INTERVIEW #531: “SELENA GOMEZ,” - SPRING 2020

At just 27 years old, Selena Gomez is, in no particular order, a global pop-star with three number-one albums, the fifth-most followed person on Instagram, an actor since the age of 7, an executive producer of documentaries and television, a tabloid fixation, a philanthropist, a mental health advocate, and, most recently, the founder of an inclusive beauty line. She can now add two-time Interview cover star to her resume. In our new Spring 2020 issue, Gomez connects with her close friend Amy Schumer to reassure her—and us—that despite all the strife, she’s doing better than fine. Elsewhere in the issue, Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright makes an urgent case for the power of democracy to her friend and admirer Amy Poehler, and mogul-in-the-making Issa Rae sounds off on everything from dating apps to fashion week. Meanwhile, the boxing phenom Ryan Garcia has some fighting words for his mentor, the legendary pugilist Oscar De La Hoya, while Ashton Sanders reveals to his fellow actor Tessa Thompson why Hollywood can be “a little sus.”  

Ahead of the release of her third novel, Death in Her Hands, acclaimed author Otessa Moshfegh tells the artist Alex Israel why her year has been neither restful nor relaxing. The iconic actor Michael Caine schools his co-star Aubrey Plaza on the art of being famous, and the viral rap sensation Lil Tecca gets real with fellow hip-hip misfit Rico Nast about high school, haters, and some naked cats. In an editorial photographed by Pierre-Ange Carlotti and styled by Interview’s Mel Ottenberg, the supermodel Irina Shayk makes solitude chic, The Booker Prize-winning author Julian Barnes gets paid a visit by his friend, the artist Rachel Whiteread, to discuss his new book on the dawn of the dandy, while the filmmaker Cary Joji Fukunaga takes Miranda July through the highs and lows of making a James Bond movie. 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.