"We don't have the language yet to describe the persona that Emma Roberts has taken on."
An interview with Sydney Gore
Condensing this interview with Sydney Gore was a challenge. We both have a lot to say. In case you aren’t aware of Gore’s work already, let me tell you about her.
Sydney Gore is an incredibly prolific journalist who’s written for The New York Times, Vox, Vogue, and innumerable other publications. What’s more impressive than her bylines is her ability to tell stories about wellness and self-care — two intertwined topics that dominate cultural conversations these days — in fashions that completely skirt the dominate narratives. She doesn’t dwell on whatever trend everyone’s already talking about, she looks deeper. Through her eyes, you can imagine a more holistic future for the wellness industry that extends far beyond the purview of Goop and Into The Gloss.
Along with wellness-related writing, Gore’s written plenty about pop culture (see: her profile of Lil Nas X). While I love Sydney’s writing, I adore her friendship, so I thought it would be fun to talk to her about her pop culture consumption habits for the ‘letter.
As a person who’s very thoughtful about self care and wellness, but also watches a lot of TV and movies, I'm wondering your opinion on the popular sentiment that TV is bad for you?
That’s definitely something I've been thinking about a lot this past year. I used to read really consistently, I especially thought that reading was a part of my whole everyday routine when I had a full time job. I would go to work and I would commute and that's usually when I would get my reading in. With the pandemic, everything completely got like Bop It style twisted, my brain for sure did a complete switcheroo. For a long time, it was actually really hard for me to read, which I was disappointed in myself for.
With that void, I was using television and movies. Honestly before the pandemic, I couldn't tell you when I last properly binged something. I really never made much time for TV. When I would watch movies I would usually go to the theater. Going to see a movie was a luxury, you know, it was an activity, it was something to do. With being confined to the home, TV almost in a sad way became like seeing my friends. Especially if I was watching a TV series because you know, you're seeing the same characters every day, you're getting updated. That might make me sound a little off. But it became this really great coping mechanism for me.
To kind of ration myself a bit then I was trying to be better about like, “Okay, let me get back into reading.” I had a couple of book clubs, they all dissolved. It was really hard for people to be able to make that kind of a commitment. Now I found that sadly, I'm treating books almost like how I used to watch TV. When I finally do get the motivation to read, I kind of have to do it like all in one go or like within a couple of days.
I definitely feel the same way. What you're saying about needing to finish a book within a couple days is exactly where my head's at.
I get a rush when I'm finally getting to the end of a book. I'm like, “Oh yeah, I did it!” I have a list on my newsletter of all the books that I'm reading in quarantine to help me stay accountable. I italicize them when I finished them, and I was like, “Oh, this will be good because then I can really see how much I've been able to digest during this period.” Obviously it was a little overly ambitious. I mean I've read it a good amount but not as much as I would like to have.
Definitely. I really relate to what you were saying about going to the movies feeling like an event and loving being in this physical space with the movie. I'm wondering how that has changed for you, like if you're clinging to different types of movies. I definitely don't have the attention span for more art-y films that I would have watched in a movie theater, so maybe you could talk a bit about that.
I would definitely never have done this before, but now I really get a cheap thrill from watching terrible movies. I never would have paid money to see a bad movie. I've always really valued my dollar, but during times like these sometimes you just need a quick pick me up. Watching a really, really shitty movie, that you can just kind of like laugh at the entire time [is great.] I live alone so I'm often talking to myself while I watch the movies.
Yeah, reminding yourself that you have critical thinking skills is kind of fun.
Yeah, it's good exercise for my brain. It's like do I still have taste? I definitely never would have done that before with having to pay money to be in the theater, buying the popcorn, and everything. My mom got me one of those popcorn kettles, and I finally cracked it open and realized that it was a game changer. I love using that and then drizzling a little avocado oil and mixing it in. I make my movie evenings now a full on event.
Yeah, I call it going to the movie theater when I turn off my lights and close the blinds. I'm like, “We're at the theater, we can't look at our phones, we can't talk.”
Yeah, I flip my phone over unless I'm watching a movie with somebody else virtually. Also, I think another thing is with tele-parties obviously you're having a conversation the whole time, and I definitely would not have had the energy for that before the pandemic. I hate when people talk to me during movies. That's something that's kind of like a fun new element to the whole watching experience.
Do you have a favorite terrible movie that you've watched recently?
Really big question, honestly. I visit my parents every so often in New Jersey and when I'm here in my childhood bedroom that still has things from when I was like, three, I regress really hard. I feel really deeply connected to like my 17 year old self like itching to get out of high school and this town. So I've been rewatching a lot of the programs that I used to really turn to for just a little grounding. In doing that, I've realized that a lot of them were pretty terrible. Also I've been watching the things that I wasn't allowed to watch when I was younger. So an example of that I watched The Simple Life a couple of months ago.
You weren't allowed to watch The Simple Life?
Well obviously Paris Hilton was not a role model, so I wasn't allowed to watch it. Wow, was that a hoot, I loved it. Recently I started watching Baldwin Hills which was basically supposed to be kind of like the Black Laguna Beach, but it was on BET. You can tell it was on BET because it's filmed really horribly and they just did not put enough budget into that show. What a mess. But it could have really been something, you know.
This doesn't really count but I watched Malcolm and Marie and hated it. It was terrible, I wouldn't recommend it to anybody. I watched Dash and Lily, that's a show not a movie, but it was pretty cringe. I watched Holidate.
Oh, did you like that?!
Well, what do we mean when we say like?
Did you have fun watching it?
I mean, it made me laugh, it made me cringe. Here's the thing: Emma Roberts knows her niche. She thrives in it and she knows exactly the kind of character that she has the range to play and I respect that. I continue to be impressed by Emma Roberts continuing to play like the same type of person. She's the Keira Knightley of herself. Like she's not a period drama person, but like I don't know...
It's hard to put into words who she is.
We don't have the language yet to describe the persona that she has taken on. So that film was so bad and I knew it was going to be bad.
If you could legally require every person to watch one specific show or movie, so that you could reference it like it was normal, what TV show or more would that be?
Oh, man, that's so hard. There are just so many different things coming to mind...
Okay. I've got it. Because I am always going to be a child at heart, [I'd choose] this movie that I really, really loved growing up, and not a lot of people know about it. It's called Cats Don't Dance. There's an incredible soundtrack and I used to listen to it in the car with my dad all the time. Every so often one of the songs will come to mind, and I'll be like, "Cats can't dance!" A friend of mine randomly Instagram posted about it like a couple of weeks ago and I was like, "wait, you know this movie? I thought I was the only one, like people think I'm making this up.
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