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- [00:01]
Chloe Mel
This episode of the Run through is brought to you by eBay. EBay. It's the place to fall in love with new, pre loved, vintage and rare fashion over and over again. Your favorite designers, expertly authenticated. Yes, ebay. Things people love. This is the Run Through. I'm Chloe Mel. And joining me for this special Monday episode is Vogue's deputy editor, Taylor Antrim.
- [00:29]
Taylor Antrim
Hi, everyone.
- [00:31]
Chloe Mel
Today, Vogue's latest cover is out in the world, featuring the beautiful Anne Hathaway, styled by Tabitha Simmons and photographed by Annie Leibovitz. Taylor, you were one of the key players in this story.
- [00:46]
Taylor Antrim
Key? Yes, indeed. Right at the heart of things, the beating heart of the Anne. Halfway.
- [00:50]
Chloe Mel
The aorta of Anne.
- [00:52]
Taylor Antrim
I don't think we need to get into aortas.
- [00:57]
Chloe Mel
Tell us what went down.
- [00:59]
Taylor Antrim
Well, we all fell head of our heels for Anne Hathaway. I mean, I think that's the. That's the headline here. Well, what do you want to know, Chloe? This was a really fun cover to work on.
- [01:09]
Chloe Mel
She is wearing some fresh off the Runway Givenchy.
- [01:13]
Taylor Antrim
Oh, yeah, on the COVID All Sarah Burton in this. In this cover portfolio, which is really exciting because this was Sarah Burton's big return to a creative directorship after leaving Burberry.
- [01:24]
Chloe Mel
And the whole issue is the idea behind it was power, women and the power of women return. And so it's a whole spotlight on female designers. And Anne exemplified to a lot of us this idea of a woman in charge of her own life.
- [01:40]
Taylor Antrim
Yes. I mean, this is a fairly strange indie movie called Mother Mary, which is coming out by the end of the year. But, like, if you want a portrait of, like, an incredibly powerful, like, indomitable vision of Anne Hathaway, that's what this movie has. So it is an incredible performance. She really throws herself into it. And in this cover story, that Maya singer, who's gonna come on and talk to us about it, wrote and talks about just like, the incredible amounts of preparation she had to do. She had to train herself to be. To basically be like a global pop star because she has these highly staged sequences where she's performing sort of, you know, Lady Gaga esque pop songs on stage and. Yeah, it's something else. I mean, I watched it sort of with my jaw on the floor.
- [02:24]
Chloe Mel
Hmm, interesting.
- [02:29]
Taylor Antrim
That's a common idiom, you know.
- [02:30]
Chloe Mel
I guess you just made it sound very.
- [02:34]
Taylor Antrim
What would you like me to say?
- [02:35]
Maya Singer
No, no, that's fine.
- [02:36]
Chloe Mel
That's fine.
- [02:36]
Taylor Antrim
I watched it agog. I watched it aghast. Agog cape and a gasp.
- [02:44]
Chloe Mel
Without further ado let's hear from Maya.
- [02:48]
Taylor Antrim
Yeah.
- [02:50]
Chloe Mel
The run through will be back in a moment. When your love for sneakers has you chasing limited editions, classics and rare finds, go to ebay, score your once in a blue moon pair and check off your wish list. For those fresh kicks. Get authentic streetwear and expert verified accessories. Think timeless watches, vintage designer bags and more jewelry than you can wear. Ebay, the new place for new pre loved vintage and rare fashion. Yeah, ebay, things people love. Maya, we are so excited to have you on the pod.
- [03:40]
Taylor Antrim
We are thrilled to have you here. We're here to talk about the August issue cover story, which is the immortal Anne Hathaway on the COVID But one thing I like to do as we get into these sort of like behind our cover story chats is I go back to my emails and text chats to see about how the whole thing started. And I found it. I was like, hey, Maya, are you available for the August cover? It's Anne Hathaway, blah, blah. And I would say your enthusiasm was high for you, but you're not like a. You're not going to like scream, oh my God, this is the assignment of my dreams. You were like, tell me how you responded to the idea of profiling Anne Hathaway.
- [04:19]
Maya Singer
I mean, I think I know I'm not an effusive person. That's what I was.
- [04:23]
Taylor Antrim
I was like, better you say that than me.
- [04:26]
Maya Singer
I mean, it's funny because Ann actually is a person who sort of brings out effusiveness. Totally. I will say I'm not dodging your question. I do think that that is one of the funny things. Is that like the first thing really that like, you know, our initial interaction was this kind of like very jarring experience for me because I a little aloof and a little deadpan and like she comes in with like a lot of loving and like effusive energy and just sort of greeted me with like this big embrace.
- [05:03]
Taylor Antrim
Oh my goodness.
- [05:04]
Maya Singer
And you know, and I was just Kayla's nightmare.
- [05:08]
Taylor Antrim
I'm not anti hug Chloe.
- [05:10]
Maya Singer
I'm not. And like I'm not either. But it was just like a little bit like, oh my goodness. Because that isn't normally how people that you're, you know, interviewing. It's like there's usually a little bit of like kind of sizing each other up. Like, you know, are you here to destroy me?
- [05:26]
Taylor Antrim
Right, right, right.
- [05:27]
Maya Singer
Going on. And she didn't have any of that. One of the next things that basically happened between us was that she sort of like, looked and saw, like, my tote bag. And there was, like, a sketch of, like, a photograph of, like, the filmmaker, like, Chantal Aukerman on it. And she was like, oh, my God. Like, I just watched the movie of ours, like, for the first time.
- [05:47]
Chloe Mel
What movie was it?
- [05:48]
Maya Singer
It was the film. One of her, like, really early films. It might even be her first film called C' Est Mais Vie. Means, like, Blow Up My Town. But it was just, like, this very strange thing. Cause she was like, oh, my God. Like, I never even, like, heard of Chantel Aukerman until, like, two days ago. And I watched her movie for the first time, like, last night. And, like, all of a sudden, like, here you are with your tote bag. That's crazy. And I was sort of like, oh, my God. Yeah, that's totally crazy. Like, suddenly, like, I'm this person who's like, you know, she sort of sets the terms, right?
- [06:18]
Taylor Antrim
She's like, this is how it's gonna go.
- [06:19]
Maya Singer
It's like she create permission structure is how I would put it, you know, to be a little bit more like. You can be kind of bubbly and, like, around her and excited about things in a way that maybe in your normal, kind of, like, jaded New York life, you don't get to be.
- [06:35]
Taylor Antrim
The other thing that was sort of hanging in my head when I contacted you and this speaks to your piece, which I think is very thoughtful and very psychologically rich about her, is like, the nominal peg for this cover story is a movie called Mother Mary that I had seen a few weeks and you had not seen. So what I was coming to you to say was, like, would you like to profile just this extremely effusive. We all love her celebrity in a movie. That is, like, one of the strangest things I've ever seen, right? And so I was sort of like, good luck, Maya. But the filmmaker is David Lowery, who is a really interesting filmmaker who does not make commercial, sort of straightforward movies. I'd seen pretty much all of his movies, and I knew you had, too. So I kind of knew what you were. I knew that you knew what you would be getting into.
- [07:30]
Maya Singer
One of the things that I actually said to Anne, almost, like, right away when we sat down to, like, do the proper, like, interviews, I was like, I'm really bad at being, like, a celebrity interviewing journalist in the sense that, like, I actually don't particularly like prying into people's, like, private lives, which usually is, like, what kind of comes with the job. And the thing I like Doing is talking to people at their work.
- [07:56]
Taylor Antrim
Oh, she must have loved hearing that.
- [07:58]
Maya Singer
Yeah. You know, and, like, actually, like, you know, a couple months ago, I had did an interview with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal.
- [08:05]
Taylor Antrim
Yes. For us, for the Othello.
- [08:09]
Maya Singer
About Othello. And, you know, and I think that we had a great time because, you know, we spent, like, an hour and change, like, talking about Shakespeare. And I think that was also very gratifying. I do believe, actually wholeheartedly, and I said this to Ann, that I think people show themselves through the work.
- [08:30]
Taylor Antrim
Okay.
- [08:31]
Maya Singer
And often you can find out a lot about people in the way that they talk about the work. And then also you get to, like, a comfort level with people, and you can observe them and spend time with them that way.
- [08:48]
Chloe Mel
So what did you learn?
- [08:49]
Maya Singer
I mean, I think that what came out of it is right off the bat, you know, and talking about it being a film that people wouldn't necessarily think about being, quote, unquote, Anne Hathaway film.
- [09:03]
Taylor Antrim
Definitely not.
- [09:04]
Chloe Mel
Can you summarize what people do tend to think about as an Anne Hathaway film?
- [09:08]
Maya Singer
Sure. I mean, I think, you know, when the Naples Ultra, probably, of, like, Anne Hathaway films is, like, in the public imagination, is probably still the Devil Wears Prada, where, you know, it's that sort of plucky but very intelligent heroine that, you know, the viewer really identifies with and is kind of going on the journey with.
- [09:34]
Taylor Antrim
Mixed with Princess Diaries. Right. Isn't that her other, like, major, major pop cultural moment? And, like, nothing could be friendlier or more approachable. It's sort of glamorousness meets approachability with her. Right.
- [09:46]
Maya Singer
Yeah.
- [09:46]
Taylor Antrim
Mixed with some theater kid chutzpah.
- [09:49]
Maya Singer
Yeah. And, you know, although she has done, you know, daring and, like, kind of more abrasive parts, you know, like Rachel getting married and stuff like that in the past. That's not the stuff, I think, that jumps to people's mind, like, right off the bat. And Mother Mary, in talking about that part, really became quite personal in terms of how she talked about the challenges that she faced in going into this part and how I think, in particular, it really forced her to let go of a lot of, like, her perfectionism and just be a little bit more in her body because the role entailed.
- [10:42]
Taylor Antrim
We should say what the movie is about.
- [10:43]
Maya Singer
Yes, we should say what the movie's about. She plays a, like, a global pop star sort of, you know, as I say in the piece, like, kind of Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift hybrid. There are Other sort of elements thrown in there.
- [10:55]
Taylor Antrim
Right.
- [10:56]
Maya Singer
And Jack Antonoff and Charli XCX were, like, writing these songs for her, and she has to perform, you know, choreography, and she has to sing these songs. And, I mean, elaborate costumes, like, elaborate costumes, you know, and so all of this, she has to be a credible global pop star. Totally. And she spent a good amount of time training with choreographer Danny Vettel. And, you know, really, that, as she put it, like, she had to learn to accept being a beginner and the idea that being a beginner and going into that studio every day and not being good wasn't the same as being bad.
- [11:37]
Taylor Antrim
Why do you think she said yes to that role? And you also talk about, in your piece, about how recently she's been in these quite sort of, you know, challenging movies. There was Eileen not too long ago, which was a very unusual movie. And Maya, you have these scenes with her in Jack Antonoff's studio here in New York, where she's recording her vocals. And she's sort of challenged by the singing, but she's a real singer. We know that from Les Mis. Right. So maybe you can talk a little bit about what that was like in that studio.
- [12:08]
Maya Singer
I mean, I asked her about that. I was like, you know, I said that I associate her with being a singer because of Les Mis. And she talked to me about the fact that she just felt like she was a singer within certain limitations. And that part of that was, I think for a long time, she has felt like maybe she's been kind of singing slightly with, like, the wrong voice.
- [12:30]
Chloe Mel
Oh, interesting.
- [12:32]
Maya Singer
Like, and the way that she put it to me is that she's kind of been singing up here. And what she has discovered in the process of working, you know, in training for this role is, like, she's kind of actually, like, down here. And that's, you know, opened up, unlocked a lot of other stuff. I mean, like, literally, like, physically in her body, like, unlocked a lot of stuff.
- [12:52]
Taylor Antrim
Right.
- [12:53]
Maya Singer
But then there's like, another part of that training which is just like. Actually, I mean, it's fascinating that I didn't put into the piece because there just wasn't room. It's quite, quite technical training that she talked to me about in terms of, like, how to do pop singing. And there was a producer that Jack Antonoff connected her with who has, like, some funky name, like Kook. I want to say it's in my notes, but I don't have it in my brain who was, like, training her on, like, how to do, like, all the Kind of things that you hear in like pop music, you know, and how they, how they vocalize, which is interesting. And she, you know, but it's like, it's a real art. It's like its own language, pop music, vocalization.
- [13:39]
Taylor Antrim
But did you get the vibe from her that she was sort of tired of doing the kind of girl next door rom com y type roles that we know her from way back when and that she wants more challenges or like, why these movies that she's been in that are a little darker.
- [13:56]
Maya Singer
I don't know if I would say it as plainly as, like, she's. I think that she wants a mix.
- [14:02]
Taylor Antrim
Yeah.
- [14:03]
Maya Singer
You know, one of the things that she said to me is like one of her great dreams and the things that she's looking for as a producer trying to develop is, you know, to find her own version of like a Miss Congeniality. Like that kind of, you know, 90s.
- [14:18]
Chloe Mel
Like people love that movie.
- [14:21]
Maya Singer
Yeah, exactly. Like a 90s romantic comedy, kind of a little slapstick, that sort of thing. So it's not just that she's going in this direction, but I think, you know, it's the way I would put it is she did this movie Armageddon Time with James Gray a few years ago. She was in with Jeremy Strong, who's a close friend of hers. And that was a transformative experience for her as an actress where it's like she kind of started to use a different muscle. And, you know, it's like when you start to feel something new in yourself and you're like, oh, I wanna play with that a little bit more. I think that's what's going on. It's just sort of like, let's see. And what happens if I work with this director? Like, let's, you know, do they kind of push me a little bit more in this direction? And what about that director? You know, what happens with this new muscle then? Because it's not that she wants to stop doing the other stuff. Like, she was very, very clear about that.
- [15:39]
Chloe Mel
EBay. It's the place to fall in love with new pre loved vintage and rare fashion over and over again. Your favorite designers expertly authenticated. Yeah. EBay. Things people love.
- [15:53]
Taylor Antrim
Yeah. We have to ask you what she may or may not have said about Devil Wears Prada too.
- [16:02]
Maya Singer
I mean, the only thing that she really said to me was that it was happening. And, you know, and then I made like a bunch of wisecracks about how like I should get hired to like, you know, do punch ups. Given, like, you know, my unique position.
- [16:15]
Taylor Antrim
Yeah. As a vote correspondent.
- [16:17]
Maya Singer
As a vote correspondent. Like, sledge filmmaker. And she did not take that bait.
- [16:26]
Taylor Antrim
But she's also in the next Christopher Nolan film, which is the big, you know, next film after Oppenheimer.
- [16:33]
Maya Singer
She is. No, she is, like, insanely busy right.
- [16:35]
Chloe Mel
Now, I have to say, reading about all the projects she has and knowing she has young kids, it seems really.
- [16:40]
Maya Singer
Stressful to juggle all of that.
- [16:42]
Taylor Antrim
And yet she was the most frequent texter. Tell us about that. Because it's crazy. It seems like.
- [16:48]
Maya Singer
Well, I want to be, like, very clear about this because she. She is a very frequent texter. And then when she's on set, like, or busy with other stuff, like, it goes very, very quiet. So I think I caught her in a window where she was like, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. And then.
- [17:06]
Taylor Antrim
What was she texting you about?
- [17:07]
Maya Singer
We were just texting about it. I mean, like, honestly, Taylor, you're just like, very lucky that you didn't get like a 10,000 word piece about, like, Anne Hathaway and I just talking about movies that she'd been watching in the Criterion Collection, because that easily could have just been the entire story.
- [17:22]
Taylor Antrim
I do feel I didn't get that.
- [17:25]
Maya Singer
Like, we, like, there was a lot of us just, like, going back and forth about, like, films that she was watching.
- [17:31]
Taylor Antrim
Oh, my God.
- [17:32]
Maya Singer
And because that was, you know, that was definitely a point of connection between the two of us. Gosh. What else were we talking about?
- [17:42]
Taylor Antrim
The Knicks.
- [17:43]
Maya Singer
The Knicks. The Knicks. It was. She's a huge basketball fan. I think she was extremely disappointed that I wasn't watching them during the playoffs.
- [17:55]
Taylor Antrim
Well, she got Chantel Aukerman, but she can't have everything out of you. Right.
- [17:59]
Maya Singer
She kept like. She would just be like, texting me. She's like, are you watching? And I'd be like, watching what? And sounds like conversation with Chloe. She'd be like, the game. The game.
- [18:14]
Chloe Mel
Wow.
- [18:15]
Maya Singer
Yeah. I mean, she was like a delightful. It was a delightful back and forth and she's. And delightful in the sense that she was also just like, you know, curious about, like, me and, like, my life. And, you know, in that way just felt like very, very human and kind and not at a certain point, just like, not about sort of, you know, doing a story.
- [18:39]
Taylor Antrim
We should talk about the pictures for a moment. She worked with Annie Leibovitz for this shoot.
- [18:44]
Maya Singer
One thing Anne said about Annie is, like, she feels like she. That Annie has seen her grow up. Oh, that's nice that she actually was like, maybe you should interview Annie for the piece because she has like. She has like, shot me so many times.
- [18:58]
Taylor Antrim
Annie always has, like a point of view or a really sort of worked out concept for these shoots. It's never just like pretty pictures of the subject. And she shot Anne at the Metropolitan Museum at the John Singer Sargent exhibition. And I love that. Yeah, it was really beautiful.
- [19:21]
Chloe Mel
I mean, she. And she's styled as a real life Madame X in front of Madame X. And it's a. A fun moment.
- [19:27]
Taylor Antrim
Exactly. So it's always those, like, really kind of thought through references that are embedded in Annie portraits. She also shot her in front of Amy Sherrill's painting of Michelle Obama at the Whitney. And so it was sort of. And then also in Central Park. So it was sort of scenes around New York. It was like a day out with Anne Hathaway in New York. But there are these moments in front of art that just felt very sort of intentional and very Annie. And then the fashion. Chloe, did you know this? All the looks that Anne Hathaway is wearing are designed by women. Nope, Designed by Sarah Burton for Givenchy.
- [20:00]
Chloe Mel
A woman.
- [20:01]
Taylor Antrim
Yes, but not multiple women. It's all Sarah Burton. And I mention that because Anne Hathaway took great interest in that idea. Sarah Burton being the newly appointed creative director or not that new. I guess her second collection is coming. New. Ish. And called Sarah and wanted to talk about the cost of. Of Givenchy. Yeah, called Sarah and wanted to talk about the clothes. And it was really. Yeah, it was really like, Anne Hathaway does her homework.
- [20:26]
Maya Singer
This is something that Erin, her stylist, actually mentioned this to me. That, like, she does not. She's not passive about anything that she wears. Like, she is very. She's very active and interested in, like, why. Why am I putting this on my body?
- [20:45]
Taylor Antrim
Yeah. Anna Wintour revealed that to me.
- [20:48]
Chloe Mel
I hope this is a tough story. Anna Winter, Anne Hathaway, Annie Lubovitz.
- [20:52]
Taylor Antrim
I know. And Anne Hathaway goes by Annie. Annie to her friends. And so it was never clear who you were talking about. Exactly. But Anna was telling me about how Anne Hathaway and Sarah Burton connected. So that went into the editor's letter.
- [21:06]
Chloe Mel
That was delighted, Anna.
- [21:08]
Taylor Antrim
Delighted. She was very pleased about the whole thing.
- [21:12]
Chloe Mel
My son and son go to French class together, which is a big discussion in the rules of the Alliance Francaise. But I was intrigued to hear that both boys go to Little league because my 5 year old definitely couldn't follow a baseball game. I mean, it couldn't actually he's so unathletic.
- [21:34]
Taylor Antrim
Both of Anne's boys go to Little League. Not your son.
- [21:36]
Chloe Mel
No, but that's in Maya's story.
- [21:38]
Taylor Antrim
Right. So they're baseball boys.
- [21:40]
Chloe Mel
They're baseball boys. But I just was curious about the contrast, as always, is interesting in these stories of her on this extremely intense mother Mary shoot in Cologne versus her just schlepping the kids to Little League on Saturday morning. And I thought her quotes about her husband Adam were so lovely and thoughtful about what a good cook he is and sort of how he. It seems like he is the rudder keeping their homeboat that is aloft.
- [22:11]
Taylor Antrim
On course, something like that.
- [22:15]
Maya Singer
Yes, he is the rudder keeping the homeboat aloft. You know, listen, I will defer to Bradley Cooper on this one because obviously nobody knows. Nobody knows family dynamics better than anybody who's been. Who's Covid potted. Truly. I mean, he basically sounds like he wishes he could have a marriage like their marriage. You know, that is. That is the impression I got. He was just like that. It's like an emblematic relationship was, I think the word he used. And so I'm sure that what, you know, any relationship where somebody has just traveling and you know, on sets where there's like going to be crazy 12 hour days and like all of this stuff and you have little kids and whatever, I mean, there's going to be crazy trade offs with that and negotiations. And obviously they have figured that out in some way. As I say, I am not a journalist who prize, so we did not get into the weeds on that. But clearly when she's in New York, she makes a real effort to just kind of be like mom. And one thing just was like a real fly by night moment that I caught in a conversation that she was having with like Jack Antonoff was. He was kind of asking about like, you know, the whole Knicks thing on whether they were gonna go to any of the playoffs games. That's what they're called, playoffs. I know football has playoffs.
- [23:59]
Taylor Antrim
Yep, yep.
- [24:01]
Maya Singer
And she kind of was like, I don't think so. She's like, because the boys are like old enough now where, like, if we go, then they're gonna want to go. And like, it's just like not a normal kid thing to do to like just be going to, you know, like playoff games, like, because of who your.
- [24:26]
Taylor Antrim
Mom is and all the photographers around and stuff like that.
- [24:29]
Maya Singer
Exactly. And just, you know, if it were just like a normal basketball game, like, yeah, maybe. But I just, you know, I think that she's like, keenly aware of wanting to kind of keep the. Keep things pretty grounded and not always, but, like, to the extent possible.
- [24:48]
Chloe Mel
Maya, thank you so much.
- [24:49]
Taylor Antrim
Maya, this was great. Thank you for coming in. Yeah, of course.
- [24:54]
Chloe Mel
All right, that's it for the show. We will see you guys soon. The Run through is produced by Chelsea Daniel, Alex DePalma and Stephanie Kariuki. It's engineered by Pran Bandy and mixed by Mike Kutchman. Chris Bannon is Conde Nast's head of global audio. When you have high standards and fancy all the fancy things like an iconic Dior saddlebag or a stunning diamond tennis bracelet, you go to ebay. There, you'll find new loves that never disappoint. Expertly authenticated. Whether it's that vintage pearl necklace, brand new ruby earrings, a Prada crossbody bag to be besties with your other handbag, or an eternally classic watch like a Rolex oyster or Cartier tank, you know the one. Ebay's experts ensure that you're getting the real deal. That way you can be confident that the designer finds you came for the luxury wardrobe you've always wanted. It's all real. In fact, it's verified authentic. So bring your high standards and never limit what you can truly find. Yeah, ebay the place for new, pre loved, vintage and rare fashion. Ebay things people love.
- [26:17]
Maya Singer
From prx.