INTERVIEW #533: “Nicolas Cage,” - 
Fall 2020

Nicolas Cage needs to work, but not necessarily for the reasons you and I need to work. At 56, the owner of one of the most eclectic filmographies in Hollywood history just can’t seem to slow down. And while his days at the top of the box office largely behind him—he was once one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors, earning $40 million in 2009— speculation about his career choices persist: Is he paying off debts? Is he supporting his taste for rare artifacts? Is he just bored? As he tells his friend, the musician Marilyn Manson, in the cover story for our new Fall 2020 issue, the answer is as complicated as it is simple. Meanwhile, the inscrutable, avant-garde musician Arca contains so many multitudes that instead of one interview, they had three: with the artist Marina Abramović, the actor Oscar Isaac, and the pop supernova Rosalía. The screen legend Jane Fonda tells the actor and activist Indya Moore why climate change is a battle she thinks we can win, and the designer Rick Owens and Miley Cyrus trade road stories and UFO sightings. Ahead of the election, two of the most trusted voices in America, Charlamagne tha God and Stephen Colbert, have a candid discussion about where we are right now. Meanwhile, the acerbic acting icons Hugh Grant and Donald Sutherland enjoy a perfectly dreadful conversation about the pain and the pleasure about what they do. 

Elsewhere in the issue, the author Ayad Akhtar and the actor Aasif Mandvi investigate the rot at America’s core, the directors Taika Waititi and Nia DaCosta talk horror movies and try their best not to obsess over money, and the Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors shares her items of self-care and self-preservation. And if that wasn’t enough, the supermodel Bella Hadid and the rising singer 070 Shake prove that good things come in small doses. All that, and so much more.

INTERVIEW #532: “LANA DEL REY,” - September 2020

Who is Lana del Rey? She is Elizabeth Grant, the New York City-born musician who got her start playing Brooklyn’s underground club circuit. She is the scrappy singer who uploaded two homemade videos to the internet, only to watch her career explode in the aftermath. She is the self-described underdog, an oft-misunderstood purveyor of glamorous and tragic Americana, apocalypse and utopia, breathless romance, and devastating isolation—often crashing into one another. And she is our September 2020 cover star. In our new issue, the first in our history made entirely remotely, the elusive pop star talks to her producer Jack Antonoff about her upcoming album, going country, and the end of the world. Elsewhere in the issue, fashion industry oracle Bethann Hardison tells Zendaya why her fight for diversity is far from over, and movie-star-in-the-making Antony Ramos and his A Star Is Born director Bradley Cooper dissect the fallacy of stardom. Meanwhile, the author Emma Cline talks daddy issues and directing with the legendary filmmaker Brian De Palma, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jabari Brisport look to make all kinds of trouble. 

Ahead of the release of his latest novel Inside Story, Martin Amis sits down with his friend Salman Rushdie to reflect on the friends they lost and the literary movement to which they belonged. Nightlife legends Connie Girl and Honey Dijon reminisce on what it was like being a star below 14th Street, and the artist Lawrence Weiner has a conversation about art and abnegation with the rock star Kim Gordon. And feminist icon Gloria Steinem answers a bunch of questions from some of her famous friends and admirerers. All that, and so much more.

To kick off the new decade, we’re featuring one of the most enduring stars of the last one (and the one before that). Jennifer Aniston has covered many, many magazines over the course of her career—many not by choice—but never quite like this. On the heels of her career renaissance thanks to her blistering performance on the Apple TV+ drama The Morning Show, the 51-year-old actor connected with one of her closest friends, Sandra Bullock, for a candid conversation about lifetime bonds, brown liquor, and that time they dated the same guy. Elsewhere, another ‘90s sitcom queen and national treasure Julia Louis-Dreyfus opens the floor for questions from 21 of her famous friends and admirers.   

Ahead of her North American film debut in the live-action remake of Mulan, the Chinese superstar Yifei Liu tells Awkwafina what it’s like bringing a beloved character to life. Meanwhile, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and actor Tracy Letts tells his Little Women director Greta Gerwig why his new Broadway play The Minutes is not—but sort of is—a commentary on the Trump era. Superstar producer and social media savant Diplo inhabits a rogues gallery of alter-egos as he tries on 15 boot-cut pants in roughly 15 minutes. The pop sensation Normani answers questions from the writings of Andy Warhol, while the artist Alex Da Corte tells his friend, the musician St. Vincent, about his modern-day reinvention of the violent “Chicken Happening” (you have to read it to believe it). And the Estonian hip-hop curiosity takes us on a hallucinatory tour of the former Soviet Bloc. All that, and so much more.

To celebrate Interview’s 50th anniversary, we used the occasion of our 528th issue to pay tribute to—okay, to blatantly rip off—our own illustrious past. Starting with our cover star Kate McKinnon, who recreates iconic photographs from the magazine’s history, almost every story in the issue riffs on some of the best that came before us. Inside, Saturday Night Live’s chameleonic superstar answers some pressing questions from friends like Charlize Theron, Scarlett Johansson, and Chris Hemsworth. Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo and the musician Björk partake in an entirely unedited e-mail correspondence that we’re calling (at Björk’s request) “Future Folklore.” New York iconoclasts Debbie Harry and Cindy Sherman compare notes on sex, success, and gardening. Euphoria breakout Alexa Demie is a style icon in the making. More than two decades after its release, Jagged Little Pill is going down in the theater. The playwright Jeremy O. Harris and the supermodel Alek Wek star in “Tender Head,” a fashion story. Alanis Morrissette talks to her collaborator Diablo Cody about bringing the seminal album to Broadway. The American designer Michael Kors catches up with friend, the fashion veteran André Leon Talley to reminisce about New York’s heady heyday. After a banner year that saw him appear in Jim Jarmuch’s The Dead Don’t Die and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Austin Butler is set to play Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming biopic. But before he achieves megastardom, the actor answers some questions from the ghost of Andy Warhol. All that, and so much more.