Phoebe Waller-Bridge covers the December issue of Vogue (American Vogue). I’m here for it. There’s a joyful authenticity to Phoebe – she’s a posh, well-educated British woman who tells dirty jokes for a living, basically. She’s beautiful and talented and also sort of weird. It’s sort of amazing how she ticks so many boxes – it feels like I should be super-jealous of her but instead I root for her like she’s some kind of underdog (and she’s not). Anyway, this Vogue cover story was utterly charming. The bulk of it takes place as Phoebe and the Vogue writer take a walk through Central Park and Phoebe is just in love with all of the local fauna. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
On fashion: “When you land on an outfit that you love, there’s no greater feeling…[but] I maintain the right to leave the house looking like shit, in my pajamas. I find dressing really stressful, just that decision every day. You want to just Steve Jobs it.”
What a British person does when they become a raging success. “I think you probably have one too many gin-and-tonics and have all your friends take the piss out of you.”
The vodka gimlet. “The gimlet came into my life about a year and a half ago. I have really always wanted a cocktail that you order with total confidence; you know, that thing that you order and everyone’s like, Holy sh-t, she knows what she’s doing with her entire life.”
The questions about whether her posh background means she’s a Tory: “I’ve never seen that! What the hell! I don’t know what’s worse—the idea that people are writing that with hope or fear? No, I’m not a Tory. Proudly not a Tory.”
Not talking about her relationship now that she’s serious about someone: “It’s so true, isn’t it? We used to share so freely.”. Drama in your love life doesn’t feel like failure when you’re young, she said. “Because the stakes are so low. But then you choose someone who is in some ways going to define your life, and is probably defining or molding who you grow to be because you’re with him all the time. And you want the best. You want the best possible, so you’re not going to——I think the first half of your life, you’re trying to find out who you are, and you’re kind of knocking yourself against things, and testing things the whole time, to help kind of sculpt yourself. Then later, when you’ve got as close to sculpted as possible, you’re like, Don’t touch anything, in case it changes me.”
On the idea of having kids: “I don’t know. It’s weird. I love kids. No, I feel like there’s so much happening. I guess I’ve become quite a see-what-life-throws-at-you kind of person. I think I would like to. I love hanging out with kids—you know, good ones.”
She thought Joker was “absolutely brilliant.” “I think the reason people got so uncomfortable is because it feels too true, too raw. I was watching it and thinking to myself, God, if this came out a year into Obama’s time in office, I don’t think we’d be feeling as worried about it.”
She considered doing harder jokes about America during her SNL monologue: “Just about the abortion laws, the kind of stuff you can’t get your head around. The fact that the world has gone backward in this way, and actually in some frightening sense, in so many ways, women have a louder voice, are more empowered these days, and then in these other really insidious ways, blatant ways, we’re being marginalized again. How do you fight that? Because if you rant and rave, if you try and make a noise, you’ll be labeled noisy. You have to be careful of that. You have to find ways to protest. I’d really like to write something about that. I don’t know what it is yet. Sometimes you feel it’s braver to say something outrageous, and it’s not always. Sometimes it’s braver to say the vulnerable thing.”
My dad drank vodka gimlets, that was his favorite drink and I always associate it with him, so no, that wouldn’t be my go-to! I liked what she said about how she considered making harsher jokes about America and I get the feeling that she’s definitely workshopping some material. I like what she says about kids and about relationships and how everything changes. She’s just whip-smart and cool and interesting, really. I love her.
Cover and IG courtesy of Vogue.
I have no idea who this is (someone? Hello? I’m under this rock and can’t see!) but I like most of her quotes and she looks like my friend RA who’s just sassy and wonderful. Thumbs up, Phoebe Waller-Bridge!
search for bbc fleabag, you’re welcome.
I will watch anything she ever is in or writes after watching Fleabag. Amazing!
Watch Crashing! She wrote it and is in it, and you’ll love it! It is just as well casted and acted as Fleabag; it’s a wonderful ensemble (sadly, no hot priest though).
In addition to Fleabag, she also wrote (co-wrote? I want to attribute correctly) the newest Bond film in production now.
She’s written one scene for the Bond movie. She was hired to “polish” the script, not to be a co-writer.
And Killing Eve.
She is also the genius behind Killing Eve!
One of the best writers out there.
She’s an actress, writer, and producer. She did all of that on Fleabag, which is GREAT and just won her 3 Emmys, was the developer and showrunner on the also excellent Killing Eve, and is writing a James Bond movie.
and lawyer on Broadchurch…
If I could only watch things with Phoebe and Olivia Coleman in them for the rest of my life I would be totally fine with that. Both of those women are perfection!! Also, I would pay substantial money for a second season of Crashing….
Can she be any more perfect? Just love her…
I have the biggest woman crush on her.
She has a charm that can not be quantified.
Ha! Glad that she said she’s not a tory! I don’t know what’s going to happen in this coming general election as it’s too close to tell, if only Labour don’t have Jeremy Corbyn as their leader more people might vote for labour but for us it will be Lib Dems unless they try to be in a coalition with the Tories again. Ugh!!!
You dislike Corbyn enough to hand the Tories the election and a Tory/Johnson Brexit?! Because that’s what will happen if more people vote Lib Dem. We know they’ll never get in power. Plus – like you say – the Lib Dems truly let us all down with the last coalition. I would never consider voting for them again.
Lots of people dislike Corbyn enough not to vote for him, that’s the unfortunate reality. I’d vote for him but I know my partner and his family will not vote for labour because of him.
It depends where you are. You need to vote whoever has the best chance. And in some seats it is Lib Dem
I feel completely politically homeless tbh. Would sooner die than vote Tory, don’t trust the Lib Dems as far as I can throw them, Labour have an anti-semitism problem that can’t be ignored because there are ‘bigger issues’ as some are trying to spin it. It’s a real dilemma. Would vote Green but I’m in a marginal.
Phoebe’s a great writer, cool that she’s not a Tory, but someone could’ve considered the optics of shooting a super posh white lady frolicking in designer gear on a bus surrounded by POC. It’s weird.
Its more than about liking Corbyn or not – he’s shown consistently that he’s not fit to lead a piss up in a brewery never mind a country. He can’t even lead the opposition. People are fed up of they way he and his cohorts have behaved over Brexit and the dithering over where he stands on it and a 2nd Brexit vote. He and his shadow cabinets habit of sitting on the fence saying and doing nothing for the past 3 years is going to come back and bite the party in the ass.
Whether people are for or against Brexit they just want it done so we can all move forward – Labour under Corbyn just won’t do that, they want to renegotiate and extend, they just refuse to commit to ANYTHING.
I can get behind some of what Labour stand for but this whole nonsense about a 4 day working week is a joke – what people really want is flexible and/or remote working. They want more freedom to work their own hours from home not the same thing but 4 days a week instead of 5. Just cause it worked for the miners in the 70’s doesn’t mean its going to work for a fast paced, technology based 21st century workforce many of whom are families who want to manage having a career with raising their children. They want a choice.
Scotland won’t vote Labour since Corbyn has pretty much said that he’ll give the SNP a 2nd indyref vote if they were to back him – he’s sold the Scottish people out for a shot at power. That makes him no different than Johnson. The people of Scotland don’t want another indyref vote, they want the SNP to fix the sh!t that they’ve broke – the NHS, education and police are devolved issues and the responsibility of the Scottish parliament NOT Westminster. Any issues with them are the result of SNP policies.
True @Penguin. In my (Remain-heavy) area its a fight between Lab and Lib Dem (Con have no chance). But even though I’m 100% for Remain and Labour have been sketchy about firming a position on Brexit (unlike Lib Dems) I couldn’t vote Lib Dem. My second choice would go Green these days
“Shown consistently” since when @Digital Unicorn? Since Labour shocked everyone with the last election swing when they were supposed to get slaughtered?
@Lady Baden Baden. He only got those votes due to tactical voting and because Theresa May ran the worst campaign in modern history with a horrendous manifesto. Labour didn’t do well because of him, they did well to spite May – because the electorate wanted to give her a bloody nose.
I wouldn’t count on the young people who voted for him then to vote for him again – I know many who did and are disillusioned with him now due to his lack of a definitive stance on Brexit and a 2nd Brexit vote.
@Digital Unicorn – I’M disillusioned with him! I’m no Corbynista and although I was impressed at the beginning, I now wish he’d step aside. I do, however, think he’s prob more popular than much of the media will allow. I also frequently disagree with Labour proposals – BUT to me there’s a clear choice coming up between more of the same hell or a little bit of hope. I know which way I’m going.
How can anyone in all conscience vote for Labour when there is blatant anti-semitism – to the point where British Jewish organisations are speaking up and out against them? When was the last time Jews were worried about a political party eh?…..
@grumpy I’m Jewish. That argument is tiresome.
@Lady Baden-Baden I think your original message was a little harsh. People have a lot of reasons for not wanting to vote for JC. On a personal level he makes my skin crawl. Along with the -antisemitism issue Labour is engulfed in he is also a HUGE misogynist and many of his own party members who are more towards the mid-left and center-left despise him.
My brother is actively involved in politics and I’d classify him as mid-left with some very leftist leanings thrown in but he despises JC. He feels that he is very divisive within the party and does not listen. He also feels that JC lacks the skills of an efficient leader but more importantly for him JC is actually pro-leave as that would give him unfettered discretion without the EU on his back.
Also note how other traditional alliance parties do not trust JC.
I personally as a voter do not trust him, but I live in a strong labour seat so my vote does not matter. I feel alienated and like I’ve been left without a party to vote for. I likely will vote labour (or lib-dem) but it will be more tactical than ideological
Also @Lady Baden-Baden – the point to voting Lib Dem is not just for them to win, its to force a hung parliament which would also force a second referendum or at the very least a people’s vote so the electorate chooses their future and not Johnson and his billionaire cronies who are currently suppressing a report which heavily implicates Russian interference into the referendum vote.
@Lady Baden-Baden I’m also Jewish and the argument is not tiresome. Don’t be the Token Jew that allows him and his cohorts to be dismissive of and get away with shameful antisemitic behaviour, whether blatant and covert. My friends and family and community are very wary and fearful of the further poisoning of the atmosphere he could bring. Nearly half of Jewish families say they will look to move away from Britain if he gets into government. We have been very disappointed by people we trusted acting as if the abuse we’ve received from his supporters is nothing and treating our fears and complaints as if they were less worthy or made up. They are not and we are very worried.
This is why I feel like being stuck between a rock and hard place.
Corbyn has been known to be anti-EU that’s why he’s always dithering when asked about Brexit.
In my area (where leave won) 😭 the fight is between the labour and lib dems, tories have no chance here. Where we live, it’s always been a labour mp, where my partner’s parents live which is just a 10minute drive, it used to be lib dems but they voted him out for a labour mp and on the other side of town where his sister lives has always had a labour mp.
Fantastic cover!!!!!
Love Phoebe, hate the pose, hate the dress (what’s going on in the boob area?).
Oh God – I LOVE the dress and the pose! Can’t stop looking at it!
Ha! I guess it’s just me, then. Looks like it’s on sideways or something.
WORD.
so natural looking on her that pose. such poise.
This here, this excerpt of her brilliance, I’ll think about it all day:
“I think the first half of your life, you’re trying to find out who you are, and you’re kind of knocking yourself against things, and testing things the whole time, to help kind of sculpt yourself. Then later, when you’ve got as close to sculpted as possible, you’re like, Don’t touch anything, in case it changes me.”
I like Fleabag and Killing Eve fine, she’s a bit “jolly hockey sticks” for my liking, and she can disavow being a Tory – good for her – but her family is old money and rich and were in the Panama Papers (remember those?) So yeah, she’s pretty privileged, Tory or not.
THANK YOU.
She writes about her own (narrow, privileged, 99.99% white) experience very well, but her comment on “Joker” reveals that she’s not as intelligent as her fangirls think.
I think there’s a lot that’s relatable in her writing, even if you aren’t as privileged as she is.
You can’t pick the family you’re born into. Is it a sin for a financially privileged person to have talent? It’s not like she’s using her privilege to oppress people.
I’ve seen/heard multiple interviews where she acknowledges and owns her privilege (if you want an example – try the How to Fail podcasts). I mean – what do you want her to do? She can’t change who she is! She admits her family is old money and because of her background she had opportunities others could only dream of.
I don’t know anything about her family, but I agree – no one can help what family they’re born into, and as long as they at the very least acknowledge their privilege and opportunity, I’m good.
PWB is talented and I have no problem with her success. But in discussing privilege, class and white privilege it’s not helpful that people say “she can’t help being born posh”.That is not the point. It isn’t a criticism of her as much as the system she benefits from. There are many equally good or interesting writers who will never get the opportunities PWB has had because they don’t benefit from the status quo. And even someone who has “made it” like Lena Waithe isn’t getting the same hype or attention in the mainstream despite being equally talented and possible even more prolific.
I will forever be thankful to Phoebe for writing the Hot Priest into this world.
He’s in episode 8 I think it is of the Modern Love series on Amazon. I was SO HAPPY to see him. I totally love that actor.
There’s also going to be a National Theatre Live screening (similar to the Met Opera screenings that some movie theaters do) of a one-man Noel Coward play he is starring in — Present Laughter. Later this month.
Andrew Scott, you slay me!
I feel the same way; like I should be jealous of her, but honestly I just want to be friends with her. She seems like such a fun and genuine person and I can’t wait to see what she does next.
Speaking of Labour, please Vogue, stop using working class people as backdrop to your glam photoshoot. This is not different from fashion editorials using indigenous tribe people as props to their ‘ethnic’ theme issue.