Emma Stone Is Vogue’s September Cover Star! PLUS Alex Cooper’s Podcast Empire

Summary

The Run-Through with Vogue: Emma Stone Is Vogue’s September Cover Star! PLUS Alex Cooper’s Podcast Empire

Release Date: August 12, 2025

Hosts: Taylor Antrim and Virginia Smith Guests: Jason Gay (Vogue Writer), Alessandra Cadena (Vogue Writer), Hamish Bowles (Contributor)

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1. Introduction to Vogue's September Issue

In this episode, hosts Taylor Antrim and Virginia Smith delve deep into Vogue's highly anticipated September issue, renowned for its focus on fashion and high-caliber features. Joining them is Jason Gay, a seasoned Vogue writer, who provides insider insights into the creation and significance of this flagship edition.

Notable Quote:

“The designers who were formerly of Prada and now are taking over at Loewe.” — Virginia Smith [00:54]

2. The Ambitious Planning Process

Jason Gay elaborates on the extensive planning that goes into the September issue, beginning with early meetings in Paris during the March collections. These sessions involve international Vogue editors who collaboratively define the season's themes, emphasizing creativity, personal style, and individuality to maintain fashion's relevance in challenging times.

Notable Quote:

“What makes fashion relevant, particularly in these, like, very trying times ... creativity and personality and personal style and individuality ... was really the question we were trying to answer.” — Jason Gay [03:07]

3. Highlighting the September Issue's Features

The September issue boasts a variety of high-profile profiles, including Tory Burch, Lauren Sanchez, and Huma Abedin. A standout feature is the COVID-focused story on Emma Stone, complemented by a deep dive into Alex Cooper's burgeoning podcast empire.

Notable Quotes:

“Personality dressing was a big one for September.” — Virginia Smith [08:37]

“We have Grace Coddington back on the COVID story, which is incredible.” — Jason Gay [09:02]

4. Innovative Fashion Shoots and Collaborations

Jason discusses the innovative fashion shoots in the issue, highlighting collaborations with renowned photographers like Stephen Klein and emerging talents like Drew Vickers. The use of CGI and AI technologies has transformed traditional shoots into otherworldly visuals, pushing the boundaries of fashion photography.

Notable Quote:

“He uses CGI and AI to create these otherworldly backgrounds.” — Virginia Smith [06:22]

5. Exclusive Conversations with Feature Writers

The latter half of the episode features in-depth conversations with Jason Gay and Alessandra Cadena about their respective features on Emma Stone and Alex Cooper.

a. Emma Stone's COVID Story

Jason recounts his enduring relationship with Emma Stone, detailing their previous interviews and the significance of returning to profile her during the COVID era. The collaboration with Nicolas Ghesquier, who designed a bespoke collection for the shoot, underscores Emma's enduring influence in the fashion world.

Notable Quote:

“Grace is so detail-oriented ... she really maps out the pictures in her head.” — Jason Gay [09:06]

b. Alex Cooper’s Podcast Empire

Alessandra Cadena discusses her deep dive into Alex Cooper's podcasting success. She reflects on the transformation of "Call Her Daddy" from its tumultuous beginnings to its status as a media powerhouse. The feature explores Cooper's strategic use of media channels to control her narrative and build an empire.

Notable Quotes:

“She's been nothing but hugely successful at marketing Call her Daddy and herself and all of these other things.” — Hamish Bowles [35:06]

“That is her business. So the choice to really speak, to be seen by somebody else ... is a very intentional one.” — Hamish Bowles [33:03]

6. Navigating High-Profile Interviews

The discussion touches on the delicate balance writers maintain when interviewing high-profile individuals who are adept at managing their public personas through platforms like podcasts and social media. Alessandra emphasizes the importance of respect and genuine interest, ensuring that interviews remain insightful without overstepping personal boundaries.

Notable Quote:

“I approach it from the standpoint of how does talking about this personal change in her life inform the reason she's on the cover of Vogue.” — Alessandra Cadena [31:00]

7. The Integral Role of Photography

Both writers acknowledge the pivotal role of photography in Vogue's storytelling. The collaboration with legendary photographers like Jamie Hawkesworth for Emma Stone's feature adds a layer of visual artistry that complements the written narrative, creating a holistic and immersive reader experience.

Notable Quote:

“I often sometimes feel like I'm writing a very lengthy caption to the real magic of a cover story, which is, you know, in Vogue tradition, the photography.” — Alessandra Cadena [42:51]

8. Final Thoughts and Future Directions

As the episode wraps up, the guests share their excitement about the forthcoming features and the continuing evolution of Vogue's editorial vision. They reflect on the magazine's enduring relevance and its ability to adapt to contemporary media landscapes while maintaining its storied legacy.

Notable Quote:

“We all know that there's a pretty rich tradition of stagecraft ... and this is anything but. They have gone after some really heavy-hitting kinds of stuff and made some really great things and continued to have success with it.” — Alessandra Cadena [29:00]

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This episode offers a comprehensive look into Vogue's September issue, highlighting the meticulous planning, creative collaborations, and in-depth features that define its prestige. Listeners gain valuable insights into the editorial processes, the challenges of profiling influential personalities, and the seamless integration of visual and written storytelling that Vogue is celebrated for.

Transcript

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Hi, I'm Arden Fanning Andrews, Vogue's beauty editor at large. My husband and I talk a lot of ebay strategy together because it is something that we have bonded over since the beginning of our relationship. We've known each other for 20 years and we've been using ebay for even longer than that, both of us. He's very proud of his five star review, which I have the same. We're pretty popular. We have a really good reputation on ebay.

[Taylor Antrim]

Hi, everyone.

[Virginia Smith]

This is the run through and I'm Taylor Antrim. You're expected to hear Chloe and Shoma, but they're taking a break from the show this week. So you have me here to talk about all things September issue. Actually, you don't only have me, you have my illustrious colleague Virginia Smith. Hi, Virginia.

[Jason Gay]

Hi, Taylor. Thanks for having me.

[Virginia Smith]

So the Vogue September issue is legendary, of course, and it's out now and it's totally packed. I mean, as always, the thing about September is that it's really meant to be a fashion issue. It's an issue where the ambition around the fashion shoots is sort of above and beyond. And the shoots are always really interesting and have interesting storylines behind them. And we're here to talk a little bit about that. But it's also an ambitious issue when it comes to features, which is something that I look after at the magazine. And in this September issue, there are tons of people in it you can read about everyone from Tory Burch to Lauren Sanchez and Huma Abedon, who won wedding season this year.

[Taylor Antrim]

Can we say that we can, Jack?

[Virginia Smith]

The designers who were formerly of Prowenza Schooler and now are taking over at Loewe. And you have a profile of Kentucky governor Andy Bashir. I actually wrote that one, so I want to give it a special shout out. And the COVID story is of the totally remarkable Emma Stone. And we have also a really fun read, which is a deep dive profile into the phenomenon that is call her daddy's Alex Cooper. So a little bit later on the show, I'm going to get the writers for those two respective features. Jason Gay, who's been writing for Vogue for a long time, and Alessandra Cadena on the show here to talk about their features. So that's what you have to look forward to. But we're going to start as we should with the fashion shoots. So, Virginia, this has been, I mean, I want people to understand a little bit about what summers are like around here at Vogue. It's not really the dog days of summer in June and July. Is it?

[Jason Gay]

No. I mean, it's been quite a July. Let's just say. Let's just say that. But in terms of September, this planning really starts very early on. And when we start seeing collections in New York and London and Milan, and then by the time we get to Paris, we're meeting and discussing what we feel this season's about, what we want to say.

[Virginia Smith]

Tell us when that is happening. When are you having those conversations?

[Jason Gay]

Early on? We usually meet in Paris over a couple of days as a group. The international editors from Vogue are usually in town for the Paris collections, which is in March. Which is in March. Yes.

[Virginia Smith]

Yeah.

[Jason Gay]

So we have a couple of meetings, and we start collectively sort of talking about what everyone's thinking about the season. And the question that we were really trying to answer this September is, what makes fashion relevant, particularly in these, like, very trying times, both in a complete worldview and also in fashion, this unprecedented change in fashion, like, what makes fashion relevant and the things that kept coming up, or certainly creativity and personality and personal style and individuality and all those things. And so that was really the question we were trying to answer when we were putting together this issue.

[Virginia Smith]

Can you talk a little bit about what your role is? Like, so you're at the fashion shows in March, and you have sort of a special responsibility, which is to kind of draw together everybody's ideas and make them make sense, right?

[Jason Gay]

Yes, I have help doing it. A lot of great help from both my team here in New York and Laura Ingham. I work very closely with Vogue UK and many others. But basically, we're putting our own ideas together. We're talking to our core stylists that we use and getting ideas from them, and we're trying to sort of sift through things. It's very funny once you work at Vogue for sort of a few years, it's very funny how many of us have the same reaction to things. So there's, like, buckets of ideas that are similar, and you sort of take the best of the best and tweak them, like, oh, well, actually, that's a great idea, but this version of it might even be better. So you're sort of just going through everyone's ideas and figuring out, okay, what is the message? What's the best way to say it? And it's a process, but it does start, you know, in Paris, and then we hit the ground running when we all get back to our respective markets, and, you know, everyone starts planning their own covers, and we start planning what we call these global stories. And, you know, then we're off to the, to the races. Try to make all this happen. You know, it's fun. It's a, you know, September. We all know the bar is very high. There's a high standard. We really want to do something very special. And I personally love this September issue. We have a lot of, of new ideas here, a lot of new names included in the issue, some new creative teams in the issue. And I think it's, as you say, you have some incredible features in the issue. And I think it's just a great fashion feature. You know, we have Grace Coddington is back on the COVID story, which is incredible. Stephen Klein has done some images. And then we have newcomers like Drew Vickers doing an incredible story with Melina Gilchrist about this imaginary road trip that. A really, really great story. So I'm very proud of this issue.

[Virginia Smith]

We got those pictures in, the Drew Vickers pictures in. And I was like, did the production go on a road trip in Bucharest? What am I looking at here? But these were. He uses CGI and AI to create these otherworldly backgrounds.

[Jason Gay]

Yeah, he does. It's pretty remarkable. Like, you can't believe it. I mean, they're incredible. You know, we would never have been able to probably pull that off without that help from cgi, but it was. They're remarkable images.

[Virginia Smith]

I mean, that meeting that you refer to in Paris, it's like a morning meeting. Everybody actually assembles into a room together to talk about what they've seen. And I haven't been to the Paris meetings because I work here in New York, but I've been to various sort of New York iterations of these meetings over the many years I've worked at Vogue.

[Taylor Antrim]

And I have to say this is.

[Virginia Smith]

One of my favorite things about working here. It's just this extremely creative sort of back and forth meeting of editors talking about the things they've seen on the runways and sort of extrapolating of what it all means. And I often feel like I feel lucky to be in there. I think that if people really wanted to be a fly on a wall for a great Vogue meeting, this is one of the ones that they would want to be there for.

[Jason Gay]

Yeah, they're really interesting. I'm always like, sort of in awe of my colleagues that they see something that, that I may not have really responded to, but they did. And I always think that's so interesting. And it's Nicole Phelps who's incredible. Mark Colgate always has something very insightful. And then it's really interesting to see how other markets respond to things that may be different from how someone in the US Would feel. So it's a really interesting. It's really interesting to get everyone's perspective on it.

[Virginia Smith]

And we get kind of a roadmap. I also want people to understand it's.

[Taylor Antrim]

Not just like we're there to talk.

[Virginia Smith]

About the September issue. We get a little bit of a roadmap for September, October, November, December, like, through the end of the year. And so it's a way that you start to conceptualize and understand what we're going to be up to for the whole rest of the year.

[Jason Gay]

Yeah, we're really trying to get sort of the broad strokes, the big ideas accomplished at that meeting. You know, after that, people, you know, you can sort of come up with the smaller things that feed into that. But what our goal is always to see, okay, what are the big ideas this season? And if we can sort of get that covered in these two mornings, then we've done, you know, a pretty good job.

[Virginia Smith]

We love a catchphrase.

[Jason Gay]

Love a cover line.

[Taylor Antrim]

Cover line, catchphrase theme.

[Virginia Smith]

Personality dressing was a big one for September. So. But let's get into it a little bit. You mentioned Grace Coddington, so I want to walk people through the COVID story.

[Taylor Antrim]

Just a little bit, because it's.

[Virginia Smith]

It's a pretty special cover story, and there are a lot of elements that are very intrinsically vogue to it, including Grace, who's been part of this title for many, many decades.

[Taylor Antrim]

Right?

[Jason Gay]

Yes.

[Virginia Smith]

And you work closely with Grace. What is it like to work with Grace on a shoot?

[Jason Gay]

You know, Grace is. She's so detail oriented, and, you know, she really maps out the pictures in her head. She actually used to do thumbnail sketches of every look, every image that she saw in her head, which was remarkable. She also used to sketch every single look that went down the Runway at Runway shows.

[Taylor Antrim]

Yeah, you would see her Runway shows.

[Virginia Smith]

It's amazing.

[Jason Gay]

And she would call in the looks based on her sketches.

[Virginia Smith]

Oh, my gosh.

[Jason Gay]

I mean, that's before, you know, Vogue Runway was so prevalent and was so quick. But, I mean, it's pretty remarkable. But so it was great to have her back. Obviously, she and Nicolas Ghesquier are very close friends.

[Alessandra Cadena]

Yes.

[Virginia Smith]

And I should say it's Emma Stone on the COVID and Nicolas Ghesquier, who's a friend of Emma's and did all the looks. So.

[Jason Gay]

Yes. And he did, really, a special, like, collection specifically for this shoot and for us and for Emma, with Emma in mind and Vogue in Mind. And, you know, this conversation, I think, came out of a lunch that he and Anna had and morphed into, you know, these incredible sort of one of a kind pieces that he wanted to really apply sort of couture techniques to in his Louis Vuitton world. So we feel so lucky and fortunate to have, you know, his level of talent. And, you know, when you talk about what makes fashion relevant today, it is certainly someone who has a vision, a singular vision, like himself, who's been, you know, defining and leading fashion for so long.

[Virginia Smith]

He's one of the real survivors.

[Jason Gay]

He really is.

[Virginia Smith]

We talk about the shuffle and how creative directors are moving from house to house, but he's like, you know, has just been in place for such a long time.

[Jason Gay]

Yeah, he has. And, you know, I just have been very fortunate to be an editor for the last 20 years where he's been making these remarkable clothes time and time again. And I never take that for granted, I have to say.

[Virginia Smith]

How rare is it to have a designer to do basically a custom, you know, collection only for a shoot like this? Have you ever seen it happen before?

[Jason Gay]

I don't think we've ever had. I don't recall anytime we've ever had a collection like this done for us. I mean, certainly we've had special looks and special pieces done for us, but in terms of, you know, this many, I don't think we've ever had it before. And, you know, the funny thing is.

[Virginia Smith]

The power of an Anna Wintour.

[Jason Gay]

I know, exactly. But we kept. You know, and of course, we had all the faith in the world in him, but I'd be like, do you think we might see a sketch at some point? And we get, like, a piece of embroidery, and it was very beautiful. And I was like, okay.

[Hamish Bowles]

And.

[Jason Gay]

And then maybe like, a sleeve would come a couple of days later, and then there was, like, one little lace thing at one point. I mean, it was very funny in how this came together, because then I would call Grace and say, grace, have you gotten anything else? Because I'll send you what I have, and you send me what you have. It was very funny trying to piece it together with her. But, you know, it did come together, of course, and it was quite beautiful, but we weren't quite sure up until very, very close to the shoot of exactly what we were getting.

[Virginia Smith]

One of the great features in the issue is written by Hamish, our beloved Hamish Bowles, about the late Andre Leon Talley, who I know you worked with for many years. And I would love for you to I don't know. Talk about your relationship with him. And in the story in particular, Hamish mentions that you asked Andre about a zebra stole he was wearing at the Dries Van Noten show. So tell us that story.

[Jason Gay]

Well, it was. I mean, it was early on in my career here at Vogue. I think it was maybe the first or second season, and I was at Driesman Noton, and Andre comes in in this sort of fabulous, like, zebra.

[Hamish Bowles]

Like.

[Jason Gay]

Well, I thought it was a scarf or a coat at the time. And I was like, andre, you look amazing. You know, he goes, oh, darling, I just got this off the floor of the Ritz. It's my rug from the Ritz. And I was like, oh, my God, that's amazing.

[Virginia Smith]

I mean, I even overlapped with him. I was right at the end of his time as a, like, in office phenomenon at Vogue.

[Taylor Antrim]

And I remember every day he was.

[Virginia Smith]

In, it was just like, no matter where you were in the offices, you could hear him talking on the phone.

[Taylor Antrim]

Bellowing about something that, you know, had just come through.

[Virginia Smith]

It was really remarkable to work with him.

[Jason Gay]

I mean, Andre was a lot of fun. I mean, a lot of fun. He was a major personality. And, you know, I remember asking Andre one time, I said, andre, I've got to go see so and so. And they had such a terrible show. What am I. What should I say? He said, darling, you tell them you applaud the courage of their convictions.

[Alessandra Cadena]

Okay, Fantastic.

[Jason Gay]

And that has stuck with me for the last 20 years. If I get in a tight spot, the courage of your convictions is that I can always pull it out. Thank you, Andre.

[Virginia Smith]

Thank you, Andre. Okay, we're gonna take a short break, and we'll be back after this with my conversations with the writers, Jason Gay and Alessandro Caden.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

It's 11:30pm I'm just about to fall asleep, and yet I'm still scrolling ebay looking for YSL quilted satin, transparent Moto Miss 60 deadstock, an antique Edwardian blouse I'm actively bidding and putting in best offers on ebay before my head hits the pillow. That's actually what lulls me to sleep at night and then waking up in the morning checking to see who responded to me. This is a normal day.

[Taylor Antrim]

I'm really excited to have both of you guys on the show. We've already talked on this episode a little bit about how the September issue is, you know, something of an ambitious project and starts very early in the calendar with all of the fashion conversations. But it's also a very ambitious project when it comes to features. And you two have written two of the sort of centerpiece features in the issue. Jason, you wrote the COVID story on Emma Stone. And Alessandra, you wrote a sort of deep dive feature on the podcaster, media mogul Alex Cooper. I also want to make the point that neither of you are strangers to writing for Vogue or even working at Vogue. Alessandra, you're a bit of a veteran editor who led the culture coverage at the website several years ago. And Jason, when I came on at Vogue, which is ancient history, one of my first directives from Anna was to go to lunch with Jason Gay, who she was very proud of having tempted into the stable here. So, Jason, you've, you've, you've been with us for a long time.

[Alessandra Cadena]

I have. And, And Taylor, you did not get the white shirt memo, I can see from the zoom call here. But, yeah, I, I feel like I've been brought out of hibernation. It's been a while and I'm thrilled to be back in the fold here.

[Taylor Antrim]

Jason, a little bit of that history still, I want to dwell on you. You have profiled everyone from like Rihanna to Nicole Kidman and of course, Emma Stone, which I think this is your third cover story doing Emma Stone. But one thing while I have you is I want to establish the fact, which I think is true, but correct me if I'm wrong, you got the last on the record interview of Beyonce known to the magazine world. Is that true?

[Alessandra Cadena]

It's been a while since I went back to try to confirm that. And it's possible, Taylor, this could be ignominious history. Like, she had enough of this after talking to me that she said, never again.

[Taylor Antrim]

That's right. That's right. The 15 minutes that you managed to grab of her after that music video shoot that you were the fly on the wall for, that was it for her.

[Alessandra Cadena]

She's like, I don't want to talk to that man or any of his brethren ever again. That's it for me. So, yeah, it might not be the distinction that you think it is, Taylor.

[Taylor Antrim]

I mean, there have been like two more Beyonce cover stories since that one, but that one is the one that I really remember because the chase to get time with her in some kind of scene was so high stakes and so difficult. And you got it. I remember you texted me after you came out of this sort of video shoot that you'd seen. You're just like, I got a scene. I got a scene. And it was just so improbable that we would get there. So, anyway. But Emma Stone is a little bit of a layup for you because, like I said, you've done two other cover stories for us. I think it was 2014 and 2016. The 2014 is the legendary build a bear workshop scene where you made teddy bears with her. I think that was where the friendship started. But tell me a little bit, like, you know, I always like to go into kind of how these stories came to be. And I remember I sent you an email, I think it was in March, about how we had Emma on the COVID and would you be up for interviewing her for a third time? And your response was, like, totally immediate, even though I think you were on, like, a family spring break at the time. But you were, like, good to go. Let's do it. That's great. So tell me a little bit about that moment of thinking about interviewing her for us again.

[Alessandra Cadena]

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I was rappelling down the face of a cliff in Zion national park when I answered an urgent text from Taylor. But to me, yeah, it's a layup in the respect that it's really interesting, I think, as somebody who does this to visit somebody over a passage of time. And so this has been. And, Alexandra, I'm sure you've had this experience, too, that, like, you know, you get to sort of see someone's growth, the changes that happen in their lives. You know, Emma in 2014 was a certain kind of movie star, certainly on her ascension. 2016 was just before La La Land, which was the film that kind of just really launched her. She, of course, won the Oscar for. And then in the intervening, like, eight years, she's had probably the biggest period of, you know, professional and personal. Unquestionably the biggest period of professional and personal growth in her life as she's gotten married, had a child, and of course, won another Oscar for poor things and then just gone off, you know, this really interesting creative direction in her life. So, yeah, it's fun to reconnect with somebody when so much has happened and so much interesting stuff and stuff you can get behind. And. Look, can we be a little candid here about these kinds of experiences and going to interview people for stories that it's always, you know, a nice thing when you go into it, really believing in the work that they have spent the last bunch of years doing and the work that they have coming up. And that's not to say that that's always the case. And she has just done incredible stuff, I think, and really taken a lot of risk, you Know, there's a way in which, you know, you can manage a successful career to just kind of keep, you know, nibbling away at the success, or you can take big swings. And I think there's no doubt that she has done that. And I was eager to talk to her about all that and all the stuff that's happened in the time since.

[Taylor Antrim]

One of the, like, centerpiece profiles is this deep dive into the world of Alex Cooper written by you, Alessandra. And you were just on the heels of having written the COVID story on Hailey Bieber. Right. And when I contacted you and I thought, this may completely rub people the wrong way, but I felt like there was some spiritual overlap between a deep dive into the world of Hailey Bieber and a deep dive into the world of Alex Cooper. How do you feel about that idea?

[Hamish Bowles]

I don't think anyone would be offended by that, actually. I think that there is definitely some significant overlap, especially in devoted audiences.

[Taylor Antrim]

That's right. That's right. And sort of like, know, young woman rises to the peak of an empire, kind of, you know, trajectory going on.

[Hamish Bowles]

Right, right. Kind of like against all expectations put on her by sort of like celebrity society up to that point. Not that Alex Cooper was a celebrity before, but this sort of, you know, perception of, like, attractive, young blonde.

[Taylor Antrim]

Yeah.

[Hamish Bowles]

Rises to the top of her field, for sure.

[Taylor Antrim]

So I feel like you'd had your reps with Hailey Bieber, and then I was gonna plunge you into the world of Alex Cooper. And I asked you, I actually didn't know, Alessandra, if you were, like, steeped in the world of caller daddy. And I think I asked you in my opening salvo to you, I was like, are you daddy gang? And your response, which was exactly the response I was looking for, was, I.

[Hamish Bowles]

Don'T think I remember.

[Taylor Antrim]

You were like, I am not daddy gang.

[Hamish Bowles]

Right.

[Taylor Antrim]

So it's one of these things where you're kind of looking for someone that has such a devoted fan base as Alex Cooper to do a kind of deep dive into what their world looks like, you actually need someone who's slightly removed from that world. So I was. That.

[Hamish Bowles]

That would describe you, I would say, because my awareness of Alex Cooper was actually pretty, like, formed from the early days, really. So when she was on barstool when the whole breakdown with her co host Sophia Franklin happened, and it was like in the New York Post, and it was sort of peak Covid and there wasn't a lot going on, and that was kind of like a sexy news story that was very, like, Talked about. I had tried listening to it then just because I was curious. And it, it seemed just distinctly. Not for me particularly, which is not to say it's not a judgment. It just wasn't for me. It was kind of hypersexualized, sort of like shock jockey, kind like talking about hookups.

[Taylor Antrim]

Right.

[Hamish Bowles]

Sort of like fun, brash, sorority sister vibe. And that just wasn't what I was personally looking for. But I knew that it was hugely popular and I was seeing girls walking around wearing baseball hats that said daddy or like daddy gang merch. And I was sort of like, oh, there's like a. Something's happening. But I knew it was just, I was aware of it, but it was not. I was not like, gotta listen every week.

[Taylor Antrim]

And then of course, one of the reasons we wanted to do this story is that from those days that you describe when the show sort of broke and was on barstool and had this kind of like, you know, hypersexualized sort of rundown of her and her co hosts lives, it sort of turned into something else. And Alice Cooper obviously struck out on her own. You know, there's a whole hub up there about how that went down. But there was the moment that call her daddy became like this incredibly important thing in the media universe. Felt to me that moment seemed to happen during the election. Right when Vice President Harris went on the podcast.

[Hamish Bowles]

Yeah, I would say that's true. I mean, I think that she had by then definitely pivoted to a different format. It was her by herself. It was more interview focused. Like she still would do these one off episodes where she talked about her life, but it was much, you know, she's happily married at this point. Like she, you know, or was in a serious relationship. It was a lot less of the like, you'll never guess who I banged last night kind of discourse and more like relationship stuff, mental health stuff, emotional health stuff. And had really segued into doing these longer form interviews with celebrities and, you know, pseudo celebrities who were the height of the Internet fixation.

[Taylor Antrim]

More with Alessandra and Jason after a quick break.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Sometimes people ask me which search terms I use. Whenever I'm on ebay though, I search a lot of dead stock. That's a term that I throw in there a lot. Deadstock means that no one's ever worn it before, but it is like an archival piece or it's a vintage piece. And so that's a great. On ebay there's a ton of dead stock vintage and it's just kind of, like, comforting to know that, like, you're the first person taking this, like, piece on its maiden voyage, even if it's 50 years old. Ebay offers this departure from the everyday that ends up feeling totally you.

[Taylor Antrim]

Jason, I want to ask you the occasion for one of the occasions for Emma being on our cover. She's in another movie with her collaborator Yorgoris Lanthimos called Begonia, which you have seen is about to premiere at Venice. Tell us a little bit about it.

[Alessandra Cadena]

Oh, man. It's not like asking me to explain Ant Man 3. This thing is so off the rails, as you would expect from Yorgos. I really came away from this story because I went back and watched it all with a real appreciation for how this guy just, I mean, he takes big swings. He's an incredible creator collaborator, and with Emma, he has found kind of this partner in crime who is willing to take these deep dives. It's hard to think of a film that was more, you know, ambitious, risky, boundary pushing than Poor Things that also just really was a big box office smash that made more than $100 million. You know, this is like a huge, huge thing for what would be considered in ordinary circumstances an art film. Begonia is a much narrower, more confined film than Poor Things. Poor Things have these giant set pieces and so on, but it has the same kind of you never know what's going to happen within 30 seconds vibe to it. There are sort of these claustrophobic moments between the main characters, which are Emma and Jesse Plemons. They're in a basement of a home. Now. It sounds like I'm describing, like, Silence of the Lambs and there might be a little bit of that, but it could be a play at various times. It is very current. You know, that's something I have real admiration for. Emma with the films that she's done, is that she's not afraid of taking on things that are in the cultural slipstream. So there's stuff about like, you know, paranoia, Internet craziness, pharmaceutical corruption. You know, these things that are sort of front and center in our, you know, discourse are all sort of touched on in Begonia. And it's also just a remarkable vessel for her acting talent. She is terrific in it. Jesse Plemons is just as good. I think people are going to have their socks knocked off. Wyatt. You know, I, I, I've given up trying to prognosticate how films do out there in the world. We live in such a strange universe. But yeah, no, people will be talking about this one for Sure.

[Taylor Antrim]

I want to ask you both about this, but, Jason, you've been at this for a long time, so tell me a little bit about your prep. Are you someone who has kind of list of questions you're ready to go, or even. Especially when you're interviewing someone like Emma who you know a little bit you've met before, like, what kind of prep do you do and how do you go into the interview?

[Alessandra Cadena]

Well, I mean, of course, you know, every person does this a little differently. And I don't want to say that I have the great prescription here, but in my case, you know, what's useful for me is to really go back and read everything. Everything, you know, including stuff that I did, you know, a bunch of years ago, and go back and find things that they have done. You know, obviously the projects that they have made, you know, that involve, you know, watching a number of films, rewatching films. We got to dive into Cruella again, which was one of my daughter's favorite films that Emma's made in the last bunch of years. And, you know, in Emma's case, one thing that was interesting is that she hasn't done a lot of this kind of thing, magazine cover story interviews in a long. And I think that were she on this call with us, she would say, not her favorite jam. You know, she's done things like, you know, Jimmy Fallon, she's done, you know, a sit down with Bradley Cooper. She's done Smart List, podcast, a number of sort of, you know, for lack of a better way of putting it, sort of new media types of things. Interesting. She did an interesting one on one with Nicholas at Louis Vuitton, which was interesting, too. But she hasn't done a lot of this. This magazine stuff. And this was sort of like, you know, for somebody who's sort of built a life, a professional life of risk taking, you know, for her kind of a risk to go back and do something that was kind of a big part of her early development. You know, when you're a young star on the way up, you're kind of saying yes to almost everything, publicity wise and cover story wise. And certainly something like Vogue was, you know, a remarkable moment early in her career to have happen. Right. But this is like, you know, you mentioned bringing back to the fold. They're bringing back Emma to the fold of not just Vogue, but doing this kind of thing at all. So there wasn't a lot of sort of written record of the last, like, eight, nine, ten years. So that made it, I think, fresh in a way that I enjoyed, you know, that there wasn't a lot of, well, trodden ground here. Right. But also a little bit of, like, you know, edgy, because she's a different person. You know, she's. There's more to lose. You know, like, she has a lot going on in her life.

[Taylor Antrim]

You know, I knew that about Emma, and there was a kind of, like, a little bit of a warning from the publicist that she doesn't really like to speak super personally in interviews like this. And then, of course, I said, well, what about if I had her talk to Jason Gay? And then the answer was, oh, she'll talk about anything. But I do slightly wonder what it's like to interview someone who, you know, doesn't really want to talk about their personal life, their marriage, their kids. And yet, at a place like Vogue, we really do ask about the personal life of the personal side of an actor's life. And so, like, how do you go there in a respectful way, in a way that is not gonna immediately scare them off, but also get you something so that when you sit down to write, you have, you know, you have the goods, basically?

[Alessandra Cadena]

Sure, sure. I mean, and I'm interested to hear what Alex has to say about this, too, because, you know, again, everybody has a different approach to it. In my case, you know, I'm trying to get it. You mentioned the word respectful. Obviously, you're not trying to come at it from some sort of, like, in your face, like, tell me now, you know your dating history. Let's. I think there was a little bit of trust from having interviewed her a couple times in the past that she didn't feel that I was gonna show up with a giant, like, pitchfork for her. But, you know, she has taken great attempts to shield, you know, her family life from public view. And so I kind of, like, approach it from the standpoint of how does talking about this personal change in her life inform the reason she's on the COVID of Vogue? I mean, she's not on the COVID of Vogue because she got married. She's on the COVID of Vogue because she's, you know, interplanetary movie star, style icon, somebody who has this incredible track record and fandom, and how do those two things coincide? And, you know, like, these might be questions she hasn't thought of a lot. You know, you're not sitting there, like, taking your kid to a play date, wondering, like, how does this inform my career choices? But, you know, unquestionably, there's some interrelation between the two of them. Her husband Dave, who came out of town live, he's her producing partner now. And they are, you know, putting together this company called Fruit Tree, which is doing really interesting, ambitious stuff. That was something that was news to me. I mean, I knew they had this company, but I did not know the mark that they have quickly made in the business. And, you know, we all know that, like, there's a pretty rich tradition of, like, vanity project, you know, production companies out there for actors and actresses. And this is anything but. They have gone after some really heavy hitting kinds of stuff and made some really great things and continued to have, have success with it. So, yeah, there is this sort of commingling of all those kinds of things. And I think that if she knew that I was coming to it from some genuine aspect of interest and not in the interest of like, you know, sewing drama, I think it was going to work, right?

[Hamish Bowles]

Yeah. I mean, I think it takes a tremendous amount of vulnerability to be profiled, right? I mean, not. Because at this moment, if you're a super enormous celebrity like Emma Stone, you really don't have to put anything out there that you don't want to.

[Jason Gay]

Right.

[Hamish Bowles]

And you can put out basically your own news release anytime you want, like, start an Instagram account. You'll get 5 million followers. And then you can, you know, do whatever, whatever you want. Somebody like Alex Cooper, she has her own megaphone, right? She has an enormous megaphone. So anything she wants to share, she does and will on a bi weekly basis. That is, that is her business. So the choice to really speak, to be seen by somebody else, be perceived by somebody else, be sort of included in the world of Vogue is like a very intentional one. And I think it's an important one, and one that unfortunately in today's media landscape, we're really like losing with a lot of places because, you know, we're just losing magazines. But Vogue still means something to people.

[Taylor Antrim]

So when you prep. So you've done a lot of different types of profile subjects for us, Alessandra. And I know that you really dive into the kind of like the prep for an interview like you did with Alex Cooper, and we should get into what that was like. But, you know, there's so much that you could listen to. So how did you approach kind of steeping yourself in the caller daddy years of podcasts to listen to? Like, how'd you go about it?

[Hamish Bowles]

Yeah, you know, I listened to a lot. And then in the later years, it's watching because, you know, now podcasting is like also a Visual medium, which is sort of interesting. So I kind of tried to do approach from both ends at once. Like I would do the most recent and I would. Would go early years to even when it was her and Sophia and then it was her post Sophia and sort of proceed through there. I read a lot of Reddit comments, which can always drive you a little bit insane, but you spend a lot of time sort of on the forums, like with the fans and also with the not fans, and sort of seeing what people think are the best episodes or seeing what they think are the worst episodes or what the complaints are, what the pr. You know, just kind of trying to experience as much of it as possible in a condensed timeline.

[Taylor Antrim]

Right. I mean, I was struck in the quotes that you included in your story about how sort of self aware she is about self presentation and how, you know, so even the act of oversharing feels like a self aware act for her. So she's controlling exactly how much of herself she's sharing with you. That's sort of what you're describing, right?

[Hamish Bowles]

Oh, completely. I mean, none of this success is by accident, you know, like, none of this is, oh, geez, I guess I'm really good at this. Like, she realized she was really good at this and she fully went for it from the beginning. And I think that's kind of where I landed at the end of writing this piece and of meeting her and all of these things is like, you don't have to like call her daddy to respect her as a business person or, you know, a person in the world, because I do think she is like, you could say a lot of things about her, but you cannot say that she does not work incredibly hard.

[Taylor Antrim]

Right.

[Hamish Bowles]

And she does. But I mean, I was really interested from the beginning when you asked me to do the story, because at first I was kind of like, huh? Because I was thinking of those early days of Call her Daddy, where I'm like, does Anna want this in the magazine? Like, it's a little bit. It's pretty rough and tumble. Like subject wise, where I was like, I don't think I've ever written the word blowjob in vogue. Like, is this going to work? But to think about Call her Daddy and what it really symbolizes right now, which I think is, you know, it's one of the most successful podcasts that exist. I think it's probably the success it has is probably impossible to duplicate at this point. Right. Like, is there ever going to be another podcast that makes hundreds of millions of dollars a Year, probably not, because there's just too many. And I do think, I mean, I was sort of thinking about media in general. Like, we were thinking about the news, right. Like 10 years ago, 15 years ago. And there are certain networks that would say, oh, well, we're not news, we're entertainment. And they got away then that was how they sort of distanced themselves from maybe like not saying. The truth right, is, well, we're an entertainment show. She has kind of taken this a step further where she was saying, I'm not news, I'm not entertainment, I'm marketing. And she was very blatant about, like, I'm a marketer, which to me was incredibly interesting because she is. And she's wonderful at it. Like, she's been nothing but hugely successful at marketing. Call her daddy and herself and all of these other things. But it's so not, you know, what anybody who wanted to be a journalist or to be, like, in interviewing people would have thought. Right, right, right. Like, to me, that was really. That was super interesting.

[Taylor Antrim]

And yet she told you she still gets nervous before interviews.

[Hamish Bowles]

Right.

[Taylor Antrim]

Like, there's really a human. I mean, there's something totally guileless about her. At the same time, I don't want to give the impression that she comes across as this, like, master operator. She's totally talking about her past and her childhood and then that. I was struck by that idea that she's nervous before interviews.

[Hamish Bowles]

Yeah, no, and I think that's really charming. And I mean, the more incredibly high performing people who do perform in public that I meet, the more. Tell me, you know, like, yeah, of course I'm terrified before I go on stage. Like, of course. Like, that's completely. And I think for her there is. There can still be moments where it's a little like, pinch me, right? Like, oh, I'm interviewing this person. Like, please don't fuck it up. You know, Like, I think. Yeah, of course. Like, I think I was very endeared to how excited she was to interview people like Jane Fonda, you know, or like Jane Goodall.

[Taylor Antrim]

Yeah.

[Hamish Bowles]

And to introduce these sort of iconic women to her audience, you know, a lot of whom were like, I'd never heard of Jane Goodall, which breaks my heart, but it's wonderful that they have now, you know. Like, I think that that's very cool.

[Alessandra Cadena]

I want to ask you something about that because of the Alex Cooper aspect of this too, that nowadays you have the option if you're somebody in high profile life. And this does not just apply to actors and Musicians, but politicians, anybody who's trying to get a message out there, you now have the means, through something like a podcast, something the video interview, something like social media, of delivering kind of the unfiltered version of what you have to say, for better and for worse. Sometimes people don't use the medium terribly well. But I think one of the things that is very old fashioned and retro and scary to young stars and people in public life about magazine profiling is that you say these things and then the writer scurries off under the table and talks to all the people in your life and comes up with their own hair brained thoughts about what it all means. And you're really leaving it to interpretation in a way that you don't have to if you go on, on, you know, Alex Cooper show, or you go on Joe Rogan or whatever the vessel is nowadays. And do you think that that's playing into this as well?

[Hamish Bowles]

Yeah, I do think so. I mean, I think there is again, for better, for worse, a belief that among some people that they're like, I just want to have my own words out there. Yeah, I think a lot of them should rethink that, given what comes out.

[Taylor Antrim]

Right.

[Hamish Bowles]

Just because sometimes you're like, I don't think you're saying what you think you're saying. You know, whatever. I mean, most magazine profiles I have read tend to put the person in a context, tend to give a lot of credence to what they're saying in a way that they maybe are not able to do totally themselves. Right, Sure.

[Taylor Antrim]

I mean, one of the things I think of as the editor who's assigning these stories is that in the time that I've been doing this, and Jason, maybe this speaks to something that you're talking about. And Alessandra, what you're saying too is that the choice of writer actually seems of more interest rather than less than it used to be. There's a lot of scrutiny over what writer Vogue is bringing to the table for these stories. And it could be because that level of sort of editorial judgment that a writer brings, like, I'm going to explain the phenomenon of Alex Cooper to you, or I'm going to explain what the last eight years of Emma Stone's career means. That's the X factor that exists in a Vogue profile that you can't. That actually isn't part of your social media feed that you can't totally control. And it could also just be publicists trying to justify their work. But there is a real vetting of Writer choices, the likes of which I've practically never seen in this business.

[Alessandra Cadena]

But to be clear, and this is a little bit of self defense, I'm not in the business of working for any of these publicists or individual profile subjects. And we're Emma Stone to have pulled out a bucket of water and dumped it on the waiter's head during our lunch together. I would have happily written about it. I think, I hope the medium in that conversation about assignments and the people who are doing it, you hopefully get somebody who's going to take it seriously. And I don't consider myself a terribly serious person, but I do consider what I do. I take it really seriously and I'm going to take their time seriously and go and talk to as many people as possible about them and try to make as enjoyable, entertaining a read as possible for the reader at home. And yeah, I always feel like the, the idea of over managing if you're trying to like, you know, select what scene and person and all just, you know, too much choreography, it comes through in a piece and doesn't do anybody good. But just to add one thing, we're sort of brushing over a really important ingredient of this, which is the photographic element of it and the incredible, specifically with Emma, this massive undertaking that happened with Louis Vuitton and Nicholas and like all the stuff that was happening, you know, I often sometimes feel like I'm writing a very lengthy caption to the real magic of a cover story, which is, you know, in Vogue tradition, the photography, I mean, you know, the list is long of the masterpieces that have been done in this form and the incredible artists who have done photography for the magazine and the writer has long forgotten. And I try, you know, I don't consider that insulting. I try not to lose sight of the fact that there's a whole other circus that's happening far apart from me, which is. Is really important too.

[Taylor Antrim]

And in this case it was Jamie Hawkesworth who photographed Emma Stone and Grace Coddington. Legendary. Nearly as legendary as you, Jason, in the annals of Vogue's history, it's a.

[Alessandra Cadena]

Real old timer's day.

[Virginia Smith]

Totally, totally.

[Taylor Antrim]

And you've mentioned Nicolas, who's the creative director at Louis Vuitton and he and Emma are close friends and he designed a collection solely like it's a six look collection solely for this shoot. So it's really a kind of remarkable portfolio that accompanies your story, Jason. I also should note that the portraits that the photographer Tierney Giernan took of Alex Cooper in Los Angeles are really beautiful. And kind of unlike anything I've seen in terms of portraits of her. So that's a really wonderful accompaniment to your story.

[Hamish Bowles]

They're stunning.

[Taylor Antrim]

Yeah, it's a fantastic story, and I look forward to everyone reading it. But do you have a sense of.

[Virginia Smith]

What'S next for her?

[Taylor Antrim]

I mean, I feel like what's on the agenda for Alex Cooper is sort of expanding the Unwell empire, these other podcasts and sort of influencers that are under her umbrella. Did you get a sense of what was sort of on the horizon for her?

[Hamish Bowles]

There is a feeling when you talk to them about what's going on, that there is, like, a sort of tacit understanding that this may not go on, like, go on forever. Like, they're working incredibly hard to capture the lightning in a bottle they have right now.

[Taylor Antrim]

Interesting.

[Hamish Bowles]

And that's. I mean, because I don't think you expand this much this quickly unless you're like, you know, like, let's capture as much as we can.

[Taylor Antrim]

Right.

[Hamish Bowles]

I mean, the photographs that we have in this issue of Alex Cooper, it's like nothing you've ever seen Alex Cooper in before. I mean, it's so paired back. It's so natural. It's so sort of like ethereal gown in nature. Like, it's a completely new look at her. And I think, you know, you can't separate that from the story. Like, I think it's. That's. That's the goal.

[Taylor Antrim]

Thank you guys so much. Alessandra and Jason, it was really fun to have you talk about your features in Vogue.

[Alessandra Cadena]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Hamish Bowles]

Thank you, guys. This is really fun. I can't wait to read your story, Jason.

[Alessandra Cadena]

Oh, I appreciate that.

[Jason Gay]

The Run through is produced by Chelsea Daniel, Alex dupont and Stephanie Kariuki. It's engineered by Pran Bandy and James Yost.

[Hamish Bowles]

It is mixed by Mike Kutchman.

[Jason Gay]

Chris Bannon is Condon Nast head of Global Audio.

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