is mentally so strong and the self confidence that he reflects shows that nothing can stop him. Verstappen could be a Finn – less talking, more driving. He is truly a legend already.”

Nate Saunders, ESPN, US: “Max Verstappen has been so remarkable this year. One of his standout traits is how unbothered he seems by his own greatness – at points this year it’s been as if he hasn’t really understood what all the fuss is about. Verstappen has grown into such a well-rounded driver – aggressive when he needs to be, patient at others, which hasn’t always been the case. A driver so confident in his abilities, matched with Red Bull’s car, and you have the unstoppable force we’ve seen all year.”

Ben Hunt, The Sun, UK: “There are so many highlights to pick from this season for Max but for me, the performances that have largely gone unnoticed have been in qualifying. There is a trend in the media of labelling any pole lap ‘a mega' – but his final attempt in Monaco really was. He was on the limit in the final sector around the Swimming Pool and Rascasse, hitting the barriers on two occasions, and just managed to pip Fernando Alonso. It was brilliant, edge-of-the-seat stuff.”

Mariana Becker, Rede Bandeirantes, Brazil: “When Max adopted the middle path to his emotions as a more mature road to follow in life, he made my life difficult. In his interviews, triumph is not golden, defeat is not death. Through my Brazilian eyes, it was hard to detect any sense of extra pride about his recovery from 15th to 2nd position in the grid in Miami, his unbelievable pole in Monaco, his 10 consecutive victories… For him, there is no need to overstate the obvious. But in this case, ‘Max’ is no overstatement.”

Julien Billiotte, Autohebdo, France: “Max is a genius and has been among the all-time greats in my book for a long time. Besides the obvious, I like his off-track persona, especially the way he is not afraid to speak his mind all the while remaining a fairly approachable, down-to-earth guy. Of course, Verstappen is no longer the grid’s ‘enfant terrible’. He has grown more statesman-like but you can’t help but feel an aura of contained aggressiveness around him. The newly-crowned triple world champion always makes you think twice before asking what could be a silly question. His sharp mind and quick wit won’t miss a beat and you will soon find yourself a bit rattled. Like all the top athletes, Max forces you to raise your game.”

Frankie Mao, Formula Vision, China: “I remember the first interview with him on a quiet Wednesday afternoon ahead of the 2015 Chinese GP. I was genuinely impressed by how he was so pure as a racing driver when describing the Shanghai International Circuit which he was visiting for the first time. Eight years on, despite having slightly short of 50 wins in his pocket, he remains arguably the most unfiltered driver on the grid – in his world where only racing and the ultimate victory matters. Thanks to his achievement on the track, he’s becoming that kind of role model that the new generation would look upon around the world.”

Sandra Baumgartner, Sky Sports Germany, Germany: “In addition to his exceptional talent, speed and ambition, Max now has composure, calmness and the ability to take a back seat. He still has a hot temper, but he has it under better control than in previous years. He is very popular in Germany. Of course, as a Dutchman he is our neighbour, but the Germans appreciate above all his honest and down-to-earth manner. Especially in German, his answers in interviews sometimes sound harsh, but that is simply his captivating honesty, he doesn’t embellish anything, he is simply straightforward. That’s the only thing he hasn’t changed, and I think he should stay that way.”

Jonas Hüttel, Ekstra Bladet, Denmark: “My favourite thing about Max is how straightforward he is. As just recently in Qatar when he was explaining how he didn’t want to be voted sportsman of the year in The Netherlands because such awards didn’t make sense to him. Dutch and Danes are similar that way. We are very direct. You can only admire his driving this year. It’s practically impossible to make as few or no mistakes as he has done. He will never be the most popular driver in Denmark but Max has one thing going for him. The mechanic who straps him in before each session is Ole Schack, a Danish Red Bull legend who has been with the race team since day one. We do like to see him do well.”

Steve Jones, Channel 4, UK: “Max has looked at the 2023 season with the same focus The Terminator had for Sarah Connor – utterly relentless. It’s been equal parts astonishing and terrifying seeing him lay waste to the competition. Out of the car he’s a lovely chap. In it – he’s a monster. I love it!”

Luke Smith, The Athletic, US: “What’s struck me about Max this year is just how relaxed he has been. He’s seemed more at ease than ever. I’ve enjoyed press conferences with him discussing ‘The Max Verstappen Podcast’ (and his dislike of podcasts), or Lando Norris breaking his trophy in Hungary. Even on the bad days, like in Jeddah or Singapore, he’s been calm and still a joy to chat with, still staying generous with his time. I’ve learned as much about Max the person as I have Max the racer this year. In both cases, what you see is very much what you get.”

Edd Straw, The Race, UK: “Max does extraordinary things behind the wheel of a racing car, which harnessed to his exacting relentlessness when it comes to refining it technically makes him a formidable driver. But he somehow manages to keep what can be an overwhelmingly complex sport amazingly simple, which comes over off-track with the matter-of-fact way he talks about his craft. That ability to sift what matters from the noise is at the heart of his brilliance and surely makes him one of the most single-minded and laser-focused racing drivers there has ever been.”

Roberto Chinchero, Sky Sports Italia, Italy: “Max is a pure racing talent. He has never been one of many, and never will be. This season has bored many people, especially those who expected what they had seen in the first part of 2022, but it was the same for the best F1 drivers. Opposing supporters might not love him, but at the same time they secretly dream to see him one day to drive for their favourite team.”

Phil Horton, Autoweek/New York Times, US: “From pre-season testing it was clear Max was going to win the title, but few expected it to be wrapped up so early, and with such dominant statistics in terms of victories and laps led. He has always had the raw speed, but now he has vast experience, allied with the assurance that he has long since achieved everything he wanted in Formula 1 – and more. Yet, as Red Bull boss Christian Horner outlined, he retains a voracious appetite not just to succeed but to dominate. That complete grip on Formula 1 hasn’t been entertaining, and sadly up front it has been a rather mundane season, but that’s on Verstappen’s opponents.”

Luis Vasconcelos, Formula Press/Sport TV, Portugal: “When a very gifted driver, with tremendous working ethics, gets his hands on the best car in the field and doesn’t have a team mate that can challenge him, you get what Max is doing now – complete domination of a season. With that success, we’re getting a more relaxed Max when he’s out of his car. His will to win, though, hasn’t changed, his performance in Suzuka being proof of that, as he was keen to prove Red Bull’s doubters wrong. But when things don’t go his way, we still get some flashbacks of a much younger Max – emotional, volatile and brash. He’s just 25 after all, so maturity will come with time.”

Julianne Cerasoli, UOL, Brazil: “It felt uncharacteristic to see a calm Max in Baku after being outperformed by Checo all weekend. He was happy, having understood how to get more out of the RB19. It was the first time I saw Max OK with losing. After that came 10 consecutive wins! In Qatar, he celebrated entering the triple world champion club by reminding us he can finally ‘speak in equal terms’ with his father-in-law Nelson Piquet next time he goes to Brazil. Fair.”

Albert Fabrega, DAZN, Spain: “Max has been always considered a huge talent in Spain and it is no surprise to see him winning his third world title. He has progressed a lot since his early years in F1 when he was Carlos Sainz’s team mate in Toro Rosso and he has deserved this crown more than anyone else. I can’t see any weak points in him. A lot of determination, talent, concentration and a perfect understanding of the tyres and car are a big part of his success. But like many of us, I would love to see him racing and competing elbow to elbow with the big names of the sport. He is a racer and I’m sure he is also looking forward to moments like these again.”

Michael Lamonato, Fox Sports Australia, Australia: “In a straightforward season, Verstappen has faced only one antagonist: speculation that rule changes ended his victory streak in Singapore – and, by extension, the implication his dominance was somehow unearned. But in his media call in Japan that week there was no anger or frustration; he was all calmness cool determination. Then he obliterated everyone on the track. It was a clear insight to title-era Verstappen. He doesn’t need adoration but does demand respect. And it’s respect he certainly deserves.”

Tobi Gruner, Auto Motor und Sport, Germany: “I still remember my first Interview with Max in Mexico 2015. He was a Toro Rosso rookie, still a bit shy. Short answers only. Let’s say it wasn’t the most exciting interview ever. Eight years and three titles later his answers are still short, but he’s much more confident and outspoken. Efficiency is paramount on and off the track. A pure racer. German fans appreciate his effort to talk German in the TV pen and that he prevented Lewis Hamilton from breaking Michael Schumacher’s championships record in 2021. But now he’s chasing it himself.”

Sandor Meszaros, Formula.hu, Hungary: “Max’s 2023 dominance is a historic achievement. What makes it particularly special for me is the fact that he is doing it in a natural way while after all these successes, he is still the down-to-earth guy who is always available for his fans. He has a huge fanbase in Hungary and is inspiring many youngsters for karting. Funny, that even though our Hungarian is one of the nicest and most colourful languages of the world, after all his victories this year, we are nearly out of praising words! Bravo, Max!”

Reporters on Max this season🩵

[solitaryandwandering]

Get to Know Me Tag :)

Tagged by @telomeke, thank you!! :)) My answers are not going to be as wonderfully detailed but I will try not to be boring, at least!!

Do you make your bed?

Every morning! It's the second thing I do (after cleaning my glasses, haha). I've found it to be a pretty big part of managing my depression so it's something I have to do, regardless of how tempting it is to leave blankets ready for me to crawl into

What's your favorite number?

I don't have one (numbers are my sworn enemy, after all) but it has been a bit of a thing since I was a kid that 6 is "my number" lol (for reasons I can't get into since that's way too personally identifying). 4 has been a thing, too. Maybe my OCD just likes even numbers? Don't ask.

What is your job?

Frustratingly, I've been unemployed going on four years. I'm in the midst of yet another round of job searching (which has become pretty desperate, to be honest). Discrimination against deafblind people is no joke. I do a lot of volunteer work in the meantime, running a support group and social media for a nonprofit organization.

If you could go back to school, would you?

I would like to go to graduate school for my career. Otherwise, I totally would go to school for media analysis or to take sociology classes again. But without crushing deadlines! I can imagine it now... doing projects and taking tests on my own time... the literal dream

Can you parallel park?

If you feel like risking your life and the lives of every creature and plant in the vicinity and witnessing considerable property damage, yeah I'll do it! Just put a sighted person in the passenger seat so I don't kill myself in the process.

A job you had that would surprise people?

I don't think my jobs would really surprise people? I've had a lot. My first job was as an assistant soccer referee when I was around 14. I was not very good at it but reffed a lot of games. I also was center ref for a couple tournaments (for kids, no older than ten). I looked good in the uniform but that's about it hahaha

Do you think aliens are real?

Absolutely. I'm not sure if I believe they're sentient (at least not in the way we would conceive of it) but the universe is VAST. There's no way we're the only ones. We definitely have not been visited by any, that's for sure.

Can you drive a manual car?

I understand the general theory of it, so again if you want me risk life and limb, I will. The one time I drove I think it was a semi-automatic if not fully automatic transmission.

What's your guilty pleasure?

I have OCD, I feel guilty about everything I like. But I guess right now it would be Kit Kats and Reese's, both of which I have been munching on all week. I am morally against Nestle and know Hershey's is by far inferior to properly-sourced, better-tasting chocolate but... it's not as expensive as the good stuff and... I like when things are pumpkin-shaped :(

Tattoos?

Love them!! Just not on me. I think if I didn't have the skin concerns I do (primarily, keloids run in our family) I may be way more tempted to get one or two smaller ones (and my brother has tats and is totally fine) but as I've said... I have OCD. I think in reality I would be really really freaked out by having something permanent inked into me. So I just live vicariously though everyone else, especially my best friend. They have great taste so their tattoos are very very cool and well done.

Favorite color?

I love oranges and greens, especially tangerine or a deep green.

Favorite type of music?

I have extremely eclectic taste, so it's basically whatever I'm in the mood for. My Spotify Wrapped never reflects the music I really gravitate to when I want to legitimately sit down and listen. Usually it's just on in the background as I do something else but I really enjoy intentionally focusing on a good album. Overall I'm definitely more into rock (very general, I know) than anything else, though that's not necessarily what I listen to most often. I'll listen to indie, punk, hard metal, folk, pop, electronic, hip-hop, R&B, jazz, soul, show tunes, alternative, classical, you name it. Lately I've been listening to a lot of film scores, ballads, and lighter more instrument-heavy stuff. This month's playlist had Dome Jaruwat, Howard Shore, Martin Nievera, Florist, Jewelry, T-ARA, Kim Jung Mi, TRACE & Ariel Loh, and Sade Adu, among others.

Do you like puzzles?

Yes and no. I find that dyscalculia makes certain puzzles more tedious and difficult than they should be, and that combined with ADHD makes things I should ostensibly be good at (Scrabble, for example) more frustrating than not. I don't mind jigsaws or logic puzzles though. I did Deaf Academic Bowl in high school, so I'm super into things like that (trivia, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, escape room kinds of things).

Any phobias?

Not too many. When it comes to specific phobias, I'm pretty phobic of stink bugs though that's lessened over the years, replaced by a phobia of cockroaches. I'm neutral about bugs in general but as my eyesight has declined I've become less fond of the flying ones. Same thing goes for other small creatures difficult to track. I've noticed some agoraphobia developing in the last year or so as my vision has declined so I am working on managing that along with my social anxiety.

Favorite childhood sport?

Definitely soccer. Did nineteen seasons, despite bullying!

Do you talk to yourself?

Literally all the time. Always having a conversation with myself. Caught myself on the bus earlier today having a bit too animated of an internal conversation hahaha

What movies do you adore?

This is literally the worst thing to ask me. So many movies, so little time. I do love It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! which I watch every Halloween. I say it every year, but it very well may be my favorite film score. And it's technically a TV special so... I also adore The Florida Project, Eighth Grade, Anatomy of a Fall, Bound, Minding the Gap, Rocketman, It Happened One Night, Shoplifters, Blindspotting, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse... I could go on and on and on.

Coffee or tea?

I LOVE coffee but I've been gravitating more and more to tea, probably because of the hell coffee sometimes wreaks on my digestive system.

First thing you wanted to be growing up?

I was very specific: an Olympic gold-medalist figure skater. Only because I loved watching this event so much. To be honest I don't know what the first real ambition I had was? I did wonder what it may be like to be a journalist, professional soccer player, lawyer, that kind of thing.

I am tooooo tired to tag anyone but if you want to play, here's your chance (and tag me so I can read it!!)

[dellovestorant]

I can’t lie but I’m a little bit nervous of George’s future.

It seems like Kimi is in the seat nest to him next year, but Toto has also made no secret of his desire to get Max. I have no doubt he will be booted if he’s outperformed by Kimi, and Max wants the Mercedes seat.

On the other side, I hate how Mercedes have treated him. I hate for him to lose out but if they don’t trust him they need to let him go. So conflicted

Ok I'm going to start this answer with a PSA:

If you're going to come in my ask box to doubt George's future at Mercedes based on Toto Wolff's actions and words you are not going to like my answers very much.

If George ever leaves Mercedes it will be on his own terms, not Toto's. Toto also does not hold every single decision making power within the team. If he did, Lewis would've gotten whatever he wanted with his contract contrary to the cult's beliefs. The big 3 at Mercedes Benz hold more power over driver line-ups and everything else essentially than Toto ever will.

Below the cut is a whole deep dive into the dynamics that is the board of management and their decision making power if any of you want to read.

Let's start with the fact everyone knows for certain.

Mercedes F1 team is controlled by Mercedes Benz, Toto Wolff and Ineos. They each hold 33.3% of the shares in this company.

The current board of management for the f1 team consists 2 reps from all three of the above entities. Markus Schäfer, Michael Schiebe for MB, Johnny Ginns and Andy Currie for Ineos, Toto himself and Rene Berger (Toto's business partner). Oh and Carrie Donaghy as company secretary but she's not a major player.

Ineos tbh is kinda there to just pay the amount in salaries and other things Benz didn't want to pay for. They don't actually hold much weight in driver line up decisions and will probably go with the one that causes less chaos. Jim Radcliffe is also a tad bit more focused on football than F1 at the moment and who knows if Johnny Ginns even exists. They won't fight Benz or Toto on driver line-up decisions.

So technically, it means it's Benz vs Toto 50-50 you would think when it comes to massive decisions. Not really actually.

Without Mercedes, there is no Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula 1 team. Now you may ask why Mercedes Benz is delving into the business of Mercedes-AMG (you shouldn't it's pretty much common sense).

AMG is a wholly owned subsidiary of Benz. Their current CEO, Michael Schiebe, used to be the chief of staff to Ola Kallenius, CEO of Mercedes Benz. Schiebe also currently reports to Markus Schäfer. These names sound familiar? Schiebe and Schäfer are essentially the right and left hand men to Kallenius and the 3 of them make up the big 3 I was referring to earlier.

Now they'll give and take in negotiations, this isn't a dictatorship obviously but if Ola's set on something I have a feeling it's very hard to change his mind. And currently George is performing to a standard that would absolutely not give anyone really any ammunition to replace him.

He's also continuously being used by Mercedes Benz in certain promotional things and activities entirely outside of F1. That douyin account is a right indicater of that, the chinese GP next year will be telling that's for sure. That Targa Florio drive for the Bandini Trophy? The trophy is awarded for people's performances in motorsport in the past year. Lando won the 2023 version. Take a look at his season vs George's 2022 season and tell me who should've won the 2023 trophy. And then take a look at those two's 2023 season and tell me who should've won this year. The significance of George winning the trophy this year? It's the 100 year anniversary of Mercedes' Targa Florio win, it's 130 years of Mercedes in Motorsport and a whole bunch of anniversaries for Mercedes Benz as a company. An 18 year old is not going to generate what Mercedes Benz is doing with PR, at least not to the level George is. He might match George with the F1 team's social media activity but not Mercedes Benz. We're talking about the company that has had Roger Federer as an ambassador since 2008 and will continue to have him as an ambassador.

The board is also quite protective of George if you've noticed. They've let publications run their mouths about Kimi's testing results however they like until they started reporting the kid was beating George's times. Then Shov came out and said like 3 times testing times are not that representative. The whole email saga came out in Canada and who turns up in Barcelona for the very next race? Ola.

Schäfer and Britta Seeger (now she's a woman you just have to stan) were also in Monaco. You won't see Michael Schiebe at an F1 race anytime soon though that man is allergic to dealing with anything motorsport related in public yet they've just put him in charge of another racing company.

That recent post by Mercedes F1 with Ola appearing in Brackley and Brixworth? It could be entirely planned but considering what had just happened and the fact Ola has not being placed in center stage of Mercedes F1 socials in like ever, it's an interesting appearence to publicise for sure (why that man was talking batteries though to people at Brackley I do not know and frankly I doubt I would want to).

Like I said, if George is not at Mercedes anymore, it would be entirely at his discretion. Plus if he leaves, Redbull is going to be right there knocking on his door regardless of their junior drivers. Just take a look on how Christian Horner and Helmut Marko speaks on and of George.

Also why do people keeping thinking Kimi will get outperformed by George? Have some faith please guys.

[theladyofbloodshed]

Hi. I really admire your writng and love all your fic very much. Really,as a reader i cant wrap my head around how incredible your writing are. But as a fellow writer, it got me thinking how you balance your day working-personal life-reading-writing. I just enter corporate life and it was exhausting. How do you manage your time to write and is it hard for you to keep your interest in writing while working?

Thank youu and no, i think your chrismast deco look very beautiful. If I visit your house i would love staying around the tree with a dim light and a warm tea.

Thank you so much for the message. That's incredibly kind of you. You are welcome for a cup of tea any time!

I will break down my day under the read more.

05:40 - partner wakes up for work (waking me up) 06:10 - partner leaves for work and I get up 07:00 - in the car to work 07:30 - at work. I don't get paid until 08:30 but I literally would not be ready for the kids if I came in at that time, plus I'm already awake (and definitely a morning person). I'm usually alone in the class until around that time so I tend to have an audiobook on while I'm getting the class ready. I teach in a different classroom every single day, so I have to be organised. 16:00 - finish work 16:30 - home for a cup of tea and usually go on social media/write 18:00 - cook dinner which usually takes about an hour After that, I either spend time with my partner, read, or write. The only day I haven't written something was when I had to be at work until nearly 9pm for a halloween party, but generally, I write every single day. I will be honest in that I don't really have a social life. I've only really got one friend and she lives 60 miles away. I cancelled my gym membership because I hate going after work in winter and I've been so ill for the last couple of months that it was a waste of money. At the weekends, my partner and I might go to a coffee shop or a walk, but most of the time I am writing. It's nothing I have to force. I look forward to writing every single day. If I found it a chore, I wouldn't do it. Sometimes, I am super tired from work too and have a low output, but in those times I'll lay on the bed or take a bath with some music on and still be imagining scenarios. If you are exhausted, don't push it. If I've imagined a scene enough then I know exactly how it will play out to make the writing easier. My brain almost thinks in a writer mode now, like instead of seeing the scene, I'll also be narrating it.

I am constantly thinking about my writing. When I drive, I am imagining scenarios/dialogue. If I go for a walk alone, my headphones are on to dissociate and imagine. For me, it's all consuming. Weirdly, none of my new colleagues know I have any books and I've just mentioned it in passing to my family because we're not close and they don't really care. Even my partner has no clue about character names or anything because he hasn't read them. It's got to the point where I have RSI in my hand from typing so much. Today, I've written about 5000 words and have written 100k words for a single book since October.

It is hard for me to switch off sometimes. I do wonder if I have some sort of ADHD because I have to be doing something at all times. When I'm at work for my planning time, I'm usually doing all 8 jobs on my to do list at the same time, like this page is loading so I'll start this email then go back to that lesson plan then reply to that other person. I cannot just sit and watch tv, I either have to be sewing, or writing by hand, or typing. The only time I do nothing is when I sleep lmao. I've always been that way though.

In terms of reading, I've really struggled this year. Most books have been 2/3 star reads for me - which is really unlike me. I'm usually super generous with 5 stars. I've had to force myself to sit and read a lot because I'll just scroll on my phone otherwise when I'm bored.

I wish I had kids, but I don't, and thankfully my partner also cooks and cleans so if its his turn to cook, I can carry on writing. Sometimes it has caused arguments so I try to make a conscious effort to put my laptop down and spend quality time together. Writing is just everything to me. I love it. It's all I ever want to do. But, I'm also not a night person, so my laptop is usually off before 9pm and I'm asleep by half past 9 nearly every night ha.

[ivyblossom]

I have some additions and corrections to add to this.

First off:

"Tell me about yourself."

This is a terrible interview question and I am side-eyeing any hiring manager who asks it. If the hiring manager is a dick, it might be a way to get you to disclose things they can't legally ask you.

Things to never disclose:

your age

your religion (or lack thereof)

your marital status or partner (straight people talk about their spouses at great length and detail in interviews, in my experience)

your living arrangements

your family relationships

Debt or financial situation generally (including student loans)

Your sexuality (sorry, as a lesbian I empathize and see the need for openness and freedom, but if they're asking this question they might be dicks, don't risk it)

whether or not you have children

whether or not you are pregnant, or are trying to get pregnant

any disabilities, health issues, or mental health issues

whether or not you own a car or know how to drive a car, if not relevant to the job

If they aren't assholes trying to get you to disclose information they aren't entitled to and they're asking this question thoughtlessly, what they're doing is trying to break the ice and give you a warm up question, but the answer doesn't really count unless you say something disqualifying, like "I like to edit video from my hidden staff bathroom cams".

Don't reiterate what's on your resume. They have your resume in front of them. If that makes you nervous, say upfront that you're not going to reiterate your resume since they have that already. This question is a request for information about you that makes them feel like they're getting to know you. Like a bio on a social media profile.

They aren't entitled to information about you personally, so I would turn to the non-relevant parts of your history that don't make it to your resume but highlight your skills and qualities, and adds personality to you as a candidate. Stuff like "I'm from X city (only if this isn't a nightmare minefield, it sometimes is), I used to be a competitive diver, I taught myself Python for fun, I have a degree in X, I focused on Xa sub-topic, I volunteer at X Film Festival and I love cinema, I worked at a Starbucks in high school and find that experience surprisingly relevant in almost every job I've had since, and I'm happy to meet you today."

I'd write notes for this kind of mini bio ahead, frankly. That's always going to come in handy for the rest of your life. Mainly what results of these kinds of answers is that you demonstrate that you can manage small talk. It's a stupid question, I wouldn't ask it.

As with an exam, when you get asked a question, answer the question. They want to know about you? Tell them about yourself. On your terms. Just keep it short.

"Why are you interested in this company/position"

The reason they're asking this question is that they want to see if you understand where you are and what the job is. Did you read the job description? Do you look at their website? Did you prepare for this interview?

I can't tell you how many times a candidate will fail to answer this question and will just default to talking how they think they're a good fit for the role without ever giving any indication that they know what the role actually is. I've seen people do this when their skills and experience aren't even close to a match. That might feel safe, but it doesn't help you. They're not asking why they should be interested in you: they want to know what you are interested in this role. So answer that question.

People often think this is a good place to say something like "I hear this is a great workplace!" If it's actually true certainly say so with a specific example of how you've heard it's great, but saying it to sound flattering just lands like a lie. It's enough to say that this kind of work is what you want to do next, and some part of the role is an area you want to grow in. You are demonstrating that you understand what the role is and you know which org you're interviewing with.

I have seen candidates say that they applied for a role because they really want to do X when there is no X in the job whatsoever. Doing X in the job would be not doing the job. This is why this question exists: show the committee that you understand what the job is.

I would always default to talking about what interests in you that particular role rather than the org. It's specific, and it doesn't telegraph that you intend to get into the org and then move around to a different position as soon as you can.

If the role is exactly the same as one you've done before, in the same industry and unit but with a different company, you're going to have to explain why the move. It could just be "ready to try something new/meet new people", but most roles have something different you can point to, so lean on that. You can say that tasks a, b, and c are areas of strength for you with these novel differences (a, b, c). "This is a lot closer to where I live and I'd like to be able to come into the office regularly" is a damn fine reason to jump orgs, and I think most employers would be thrilled to hear if someone is willing to be on site.

If there are brand new tasks in the job description, that's easy: point to those and say, "these are areas I've had limited opportunities with so far, but I've enjoyed this kind of work in the past, and I want to do more of it." These all answer the why question specifically without making you perform a fake dedication to their mission statement.

"What are you looking for in a new position"

I disagree with the advice to answer with what they brag about. This is another attempt to see whether you actually read the job description, and whether you understand the differences between this job and your past experience: presumably you applied for this job because there's something in it you're willing to do for money, so tell them what that is.

Pinpoint pieces of the job description and talk about how that work in particular is something you want to continue to develop your skills in. Is there some supervisory work there? Great: I want to get more supervisory experience. Project management? Working with the public? Or something like, "in my current role I'm limited to working within my own unit, but I can see in this role that there's a requirement to reach beyond that and collaborate with a lot of other units regularly, and I really like that, it sounds it a lot more varied." It's specific, not blowing smoke, and it say something positive about you.

"Tell me about a time when you had a problem with a co-worker"

I could not disagree more with the answer suggested here: "tell me about a time when there was a minor, non-offensive disagreement with co-worker that you resolved quickly in a positive way".

If you answer like that, what I will glean from your answer is that you lack experience facing genuine workplace conflict, or you aren't comfortable acknowledging your mistakes, both of which are red flags.

I saw a candidate once describe a conflict between other staff members where it was pretty clear that the candidate had actually caused the conflict. It would have been a perfect example to share, an A+ answer if she had pointed out that her actions had inadvertently created the conflict, how she stepped in and acknowledged that, apologized, and worked with them to resolve it. But she thought she was just an observer, demonstrating that her judgement and self-awareness were poor.

Stories where someone else is being dick and you were just standing there putting up with it make you look like an asshole and a bad colleague, because you are characterizing a co-worker as an objective dick, demonstrating zero empathy or curiosity for their motives or context. Objective dicks definitely exist, but they aren't great examples for answers like this. Pick something where you thought you were doing something helpful for colleagues you respect, but then your actions had side effects you didn't see coming and caused conflict, and talk about how you how took responsibility for your contribution to the conflict and learned from it.

It might seem counterintuitive, but one of the fastest ways to get people to trust you is to tell them you fucked up. They don't think, "oh, no, here's a person who fucks up!" Everyone fucks up. What they actually think is, "oh, here's a person who recognizes when they fuck up, will tell me about it, and takes responsibility for fixing it. Cool."

"Tell me about the latest project you worked on"

This is a silly question too. I'd offer a short description the latest project and if it's not relevant enough, I'd offer another one to tell them about and let them choose. but that's a good opportunity to talk about a project and point out a thing you learned that you're taking with you. Like, "latest project is X, we learned halfway through that we left out a relevant partner who gave us some feedback that completely changed the project for the better, that was a good reminder to make sure we know who all the relevant partners are and consult thoroughly before getting started on building." "Tell me about a project" is not good interview question guidance, but you can shape it to share that you're a person who is curious, intelligent, and that you are always learning and growing.

Always come prepared with 3 questions for them. Not having questions is a red flag. My personal favourite is confrontational, so use it at your own risk: I ask where they think I would struggle in this role. It gives me an opportunity to address any concerns they have directly. I agree that "what does a typical day look like" is a great question. Common is "what do you like best about working here?" which is non-threatening most of the time.

Go get that job!

[cleverhottubmiracle]

Seven years into her career, much of Alex Cooper’s lore has been well documented. But for those who don’t know, a quick rundown: the former Division 1 soccer player turned "Call Her Daddy" podcaster and Unwell founder, got her start at Barstool Sports with a co-host who, in a much-publicized and contentious breakup, eventually broke off to do her own thing. Cooper left Barstool, taking the podcast to Spotify for a big money deal, then to SiriusXM for an even bigger money deal—and she brought her Unwell Network of podcasts to the radio behemoth with her. Today, she announces her next steps for SiriusXM domination: Unwell Music—a channel of tunes curated by Cooper and friends; and Unwell On Air—a channel with daily live programming, including a place for faithful listeners (the Daddy Gang) to call in and join the conversation with the radio hosts, and once a week, Cooper herself. And let's not forget that just last month, she launched Unwell Hydration, a line of electrolyte drinks.I’m not an OG Daddy Gang member, but I’ve tracked Cooper’s goings-on for a few years now. I clocked the Vogue wedding article. Watched some moments from the 2024 Summer Olympics. Laughed as clips from interviews with celebs like Love Island’s Leah Kateb, Gywneth Paltrow, and Jojo Siwa hit my social media feeds at every turn. I may not have known about "Slim Shady" or "Mr. Sexy Zoom Man" (eventually revealed to be husband, film producer Matt Kaplan) but you’d have to have your head buried in the sand to miss that she’s got that business acumen and unflinching drive, combined with a certain X-factor, that gets you to the top. It would be simple—and frankly, uninspired—to chalk it up to being skinny and blonde. Those things will only get you so far. I needed to know more.But I wasn’t supposed to interview Alex Cooper. Our teams had initially agreed to do something different—turn the mic back on the host and have former "Call Her Daddy" guests ask her a few questions. What's the most rockstar thing you've ever done? What's your superpower? Lasagna or chicken parmesan? Unexpectedly—or now that I’ve spent more than an hour getting to know Cooper—perhaps expectedly, we’d have to switch courses at the last moment to something more Cooper’s speed. “I do think anyone around me in business would say, Alex Cooper is tough to work for because she will not bend if it does not make sense for her and her brand and her audience,” Cooper, 30, tells me during our interview, speaking about her management style. It’s a stick-to-itness that as a woman who is used to calling the shots here at Marie Claire as the editor in chief I find simultaneously kind of annoying, and also respect. Trusting herself, Cooper intimates, is key. “I know what's best for me. I will listen to people and I will sit in rooms and I will go back and forth and have good dialogues, but my gut has mostly never been wrong.”David Koma top, skirt; Alexis Bittar earrings, ring(Image credit: Joelle Grace)When we speak on Zoom, Cooper joins me on a Friday morning in January, hair wet, sitting at a desk with a perfectly made bed behind her, “It's chaos, always,” she tells me laughing. “I’ve literally been on the phone I think with six people already this morning.”I’m not surprised. Time is money when you’re building an empire(s) and there are only so many hours in the day. The energy is palpable. Me volleying questions, and Cooper answering back like a non-stop game of pickleball. Some may have found this to be overwhelming. I found it to be exhilarating. “I understand a calm, loving, more quiet woman is easier to digest,” Cooper says, “but I want future generations to easily be able to acknowledge and lift up other women that are going for it and are going toe-to-toe in moments with the men and are making conversations. That's all I want to do is create conversations.”As the minutes ticked on, I’d venture to say that both of our guards came down, making way for two decidedly ambitious women who ask questions for a living to discuss everything from why Cooper’s sick of being compared to Joe Rogan and Howard Stern, to how she regains her confidence when it falters. What has it been like for Cooper to enter this new era of running the show; calling the shots and building something new? Something Cooper said has stuck with me, and I replayed in my head for days after we spoke. “I don't think we've cracked the code on how to embrace and celebrate and trust women who are running companies or who are leaning into the fact that they are a boss and or an entrepreneur,” Cooper says. I think she’s right. The environments we have to work in don’t always allow for women to fully show up as their complex, nuanced self. So, while I don’t think I’ve cracked the code of Alex Cooper, over the course of 90 minutes, I felt one step closer.Get exclusive access to fashion and beauty trends, hot-off-the-press celebrity news, and more.Before we start, I want to make sure things are good with you in L.A. considering the wildfires.We have had so many family members and friends who have lost everything, but we are fine. We had multiple families staying with us—it was chaos, but in a good way. I felt like I was doing something on top of donating as much as I could. It's just been horrific.It's been really devastating to watch from New York, but I'm happy that you're good and that we have this opportunity to talk today. I want to kick things off with everything you've got going on right now. You're entering a new era with the Sirius XM deal, Unwell Music, Unwell On Air, and the tours. How would you describe this moment in your career?My entire career has really been me making decisions for my audience, the Daddy Gang. I've always wanted to give them more content and more of the world that I'm creating, so this new partnership with SiriusXM has allowed me to expand creatively. What I’ve been losing sleep over every night for the past few years is, How do I feed them? How do I give them the biggest, heartiest dinner that it can possibly have and then dessert and then more. It’s a dream come true that I'm now able to expand format wise.Tell us a little bit about Unwell Music and Unwell On Air. We already have these long, deep conversations on "Call Her Daddy," sometimes fun, sometimes intense, but I was trying to think, how do I literally be a part of their lives every single day? And I like to pregame with my friends to music. When you're working out, when you're in college, when I was studying for a test, I was a music person. Every part of my life has music involved and I was like, How do we not have our hands in any capacity in something music oriented?I will be curating these songs and I'm also talking to the Daddy Gang about why I chose certain songs. Unwell On Air will be these live shows that are happening every single day. The first show is "The Daily Dirty," which will be four women talking, and every week I will join in one day.The other show I'm very excited about is called "Dialed In." My audience will actually be able to call in and ask for advice. I can already tell the Daddy Gang are characters, so I know that they're going to be excited to show up and give their stories.Hearing you talk about all of these things, my first thought is this idea of balance—and not in the like, women-can-have-it-all sort of way, but more literally. How do you handle everything that's on your plate at any given time?I think most entrepreneurs can relate. Once you get your product up and running, there's nothing better than when you know you can go in a different direction and know that that product is still moving and still operating because you sat for long enough to make sure that the wheels will never fall off. Technically, I’ve waited so long to expand. I've always wanted to do these things, but I think I've learned to be patient. Seven years ago, I would've loved to start a podcast network, but was waiting for the time.Dolce & Gabbana dress, sunglasses; Lié Studio earringsYou told Forbes that you love pressure. What do you love about pressure? How do you not crumble? I don't know my life without pressure. I probably put it on myself, even when it's a nice casual Tuesday and the birds are chirping and there's nothing to do. I’ve always wanted to be the best because I'm just very competitive with myself. I think I have this innate instinct within me; I literally get off on it.Building this media company—I did not go to school for this. My husband being my business partner, I think people are probably like, Are you guys fucking insane that you guys work together? He is handling a different side of the business. I am mostly all creative and he is handling the brand partnerships and the IP extensions and all of the things that are really business heavy.He's so creative, but we've had to decide when we overlap. We have the most fun when we come home from work and we pour ourselves a whiskey and download each other. It's this incredible creative session. It's a high, when as I call it with my team, we cracked the code. We did it, we figured it out. That's my high.What does turning off look like for you?It's something I'm working on constantly. My therapist always says take a bath and I'm like, Can I have my phone in the bath? I know this is different for everyone, but I can't turn off too long. Interviewing someone feels like a literal muscle I need to flex. Turning off though means, for me—it's going to sound weird—but Matt and my dream is we can do a weekend or a four day vacation, if we ever get to do that, which is rare. And on those trips we always say, let's do three to four hours a day of brainstorming, because we don't actually get to brainstorm as much as we wish every day because we're in the thick of it.So what I'm hearing is brainstorming is you turning off.I know, I know. I genuinely have a lot of happiness that comes from my body when I'm able to just free flow. But turning off is not what I'm interested in right now because I don't have kids right now. This is my baby. And you don't really get to turn off when you have kids, right?No, then it really ramps up.So, this is my child. When people ask that question, I'm like, Oh, well, what do moms do? Well, I feel like I'm a mother right now.How do you think that the people who work at your company would describe you as a boss? I think they would probably say, I'm very intense and very specific about what I like. They have shared with me that they appreciate that because I know exactly what I want. I think they would say that I am kind. I never wanted to work a corporate job, so I'm always going to keep the vibes high. But I think people know if you want to play hard, you have to work hard at this company. This is a startup at the end of the day.I think they would say, I have very high expectations for people, but that's because I have very high expectations for myself. I also recognize that everyone needs to look out for themselves. I can help in any capacity, my door is always open in that sense. I hope someone at my company eventually starts a company that is a competitor of mine. If you're not trying to take my job, then I don't want you at the company. There's a fun competitive nature that's more uplifting rather than me just sitting in the corner and coming up with all the answers and they all just take orders.Being a founder and a leader right now is political. There's a lot of social change that happens in workplaces and over the past decade, we've seen this—first with the #MeToo movement, and recently with DEI initiatives, many of which are being rolled back. How do you handle that responsibility? How do you feel your role in larger cultural change exists as a boss?I'm not going to lie, it's hard. Matt and I have so many conversations about how we help company culture and how we foster a very positive and safe environment, while also staying true to the genuine integral part of who we are and why we started this company. We are trying to find the balance of infusing the intensity and the excitement of what we're building because I genuinely believe this is one of the coolest companies to work at right now. Our biggest goal for this past year was really having a cohesive culture. But there's still work to do.You've acquired podcasts and you're hiring people to start podcasts on the network. What are you looking for in the creators that you're bringing onto Unwell?Work ethic. There's so much oversaturation of content creators right now, and it's so incredible to see the way that TikTok has allowed for people to amplify their voices and to create content, but I genuinely believe long form content will always be the thing that moves the needle and that will have lasting power. The creators that I'm seeing thrive at my company are the ones that are having input in the edit process, in the pre-production, in the post-production. I'm not someone that believes in just being a talent. I'm not just interested in a podcast network. I want to help people build brands.Alessandra Rich top, pants; Alexis Bittar earrings(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)That’s really exciting to hear because I do think that there are a lot of creators from either marginalized communities or creators of color who are just looking for somebody to pay attention to them.Absolutely. I think that's been such a huge conversation specifically on TikTok that I've seen. Why is this creator getting more attention than this creator? And it's a very valid point. What does it say about our culture that certain people are rising and other people are not rising? I agree.Do you think about that when you're implementing policies within the company that you and Matt are building?Every single day. Every single day, I'm trying to gauge, how do we continue to not just build a product that we're building, but also make genuine change in people's lives? Expanding to 50 people now and bringing people together from Matt’s world and then bringing in new people from my world, we are sitting together, looking at our slate, and thinking what is the next year going to look like and how can we do better?Versace top, skirt; Lié Studio earrings; Stems tights; Roger Vivier shoes(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)When you're working with these younger creators like Alix Earle and Madeline Argy, what sort of advice are you offering them?Alix and Madeline are such different creators. With Alix, it’s interesting to think about her in a long-term format. You don't want to change Alix Earle, you want to help her amplify and also, if anything, expand and show people more of her and she's now being able to talk about more sincere topics. The podcast has enabled her to feel like she doesn't have to be as performative in moments and she can genuinely get down to what's going on that week. Madeline, on the other hand, was an absolute sheer talent of just like, This girl can talk. How does a girl not have a podcast? I basically have a system that I've created within "Call Her Daddy," and I've shifted the format per show, but I'm able to sit down with every single creator and be like, You should look at it through this lens. Without giving away my secret sauce, I think I've been able to do it for every single creator.You do have this secret sauce of course, and it's led to an amazing amount of success. I was reading in the New York Times, though, where you said success made you feel a little more insecure and that you have to prove even more that you deserve this. I'm curious if you still feel that way?In a different way. I think when I said it back then, I genuinely felt a little out of my league when I was starting Unwell. I was more of a creator than a business woman. I felt people were looking at me with like, Oh, she made all this money, but now can she convert? Now it's not insecurity, it's more an awareness of the things I can get better on. But I will say, I think in the past year running this company has given me so much confidence. I've gotten to a place where I’m not getting down on myself for things that are normal to be experiencing. Media is so hard. For a lot of people that aren't in media, you look it and think oh, it's so glamorous. Absolutely. We have such incredible opportunities and there's privilege and there's things that come from it, but it doesn't mean it's not a grind.It's a job.Yeah. This shit is not for the weak.I'm curious about who you go to for business advice. Obviously Dave Portnoy, Barstool Sports. But I'm more curious about who you're going to for business advice now. Who's the last person you called to ask them a question about business?I would say without a doubt, Matt is one of the smartest people I've ever met, and I think every single person at our company is in awe of Matt and his ability to reinvent the wheel and come up with ideas and formulate concepts that have never been done. My CMO, TJ Marchetti, is such a brilliant marketing mind in terms of marketing.Coach jacket, skirt, bag; Bonnie Clyde sunglasses; By Far bootsWhat's interesting about your career is that you're constantly surrounded by men. It feels like it's a male-dominated industry. Who are the women in your life that you feel you can really lean on? My main "Call Her Daddy" producer is my go-to every single day. I'm speaking to this woman, and she is without a doubt, my right hand. I would not be able to produce "Call Her Daddy" in the capacity that I'm doing without her. Our head of podcasting and the network is this woman Rory [Armstrong]. She is truly so brilliant in the way that she sees the evolution of this space. Our head of our brand strategy, Ashley Lewis, has been absolutely transformative for live events and our partnerships business. Matt jokes, it's Matt and TJ—and then it's all women.I want to talk shop about "Call Her Daddy" specifically. I saw a talk that you did with the New York Times and you shared that you felt that celebrities feel safe with you. I thought that was a really interesting word. Why do you think they feel safe with you?I have been on many shows—not to put other shows down—but the host is looking five inches to the right of my head and reading a teleprompter and asking me questions. It's very dehumanizing. Almost like, Wait, I don't even know if you actually knew my name. Oprah was really the first person that was actually listening and sitting and having these in-depth conversations. A lot of what I'm doing goes back to just what my mother taught me from a young age, which is making someone feel seen and heard and understood and making them feel like you actually care about what they're saying. Because I do. Yes, I care about the celebrity sitting across from me, but I also care about my audience, so I'm also trying to get as much out of them as I can for my audience because they're going to learn something today.MM6 Maison Margiela coat; Dior boots(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)What I'm hearing is it's that you get them; you understand what they want. I'm curious though, what do you think people, journalists, the media get wrong about you?I think people don't see as much—understandably because of the empire I'm trying to build—I'm a very easygoing, funny, weird person. I love to joke around. I love to have fun. As a woman in media, it's very hard to present yourself in a way that is digestible for everyone. As we know, as two women sitting here, it's very challenging to see some men in the media say things. I always joke to my friends, Imagine if I said that? I would literally be canceled. I would be considered a bitch. I would be considered an egomaniac. There's this fine line that I think I've had to tow of what I want to show and present, because I genuinely still believe, sadly, that the world thinks that women can only still be one dimensional.A lot of times, I'll see in the media I came off too brash and aggressive in the way I was speaking, but it's probably because I feel like I'm climbing an uphill battle. Every room I'm walking into is like a DealBook, just filled with men. I'm feeling like I have to be a little bit more, I have to talk a little bit harder about my business, and I have to sell it harder because everyone's going to doubt that. Whereas if Dave Portnoy is walking into a room or if Joe Rogan's walking into a room, people are just going to be more at ease with them as complex humans. Whereas if I'm at all complex, people see it as, She's fake. I don't trust her. I don't believe her. I don't think we've cracked the code on how to embrace and celebrate and trust women who are running companies or who are leaning into being a boss or an entrepreneur.You're always compared to Howard Stern or Joe Rogan. Are you tired of that comparison?I'm exhausted, more so because—I'm not saying I should ever be compared to an Oprah or a Barbara Walters or any female host or anything, but why not just lead with that? They're diminishing women who have done this before and putting the men continuously on the pedestal. I hope one day someone's asked, Do you find yourself similar to Alex Cooper? And they don't just say, Do you find yourself similar to Joe Rogan? Because it doesn't take an idiot to recognize our content couldn't be more different. It's literally night and day. Same with me and Howard Stern. I'm not shitting on them. I'm just saying it's not even in the same realm. Would a man ever be asked, Do you think that you are similar to Alex Cooper? Sadly, I don't think a man would ever be asked that. So why am I constantly being asked if I think that I'm similar to men?Totally. I want to ask you a question that you asked Jojo Siwa. Why do you think people on the internet have such strong opinions about you?I definitely think it goes back to what we were just speaking about. Even saying this, if it gets clipped on TikTok, I know it will get probably shit. But, I think people are very uncomfortable with confident women. And I am not just saying men. I think women are very uncomfortable, too. It makes me sad for women who are made to feel uncomfortable by confident women because I think it, again, just goes back to misogyny. They have been trained to not have a voice; you shouldn't speak up. A lot of what "Call Her Daddy" has done for women is encouragement; say whatever the fuck you want to say and speak up. Even if people in a room roll their eyes or you get kicked out of the room, at least you can leave with your head held high, being like, I still stand for what I believe in, and I'm not going to just shrink.I understand a calm, loving, more quiet woman is easier to digest, but I want for the future generations to be able to acknowledge and lift up other women that are going for it and are going toe-to-toe in moments with the men and are making conversations. That's all I want to do is create conversations. I hope I never shut up. We need more women leading the charge in the conversation, but we also need women to stop tearing other women down.I'm so proud of what I have accomplished and that does not make me an egomaniac and that does not make me cocky. That just means that I've worked really hard to build confidence, and as women, we should all rally together to know how fucking hard it is to have confidence as a woman.(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)What do you do when your confidence falters, though?I try as hard as I can to go back to my core values as a human being. When my confidence falters, I try to remind myself who I am and where I came from, and that little girl in Pennsylvania would have done anything to be sitting where I am and to hold my head high when people are doubting me.Let's talk about money. Everyone knows about the deal, but I'm very curious about how your relationship to it has changed now that you definitely have money. How has your perspective on money and worth sort of evolved over these last few years?Listen, no one gets into the entertainment business to make money, especially when you're on the producing side. I didn't intend to be a host. I always wanted to be a director. I always wanted to direct films, and I knew there's not, unless you are literally one of the greats, there's not that much money in that. So, for a lot of my life money was not at the forefront. But once I saw how much Barstool was making, I was like, wait, can we get a cut of that? At that point it was about just knowing your worth and fighting for that. Now, I feel so fortunate. I don't even think the word fortunate begins to encompass what I feel towards what I have because it's not lost on me that literally all of that is because of my audience.Do you feel like you've made it? Or what will need to happen for you to feel like you've made it?Open my journal and you'll read: Today, we made it. Yesterday, we didn't. Tomorrow we're fucked. I go back and forth every day. I have moments of I made it. When I sat across from the Vice President of the United States, no matter anyone's political opinions, that was wild. Being searched by Secret Service and going to D.C., that was one of those moments in my career I'll never forget. Being on the cover of Forbes is another one. I remember when I tried to put my application in be a "30 Under 30" back at Barstool and didn't get accepted, so now to be on the cover, yes, that’s an I made it moment. I don't know if I'll ever have the I made it moment in terms of creative capacity. Matt and I talk about this a lot, will we ever get to the point with our company where we're making less movies and we're just going for Academy Awards and we're just making one movie, you know what I mean? Maybe stylistic decisions that I can make at some point, will change, but I know I will always be, in some capacity, creating for the rest of my life because it's what brings me joy.You alluded to this a little earlier, but I'm curious, what keeps you up at night?I think it changes every week. Certain weeks it will be like, oh my gosh, people misinterpreted a clip from "Call Her Daddy" and I'm having to do more damage control; making sure that people know me authentically and what I’m trying to get across. I would say other times in business when I'm negotiating a deal, I'm literally in the shower, I'm brushing my teeth, I'm doing my laundry, I'm walking my dogs, I'm in bed with my husband, and every turn I'm up at night. The creative also keeps me up at night. Is the product getting too stale? Was that episode as good as it could be?Last couple of questions: What's the best piece of advice that you've ever received? And what’s the worst?I'm going to be really honest. I'm sure I have received good advice in my life, but I have no answer to this question because I feel like for so many people giving me advice is hard for someone to understand what I'm going through. The best advice I have for myself is you always have the answer, so take as much advice as you can get, but usually I'm adjusting it or tweaking it in some capacity. I've never really taken someone's advice and completely listened to it.The worst piece of advice is probably that you could restart the show and IP doesn't matter. And I want to clarify, I don't look back at that time anymore of cattiness. I genuinely look back and I'm so happy. I stuck to what I believed in during moments of people trying to convince me otherwise. I always go back to that core of trusting myself. And that goes back to the advice question. I know what's best for me, and I will listen to people and I will sit in rooms and I will go back and forth and have good dialogues, but my gut has mostly never been wrong.One more question about the podcast specifically. Who's been your toughest interview?I would say RuPaul because I wanted to impress my absolute queen. I wanted so badly to have Ru love me. Recognizing my privilege, I was so aware that I needed to show up for this person, and I needed to prove why they should be sitting with me. I worked so hard in that interview to stay toe-to-toe with them. I really wanted to garner the respect. I knew that Ru would love the show, but they just had to have a good experience.So what does being a mogul mean to you?I think being a mogul sounds like something I would put on my desk somewhere if I had a big intense desk and I was trying to be all fancy, but really it's being an entrepreneur. It's being nimble. It's recognizing that my industry can turn on a dime. It's being inquisitive, but also sticking to what I believe in. It's being very, very determined while also maintaining a sense of calmness in absolute chaos. It's being a leader to people who I want to bring along on the journey with me, but also trusting in myself in big moments and not getting too comfortable having teams behind me. I am trying to consistently also pave the way, like I said earlier, for authenticity.I do think anyone around me in business would say, Alex Cooper is tough to work for because she will not bend if it does not make sense for her and her brand and her audience. The amount of money passed up, the amount of opportunities passed up, and I welcome people trying to convince me, but I have stayed so true. Being a mogul is recognizing the complexities that come with, like I said, being a host, a personality, an entrepreneur, a leader, a business woman, a friend, a wife, a daughter. There's all of that, and trying to wrap it into one and trying to continue to push myself forward while also not losing myself and also creating new shit. I want to create new conversations. I want to create new IP. I want to create new ventures. I want to expand. I want to acquire, I want to do it all. But being patient.It all comes back to patience.Patience. Calm down, Alex.Interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Alex Cooper Is Marie Claire’s Mogul and Muse | January 2025 Cover Shoot - YouTube Watch On Photographer Joelle Grace Taylor | Stylist Sue Choi | Hair Stylist Ryan Richman | Makeup Artist Jenna Nicole | Manicurist Jolene Brodeur | Video Director Sam Schultz | DP Sam Miron | 1st AC Reece Moffett | Video Producer Kellie Scott | Production Lindsay Ferro | VP of Creative Alexa Wiley | Fashion Director Sara Holzman | Beauty Director Hannah Baxter | Entertainment Director Neha Prakash Source link

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Seven years into her career, much of Alex Cooper’s lore has been well documented. But for those who don’t know, a quick rundown: the former Division 1 soccer player turned "Call Her Daddy" podcaster and Unwell founder, got her start at Barstool Sports with a co-host who, in a much-publicized and contentious breakup, eventually broke off to do her own thing. Cooper left Barstool, taking the podcast to Spotify for a big money deal, then to SiriusXM for an even bigger money deal—and she brought her Unwell Network of podcasts to the radio behemoth with her. Today, she announces her next steps for SiriusXM domination: Unwell Music—a channel of tunes curated by Cooper and friends; and Unwell On Air—a channel with daily live programming, including a place for faithful listeners (the Daddy Gang) to call in and join the conversation with the radio hosts, and once a week, Cooper herself. And let's not forget that just last month, she launched Unwell Hydration, a line of electrolyte drinks.I’m not an OG Daddy Gang member, but I’ve tracked Cooper’s goings-on for a few years now. I clocked the Vogue wedding article. Watched some moments from the 2024 Summer Olympics. Laughed as clips from interviews with celebs like Love Island’s Leah Kateb, Gywneth Paltrow, and Jojo Siwa hit my social media feeds at every turn. I may not have known about "Slim Shady" or "Mr. Sexy Zoom Man" (eventually revealed to be husband, film producer Matt Kaplan) but you’d have to have your head buried in the sand to miss that she’s got that business acumen and unflinching drive, combined with a certain X-factor, that gets you to the top. It would be simple—and frankly, uninspired—to chalk it up to being skinny and blonde. Those things will only get you so far. I needed to know more.But I wasn’t supposed to interview Alex Cooper. Our teams had initially agreed to do something different—turn the mic back on the host and have former "Call Her Daddy" guests ask her a few questions. What's the most rockstar thing you've ever done? What's your superpower? Lasagna or chicken parmesan? Unexpectedly—or now that I’ve spent more than an hour getting to know Cooper—perhaps expectedly, we’d have to switch courses at the last moment to something more Cooper’s speed. “I do think anyone around me in business would say, Alex Cooper is tough to work for because she will not bend if it does not make sense for her and her brand and her audience,” Cooper, 30, tells me during our interview, speaking about her management style. It’s a stick-to-itness that as a woman who is used to calling the shots here at Marie Claire as the editor in chief I find simultaneously kind of annoying, and also respect. Trusting herself, Cooper intimates, is key. “I know what's best for me. I will listen to people and I will sit in rooms and I will go back and forth and have good dialogues, but my gut has mostly never been wrong.”David Koma top, skirt; Alexis Bittar earrings, ring(Image credit: Joelle Grace)When we speak on Zoom, Cooper joins me on a Friday morning in January, hair wet, sitting at a desk with a perfectly made bed behind her, “It's chaos, always,” she tells me laughing. “I’ve literally been on the phone I think with six people already this morning.”I’m not surprised. Time is money when you’re building an empire(s) and there are only so many hours in the day. The energy is palpable. Me volleying questions, and Cooper answering back like a non-stop game of pickleball. Some may have found this to be overwhelming. I found it to be exhilarating. “I understand a calm, loving, more quiet woman is easier to digest,” Cooper says, “but I want future generations to easily be able to acknowledge and lift up other women that are going for it and are going toe-to-toe in moments with the men and are making conversations. That's all I want to do is create conversations.”As the minutes ticked on, I’d venture to say that both of our guards came down, making way for two decidedly ambitious women who ask questions for a living to discuss everything from why Cooper’s sick of being compared to Joe Rogan and Howard Stern, to how she regains her confidence when it falters. What has it been like for Cooper to enter this new era of running the show; calling the shots and building something new? Something Cooper said has stuck with me, and I replayed in my head for days after we spoke. “I don't think we've cracked the code on how to embrace and celebrate and trust women who are running companies or who are leaning into the fact that they are a boss and or an entrepreneur,” Cooper says. I think she’s right. The environments we have to work in don’t always allow for women to fully show up as their complex, nuanced self. So, while I don’t think I’ve cracked the code of Alex Cooper, over the course of 90 minutes, I felt one step closer.Get exclusive access to fashion and beauty trends, hot-off-the-press celebrity news, and more.Before we start, I want to make sure things are good with you in L.A. considering the wildfires.We have had so many family members and friends who have lost everything, but we are fine. We had multiple families staying with us—it was chaos, but in a good way. I felt like I was doing something on top of donating as much as I could. It's just been horrific.It's been really devastating to watch from New York, but I'm happy that you're good and that we have this opportunity to talk today. I want to kick things off with everything you've got going on right now. You're entering a new era with the Sirius XM deal, Unwell Music, Unwell On Air, and the tours. How would you describe this moment in your career?My entire career has really been me making decisions for my audience, the Daddy Gang. I've always wanted to give them more content and more of the world that I'm creating, so this new partnership with SiriusXM has allowed me to expand creatively. What I’ve been losing sleep over every night for the past few years is, How do I feed them? How do I give them the biggest, heartiest dinner that it can possibly have and then dessert and then more. It’s a dream come true that I'm now able to expand format wise.Tell us a little bit about Unwell Music and Unwell On Air. We already have these long, deep conversations on "Call Her Daddy," sometimes fun, sometimes intense, but I was trying to think, how do I literally be a part of their lives every single day? And I like to pregame with my friends to music. When you're working out, when you're in college, when I was studying for a test, I was a music person. Every part of my life has music involved and I was like, How do we not have our hands in any capacity in something music oriented?I will be curating these songs and I'm also talking to the Daddy Gang about why I chose certain songs. Unwell On Air will be these live shows that are happening every single day. The first show is "The Daily Dirty," which will be four women talking, and every week I will join in one day.The other show I'm very excited about is called "Dialed In." My audience will actually be able to call in and ask for advice. I can already tell the Daddy Gang are characters, so I know that they're going to be excited to show up and give their stories.Hearing you talk about all of these things, my first thought is this idea of balance—and not in the like, women-can-have-it-all sort of way, but more literally. How do you handle everything that's on your plate at any given time?I think most entrepreneurs can relate. Once you get your product up and running, there's nothing better than when you know you can go in a different direction and know that that product is still moving and still operating because you sat for long enough to make sure that the wheels will never fall off. Technically, I’ve waited so long to expand. I've always wanted to do these things, but I think I've learned to be patient. Seven years ago, I would've loved to start a podcast network, but was waiting for the time.Dolce & Gabbana dress, sunglasses; Lié Studio earringsYou told Forbes that you love pressure. What do you love about pressure? How do you not crumble? I don't know my life without pressure. I probably put it on myself, even when it's a nice casual Tuesday and the birds are chirping and there's nothing to do. I’ve always wanted to be the best because I'm just very competitive with myself. I think I have this innate instinct within me; I literally get off on it.Building this media company—I did not go to school for this. My husband being my business partner, I think people are probably like, Are you guys fucking insane that you guys work together? He is handling a different side of the business. I am mostly all creative and he is handling the brand partnerships and the IP extensions and all of the things that are really business heavy.He's so creative, but we've had to decide when we overlap. We have the most fun when we come home from work and we pour ourselves a whiskey and download each other. It's this incredible creative session. It's a high, when as I call it with my team, we cracked the code. We did it, we figured it out. That's my high.What does turning off look like for you?It's something I'm working on constantly. My therapist always says take a bath and I'm like, Can I have my phone in the bath? I know this is different for everyone, but I can't turn off too long. Interviewing someone feels like a literal muscle I need to flex. Turning off though means, for me—it's going to sound weird—but Matt and my dream is we can do a weekend or a four day vacation, if we ever get to do that, which is rare. And on those trips we always say, let's do three to four hours a day of brainstorming, because we don't actually get to brainstorm as much as we wish every day because we're in the thick of it.So what I'm hearing is brainstorming is you turning off.I know, I know. I genuinely have a lot of happiness that comes from my body when I'm able to just free flow. But turning off is not what I'm interested in right now because I don't have kids right now. This is my baby. And you don't really get to turn off when you have kids, right?No, then it really ramps up.So, this is my child. When people ask that question, I'm like, Oh, well, what do moms do? Well, I feel like I'm a mother right now.How do you think that the people who work at your company would describe you as a boss? I think they would probably say, I'm very intense and very specific about what I like. They have shared with me that they appreciate that because I know exactly what I want. I think they would say that I am kind. I never wanted to work a corporate job, so I'm always going to keep the vibes high. But I think people know if you want to play hard, you have to work hard at this company. This is a startup at the end of the day.I think they would say, I have very high expectations for people, but that's because I have very high expectations for myself. I also recognize that everyone needs to look out for themselves. I can help in any capacity, my door is always open in that sense. I hope someone at my company eventually starts a company that is a competitor of mine. If you're not trying to take my job, then I don't want you at the company. There's a fun competitive nature that's more uplifting rather than me just sitting in the corner and coming up with all the answers and they all just take orders.Being a founder and a leader right now is political. There's a lot of social change that happens in workplaces and over the past decade, we've seen this—first with the #MeToo movement, and recently with DEI initiatives, many of which are being rolled back. How do you handle that responsibility? How do you feel your role in larger cultural change exists as a boss?I'm not going to lie, it's hard. Matt and I have so many conversations about how we help company culture and how we foster a very positive and safe environment, while also staying true to the genuine integral part of who we are and why we started this company. We are trying to find the balance of infusing the intensity and the excitement of what we're building because I genuinely believe this is one of the coolest companies to work at right now. Our biggest goal for this past year was really having a cohesive culture. But there's still work to do.You've acquired podcasts and you're hiring people to start podcasts on the network. What are you looking for in the creators that you're bringing onto Unwell?Work ethic. There's so much oversaturation of content creators right now, and it's so incredible to see the way that TikTok has allowed for people to amplify their voices and to create content, but I genuinely believe long form content will always be the thing that moves the needle and that will have lasting power. The creators that I'm seeing thrive at my company are the ones that are having input in the edit process, in the pre-production, in the post-production. I'm not someone that believes in just being a talent. I'm not just interested in a podcast network. I want to help people build brands.Alessandra Rich top, pants; Alexis Bittar earrings(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)That’s really exciting to hear because I do think that there are a lot of creators from either marginalized communities or creators of color who are just looking for somebody to pay attention to them.Absolutely. I think that's been such a huge conversation specifically on TikTok that I've seen. Why is this creator getting more attention than this creator? And it's a very valid point. What does it say about our culture that certain people are rising and other people are not rising? I agree.Do you think about that when you're implementing policies within the company that you and Matt are building?Every single day. Every single day, I'm trying to gauge, how do we continue to not just build a product that we're building, but also make genuine change in people's lives? Expanding to 50 people now and bringing people together from Matt’s world and then bringing in new people from my world, we are sitting together, looking at our slate, and thinking what is the next year going to look like and how can we do better?Versace top, skirt; Lié Studio earrings; Stems tights; Roger Vivier shoes(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)When you're working with these younger creators like Alix Earle and Madeline Argy, what sort of advice are you offering them?Alix and Madeline are such different creators. With Alix, it’s interesting to think about her in a long-term format. You don't want to change Alix Earle, you want to help her amplify and also, if anything, expand and show people more of her and she's now being able to talk about more sincere topics. The podcast has enabled her to feel like she doesn't have to be as performative in moments and she can genuinely get down to what's going on that week. Madeline, on the other hand, was an absolute sheer talent of just like, This girl can talk. How does a girl not have a podcast? I basically have a system that I've created within "Call Her Daddy," and I've shifted the format per show, but I'm able to sit down with every single creator and be like, You should look at it through this lens. Without giving away my secret sauce, I think I've been able to do it for every single creator.You do have this secret sauce of course, and it's led to an amazing amount of success. I was reading in the New York Times, though, where you said success made you feel a little more insecure and that you have to prove even more that you deserve this. I'm curious if you still feel that way?In a different way. I think when I said it back then, I genuinely felt a little out of my league when I was starting Unwell. I was more of a creator than a business woman. I felt people were looking at me with like, Oh, she made all this money, but now can she convert? Now it's not insecurity, it's more an awareness of the things I can get better on. But I will say, I think in the past year running this company has given me so much confidence. I've gotten to a place where I’m not getting down on myself for things that are normal to be experiencing. Media is so hard. For a lot of people that aren't in media, you look it and think oh, it's so glamorous. Absolutely. We have such incredible opportunities and there's privilege and there's things that come from it, but it doesn't mean it's not a grind.It's a job.Yeah. This shit is not for the weak.I'm curious about who you go to for business advice. Obviously Dave Portnoy, Barstool Sports. But I'm more curious about who you're going to for business advice now. Who's the last person you called to ask them a question about business?I would say without a doubt, Matt is one of the smartest people I've ever met, and I think every single person at our company is in awe of Matt and his ability to reinvent the wheel and come up with ideas and formulate concepts that have never been done. My CMO, TJ Marchetti, is such a brilliant marketing mind in terms of marketing.Coach jacket, skirt, bag; Bonnie Clyde sunglasses; By Far bootsWhat's interesting about your career is that you're constantly surrounded by men. It feels like it's a male-dominated industry. Who are the women in your life that you feel you can really lean on? My main "Call Her Daddy" producer is my go-to every single day. I'm speaking to this woman, and she is without a doubt, my right hand. I would not be able to produce "Call Her Daddy" in the capacity that I'm doing without her. Our head of podcasting and the network is this woman Rory [Armstrong]. She is truly so brilliant in the way that she sees the evolution of this space. Our head of our brand strategy, Ashley Lewis, has been absolutely transformative for live events and our partnerships business. Matt jokes, it's Matt and TJ—and then it's all women.I want to talk shop about "Call Her Daddy" specifically. I saw a talk that you did with the New York Times and you shared that you felt that celebrities feel safe with you. I thought that was a really interesting word. Why do you think they feel safe with you?I have been on many shows—not to put other shows down—but the host is looking five inches to the right of my head and reading a teleprompter and asking me questions. It's very dehumanizing. Almost like, Wait, I don't even know if you actually knew my name. Oprah was really the first person that was actually listening and sitting and having these in-depth conversations. A lot of what I'm doing goes back to just what my mother taught me from a young age, which is making someone feel seen and heard and understood and making them feel like you actually care about what they're saying. Because I do. Yes, I care about the celebrity sitting across from me, but I also care about my audience, so I'm also trying to get as much out of them as I can for my audience because they're going to learn something today.MM6 Maison Margiela coat; Dior boots(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)What I'm hearing is it's that you get them; you understand what they want. I'm curious though, what do you think people, journalists, the media get wrong about you?I think people don't see as much—understandably because of the empire I'm trying to build—I'm a very easygoing, funny, weird person. I love to joke around. I love to have fun. As a woman in media, it's very hard to present yourself in a way that is digestible for everyone. As we know, as two women sitting here, it's very challenging to see some men in the media say things. I always joke to my friends, Imagine if I said that? I would literally be canceled. I would be considered a bitch. I would be considered an egomaniac. There's this fine line that I think I've had to tow of what I want to show and present, because I genuinely still believe, sadly, that the world thinks that women can only still be one dimensional.A lot of times, I'll see in the media I came off too brash and aggressive in the way I was speaking, but it's probably because I feel like I'm climbing an uphill battle. Every room I'm walking into is like a DealBook, just filled with men. I'm feeling like I have to be a little bit more, I have to talk a little bit harder about my business, and I have to sell it harder because everyone's going to doubt that. Whereas if Dave Portnoy is walking into a room or if Joe Rogan's walking into a room, people are just going to be more at ease with them as complex humans. Whereas if I'm at all complex, people see it as, She's fake. I don't trust her. I don't believe her. I don't think we've cracked the code on how to embrace and celebrate and trust women who are running companies or who are leaning into being a boss or an entrepreneur.You're always compared to Howard Stern or Joe Rogan. Are you tired of that comparison?I'm exhausted, more so because—I'm not saying I should ever be compared to an Oprah or a Barbara Walters or any female host or anything, but why not just lead with that? They're diminishing women who have done this before and putting the men continuously on the pedestal. I hope one day someone's asked, Do you find yourself similar to Alex Cooper? And they don't just say, Do you find yourself similar to Joe Rogan? Because it doesn't take an idiot to recognize our content couldn't be more different. It's literally night and day. Same with me and Howard Stern. I'm not shitting on them. I'm just saying it's not even in the same realm. Would a man ever be asked, Do you think that you are similar to Alex Cooper? Sadly, I don't think a man would ever be asked that. So why am I constantly being asked if I think that I'm similar to men?Totally. I want to ask you a question that you asked Jojo Siwa. Why do you think people on the internet have such strong opinions about you?I definitely think it goes back to what we were just speaking about. Even saying this, if it gets clipped on TikTok, I know it will get probably shit. But, I think people are very uncomfortable with confident women. And I am not just saying men. I think women are very uncomfortable, too. It makes me sad for women who are made to feel uncomfortable by confident women because I think it, again, just goes back to misogyny. They have been trained to not have a voice; you shouldn't speak up. A lot of what "Call Her Daddy" has done for women is encouragement; say whatever the fuck you want to say and speak up. Even if people in a room roll their eyes or you get kicked out of the room, at least you can leave with your head held high, being like, I still stand for what I believe in, and I'm not going to just shrink.I understand a calm, loving, more quiet woman is easier to digest, but I want for the future generations to be able to acknowledge and lift up other women that are going for it and are going toe-to-toe in moments with the men and are making conversations. That's all I want to do is create conversations. I hope I never shut up. We need more women leading the charge in the conversation, but we also need women to stop tearing other women down.I'm so proud of what I have accomplished and that does not make me an egomaniac and that does not make me cocky. That just means that I've worked really hard to build confidence, and as women, we should all rally together to know how fucking hard it is to have confidence as a woman.(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)What do you do when your confidence falters, though?I try as hard as I can to go back to my core values as a human being. When my confidence falters, I try to remind myself who I am and where I came from, and that little girl in Pennsylvania would have done anything to be sitting where I am and to hold my head high when people are doubting me.Let's talk about money. Everyone knows about the deal, but I'm very curious about how your relationship to it has changed now that you definitely have money. How has your perspective on money and worth sort of evolved over these last few years?Listen, no one gets into the entertainment business to make money, especially when you're on the producing side. I didn't intend to be a host. I always wanted to be a director. I always wanted to direct films, and I knew there's not, unless you are literally one of the greats, there's not that much money in that. So, for a lot of my life money was not at the forefront. But once I saw how much Barstool was making, I was like, wait, can we get a cut of that? At that point it was about just knowing your worth and fighting for that. Now, I feel so fortunate. I don't even think the word fortunate begins to encompass what I feel towards what I have because it's not lost on me that literally all of that is because of my audience.Do you feel like you've made it? Or what will need to happen for you to feel like you've made it?Open my journal and you'll read: Today, we made it. Yesterday, we didn't. Tomorrow we're fucked. I go back and forth every day. I have moments of I made it. When I sat across from the Vice President of the United States, no matter anyone's political opinions, that was wild. Being searched by Secret Service and going to D.C., that was one of those moments in my career I'll never forget. Being on the cover of Forbes is another one. I remember when I tried to put my application in be a "30 Under 30" back at Barstool and didn't get accepted, so now to be on the cover, yes, that’s an I made it moment. I don't know if I'll ever have the I made it moment in terms of creative capacity. Matt and I talk about this a lot, will we ever get to the point with our company where we're making less movies and we're just going for Academy Awards and we're just making one movie, you know what I mean? Maybe stylistic decisions that I can make at some point, will change, but I know I will always be, in some capacity, creating for the rest of my life because it's what brings me joy.You alluded to this a little earlier, but I'm curious, what keeps you up at night?I think it changes every week. Certain weeks it will be like, oh my gosh, people misinterpreted a clip from "Call Her Daddy" and I'm having to do more damage control; making sure that people know me authentically and what I’m trying to get across. I would say other times in business when I'm negotiating a deal, I'm literally in the shower, I'm brushing my teeth, I'm doing my laundry, I'm walking my dogs, I'm in bed with my husband, and every turn I'm up at night. The creative also keeps me up at night. Is the product getting too stale? Was that episode as good as it could be?Last couple of questions: What's the best piece of advice that you've ever received? And what’s the worst?I'm going to be really honest. I'm sure I have received good advice in my life, but I have no answer to this question because I feel like for so many people giving me advice is hard for someone to understand what I'm going through. The best advice I have for myself is you always have the answer, so take as much advice as you can get, but usually I'm adjusting it or tweaking it in some capacity. I've never really taken someone's advice and completely listened to it.The worst piece of advice is probably that you could restart the show and IP doesn't matter. And I want to clarify, I don't look back at that time anymore of cattiness. I genuinely look back and I'm so happy. I stuck to what I believed in during moments of people trying to convince me otherwise. I always go back to that core of trusting myself. And that goes back to the advice question. I know what's best for me, and I will listen to people and I will sit in rooms and I will go back and forth and have good dialogues, but my gut has mostly never been wrong.One more question about the podcast specifically. Who's been your toughest interview?I would say RuPaul because I wanted to impress my absolute queen. I wanted so badly to have Ru love me. Recognizing my privilege, I was so aware that I needed to show up for this person, and I needed to prove why they should be sitting with me. I worked so hard in that interview to stay toe-to-toe with them. I really wanted to garner the respect. I knew that Ru would love the show, but they just had to have a good experience.So what does being a mogul mean to you?I think being a mogul sounds like something I would put on my desk somewhere if I had a big intense desk and I was trying to be all fancy, but really it's being an entrepreneur. It's being nimble. It's recognizing that my industry can turn on a dime. It's being inquisitive, but also sticking to what I believe in. It's being very, very determined while also maintaining a sense of calmness in absolute chaos. It's being a leader to people who I want to bring along on the journey with me, but also trusting in myself in big moments and not getting too comfortable having teams behind me. I am trying to consistently also pave the way, like I said earlier, for authenticity.I do think anyone around me in business would say, Alex Cooper is tough to work for because she will not bend if it does not make sense for her and her brand and her audience. The amount of money passed up, the amount of opportunities passed up, and I welcome people trying to convince me, but I have stayed so true. Being a mogul is recognizing the complexities that come with, like I said, being a host, a personality, an entrepreneur, a leader, a business woman, a friend, a wife, a daughter. There's all of that, and trying to wrap it into one and trying to continue to push myself forward while also not losing myself and also creating new shit. I want to create new conversations. I want to create new IP. I want to create new ventures. I want to expand. I want to acquire, I want to do it all. But being patient.It all comes back to patience.Patience. Calm down, Alex.Interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Alex Cooper Is Marie Claire’s Mogul and Muse | January 2025 Cover Shoot - YouTube Watch On Photographer Joelle Grace Taylor | Stylist Sue Choi | Hair Stylist Ryan Richman | Makeup Artist Jenna Nicole | Manicurist Jolene Brodeur | Video Director Sam Schultz | DP Sam Miron | 1st AC Reece Moffett | Video Producer Kellie Scott | Production Lindsay Ferro | VP of Creative Alexa Wiley | Fashion Director Sara Holzman | Beauty Director Hannah Baxter | Entertainment Director Neha Prakash Source link

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Seven years into her career, much of Alex Cooper’s lore has been well documented. But for those who don’t know, a quick rundown: the former Division 1 soccer player turned "Call Her Daddy" podcaster and Unwell founder, got her start at Barstool Sports with a co-host who, in a much-publicized and contentious breakup, eventually broke off to do her own thing. Cooper left Barstool, taking the podcast to Spotify for a big money deal, then to SiriusXM for an even bigger money deal—and she brought her Unwell Network of podcasts to the radio behemoth with her. Today, she announces her next steps for SiriusXM domination: Unwell Music—a channel of tunes curated by Cooper and friends; and Unwell On Air—a channel with daily live programming, including a place for faithful listeners (the Daddy Gang) to call in and join the conversation with the radio hosts, and once a week, Cooper herself. And let's not forget that just last month, she launched Unwell Hydration, a line of electrolyte drinks.I’m not an OG Daddy Gang member, but I’ve tracked Cooper’s goings-on for a few years now. I clocked the Vogue wedding article. Watched some moments from the 2024 Summer Olympics. Laughed as clips from interviews with celebs like Love Island’s Leah Kateb, Gywneth Paltrow, and Jojo Siwa hit my social media feeds at every turn. I may not have known about "Slim Shady" or "Mr. Sexy Zoom Man" (eventually revealed to be husband, film producer Matt Kaplan) but you’d have to have your head buried in the sand to miss that she’s got that business acumen and unflinching drive, combined with a certain X-factor, that gets you to the top. It would be simple—and frankly, uninspired—to chalk it up to being skinny and blonde. Those things will only get you so far. I needed to know more.But I wasn’t supposed to interview Alex Cooper. Our teams had initially agreed to do something different—turn the mic back on the host and have former "Call Her Daddy" guests ask her a few questions. What's the most rockstar thing you've ever done? What's your superpower? Lasagna or chicken parmesan? Unexpectedly—or now that I’ve spent more than an hour getting to know Cooper—perhaps expectedly, we’d have to switch courses at the last moment to something more Cooper’s speed. “I do think anyone around me in business would say, Alex Cooper is tough to work for because she will not bend if it does not make sense for her and her brand and her audience,” Cooper, 30, tells me during our interview, speaking about her management style. It’s a stick-to-itness that as a woman who is used to calling the shots here at Marie Claire as the editor in chief I find simultaneously kind of annoying, and also respect. Trusting herself, Cooper intimates, is key. “I know what's best for me. I will listen to people and I will sit in rooms and I will go back and forth and have good dialogues, but my gut has mostly never been wrong.”David Koma top, skirt; Alexis Bittar earrings, ring(Image credit: Joelle Grace)When we speak on Zoom, Cooper joins me on a Friday morning in January, hair wet, sitting at a desk with a perfectly made bed behind her, “It's chaos, always,” she tells me laughing. “I’ve literally been on the phone I think with six people already this morning.”I’m not surprised. Time is money when you’re building an empire(s) and there are only so many hours in the day. The energy is palpable. Me volleying questions, and Cooper answering back like a non-stop game of pickleball. Some may have found this to be overwhelming. I found it to be exhilarating. “I understand a calm, loving, more quiet woman is easier to digest,” Cooper says, “but I want future generations to easily be able to acknowledge and lift up other women that are going for it and are going toe-to-toe in moments with the men and are making conversations. That's all I want to do is create conversations.”As the minutes ticked on, I’d venture to say that both of our guards came down, making way for two decidedly ambitious women who ask questions for a living to discuss everything from why Cooper’s sick of being compared to Joe Rogan and Howard Stern, to how she regains her confidence when it falters. What has it been like for Cooper to enter this new era of running the show; calling the shots and building something new? Something Cooper said has stuck with me, and I replayed in my head for days after we spoke. “I don't think we've cracked the code on how to embrace and celebrate and trust women who are running companies or who are leaning into the fact that they are a boss and or an entrepreneur,” Cooper says. I think she’s right. The environments we have to work in don’t always allow for women to fully show up as their complex, nuanced self. So, while I don’t think I’ve cracked the code of Alex Cooper, over the course of 90 minutes, I felt one step closer.Get exclusive access to fashion and beauty trends, hot-off-the-press celebrity news, and more.Before we start, I want to make sure things are good with you in L.A. considering the wildfires.We have had so many family members and friends who have lost everything, but we are fine. We had multiple families staying with us—it was chaos, but in a good way. I felt like I was doing something on top of donating as much as I could. It's just been horrific.It's been really devastating to watch from New York, but I'm happy that you're good and that we have this opportunity to talk today. I want to kick things off with everything you've got going on right now. You're entering a new era with the Sirius XM deal, Unwell Music, Unwell On Air, and the tours. How would you describe this moment in your career?My entire career has really been me making decisions for my audience, the Daddy Gang. I've always wanted to give them more content and more of the world that I'm creating, so this new partnership with SiriusXM has allowed me to expand creatively. What I’ve been losing sleep over every night for the past few years is, How do I feed them? How do I give them the biggest, heartiest dinner that it can possibly have and then dessert and then more. It’s a dream come true that I'm now able to expand format wise.Tell us a little bit about Unwell Music and Unwell On Air. We already have these long, deep conversations on "Call Her Daddy," sometimes fun, sometimes intense, but I was trying to think, how do I literally be a part of their lives every single day? And I like to pregame with my friends to music. When you're working out, when you're in college, when I was studying for a test, I was a music person. Every part of my life has music involved and I was like, How do we not have our hands in any capacity in something music oriented?I will be curating these songs and I'm also talking to the Daddy Gang about why I chose certain songs. Unwell On Air will be these live shows that are happening every single day. The first show is "The Daily Dirty," which will be four women talking, and every week I will join in one day.The other show I'm very excited about is called "Dialed In." My audience will actually be able to call in and ask for advice. I can already tell the Daddy Gang are characters, so I know that they're going to be excited to show up and give their stories.Hearing you talk about all of these things, my first thought is this idea of balance—and not in the like, women-can-have-it-all sort of way, but more literally. How do you handle everything that's on your plate at any given time?I think most entrepreneurs can relate. Once you get your product up and running, there's nothing better than when you know you can go in a different direction and know that that product is still moving and still operating because you sat for long enough to make sure that the wheels will never fall off. Technically, I’ve waited so long to expand. I've always wanted to do these things, but I think I've learned to be patient. Seven years ago, I would've loved to start a podcast network, but was waiting for the time.Dolce & Gabbana dress, sunglasses; Lié Studio earringsYou told Forbes that you love pressure. What do you love about pressure? How do you not crumble? I don't know my life without pressure. I probably put it on myself, even when it's a nice casual Tuesday and the birds are chirping and there's nothing to do. I’ve always wanted to be the best because I'm just very competitive with myself. I think I have this innate instinct within me; I literally get off on it.Building this media company—I did not go to school for this. My husband being my business partner, I think people are probably like, Are you guys fucking insane that you guys work together? He is handling a different side of the business. I am mostly all creative and he is handling the brand partnerships and the IP extensions and all of the things that are really business heavy.He's so creative, but we've had to decide when we overlap. We have the most fun when we come home from work and we pour ourselves a whiskey and download each other. It's this incredible creative session. It's a high, when as I call it with my team, we cracked the code. We did it, we figured it out. That's my high.What does turning off look like for you?It's something I'm working on constantly. My therapist always says take a bath and I'm like, Can I have my phone in the bath? I know this is different for everyone, but I can't turn off too long. Interviewing someone feels like a literal muscle I need to flex. Turning off though means, for me—it's going to sound weird—but Matt and my dream is we can do a weekend or a four day vacation, if we ever get to do that, which is rare. And on those trips we always say, let's do three to four hours a day of brainstorming, because we don't actually get to brainstorm as much as we wish every day because we're in the thick of it.So what I'm hearing is brainstorming is you turning off.I know, I know. I genuinely have a lot of happiness that comes from my body when I'm able to just free flow. But turning off is not what I'm interested in right now because I don't have kids right now. This is my baby. And you don't really get to turn off when you have kids, right?No, then it really ramps up.So, this is my child. When people ask that question, I'm like, Oh, well, what do moms do? Well, I feel like I'm a mother right now.How do you think that the people who work at your company would describe you as a boss? I think they would probably say, I'm very intense and very specific about what I like. They have shared with me that they appreciate that because I know exactly what I want. I think they would say that I am kind. I never wanted to work a corporate job, so I'm always going to keep the vibes high. But I think people know if you want to play hard, you have to work hard at this company. This is a startup at the end of the day.I think they would say, I have very high expectations for people, but that's because I have very high expectations for myself. I also recognize that everyone needs to look out for themselves. I can help in any capacity, my door is always open in that sense. I hope someone at my company eventually starts a company that is a competitor of mine. If you're not trying to take my job, then I don't want you at the company. There's a fun competitive nature that's more uplifting rather than me just sitting in the corner and coming up with all the answers and they all just take orders.Being a founder and a leader right now is political. There's a lot of social change that happens in workplaces and over the past decade, we've seen this—first with the #MeToo movement, and recently with DEI initiatives, many of which are being rolled back. How do you handle that responsibility? How do you feel your role in larger cultural change exists as a boss?I'm not going to lie, it's hard. Matt and I have so many conversations about how we help company culture and how we foster a very positive and safe environment, while also staying true to the genuine integral part of who we are and why we started this company. We are trying to find the balance of infusing the intensity and the excitement of what we're building because I genuinely believe this is one of the coolest companies to work at right now. Our biggest goal for this past year was really having a cohesive culture. But there's still work to do.You've acquired podcasts and you're hiring people to start podcasts on the network. What are you looking for in the creators that you're bringing onto Unwell?Work ethic. There's so much oversaturation of content creators right now, and it's so incredible to see the way that TikTok has allowed for people to amplify their voices and to create content, but I genuinely believe long form content will always be the thing that moves the needle and that will have lasting power. The creators that I'm seeing thrive at my company are the ones that are having input in the edit process, in the pre-production, in the post-production. I'm not someone that believes in just being a talent. I'm not just interested in a podcast network. I want to help people build brands.Alessandra Rich top, pants; Alexis Bittar earrings(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)That’s really exciting to hear because I do think that there are a lot of creators from either marginalized communities or creators of color who are just looking for somebody to pay attention to them.Absolutely. I think that's been such a huge conversation specifically on TikTok that I've seen. Why is this creator getting more attention than this creator? And it's a very valid point. What does it say about our culture that certain people are rising and other people are not rising? I agree.Do you think about that when you're implementing policies within the company that you and Matt are building?Every single day. Every single day, I'm trying to gauge, how do we continue to not just build a product that we're building, but also make genuine change in people's lives? Expanding to 50 people now and bringing people together from Matt’s world and then bringing in new people from my world, we are sitting together, looking at our slate, and thinking what is the next year going to look like and how can we do better?Versace top, skirt; Lié Studio earrings; Stems tights; Roger Vivier shoes(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)When you're working with these younger creators like Alix Earle and Madeline Argy, what sort of advice are you offering them?Alix and Madeline are such different creators. With Alix, it’s interesting to think about her in a long-term format. You don't want to change Alix Earle, you want to help her amplify and also, if anything, expand and show people more of her and she's now being able to talk about more sincere topics. The podcast has enabled her to feel like she doesn't have to be as performative in moments and she can genuinely get down to what's going on that week. Madeline, on the other hand, was an absolute sheer talent of just like, This girl can talk. How does a girl not have a podcast? I basically have a system that I've created within "Call Her Daddy," and I've shifted the format per show, but I'm able to sit down with every single creator and be like, You should look at it through this lens. Without giving away my secret sauce, I think I've been able to do it for every single creator.You do have this secret sauce of course, and it's led to an amazing amount of success. I was reading in the New York Times, though, where you said success made you feel a little more insecure and that you have to prove even more that you deserve this. I'm curious if you still feel that way?In a different way. I think when I said it back then, I genuinely felt a little out of my league when I was starting Unwell. I was more of a creator than a business woman. I felt people were looking at me with like, Oh, she made all this money, but now can she convert? Now it's not insecurity, it's more an awareness of the things I can get better on. But I will say, I think in the past year running this company has given me so much confidence. I've gotten to a place where I’m not getting down on myself for things that are normal to be experiencing. Media is so hard. For a lot of people that aren't in media, you look it and think oh, it's so glamorous. Absolutely. We have such incredible opportunities and there's privilege and there's things that come from it, but it doesn't mean it's not a grind.It's a job.Yeah. This shit is not for the weak.I'm curious about who you go to for business advice. Obviously Dave Portnoy, Barstool Sports. But I'm more curious about who you're going to for business advice now. Who's the last person you called to ask them a question about business?I would say without a doubt, Matt is one of the smartest people I've ever met, and I think every single person at our company is in awe of Matt and his ability to reinvent the wheel and come up with ideas and formulate concepts that have never been done. My CMO, TJ Marchetti, is such a brilliant marketing mind in terms of marketing.Coach jacket, skirt, bag; Bonnie Clyde sunglasses; By Far bootsWhat's interesting about your career is that you're constantly surrounded by men. It feels like it's a male-dominated industry. Who are the women in your life that you feel you can really lean on? My main "Call Her Daddy" producer is my go-to every single day. I'm speaking to this woman, and she is without a doubt, my right hand. I would not be able to produce "Call Her Daddy" in the capacity that I'm doing without her. Our head of podcasting and the network is this woman Rory [Armstrong]. She is truly so brilliant in the way that she sees the evolution of this space. Our head of our brand strategy, Ashley Lewis, has been absolutely transformative for live events and our partnerships business. Matt jokes, it's Matt and TJ—and then it's all women.I want to talk shop about "Call Her Daddy" specifically. I saw a talk that you did with the New York Times and you shared that you felt that celebrities feel safe with you. I thought that was a really interesting word. Why do you think they feel safe with you?I have been on many shows—not to put other shows down—but the host is looking five inches to the right of my head and reading a teleprompter and asking me questions. It's very dehumanizing. Almost like, Wait, I don't even know if you actually knew my name. Oprah was really the first person that was actually listening and sitting and having these in-depth conversations. A lot of what I'm doing goes back to just what my mother taught me from a young age, which is making someone feel seen and heard and understood and making them feel like you actually care about what they're saying. Because I do. Yes, I care about the celebrity sitting across from me, but I also care about my audience, so I'm also trying to get as much out of them as I can for my audience because they're going to learn something today.MM6 Maison Margiela coat; Dior boots(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)What I'm hearing is it's that you get them; you understand what they want. I'm curious though, what do you think people, journalists, the media get wrong about you?I think people don't see as much—understandably because of the empire I'm trying to build—I'm a very easygoing, funny, weird person. I love to joke around. I love to have fun. As a woman in media, it's very hard to present yourself in a way that is digestible for everyone. As we know, as two women sitting here, it's very challenging to see some men in the media say things. I always joke to my friends, Imagine if I said that? I would literally be canceled. I would be considered a bitch. I would be considered an egomaniac. There's this fine line that I think I've had to tow of what I want to show and present, because I genuinely still believe, sadly, that the world thinks that women can only still be one dimensional.A lot of times, I'll see in the media I came off too brash and aggressive in the way I was speaking, but it's probably because I feel like I'm climbing an uphill battle. Every room I'm walking into is like a DealBook, just filled with men. I'm feeling like I have to be a little bit more, I have to talk a little bit harder about my business, and I have to sell it harder because everyone's going to doubt that. Whereas if Dave Portnoy is walking into a room or if Joe Rogan's walking into a room, people are just going to be more at ease with them as complex humans. Whereas if I'm at all complex, people see it as, She's fake. I don't trust her. I don't believe her. I don't think we've cracked the code on how to embrace and celebrate and trust women who are running companies or who are leaning into being a boss or an entrepreneur.You're always compared to Howard Stern or Joe Rogan. Are you tired of that comparison?I'm exhausted, more so because—I'm not saying I should ever be compared to an Oprah or a Barbara Walters or any female host or anything, but why not just lead with that? They're diminishing women who have done this before and putting the men continuously on the pedestal. I hope one day someone's asked, Do you find yourself similar to Alex Cooper? And they don't just say, Do you find yourself similar to Joe Rogan? Because it doesn't take an idiot to recognize our content couldn't be more different. It's literally night and day. Same with me and Howard Stern. I'm not shitting on them. I'm just saying it's not even in the same realm. Would a man ever be asked, Do you think that you are similar to Alex Cooper? Sadly, I don't think a man would ever be asked that. So why am I constantly being asked if I think that I'm similar to men?Totally. I want to ask you a question that you asked Jojo Siwa. Why do you think people on the internet have such strong opinions about you?I definitely think it goes back to what we were just speaking about. Even saying this, if it gets clipped on TikTok, I know it will get probably shit. But, I think people are very uncomfortable with confident women. And I am not just saying men. I think women are very uncomfortable, too. It makes me sad for women who are made to feel uncomfortable by confident women because I think it, again, just goes back to misogyny. They have been trained to not have a voice; you shouldn't speak up. A lot of what "Call Her Daddy" has done for women is encouragement; say whatever the fuck you want to say and speak up. Even if people in a room roll their eyes or you get kicked out of the room, at least you can leave with your head held high, being like, I still stand for what I believe in, and I'm not going to just shrink.I understand a calm, loving, more quiet woman is easier to digest, but I want for the future generations to be able to acknowledge and lift up other women that are going for it and are going toe-to-toe in moments with the men and are making conversations. That's all I want to do is create conversations. I hope I never shut up. We need more women leading the charge in the conversation, but we also need women to stop tearing other women down.I'm so proud of what I have accomplished and that does not make me an egomaniac and that does not make me cocky. That just means that I've worked really hard to build confidence, and as women, we should all rally together to know how fucking hard it is to have confidence as a woman.(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)What do you do when your confidence falters, though?I try as hard as I can to go back to my core values as a human being. When my confidence falters, I try to remind myself who I am and where I came from, and that little girl in Pennsylvania would have done anything to be sitting where I am and to hold my head high when people are doubting me.Let's talk about money. Everyone knows about the deal, but I'm very curious about how your relationship to it has changed now that you definitely have money. How has your perspective on money and worth sort of evolved over these last few years?Listen, no one gets into the entertainment business to make money, especially when you're on the producing side. I didn't intend to be a host. I always wanted to be a director. I always wanted to direct films, and I knew there's not, unless you are literally one of the greats, there's not that much money in that. So, for a lot of my life money was not at the forefront. But once I saw how much Barstool was making, I was like, wait, can we get a cut of that? At that point it was about just knowing your worth and fighting for that. Now, I feel so fortunate. I don't even think the word fortunate begins to encompass what I feel towards what I have because it's not lost on me that literally all of that is because of my audience.Do you feel like you've made it? Or what will need to happen for you to feel like you've made it?Open my journal and you'll read: Today, we made it. Yesterday, we didn't. Tomorrow we're fucked. I go back and forth every day. I have moments of I made it. When I sat across from the Vice President of the United States, no matter anyone's political opinions, that was wild. Being searched by Secret Service and going to D.C., that was one of those moments in my career I'll never forget. Being on the cover of Forbes is another one. I remember when I tried to put my application in be a "30 Under 30" back at Barstool and didn't get accepted, so now to be on the cover, yes, that’s an I made it moment. I don't know if I'll ever have the I made it moment in terms of creative capacity. Matt and I talk about this a lot, will we ever get to the point with our company where we're making less movies and we're just going for Academy Awards and we're just making one movie, you know what I mean? Maybe stylistic decisions that I can make at some point, will change, but I know I will always be, in some capacity, creating for the rest of my life because it's what brings me joy.You alluded to this a little earlier, but I'm curious, what keeps you up at night?I think it changes every week. Certain weeks it will be like, oh my gosh, people misinterpreted a clip from "Call Her Daddy" and I'm having to do more damage control; making sure that people know me authentically and what I’m trying to get across. I would say other times in business when I'm negotiating a deal, I'm literally in the shower, I'm brushing my teeth, I'm doing my laundry, I'm walking my dogs, I'm in bed with my husband, and every turn I'm up at night. The creative also keeps me up at night. Is the product getting too stale? Was that episode as good as it could be?Last couple of questions: What's the best piece of advice that you've ever received? And what’s the worst?I'm going to be really honest. I'm sure I have received good advice in my life, but I have no answer to this question because I feel like for so many people giving me advice is hard for someone to understand what I'm going through. The best advice I have for myself is you always have the answer, so take as much advice as you can get, but usually I'm adjusting it or tweaking it in some capacity. I've never really taken someone's advice and completely listened to it.The worst piece of advice is probably that you could restart the show and IP doesn't matter. And I want to clarify, I don't look back at that time anymore of cattiness. I genuinely look back and I'm so happy. I stuck to what I believed in during moments of people trying to convince me otherwise. I always go back to that core of trusting myself. And that goes back to the advice question. I know what's best for me, and I will listen to people and I will sit in rooms and I will go back and forth and have good dialogues, but my gut has mostly never been wrong.One more question about the podcast specifically. Who's been your toughest interview?I would say RuPaul because I wanted to impress my absolute queen. I wanted so badly to have Ru love me. Recognizing my privilege, I was so aware that I needed to show up for this person, and I needed to prove why they should be sitting with me. I worked so hard in that interview to stay toe-to-toe with them. I really wanted to garner the respect. I knew that Ru would love the show, but they just had to have a good experience.So what does being a mogul mean to you?I think being a mogul sounds like something I would put on my desk somewhere if I had a big intense desk and I was trying to be all fancy, but really it's being an entrepreneur. It's being nimble. It's recognizing that my industry can turn on a dime. It's being inquisitive, but also sticking to what I believe in. It's being very, very determined while also maintaining a sense of calmness in absolute chaos. It's being a leader to people who I want to bring along on the journey with me, but also trusting in myself in big moments and not getting too comfortable having teams behind me. I am trying to consistently also pave the way, like I said earlier, for authenticity.I do think anyone around me in business would say, Alex Cooper is tough to work for because she will not bend if it does not make sense for her and her brand and her audience. The amount of money passed up, the amount of opportunities passed up, and I welcome people trying to convince me, but I have stayed so true. Being a mogul is recognizing the complexities that come with, like I said, being a host, a personality, an entrepreneur, a leader, a business woman, a friend, a wife, a daughter. There's all of that, and trying to wrap it into one and trying to continue to push myself forward while also not losing myself and also creating new shit. I want to create new conversations. I want to create new IP. I want to create new ventures. I want to expand. I want to acquire, I want to do it all. But being patient.It all comes back to patience.Patience. Calm down, Alex.Interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Alex Cooper Is Marie Claire’s Mogul and Muse | January 2025 Cover Shoot - YouTube Watch On Photographer Joelle Grace Taylor | Stylist Sue Choi | Hair Stylist Ryan Richman | Makeup Artist Jenna Nicole | Manicurist Jolene Brodeur | Video Director Sam Schultz | DP Sam Miron | 1st AC Reece Moffett | Video Producer Kellie Scott | Production Lindsay Ferro | VP of Creative Alexa Wiley | Fashion Director Sara Holzman | Beauty Director Hannah Baxter | Entertainment Director Neha Prakash Source link

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Seven years into her career, much of Alex Cooper’s lore has been well documented. But for those who don’t know, a quick rundown: the former Division 1 soccer player turned "Call Her Daddy" podcaster and Unwell founder, got her start at Barstool Sports with a co-host who, in a much-publicized and contentious breakup, eventually broke off to do her own thing. Cooper left Barstool, taking the podcast to Spotify for a big money deal, then to SiriusXM for an even bigger money deal—and she brought her Unwell Network of podcasts to the radio behemoth with her. Today, she announces her next steps for SiriusXM domination: Unwell Music—a channel of tunes curated by Cooper and friends; and Unwell On Air—a channel with daily live programming, including a place for faithful listeners (the Daddy Gang) to call in and join the conversation with the radio hosts, and once a week, Cooper herself. And let's not forget that just last month, she launched Unwell Hydration, a line of electrolyte drinks.I’m not an OG Daddy Gang member, but I’ve tracked Cooper’s goings-on for a few years now. I clocked the Vogue wedding article. Watched some moments from the 2024 Summer Olympics. Laughed as clips from interviews with celebs like Love Island’s Leah Kateb, Gywneth Paltrow, and Jojo Siwa hit my social media feeds at every turn. I may not have known about "Slim Shady" or "Mr. Sexy Zoom Man" (eventually revealed to be husband, film producer Matt Kaplan) but you’d have to have your head buried in the sand to miss that she’s got that business acumen and unflinching drive, combined with a certain X-factor, that gets you to the top. It would be simple—and frankly, uninspired—to chalk it up to being skinny and blonde. Those things will only get you so far. I needed to know more.But I wasn’t supposed to interview Alex Cooper. Our teams had initially agreed to do something different—turn the mic back on the host and have former "Call Her Daddy" guests ask her a few questions. What's the most rockstar thing you've ever done? What's your superpower? Lasagna or chicken parmesan? Unexpectedly—or now that I’ve spent more than an hour getting to know Cooper—perhaps expectedly, we’d have to switch courses at the last moment to something more Cooper’s speed. “I do think anyone around me in business would say, Alex Cooper is tough to work for because she will not bend if it does not make sense for her and her brand and her audience,” Cooper, 30, tells me during our interview, speaking about her management style. It’s a stick-to-itness that as a woman who is used to calling the shots here at Marie Claire as the editor in chief I find simultaneously kind of annoying, and also respect. Trusting herself, Cooper intimates, is key. “I know what's best for me. I will listen to people and I will sit in rooms and I will go back and forth and have good dialogues, but my gut has mostly never been wrong.”David Koma top, skirt; Alexis Bittar earrings, ring(Image credit: Joelle Grace)When we speak on Zoom, Cooper joins me on a Friday morning in January, hair wet, sitting at a desk with a perfectly made bed behind her, “It's chaos, always,” she tells me laughing. “I’ve literally been on the phone I think with six people already this morning.”I’m not surprised. Time is money when you’re building an empire(s) and there are only so many hours in the day. The energy is palpable. Me volleying questions, and Cooper answering back like a non-stop game of pickleball. Some may have found this to be overwhelming. I found it to be exhilarating. “I understand a calm, loving, more quiet woman is easier to digest,” Cooper says, “but I want future generations to easily be able to acknowledge and lift up other women that are going for it and are going toe-to-toe in moments with the men and are making conversations. That's all I want to do is create conversations.”As the minutes ticked on, I’d venture to say that both of our guards came down, making way for two decidedly ambitious women who ask questions for a living to discuss everything from why Cooper’s sick of being compared to Joe Rogan and Howard Stern, to how she regains her confidence when it falters. What has it been like for Cooper to enter this new era of running the show; calling the shots and building something new? Something Cooper said has stuck with me, and I replayed in my head for days after we spoke. “I don't think we've cracked the code on how to embrace and celebrate and trust women who are running companies or who are leaning into the fact that they are a boss and or an entrepreneur,” Cooper says. I think she’s right. The environments we have to work in don’t always allow for women to fully show up as their complex, nuanced self. So, while I don’t think I’ve cracked the code of Alex Cooper, over the course of 90 minutes, I felt one step closer.Get exclusive access to fashion and beauty trends, hot-off-the-press celebrity news, and more.Before we start, I want to make sure things are good with you in L.A. considering the wildfires.We have had so many family members and friends who have lost everything, but we are fine. We had multiple families staying with us—it was chaos, but in a good way. I felt like I was doing something on top of donating as much as I could. It's just been horrific.It's been really devastating to watch from New York, but I'm happy that you're good and that we have this opportunity to talk today. I want to kick things off with everything you've got going on right now. You're entering a new era with the Sirius XM deal, Unwell Music, Unwell On Air, and the tours. How would you describe this moment in your career?My entire career has really been me making decisions for my audience, the Daddy Gang. I've always wanted to give them more content and more of the world that I'm creating, so this new partnership with SiriusXM has allowed me to expand creatively. What I’ve been losing sleep over every night for the past few years is, How do I feed them? How do I give them the biggest, heartiest dinner that it can possibly have and then dessert and then more. It’s a dream come true that I'm now able to expand format wise.Tell us a little bit about Unwell Music and Unwell On Air. We already have these long, deep conversations on "Call Her Daddy," sometimes fun, sometimes intense, but I was trying to think, how do I literally be a part of their lives every single day? And I like to pregame with my friends to music. When you're working out, when you're in college, when I was studying for a test, I was a music person. Every part of my life has music involved and I was like, How do we not have our hands in any capacity in something music oriented?I will be curating these songs and I'm also talking to the Daddy Gang about why I chose certain songs. Unwell On Air will be these live shows that are happening every single day. The first show is "The Daily Dirty," which will be four women talking, and every week I will join in one day.The other show I'm very excited about is called "Dialed In." My audience will actually be able to call in and ask for advice. I can already tell the Daddy Gang are characters, so I know that they're going to be excited to show up and give their stories.Hearing you talk about all of these things, my first thought is this idea of balance—and not in the like, women-can-have-it-all sort of way, but more literally. How do you handle everything that's on your plate at any given time?I think most entrepreneurs can relate. Once you get your product up and running, there's nothing better than when you know you can go in a different direction and know that that product is still moving and still operating because you sat for long enough to make sure that the wheels will never fall off. Technically, I’ve waited so long to expand. I've always wanted to do these things, but I think I've learned to be patient. Seven years ago, I would've loved to start a podcast network, but was waiting for the time.Dolce & Gabbana dress, sunglasses; Lié Studio earringsYou told Forbes that you love pressure. What do you love about pressure? How do you not crumble? I don't know my life without pressure. I probably put it on myself, even when it's a nice casual Tuesday and the birds are chirping and there's nothing to do. I’ve always wanted to be the best because I'm just very competitive with myself. I think I have this innate instinct within me; I literally get off on it.Building this media company—I did not go to school for this. My husband being my business partner, I think people are probably like, Are you guys fucking insane that you guys work together? He is handling a different side of the business. I am mostly all creative and he is handling the brand partnerships and the IP extensions and all of the things that are really business heavy.He's so creative, but we've had to decide when we overlap. We have the most fun when we come home from work and we pour ourselves a whiskey and download each other. It's this incredible creative session. It's a high, when as I call it with my team, we cracked the code. We did it, we figured it out. That's my high.What does turning off look like for you?It's something I'm working on constantly. My therapist always says take a bath and I'm like, Can I have my phone in the bath? I know this is different for everyone, but I can't turn off too long. Interviewing someone feels like a literal muscle I need to flex. Turning off though means, for me—it's going to sound weird—but Matt and my dream is we can do a weekend or a four day vacation, if we ever get to do that, which is rare. And on those trips we always say, let's do three to four hours a day of brainstorming, because we don't actually get to brainstorm as much as we wish every day because we're in the thick of it.So what I'm hearing is brainstorming is you turning off.I know, I know. I genuinely have a lot of happiness that comes from my body when I'm able to just free flow. But turning off is not what I'm interested in right now because I don't have kids right now. This is my baby. And you don't really get to turn off when you have kids, right?No, then it really ramps up.So, this is my child. When people ask that question, I'm like, Oh, well, what do moms do? Well, I feel like I'm a mother right now.How do you think that the people who work at your company would describe you as a boss? I think they would probably say, I'm very intense and very specific about what I like. They have shared with me that they appreciate that because I know exactly what I want. I think they would say that I am kind. I never wanted to work a corporate job, so I'm always going to keep the vibes high. But I think people know if you want to play hard, you have to work hard at this company. This is a startup at the end of the day.I think they would say, I have very high expectations for people, but that's because I have very high expectations for myself. I also recognize that everyone needs to look out for themselves. I can help in any capacity, my door is always open in that sense. I hope someone at my company eventually starts a company that is a competitor of mine. If you're not trying to take my job, then I don't want you at the company. There's a fun competitive nature that's more uplifting rather than me just sitting in the corner and coming up with all the answers and they all just take orders.Being a founder and a leader right now is political. There's a lot of social change that happens in workplaces and over the past decade, we've seen this—first with the #MeToo movement, and recently with DEI initiatives, many of which are being rolled back. How do you handle that responsibility? How do you feel your role in larger cultural change exists as a boss?I'm not going to lie, it's hard. Matt and I have so many conversations about how we help company culture and how we foster a very positive and safe environment, while also staying true to the genuine integral part of who we are and why we started this company. We are trying to find the balance of infusing the intensity and the excitement of what we're building because I genuinely believe this is one of the coolest companies to work at right now. Our biggest goal for this past year was really having a cohesive culture. But there's still work to do.You've acquired podcasts and you're hiring people to start podcasts on the network. What are you looking for in the creators that you're bringing onto Unwell?Work ethic. There's so much oversaturation of content creators right now, and it's so incredible to see the way that TikTok has allowed for people to amplify their voices and to create content, but I genuinely believe long form content will always be the thing that moves the needle and that will have lasting power. The creators that I'm seeing thrive at my company are the ones that are having input in the edit process, in the pre-production, in the post-production. I'm not someone that believes in just being a talent. I'm not just interested in a podcast network. I want to help people build brands.Alessandra Rich top, pants; Alexis Bittar earrings(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)That’s really exciting to hear because I do think that there are a lot of creators from either marginalized communities or creators of color who are just looking for somebody to pay attention to them.Absolutely. I think that's been such a huge conversation specifically on TikTok that I've seen. Why is this creator getting more attention than this creator? And it's a very valid point. What does it say about our culture that certain people are rising and other people are not rising? I agree.Do you think about that when you're implementing policies within the company that you and Matt are building?Every single day. Every single day, I'm trying to gauge, how do we continue to not just build a product that we're building, but also make genuine change in people's lives? Expanding to 50 people now and bringing people together from Matt’s world and then bringing in new people from my world, we are sitting together, looking at our slate, and thinking what is the next year going to look like and how can we do better?Versace top, skirt; Lié Studio earrings; Stems tights; Roger Vivier shoes(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)When you're working with these younger creators like Alix Earle and Madeline Argy, what sort of advice are you offering them?Alix and Madeline are such different creators. With Alix, it’s interesting to think about her in a long-term format. You don't want to change Alix Earle, you want to help her amplify and also, if anything, expand and show people more of her and she's now being able to talk about more sincere topics. The podcast has enabled her to feel like she doesn't have to be as performative in moments and she can genuinely get down to what's going on that week. Madeline, on the other hand, was an absolute sheer talent of just like, This girl can talk. How does a girl not have a podcast? I basically have a system that I've created within "Call Her Daddy," and I've shifted the format per show, but I'm able to sit down with every single creator and be like, You should look at it through this lens. Without giving away my secret sauce, I think I've been able to do it for every single creator.You do have this secret sauce of course, and it's led to an amazing amount of success. I was reading in the New York Times, though, where you said success made you feel a little more insecure and that you have to prove even more that you deserve this. I'm curious if you still feel that way?In a different way. I think when I said it back then, I genuinely felt a little out of my league when I was starting Unwell. I was more of a creator than a business woman. I felt people were looking at me with like, Oh, she made all this money, but now can she convert? Now it's not insecurity, it's more an awareness of the things I can get better on. But I will say, I think in the past year running this company has given me so much confidence. I've gotten to a place where I’m not getting down on myself for things that are normal to be experiencing. Media is so hard. For a lot of people that aren't in media, you look it and think oh, it's so glamorous. Absolutely. We have such incredible opportunities and there's privilege and there's things that come from it, but it doesn't mean it's not a grind.It's a job.Yeah. This shit is not for the weak.I'm curious about who you go to for business advice. Obviously Dave Portnoy, Barstool Sports. But I'm more curious about who you're going to for business advice now. Who's the last person you called to ask them a question about business?I would say without a doubt, Matt is one of the smartest people I've ever met, and I think every single person at our company is in awe of Matt and his ability to reinvent the wheel and come up with ideas and formulate concepts that have never been done. My CMO, TJ Marchetti, is such a brilliant marketing mind in terms of marketing.Coach jacket, skirt, bag; Bonnie Clyde sunglasses; By Far bootsWhat's interesting about your career is that you're constantly surrounded by men. It feels like it's a male-dominated industry. Who are the women in your life that you feel you can really lean on? My main "Call Her Daddy" producer is my go-to every single day. I'm speaking to this woman, and she is without a doubt, my right hand. I would not be able to produce "Call Her Daddy" in the capacity that I'm doing without her. Our head of podcasting and the network is this woman Rory [Armstrong]. She is truly so brilliant in the way that she sees the evolution of this space. Our head of our brand strategy, Ashley Lewis, has been absolutely transformative for live events and our partnerships business. Matt jokes, it's Matt and TJ—and then it's all women.I want to talk shop about "Call Her Daddy" specifically. I saw a talk that you did with the New York Times and you shared that you felt that celebrities feel safe with you. I thought that was a really interesting word. Why do you think they feel safe with you?I have been on many shows—not to put other shows down—but the host is looking five inches to the right of my head and reading a teleprompter and asking me questions. It's very dehumanizing. Almost like, Wait, I don't even know if you actually knew my name. Oprah was really the first person that was actually listening and sitting and having these in-depth conversations. A lot of what I'm doing goes back to just what my mother taught me from a young age, which is making someone feel seen and heard and understood and making them feel like you actually care about what they're saying. Because I do. Yes, I care about the celebrity sitting across from me, but I also care about my audience, so I'm also trying to get as much out of them as I can for my audience because they're going to learn something today.MM6 Maison Margiela coat; Dior boots(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)What I'm hearing is it's that you get them; you understand what they want. I'm curious though, what do you think people, journalists, the media get wrong about you?I think people don't see as much—understandably because of the empire I'm trying to build—I'm a very easygoing, funny, weird person. I love to joke around. I love to have fun. As a woman in media, it's very hard to present yourself in a way that is digestible for everyone. As we know, as two women sitting here, it's very challenging to see some men in the media say things. I always joke to my friends, Imagine if I said that? I would literally be canceled. I would be considered a bitch. I would be considered an egomaniac. There's this fine line that I think I've had to tow of what I want to show and present, because I genuinely still believe, sadly, that the world thinks that women can only still be one dimensional.A lot of times, I'll see in the media I came off too brash and aggressive in the way I was speaking, but it's probably because I feel like I'm climbing an uphill battle. Every room I'm walking into is like a DealBook, just filled with men. I'm feeling like I have to be a little bit more, I have to talk a little bit harder about my business, and I have to sell it harder because everyone's going to doubt that. Whereas if Dave Portnoy is walking into a room or if Joe Rogan's walking into a room, people are just going to be more at ease with them as complex humans. Whereas if I'm at all complex, people see it as, She's fake. I don't trust her. I don't believe her. I don't think we've cracked the code on how to embrace and celebrate and trust women who are running companies or who are leaning into being a boss or an entrepreneur.You're always compared to Howard Stern or Joe Rogan. Are you tired of that comparison?I'm exhausted, more so because—I'm not saying I should ever be compared to an Oprah or a Barbara Walters or any female host or anything, but why not just lead with that? They're diminishing women who have done this before and putting the men continuously on the pedestal. I hope one day someone's asked, Do you find yourself similar to Alex Cooper? And they don't just say, Do you find yourself similar to Joe Rogan? Because it doesn't take an idiot to recognize our content couldn't be more different. It's literally night and day. Same with me and Howard Stern. I'm not shitting on them. I'm just saying it's not even in the same realm. Would a man ever be asked, Do you think that you are similar to Alex Cooper? Sadly, I don't think a man would ever be asked that. So why am I constantly being asked if I think that I'm similar to men?Totally. I want to ask you a question that you asked Jojo Siwa. Why do you think people on the internet have such strong opinions about you?I definitely think it goes back to what we were just speaking about. Even saying this, if it gets clipped on TikTok, I know it will get probably shit. But, I think people are very uncomfortable with confident women. And I am not just saying men. I think women are very uncomfortable, too. It makes me sad for women who are made to feel uncomfortable by confident women because I think it, again, just goes back to misogyny. They have been trained to not have a voice; you shouldn't speak up. A lot of what "Call Her Daddy" has done for women is encouragement; say whatever the fuck you want to say and speak up. Even if people in a room roll their eyes or you get kicked out of the room, at least you can leave with your head held high, being like, I still stand for what I believe in, and I'm not going to just shrink.I understand a calm, loving, more quiet woman is easier to digest, but I want for the future generations to be able to acknowledge and lift up other women that are going for it and are going toe-to-toe in moments with the men and are making conversations. That's all I want to do is create conversations. I hope I never shut up. We need more women leading the charge in the conversation, but we also need women to stop tearing other women down.I'm so proud of what I have accomplished and that does not make me an egomaniac and that does not make me cocky. That just means that I've worked really hard to build confidence, and as women, we should all rally together to know how fucking hard it is to have confidence as a woman.(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)What do you do when your confidence falters, though?I try as hard as I can to go back to my core values as a human being. When my confidence falters, I try to remind myself who I am and where I came from, and that little girl in Pennsylvania would have done anything to be sitting where I am and to hold my head high when people are doubting me.Let's talk about money. Everyone knows about the deal, but I'm very curious about how your relationship to it has changed now that you definitely have money. How has your perspective on money and worth sort of evolved over these last few years?Listen, no one gets into the entertainment business to make money, especially when you're on the producing side. I didn't intend to be a host. I always wanted to be a director. I always wanted to direct films, and I knew there's not, unless you are literally one of the greats, there's not that much money in that. So, for a lot of my life money was not at the forefront. But once I saw how much Barstool was making, I was like, wait, can we get a cut of that? At that point it was about just knowing your worth and fighting for that. Now, I feel so fortunate. I don't even think the word fortunate begins to encompass what I feel towards what I have because it's not lost on me that literally all of that is because of my audience.Do you feel like you've made it? Or what will need to happen for you to feel like you've made it?Open my journal and you'll read: Today, we made it. Yesterday, we didn't. Tomorrow we're fucked. I go back and forth every day. I have moments of I made it. When I sat across from the Vice President of the United States, no matter anyone's political opinions, that was wild. Being searched by Secret Service and going to D.C., that was one of those moments in my career I'll never forget. Being on the cover of Forbes is another one. I remember when I tried to put my application in be a "30 Under 30" back at Barstool and didn't get accepted, so now to be on the cover, yes, that’s an I made it moment. I don't know if I'll ever have the I made it moment in terms of creative capacity. Matt and I talk about this a lot, will we ever get to the point with our company where we're making less movies and we're just going for Academy Awards and we're just making one movie, you know what I mean? Maybe stylistic decisions that I can make at some point, will change, but I know I will always be, in some capacity, creating for the rest of my life because it's what brings me joy.You alluded to this a little earlier, but I'm curious, what keeps you up at night?I think it changes every week. Certain weeks it will be like, oh my gosh, people misinterpreted a clip from "Call Her Daddy" and I'm having to do more damage control; making sure that people know me authentically and what I’m trying to get across. I would say other times in business when I'm negotiating a deal, I'm literally in the shower, I'm brushing my teeth, I'm doing my laundry, I'm walking my dogs, I'm in bed with my husband, and every turn I'm up at night. The creative also keeps me up at night. Is the product getting too stale? Was that episode as good as it could be?Last couple of questions: What's the best piece of advice that you've ever received? And what’s the worst?I'm going to be really honest. I'm sure I have received good advice in my life, but I have no answer to this question because I feel like for so many people giving me advice is hard for someone to understand what I'm going through. The best advice I have for myself is you always have the answer, so take as much advice as you can get, but usually I'm adjusting it or tweaking it in some capacity. I've never really taken someone's advice and completely listened to it.The worst piece of advice is probably that you could restart the show and IP doesn't matter. And I want to clarify, I don't look back at that time anymore of cattiness. I genuinely look back and I'm so happy. I stuck to what I believed in during moments of people trying to convince me otherwise. I always go back to that core of trusting myself. And that goes back to the advice question. I know what's best for me, and I will listen to people and I will sit in rooms and I will go back and forth and have good dialogues, but my gut has mostly never been wrong.One more question about the podcast specifically. Who's been your toughest interview?I would say RuPaul because I wanted to impress my absolute queen. I wanted so badly to have Ru love me. Recognizing my privilege, I was so aware that I needed to show up for this person, and I needed to prove why they should be sitting with me. I worked so hard in that interview to stay toe-to-toe with them. I really wanted to garner the respect. I knew that Ru would love the show, but they just had to have a good experience.So what does being a mogul mean to you?I think being a mogul sounds like something I would put on my desk somewhere if I had a big intense desk and I was trying to be all fancy, but really it's being an entrepreneur. It's being nimble. It's recognizing that my industry can turn on a dime. It's being inquisitive, but also sticking to what I believe in. It's being very, very determined while also maintaining a sense of calmness in absolute chaos. It's being a leader to people who I want to bring along on the journey with me, but also trusting in myself in big moments and not getting too comfortable having teams behind me. I am trying to consistently also pave the way, like I said earlier, for authenticity.I do think anyone around me in business would say, Alex Cooper is tough to work for because she will not bend if it does not make sense for her and her brand and her audience. The amount of money passed up, the amount of opportunities passed up, and I welcome people trying to convince me, but I have stayed so true. Being a mogul is recognizing the complexities that come with, like I said, being a host, a personality, an entrepreneur, a leader, a business woman, a friend, a wife, a daughter. There's all of that, and trying to wrap it into one and trying to continue to push myself forward while also not losing myself and also creating new shit. I want to create new conversations. I want to create new IP. I want to create new ventures. I want to expand. I want to acquire, I want to do it all. But being patient.It all comes back to patience.Patience. Calm down, Alex.Interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Alex Cooper Is Marie Claire’s Mogul and Muse | January 2025 Cover Shoot - YouTube Watch On Photographer Joelle Grace Taylor | Stylist Sue Choi | Hair Stylist Ryan Richman | Makeup Artist Jenna Nicole | Manicurist Jolene Brodeur | Video Director Sam Schultz | DP Sam Miron | 1st AC Reece Moffett | Video Producer Kellie Scott | Production Lindsay Ferro | VP of Creative Alexa Wiley | Fashion Director Sara Holzman | Beauty Director Hannah Baxter | Entertainment Director Neha Prakash Source link

[oliviajoyice21]

Seven years into her career, much of Alex Cooper’s lore has been well documented. But for those who don’t know, a quick rundown: the former Division 1 soccer player turned "Call Her Daddy" podcaster and Unwell founder, got her start at Barstool Sports with a co-host who, in a much-publicized and contentious breakup, eventually broke off to do her own thing. Cooper left Barstool, taking the podcast to Spotify for a big money deal, then to SiriusXM for an even bigger money deal—and she brought her Unwell Network of podcasts to the radio behemoth with her. Today, she announces her next steps for SiriusXM domination: Unwell Music—a channel of tunes curated by Cooper and friends; and Unwell On Air—a channel with daily live programming, including a place for faithful listeners (the Daddy Gang) to call in and join the conversation with the radio hosts, and once a week, Cooper herself. And let's not forget that just last month, she launched Unwell Hydration, a line of electrolyte drinks.I’m not an OG Daddy Gang member, but I’ve tracked Cooper’s goings-on for a few years now. I clocked the Vogue wedding article. Watched some moments from the 2024 Summer Olympics. Laughed as clips from interviews with celebs like Love Island’s Leah Kateb, Gywneth Paltrow, and Jojo Siwa hit my social media feeds at every turn. I may not have known about "Slim Shady" or "Mr. Sexy Zoom Man" (eventually revealed to be husband, film producer Matt Kaplan) but you’d have to have your head buried in the sand to miss that she’s got that business acumen and unflinching drive, combined with a certain X-factor, that gets you to the top. It would be simple—and frankly, uninspired—to chalk it up to being skinny and blonde. Those things will only get you so far. I needed to know more.But I wasn’t supposed to interview Alex Cooper. Our teams had initially agreed to do something different—turn the mic back on the host and have former "Call Her Daddy" guests ask her a few questions. What's the most rockstar thing you've ever done? What's your superpower? Lasagna or chicken parmesan? Unexpectedly—or now that I’ve spent more than an hour getting to know Cooper—perhaps expectedly, we’d have to switch courses at the last moment to something more Cooper’s speed. “I do think anyone around me in business would say, Alex Cooper is tough to work for because she will not bend if it does not make sense for her and her brand and her audience,” Cooper, 30, tells me during our interview, speaking about her management style. It’s a stick-to-itness that as a woman who is used to calling the shots here at Marie Claire as the editor in chief I find simultaneously kind of annoying, and also respect. Trusting herself, Cooper intimates, is key. “I know what's best for me. I will listen to people and I will sit in rooms and I will go back and forth and have good dialogues, but my gut has mostly never been wrong.”David Koma top, skirt; Alexis Bittar earrings, ring(Image credit: Joelle Grace)When we speak on Zoom, Cooper joins me on a Friday morning in January, hair wet, sitting at a desk with a perfectly made bed behind her, “It's chaos, always,” she tells me laughing. “I’ve literally been on the phone I think with six people already this morning.”I’m not surprised. Time is money when you’re building an empire(s) and there are only so many hours in the day. The energy is palpable. Me volleying questions, and Cooper answering back like a non-stop game of pickleball. Some may have found this to be overwhelming. I found it to be exhilarating. “I understand a calm, loving, more quiet woman is easier to digest,” Cooper says, “but I want future generations to easily be able to acknowledge and lift up other women that are going for it and are going toe-to-toe in moments with the men and are making conversations. That's all I want to do is create conversations.”As the minutes ticked on, I’d venture to say that both of our guards came down, making way for two decidedly ambitious women who ask questions for a living to discuss everything from why Cooper’s sick of being compared to Joe Rogan and Howard Stern, to how she regains her confidence when it falters. What has it been like for Cooper to enter this new era of running the show; calling the shots and building something new? Something Cooper said has stuck with me, and I replayed in my head for days after we spoke. “I don't think we've cracked the code on how to embrace and celebrate and trust women who are running companies or who are leaning into the fact that they are a boss and or an entrepreneur,” Cooper says. I think she’s right. The environments we have to work in don’t always allow for women to fully show up as their complex, nuanced self. So, while I don’t think I’ve cracked the code of Alex Cooper, over the course of 90 minutes, I felt one step closer.Get exclusive access to fashion and beauty trends, hot-off-the-press celebrity news, and more.Before we start, I want to make sure things are good with you in L.A. considering the wildfires.We have had so many family members and friends who have lost everything, but we are fine. We had multiple families staying with us—it was chaos, but in a good way. I felt like I was doing something on top of donating as much as I could. It's just been horrific.It's been really devastating to watch from New York, but I'm happy that you're good and that we have this opportunity to talk today. I want to kick things off with everything you've got going on right now. You're entering a new era with the Sirius XM deal, Unwell Music, Unwell On Air, and the tours. How would you describe this moment in your career?My entire career has really been me making decisions for my audience, the Daddy Gang. I've always wanted to give them more content and more of the world that I'm creating, so this new partnership with SiriusXM has allowed me to expand creatively. What I’ve been losing sleep over every night for the past few years is, How do I feed them? How do I give them the biggest, heartiest dinner that it can possibly have and then dessert and then more. It’s a dream come true that I'm now able to expand format wise.Tell us a little bit about Unwell Music and Unwell On Air. We already have these long, deep conversations on "Call Her Daddy," sometimes fun, sometimes intense, but I was trying to think, how do I literally be a part of their lives every single day? And I like to pregame with my friends to music. When you're working out, when you're in college, when I was studying for a test, I was a music person. Every part of my life has music involved and I was like, How do we not have our hands in any capacity in something music oriented?I will be curating these songs and I'm also talking to the Daddy Gang about why I chose certain songs. Unwell On Air will be these live shows that are happening every single day. The first show is "The Daily Dirty," which will be four women talking, and every week I will join in one day.The other show I'm very excited about is called "Dialed In." My audience will actually be able to call in and ask for advice. I can already tell the Daddy Gang are characters, so I know that they're going to be excited to show up and give their stories.Hearing you talk about all of these things, my first thought is this idea of balance—and not in the like, women-can-have-it-all sort of way, but more literally. How do you handle everything that's on your plate at any given time?I think most entrepreneurs can relate. Once you get your product up and running, there's nothing better than when you know you can go in a different direction and know that that product is still moving and still operating because you sat for long enough to make sure that the wheels will never fall off. Technically, I’ve waited so long to expand. I've always wanted to do these things, but I think I've learned to be patient. Seven years ago, I would've loved to start a podcast network, but was waiting for the time.Dolce & Gabbana dress, sunglasses; Lié Studio earringsYou told Forbes that you love pressure. What do you love about pressure? How do you not crumble? I don't know my life without pressure. I probably put it on myself, even when it's a nice casual Tuesday and the birds are chirping and there's nothing to do. I’ve always wanted to be the best because I'm just very competitive with myself. I think I have this innate instinct within me; I literally get off on it.Building this media company—I did not go to school for this. My husband being my business partner, I think people are probably like, Are you guys fucking insane that you guys work together? He is handling a different side of the business. I am mostly all creative and he is handling the brand partnerships and the IP extensions and all of the things that are really business heavy.He's so creative, but we've had to decide when we overlap. We have the most fun when we come home from work and we pour ourselves a whiskey and download each other. It's this incredible creative session. It's a high, when as I call it with my team, we cracked the code. We did it, we figured it out. That's my high.What does turning off look like for you?It's something I'm working on constantly. My therapist always says take a bath and I'm like, Can I have my phone in the bath? I know this is different for everyone, but I can't turn off too long. Interviewing someone feels like a literal muscle I need to flex. Turning off though means, for me—it's going to sound weird—but Matt and my dream is we can do a weekend or a four day vacation, if we ever get to do that, which is rare. And on those trips we always say, let's do three to four hours a day of brainstorming, because we don't actually get to brainstorm as much as we wish every day because we're in the thick of it.So what I'm hearing is brainstorming is you turning off.I know, I know. I genuinely have a lot of happiness that comes from my body when I'm able to just free flow. But turning off is not what I'm interested in right now because I don't have kids right now. This is my baby. And you don't really get to turn off when you have kids, right?No, then it really ramps up.So, this is my child. When people ask that question, I'm like, Oh, well, what do moms do? Well, I feel like I'm a mother right now.How do you think that the people who work at your company would describe you as a boss? I think they would probably say, I'm very intense and very specific about what I like. They have shared with me that they appreciate that because I know exactly what I want. I think they would say that I am kind. I never wanted to work a corporate job, so I'm always going to keep the vibes high. But I think people know if you want to play hard, you have to work hard at this company. This is a startup at the end of the day.I think they would say, I have very high expectations for people, but that's because I have very high expectations for myself. I also recognize that everyone needs to look out for themselves. I can help in any capacity, my door is always open in that sense. I hope someone at my company eventually starts a company that is a competitor of mine. If you're not trying to take my job, then I don't want you at the company. There's a fun competitive nature that's more uplifting rather than me just sitting in the corner and coming up with all the answers and they all just take orders.Being a founder and a leader right now is political. There's a lot of social change that happens in workplaces and over the past decade, we've seen this—first with the #MeToo movement, and recently with DEI initiatives, many of which are being rolled back. How do you handle that responsibility? How do you feel your role in larger cultural change exists as a boss?I'm not going to lie, it's hard. Matt and I have so many conversations about how we help company culture and how we foster a very positive and safe environment, while also staying true to the genuine integral part of who we are and why we started this company. We are trying to find the balance of infusing the intensity and the excitement of what we're building because I genuinely believe this is one of the coolest companies to work at right now. Our biggest goal for this past year was really having a cohesive culture. But there's still work to do.You've acquired podcasts and you're hiring people to start podcasts on the network. What are you looking for in the creators that you're bringing onto Unwell?Work ethic. There's so much oversaturation of content creators right now, and it's so incredible to see the way that TikTok has allowed for people to amplify their voices and to create content, but I genuinely believe long form content will always be the thing that moves the needle and that will have lasting power. The creators that I'm seeing thrive at my company are the ones that are having input in the edit process, in the pre-production, in the post-production. I'm not someone that believes in just being a talent. I'm not just interested in a podcast network. I want to help people build brands.Alessandra Rich top, pants; Alexis Bittar earrings(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)That’s really exciting to hear because I do think that there are a lot of creators from either marginalized communities or creators of color who are just looking for somebody to pay attention to them.Absolutely. I think that's been such a huge conversation specifically on TikTok that I've seen. Why is this creator getting more attention than this creator? And it's a very valid point. What does it say about our culture that certain people are rising and other people are not rising? I agree.Do you think about that when you're implementing policies within the company that you and Matt are building?Every single day. Every single day, I'm trying to gauge, how do we continue to not just build a product that we're building, but also make genuine change in people's lives? Expanding to 50 people now and bringing people together from Matt’s world and then bringing in new people from my world, we are sitting together, looking at our slate, and thinking what is the next year going to look like and how can we do better?Versace top, skirt; Lié Studio earrings; Stems tights; Roger Vivier shoes(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)When you're working with these younger creators like Alix Earle and Madeline Argy, what sort of advice are you offering them?Alix and Madeline are such different creators. With Alix, it’s interesting to think about her in a long-term format. You don't want to change Alix Earle, you want to help her amplify and also, if anything, expand and show people more of her and she's now being able to talk about more sincere topics. The podcast has enabled her to feel like she doesn't have to be as performative in moments and she can genuinely get down to what's going on that week. Madeline, on the other hand, was an absolute sheer talent of just like, This girl can talk. How does a girl not have a podcast? I basically have a system that I've created within "Call Her Daddy," and I've shifted the format per show, but I'm able to sit down with every single creator and be like, You should look at it through this lens. Without giving away my secret sauce, I think I've been able to do it for every single creator.You do have this secret sauce of course, and it's led to an amazing amount of success. I was reading in the New York Times, though, where you said success made you feel a little more insecure and that you have to prove even more that you deserve this. I'm curious if you still feel that way?In a different way. I think when I said it back then, I genuinely felt a little out of my league when I was starting Unwell. I was more of a creator than a business woman. I felt people were looking at me with like, Oh, she made all this money, but now can she convert? Now it's not insecurity, it's more an awareness of the things I can get better on. But I will say, I think in the past year running this company has given me so much confidence. I've gotten to a place where I’m not getting down on myself for things that are normal to be experiencing. Media is so hard. For a lot of people that aren't in media, you look it and think oh, it's so glamorous. Absolutely. We have such incredible opportunities and there's privilege and there's things that come from it, but it doesn't mean it's not a grind.It's a job.Yeah. This shit is not for the weak.I'm curious about who you go to for business advice. Obviously Dave Portnoy, Barstool Sports. But I'm more curious about who you're going to for business advice now. Who's the last person you called to ask them a question about business?I would say without a doubt, Matt is one of the smartest people I've ever met, and I think every single person at our company is in awe of Matt and his ability to reinvent the wheel and come up with ideas and formulate concepts that have never been done. My CMO, TJ Marchetti, is such a brilliant marketing mind in terms of marketing.Coach jacket, skirt, bag; Bonnie Clyde sunglasses; By Far bootsWhat's interesting about your career is that you're constantly surrounded by men. It feels like it's a male-dominated industry. Who are the women in your life that you feel you can really lean on? My main "Call Her Daddy" producer is my go-to every single day. I'm speaking to this woman, and she is without a doubt, my right hand. I would not be able to produce "Call Her Daddy" in the capacity that I'm doing without her. Our head of podcasting and the network is this woman Rory [Armstrong]. She is truly so brilliant in the way that she sees the evolution of this space. Our head of our brand strategy, Ashley Lewis, has been absolutely transformative for live events and our partnerships business. Matt jokes, it's Matt and TJ—and then it's all women.I want to talk shop about "Call Her Daddy" specifically. I saw a talk that you did with the New York Times and you shared that you felt that celebrities feel safe with you. I thought that was a really interesting word. Why do you think they feel safe with you?I have been on many shows—not to put other shows down—but the host is looking five inches to the right of my head and reading a teleprompter and asking me questions. It's very dehumanizing. Almost like, Wait, I don't even know if you actually knew my name. Oprah was really the first person that was actually listening and sitting and having these in-depth conversations. A lot of what I'm doing goes back to just what my mother taught me from a young age, which is making someone feel seen and heard and understood and making them feel like you actually care about what they're saying. Because I do. Yes, I care about the celebrity sitting across from me, but I also care about my audience, so I'm also trying to get as much out of them as I can for my audience because they're going to learn something today.MM6 Maison Margiela coat; Dior boots(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)What I'm hearing is it's that you get them; you understand what they want. I'm curious though, what do you think people, journalists, the media get wrong about you?I think people don't see as much—understandably because of the empire I'm trying to build—I'm a very easygoing, funny, weird person. I love to joke around. I love to have fun. As a woman in media, it's very hard to present yourself in a way that is digestible for everyone. As we know, as two women sitting here, it's very challenging to see some men in the media say things. I always joke to my friends, Imagine if I said that? I would literally be canceled. I would be considered a bitch. I would be considered an egomaniac. There's this fine line that I think I've had to tow of what I want to show and present, because I genuinely still believe, sadly, that the world thinks that women can only still be one dimensional.A lot of times, I'll see in the media I came off too brash and aggressive in the way I was speaking, but it's probably because I feel like I'm climbing an uphill battle. Every room I'm walking into is like a DealBook, just filled with men. I'm feeling like I have to be a little bit more, I have to talk a little bit harder about my business, and I have to sell it harder because everyone's going to doubt that. Whereas if Dave Portnoy is walking into a room or if Joe Rogan's walking into a room, people are just going to be more at ease with them as complex humans. Whereas if I'm at all complex, people see it as, She's fake. I don't trust her. I don't believe her. I don't think we've cracked the code on how to embrace and celebrate and trust women who are running companies or who are leaning into being a boss or an entrepreneur.You're always compared to Howard Stern or Joe Rogan. Are you tired of that comparison?I'm exhausted, more so because—I'm not saying I should ever be compared to an Oprah or a Barbara Walters or any female host or anything, but why not just lead with that? They're diminishing women who have done this before and putting the men continuously on the pedestal. I hope one day someone's asked, Do you find yourself similar to Alex Cooper? And they don't just say, Do you find yourself similar to Joe Rogan? Because it doesn't take an idiot to recognize our content couldn't be more different. It's literally night and day. Same with me and Howard Stern. I'm not shitting on them. I'm just saying it's not even in the same realm. Would a man ever be asked, Do you think that you are similar to Alex Cooper? Sadly, I don't think a man would ever be asked that. So why am I constantly being asked if I think that I'm similar to men?Totally. I want to ask you a question that you asked Jojo Siwa. Why do you think people on the internet have such strong opinions about you?I definitely think it goes back to what we were just speaking about. Even saying this, if it gets clipped on TikTok, I know it will get probably shit. But, I think people are very uncomfortable with confident women. And I am not just saying men. I think women are very uncomfortable, too. It makes me sad for women who are made to feel uncomfortable by confident women because I think it, again, just goes back to misogyny. They have been trained to not have a voice; you shouldn't speak up. A lot of what "Call Her Daddy" has done for women is encouragement; say whatever the fuck you want to say and speak up. Even if people in a room roll their eyes or you get kicked out of the room, at least you can leave with your head held high, being like, I still stand for what I believe in, and I'm not going to just shrink.I understand a calm, loving, more quiet woman is easier to digest, but I want for the future generations to be able to acknowledge and lift up other women that are going for it and are going toe-to-toe in moments with the men and are making conversations. That's all I want to do is create conversations. I hope I never shut up. We need more women leading the charge in the conversation, but we also need women to stop tearing other women down.I'm so proud of what I have accomplished and that does not make me an egomaniac and that does not make me cocky. That just means that I've worked really hard to build confidence, and as women, we should all rally together to know how fucking hard it is to have confidence as a woman.(Image credit: Joelle Grace Taylor)What do you do when your confidence falters, though?I try as hard as I can to go back to my core values as a human being. When my confidence falters, I try to remind myself who I am and where I came from, and that little girl in Pennsylvania would have done anything to be sitting where I am and to hold my head high when people are doubting me.Let's talk about money. Everyone knows about the deal, but I'm very curious about how your relationship to it has changed now that you definitely have money. How has your perspective on money and worth sort of evolved over these last few years?Listen, no one gets into the entertainment business to make money, especially when you're on the producing side. I didn't intend to be a host. I always wanted to be a director. I always wanted to direct films, and I knew there's not, unless you are literally one of the greats, there's not that much money in that. So, for a lot of my life money was not at the forefront. But once I saw how much Barstool was making, I was like, wait, can we get a cut of that? At that point it was about just knowing your worth and fighting for that. Now, I feel so fortunate. I don't even think the word fortunate begins to encompass what I feel towards what I have because it's not lost on me that literally all of that is because of my audience.Do you feel like you've made it? Or what will need to happen for you to feel like you've made it?Open my journal and you'll read: Today, we made it. Yesterday, we didn't. Tomorrow we're fucked. I go back and forth every day. I have moments of I made it. When I sat across from the Vice President of the United States, no matter anyone's political opinions, that was wild. Being searched by Secret Service and going to D.C., that was one of those moments in my career I'll never forget. Being on the cover of Forbes is another one. I remember when I tried to put my application in be a "30 Under 30" back at Barstool and didn't get accepted, so now to be on the cover, yes, that’s an I made it moment. I don't know if I'll ever have the I made it moment in terms of creative capacity. Matt and I talk about this a lot, will we ever get to the point with our company where we're making less movies and we're just going for Academy Awards and we're just making one movie, you know what I mean? Maybe stylistic decisions that I can make at some point, will change, but I know I will always be, in some capacity, creating for the rest of my life because it's what brings me joy.You alluded to this a little earlier, but I'm curious, what keeps you up at night?I think it changes every week. Certain weeks it will be like, oh my gosh, people misinterpreted a clip from "Call Her Daddy" and I'm having to do more damage control; making sure that people know me authentically and what I’m trying to get across. I would say other times in business when I'm negotiating a deal, I'm literally in the shower, I'm brushing my teeth, I'm doing my laundry, I'm walking my dogs, I'm in bed with my husband, and every turn I'm up at night. The creative also keeps me up at night. Is the product getting too stale? Was that episode as good as it could be?Last couple of questions: What's the best piece of advice that you've ever received? And what’s the worst?I'm going to be really honest. I'm sure I have received good advice in my life, but I have no answer to this question because I feel like for so many people giving me advice is hard for someone to understand what I'm going through. The best advice I have for myself is you always have the answer, so take as much advice as you can get, but usually I'm adjusting it or tweaking it in some capacity. I've never really taken someone's advice and completely listened to it.The worst piece of advice is probably that you could restart the show and IP doesn't matter. And I want to clarify, I don't look back at that time anymore of cattiness. I genuinely look back and I'm so happy. I stuck to what I believed in during moments of people trying to convince me otherwise. I always go back to that core of trusting myself. And that goes back to the advice question. I know what's best for me, and I will listen to people and I will sit in rooms and I will go back and forth and have good dialogues, but my gut has mostly never been wrong.One more question about the podcast specifically. Who's been your toughest interview?I would say RuPaul because I wanted to impress my absolute queen. I wanted so badly to have Ru love me. Recognizing my privilege, I was so aware that I needed to show up for this person, and I needed to prove why they should be sitting with me. I worked so hard in that interview to stay toe-to-toe with them. I really wanted to garner the respect. I knew that Ru would love the show, but they just had to have a good experience.So what does being a mogul mean to you?I think being a mogul sounds like something I would put on my desk somewhere if I had a big intense desk and I was trying to be all fancy, but really it's being an entrepreneur. It's being nimble. It's recognizing that my industry can turn on a dime. It's being inquisitive, but also sticking to what I believe in. It's being very, very determined while also maintaining a sense of calmness in absolute chaos. It's being a leader to people who I want to bring along on the journey with me, but also trusting in myself in big moments and not getting too comfortable having teams behind me. I am trying to consistently also pave the way, like I said earlier, for authenticity.I do think anyone around me in business would say, Alex Cooper is tough to work for because she will not bend if it does not make sense for her and her brand and her audience. The amount of money passed up, the amount of opportunities passed up, and I welcome people trying to convince me, but I have stayed so true. Being a mogul is recognizing the complexities that come with, like I said, being a host, a personality, an entrepreneur, a leader, a business woman, a friend, a wife, a daughter. There's all of that, and trying to wrap it into one and trying to continue to push myself forward while also not losing myself and also creating new shit. I want to create new conversations. I want to create new IP. I want to create new ventures. I want to expand. I want to acquire, I want to do it all. But being patient.It all comes back to patience.Patience. Calm down, Alex.Interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Alex Cooper Is Marie Claire’s Mogul and Muse | January 2025 Cover Shoot - YouTube Watch On Photographer Joelle Grace Taylor | Stylist Sue Choi | Hair Stylist Ryan Richman | Makeup Artist Jenna Nicole | Manicurist Jolene Brodeur | Video Director Sam Schultz | DP Sam Miron | 1st AC Reece Moffett | Video Producer Kellie Scott | Production Lindsay Ferro | VP of Creative Alexa Wiley | Fashion Director Sara Holzman | Beauty Director Hannah Baxter | Entertainment Director Neha Prakash Source link

[aeoki]

SS Finals - Crown: Chapter 1

Location: SS Finals Live Stage Characters: Mika, Shuu, Sora, Natsume & Tsumugi

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ< Almost an hour later after the start of the “SS” Finals.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤBefore the first round: “Valkyrie” vs “Switch”. >

Shuu: …I see we keep running into each other, “Switch”.

Who would have thought we’d be battling it out once more after the absurd Qualifying Rounds in Tohoku.

Quite frankly, I’m sick of seeing your faces and would have preferred something new instead.

Natsume: AhaHA. If that’s what you wantED, then you should’ve taken part in the opening performance with all of the other uniTS.

Shuu: Hmph. What, was I supposed to hold hands with them and skip about? We’re about to crush one another – I question how singing together with a smile and arms around one another is sane behaviour!

Tsumugi: It was so much fun, though~ Well, you weren’t forced to participate so it wasn’t an issue. I’m sure you would’ve wanted time to prepare since you’re the first performer.

Shuu: Hmph. I couldn’t focus because of all that boisterous horsing around, though.

Sora: HaHa~♪ That’s also part of our plan!

Tsumugi: Indeed. We, the “Red Team”, will win using everything we can think of. We were selected as your opponents to increase our team’s chances of winning.

The performances that stood out were repeatedly broadcast during the preparation period as well.

The viewers should be getting tired of watching “Switch” battling against “Valkyrie” by now.

Natsume: But “Valkyrie” has a large and passionate fanbaSE, so I’m sure those people will vote for you without much thougHT.

In faCT, it scares me more if you guys were to let all those votes pile up during the final rounDS.

“Valkyrie” will gain a large number of votes including those who have stockpiled their votES… And we’ll be the one to beat yOU.

Tsumugi: Everyone will be tired of watching the standard performances by the final rounds, so I’m sure “Valkyrie’s” unique performance will be able to captivate even more people than usual.

Natsume: But we cannot give you that victoRY. We, the “Red Team”, will win every single one of these battlES.

Shuu: Kakaka. How bold of you – You think you can win if you directly confront us? The likes of you?

Mika: Ahaha. That very “Switch” managed to drive us into a corner durin’ the Qualifyin’ Rounds, though ♪

But why are you guys so excited ‘bout it? That’s pretty rare. You guys usually act like you're aimin’ for somethin’ way more important than winnin’.

We’re the same so I thought we were on the same page, though…?

Natsume: How duMB. Do you guys actually know nothiNG?

Mika: ………?

Natsume: I just received news from the “General Leader” of the “Red Team” that “fine’s” Touri Himemiya-kun has been kidnappED.

By “Eden”, the “General Leader” of the “White Team”.

Everyone in the “Red Team” has received postcards with a photograph attached heralding that neWS. NaturalLY, we’re beside ourselves with anger after hearing of this despicable criME.

The red colour of the “Red Team” is the colour of a crimson flaME – the colour of raGE.

Wɇ sħȺłł ƀᵾɍn ɏøᵾɍ vɇɍɏ ƀønɇs Ⱥnđ ŧᵾɍn ɏøᵾ Ⱥłł ɨnŧø wħɨŧɇ Ⱥsħɇs… “Wħɨŧɇ ŦɇȺm”!

Mika: W–Wait. Whaddya mean by kidnappin’? Touri-kun got kidnapped…? We don’t know anythin’ about that!

Shuu: W–What’s going on? What did Tenshouin do!? I can’t believe he couldn’t protect such a dear child…!

No, this must be his plan. I know what he’s up to! He wants us to look like the villains and wants the public to go against us!

Mika: Nghahh, Oshi-san, quiet down! The seats are filled with people so they might hear.

Tsumugi: Indeed ♪ They’re told to turn off their phones inside the stadium, but they can use their phone and go on social media when they’re in the bathroom.

I don’t think everyone will follow the rules.

Shuu: Ridiculous! Idols are role models – That sort of thing happens because idols did it first!

Natsume: AhaHA. You’re amazing for being an idol with that mindset, Shuu Nii-sAN. No one is saying that idols are “humanity’s role models”, you knOW?

It’s just a business that relies on populariTY – It just means you’ll suffer losses if you do something bAD.

Those idols who sell themselves based on an absolute virtuous image committed a filthy crime by kidnapping someoNE.

The “White Team” would suffer a heavy blow if that sort of rumour were to spread, wouldn’t iT?

I bet the the New Year would have arrived by the time you did your own research and explained the truth behind iT ♪

Shuu: You’re speaking… as if it’s a plot of your doing. I’m right, aren’t I? There hasn’t been a poor child kidnapped, has there!?

Natsume: HmM~ I have my own suspicions to be honeST. That news was delivered to us in the name of Nagisa Ran, the “General Leader” of the “White TeAM”.

But if something like that was uploaded on social medIA, then that would truly be too cruel of an imaGE. It’ll damage not only today’s “SS” FinaLS, but our future idol activities as weLL.

Tsumugi: Right. Nagisa-kun tends to be quite eccentric, but he’s smart so I don’t think he’d do something like that.

I’m sure it’s a strategy they used to destroy Nagisa-kun or “Eden”. I won’t forgive whoever they are. It’s been a while since I last felt so angry.

Sora: HiHi~♪ Yes! It’s Sora’s first time seeing Senpai so fired up~

Natsume: Why can’t you just let those emotions out in generAL…?

AnywAY, it’s true that we received those postcards and that Touri-kun has yet to be fouND.

You two probably don’t know but he was the only one missing from “fine” during the opening performance as weLL.

…There’s an actual possibility he has been kidnappED.

That’s why we have to consider everything before making a moVE. We don’t have the time to fool around, eithER.

We’ll do whatever we can without regreTS. Don’t assume we can have a “friendly battle” just like we did during the Qualifying Rounds, “ValkyrIE”.

Mika: …………

Shuu: (What’s going on? Just what on earth is happening!? Nagisa Ran… This is exactly why I can’t trust former members of “fine”!)

(Have you learnt nothing after crushing us to pieces using despicable methods during the War!?)

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ← Previous Chapter ᠂ ⚘ ˚⊹˚ ⚘ ᠂  Next Chapter →

[formulatrash]

While we are loosely on the topic of IndyCar, I've been getting into other racing series and am planning to actively follow some more this year and the culture shock as a fan is real. I can actually ask questions about IndyCar and FE without getting some smart ass "DTS fan" response, coincidentally with them still being unable to answer my question themselves though. Generally people just stay in their lanes and focus on the teams/drivers they support instead of wasting so much time and energy on the teams/drivers they passionately hate. Death threats and harassment aren't normalized. Maybe the haters aren't the only ones who want to see my favs get "demoted" to IndyCar or FE because they're genuinely so much more chill to follow as a fan. With F1, you can do all the blocking and unfollowing not just on Tumblr, but on websites with a lot of grown 50+ year olds and still come across some of the most file shit you've ever encountered. I've met some great friends through F1 and as a STEM student, love the engineering aspect, but the 24/7, 365 fighting and drama amongst fans doesn't make it fun to follow, it gets old and annoying pretty quick.

in all honesty, it's that lack of exposure thing. people are excited to see other people getting into the smaller series we like cus there aren't very many of us, innit. gotta have people to blorbopost with. love to get the moots in on my nonsense.

(this was, in short version, how I ended up writing about Formula E for years)

the sheer scale of F1 fandom has always been one of its issues, like football fandom. there's no sort of curated community areas where everyone's decent to each other cus there's so many people involved. and there's lots of ways in which the media is responsible for that

I'm glad you mentioned the 50+ year olds cus honestly, it's always been this way. and particularly if you're from any of the demographics not assumed to be somehow naturally an authority on F1. I say 'any of the demographics' - you know exactly the one that gets the pass and then the rest of us can waste our lives proving we know anything and drive ourselves insane or just accept you have to love it in spite of it all.

ultimately, it's on F1 to actually call off the dogs in the sense you can absolutely start effective comms campaigns that address harassment and exclusion. you can breed healthy dialogue, you can put a less combative and rage-fuelled version of the sport out there. but what's happening right now is doing numbers for a series that - and remember this was as recently as 2018 - was absolutely on its knees.

shrinking, ageing viewership was impacting sponsorship while costs escalated, manufacturers all threatening to pull out, brands questioning the point of being involved, media coverage that was shrivelling up and dying, no social and digital presence to speak of, very little visibility outside specialist channels.

F1 has, by a combination of luck and a sort of 'try pressing every button at once and see if something works' managed to reverse those fortunes and now the influencers it didn't understand 5 years ago are clamouring to get in the paddock. that's a good thing! F1 desperately needs attention or else, like a Tumblr user, it will literally die because sponsors are only interested in paying for exposure and F1 needs such vast amounts of money.

so: I'd love F1 to have more fans. my friends who've suddenly got into or back into it the last few years rock. but with great capacity for sponsorship deals comes a huge hot mess of governance, calendar bloat and subterranean discourse.

although Extremely Online F1 Fandom is only a small slice of it all, regardless, which I kinda try to remember.

main thing is: enjoy things how you want to! engage with and boost content you like! block everyone annoying, life is too short.

(I genuinely wish more people would just block me when they find me annoying on Twitter or whatever rather than turn it into a strange obsession. think I'm an idiot? cool, block me. massively more peaceful for us all)

[uncommon-etc]

A quick guide to things you can actually credit Taika Waititi for

I keep seeing posts making fun of the tendency to give more credit than was due for TV shows like OFMD, WWDITS, and Flight of the Conchords to Taika Waititi. So for those who keep making them: can you not? It’s not cute, it’s not funny, and half the time it’s just plain mean. But the other reason it annoys me, as a media theory nerd and film buff, is that you could all be putting your energy into distinguishing and celebrating all of the things that this certifiable genius has given the world

There are plenty of Taika Waititi films that I grew up loving, because they struck the perfect balance between ‘If Ken Loach was a kiwi’ and ‘If Wes Anderson was funny’ but they rarely seem to get much of a look in. So here is your ultimate cheat-sheet, one-stop-shop, complete with unsolicited reviews of every film Taika has actually written and/or directed starting with...

Two Cars, One Night (2003)

I will never stop going on about this film, to the extent they’ll probably have to put me in the ground with the words ‘It’s only 11 minutes long, so you’ve got no excuse’ just about formed on my recently deceased lips. It was nominated for Best Short Film at the 2005 Oscars and is widely credited with establishing its director as one of the most exciting creative prospects that a small, sparsely populated island without much of a presence in world cinema had to offer.

The brilliance of Two Cars, One Night is that it cloaks itself completely in the visuals of New Zealand’s grim social-realist tradition, but manages to interject warmth, humor, and hopefulness, in the unlikeliest of places. The two main characters meet in the parking lot of a hotel bar, where their parents are off getting drunk. Their accents and use of local slang mean some viewers may need to turn on subtitles to know exactly what’s being discussed.

But the sweet optimism of the child’s-eye-view, and the unwillingness of the writer to cast them as victims of circumstance would go on to become a staple in the majority of Taika’s more commercial film catalogue. Also it’s on YouTube, so you really have got no excuse 

Rating: 11/10

Taika Waititi plays: No one, this is probably the only Taika Waititi film which doesn’t feature at least one cameo by Taika Waititi, otherwise it’s perfection

Taika has actually written and directed six other short films (three of which were basically Marvel promos) but I’m including this one with the full-length features because it’s just so damn good.

onto another hidden gem...

Eagle Vs. Shark (2007)

I first watched this film as a preteen after my sister and her friends rented it for a sleepover. Full disclosure: None of them liked it. I think they assumed they were meant to be watching a quirky rom-com, but to apply that label would be doing the film a gross injustice.

Co-written with Loren Taylor (then Loren Horsley, who plays Lily) Eagle vs. Shark is a black comedy about dysfunctional families, coping with grief, and the reality of being straight up awkward in relationships.

Jarrod (played beautifully by Jemaine Clement) and Lily get together after he invites her to a ‘dress as your favourite animal’ costume party, but he then announces rather dramatically that he’s returning to his hometown to fight the guy that bullied him in high-school.

Lily is something of a social outcast herself (she’s treated as odd for the fact she’s lived with her brother Damon since their parents’ deaths, and is generally an introvert) and develops a huge crush on Jarrod even though he’s kind of a dick to her. She and Damon agree to drive Jarrod back to his hometown where they meet his father, siblings, and the nine-year-old daughter from a one-night-stand that he’s kind of indifferent to. 

Legend has it that Taika Waititi wrote the script for Eagle Vs. Shark in under a week and ngl, it shows, but visually, emotionally, and thematically, it’s still a beautiful and very overlooked film. On the whole Americans don’t tend to ‘get’ the style and whimsy, and some people find the random bits of claymation distracting, but they were all winning touches for me.

Rating: 8/10

Taika Waititi plays: Jarrod’s late brother Gordon, who appears posthumously in family photos and home-videos, Jarrod’s father tells everyone he died saving a child from a fire. (Spoiler warning: It isn’t true)

Which was followed three years later by an understated masterpiece...

Boy (2010)

Now that you’ve watched Two Cars, One Night, and you’re thinking ‘wow, I loved that, but I wish it was longer, and in colour’ I’ve got great news for you!

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Boy is probably one of the greatest films ever made on location in New Zealand (yes, LOTR stans, come at me as much as you want, you can’t change my mind) it captures the perfect Waititi blend of being side-splittingly funny and gut-punchingly tragic. It’s got the constant thematic references to 80s pop culture that Stranger Things fans, who never lived through the 80s, go nuts over. The protagonist has a little brother who’s convinced he’s got super-powers and the narrative occasionally reinforces his belief by making things happen to confirm it.

In some ways its heavily autobiographical, but I think a lot of viewers tend to overstate how autobiographical, so just to set the record straight: though Taika spent his summers with his grandmother and cousins in Waihau Bay, he was an only child, and his Russian-Jewish mother bears no resemblance to the fictional dead Maori mother-character of the film. He’s always maintained it was the small details (like Alamein Snr. starting his car with a spoon in the ignition) that were based on direct recollections from his actual childhood. And as far as we know his father never buried a giant stash of money in a field which was later eaten by a goat.

Also, Taika’s commitment to shaming deadbeat dads everywhere is pretty impressive here. Most screenwriters, when faced with characters that bear some resemblance to their loved ones, tend to go easy, portray them through rose-tinted sunglasses, and accept the premise that all parents and parent-figures are just doing the best they can. Not this time. Taika takes an already flawed parent-figure and makes him worse, deconstructing the fantasy of the absentee hero dad and replacing it piece-by-piece until the viewer’s like ‘dayum.’

Rating: 20/10 essential viewing for any lover of independent cinema

Taika Waititi plays: Alamein, who manages to make Darth Vader look like father of the year. OFMD stans will appreciate the portrayal though, as there is definitely some crossover with Taika’s portrayal of Blackbeard.

What we do in the Shadows (2014)

This one actually does tend to get a lot of traffic on tumblr (though less so than the TV series which followed) so there’s not much more I can say about it except: this right here, is how you do a mockumentary. I was in my first year at university when WWDITS was released, and given that most of my new friends were really into old-school horror, it gave me a great gateway to force them into endless re-watches of Flight of the Conchords instead *evil laugh*. It was co-written and directed by Jemaine Clement, and is a good example of why the two of them are easily the funniest comedy-writing duo since... well, I can’t actually think of any funny kiwis from previous decades, so there you go. 

The basic premise, though it’s been well-publicized by now, is that a group of vampires from different centuries live in a shared house in a suburb of Wellington, and the film chronicles their lives together. But on top of the sheer hilarity of the hijinks that ensue, is the overarching theme that, as both creators have pointed out, these guys have eternal life, they can literally do anything they want, and what they often want is just to waste time on earth like the rest of us. And yes, Jackie walked, so Guillermo could run.

Rating: 10/10

Taika Waititi plays: Viago, though the 379-year-old Victorian dandy is beloved of fan-artists everywhere, so I’m sure you already knew that.     

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

This one is probably the most political Taika Waititi film. All of the elements of his previous work, in giving child-characters the primary perspective on the unfolding events, and establishing the protection of their innocence and ambitions as a narrative triumph, are still present, but the plot makes a lot of major and minor digs at the foster care system. Taika began working on the script in 2005, but despite the complexities of the locations, it was all shot over five weeks on a single camera, which is an achievement in itself. 

I don’t want to give too much away without spoiling the plot (which is pretty fast-paced and more reminiscent of an action-thriller than a charming social-realist comedy-drama) but the absolute glue that holds this film together is the dynamic between juvenile delinquent Ricky Baker and his grouchy hermit foster-dad Hector. Adapted from a novel by Barry Crump, its runaways framed-as-fake-abduction story-line can feel a little close to home to anyone who’s worked in children’s social services, but underneath the film has a lot of heart, and some excellent 90s hip-hop references.

Also Rhys Darby has a long cameo as a hermit called Psycho Sam, so jot that down.

Rating: 9/10

Taika Waititi plays: an unnamed fundamentalist minister, idk, he’s only in one scene, but it’s pretty funny. 

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

First things first, you can gripe on about Marvel here all you like, but I am an unapologetic fan of this film, and all that led up to it. I love Thor. I’ve loved Norse mythology ever since I was a kid, so a Thor film directed by Taika Waititi? Yes please. Especially since Ragnarok draws on some of the older comic story-lines from the 70s and 80s.

Visually, its incredibly different for any Marvel film before or since, though it borrows a little from the unashamedly retro sci-fi of Guardians of the Galaxy. It was also Taika’s first big-budget project, though not the first time he’d made a cameo in a super hero film, or referenced them in previous work. Crucially, there’s no romantic sub-plot in Thor: Ragnarok, which was extremely refreshing, with focus instead being on the much-loved sibling relationship between Thor and Loki. Taika was handed a great cast, strong visuals, and the keys to an endless string of mega-budget sequels and prequels, but boy did he deliver.

When you google ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ one of the first auto-suggestions which comes up is ‘Why is Thor: Ragnarok so good?’ I’d like to think it has something to do with casting aside establishment wisdom about what makes a superhero movie and using your well-honed gift for crafting compelling story-lines, hilarious dialog and characters people actually want to root for, to create something altogether different. And someone finally made Thor the himbo he was always destined to be, which helps.

Rating: 10/10  

Taika Waititi plays: Korg, though plenty of people, including my partner, didn’t recognise him at the time, due to him being a giant boulder-man with a slightly higher-pitched version of his usual accent

Jojo Rabbit (2018)

Spoiler alert: a few minutes into this film, an animal dies. While watching it for the second time in the presence of my family, I had to stop myself saying something. My sister, never having seen it, reassured everyone that said animal would not, in fact, die because Jojo Rabbit was ‘not that kind of film’.

So, I hate to burst your bubble if you find yourself in the same position, but this is Taika Waititi we’re talking about (whose animal body-count as a writer is creeping towards Wes Anderson levels of ‘does the dog die?’) it’s also the sort of film where nothing is off the table in the pursuit of the funniest form of black-comedy. Working from a screenplay he first adapted in 2011, Taika reclaims the long, proud, though not entirely successful, tradition of satirizing Nazis in order to take the wind out of their sails. In doing so, he creates the perfect war-film for a generation unfamiliar with the horrors of war.

Thematically it’s very similar to Boy, though the parallels tend to get lost in the sheer beauty and visual spectacle of its colourful 1940s setting. If I was ever to teach a film-studies class on masterful use of the child-as-unreliable-narrator, these are the two I’d pick.

Jojo Rabbit won the oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, and narrowly lost out on Best Picture to Parasite, so if you’re looking for an accessible, commercial though not entirely comforting route into the Waititi film canon, it’s the logical choice. Stephen Merchant is hilarious in it too.

Rating: 20/10 this isn’t even a critique, I have no criticism to give

Taika Waititi plays: Hitler. Or rather, a childish, imaginary-friend version of Hitler who provides insight to the protagonist. Which puts him up there with Gillian Anderson on the unsettling list of ‘Evil historical figures played by actors you definitely wouldn’t kick out of bed’.   

If you want a more digestible version of this post, there’s a great little seven-minute video on IMDB which goes into the key narrative and visual themes in every Taika Waititi film

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390579/

But I also wanted to offer some clarity where television was concerned:

Taika did not, as has been claimed, write any episodes of either WWDITS the series, or OFMD (he directed and produced three, and one episode respectively) though he did write and direct four episodes of Flight of the Conchords (the best four, imho) and those included the music-videos for ‘Mother’uckas’ and ‘Leggy Blonde’ (another very fine performance by Rhys Darby). He also directed five episodes of The Inbetweeners, an episode of The Mandalorian, and six episodes of the Kiwi observational comedy Super City.

One thing he’s generally un-credited for is writing the initial screenplay for Moana, though it was heavily adapted from that draft, and being the co-creator of the mockumentary series Wellington Paranormal.

Anyway, happy watching, I personally cannot wait for Thor: Love and Thunder, or Next Goal Wins.     

[undertale-data]

Closing Remarks

Feelings about the Survey

Ficus Licker: Thank you guys for taking our survey. When we started this project, it was just for fun, and I thought maybe a couple hundred or so people would take it. Receiving over 2500 responses was amazing and allowed us to view more accurate trends across the fandom. Everyone has been super nice and supportive throughout this project, including my fellow contributors. They’re great at reminding me to get sleep and not go too crazy stupid trying to do everything at once. There’s a limit to the amount of things you can do today, after all.

Vessel #1: I never expected this to get so big either. I’m just very glad for all the support we got throughout the event, both from the team, and every single one of you! It’s true that no research can be done without flaws, but this was a really good experience overall and I hope you guys liked being a part of it as much as we did.I felt like working with the team was amazing. Hell, I’m starting the Ficus Licker and Vessels [and redacted] fan club, because they’re brilliant people and it’s surprising they can still stand me. It’s like working on a group project where everyone does their part and it flows almost perfectly jsjsjs.

I’m excited to see how people react to our work, or if they motivate others to do their own events. Whatever it is, I’m rooting for all of you!

Vessel #2: Being a part of this survey has been a delight. I was technically the one who came up with the idea, but I wasn’t expecting my teammates to step up so hard and put it together so gorgeously. I think we all learned a lot about data analysis, different social media platforms, and graphic design, but for me, the biggest takeaway has been the overwhelming positivity of the fandom’s reactions. At first I was half joking about wanting to study the fandom because I thought statistics were cool, expecting this to be a niche project that a few friends responded to. Instead I was blown away by fans who were just as hyped about the data as I was. It was also the best feeling in the world to read through pages and pages of responses from all over the internet, and realize that so many different people have so much in common with me in their connections to this game. Thank you to everyone who participated, especially to my fantastic fellow Vessel and Ficus Licker, [and redacted if they would like to be credited] for turning my silly math ramblings into such a work of art. <3

Feelings about UNDERTALE

Ficus Licker: I never expected to get this deep into Undertale. I did not know anything about the game before playing it, except that there was a square robot named Mettaton, and that Sans was a meme. I only got it because it was on sale and I thought it would be a simple way to pass some time. And, well, here we are. I’m always a sucker for found family, as well as for video game mechanics influencing plot and/or lore, so it was no surprise that I ended up loving the game so much. I want a found family like the one in Undertale, even if I know that's not realistic haha.

Vessel #1: I honestly do not know what decisions led me here. Maybe it’s that when I played Undertale I was hooked. And I guess I also have a love for surveys, data and just… trying to understand people’s motivations. V2 said something about studying the fandom and I just exploded with the need to do it. Still, in general, Undertale and Deltarune meant a lot to me, they pushed me to be more creative, I found a huge community and met a lot of cool people (like FL, V2, and [redacted] even if they’re really far away). Oh! And as someone who’s terrible at video games, the game mechanics and story always made me stay determined. And that is not even mentioning the music, which is probably what motivated me to try out the games in the first place. Anyways… to cut it short, I love both the game, its story, and music and the people I’ve met because of it, thanks so much!

Vessel 2: I started playing Undertale because my friend was obsessed with it, and I’m so glad I did. The characters are all so fun and complex, and I think about them constantly. And the morals questions brought up by the game are so cool, I keep coming back to them. Still, it also manages to be a neat little game filled with friendly characters and a fabulous soundtrack. I love the depth and heartwrenching scenes, but more than that, I love that they are just… some guys. They are my some guys. Mettaton if you're out there you're doing fantastic.

-

If you would like to view all of the posts on this blog in google doc format, you are welcome to do so in this google drive folder. Also, our askbox will remain open if fans have questions on collecting fandom data. We will likely not answer all questions, but if you scream into the Void, the Void may scream back.