Aubrey Plaza: I have a pretty high tolerance for public humiliation, I kind of get off on it
Aubrey Plaza covers the July issue of Cosmopolitan because she’s the star of the reboot of… Child’s Play. You know, the Chucky-horror movies. The reboot is described as a “reimagining,” I guess. I’ll admit that I’m intrigued by the idea of Aubrey – known for her dry, ironic, indie hipster vibe – doing a straight-up studio horror movie. I didn’t realize that Aubrey is already mid-30s – she seems younger, doesn’t she? Anyway, Aubrey chats with Cosmo about her childhood in Delaware, her moves as a producer and a lot more – you can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
Her teen years: “In high school, I was involved in a lot of activities, Tracy Flick–style.” Aubrey tells me that while she made the most of the all-girls Catholic school where she was “popular but not necessarily cool,” she was also beginning to test out different ways of being a type-A overachiever—disruptive but funny at the same time. She and her friends would dress up in costumes and try to get a rise out of people at their local mall. “The funniest thing about it was that most people don’t react, they ignore,” she says.
These days, she’s better at improvising: “Chris Pratt used to tell me when he would give me advice: ‘The separation is in the preparation.’ He’s one of those people who’s always very prepared. I was kind of the opposite. Clearly, it worked out for him.”
She loves being embarrassing: “I’d say I have a pretty high tolerance for public humiliation. I kind of get off on it or something. It’s like this sick thing that makes me feel more alive and connected to the world.”
Working as a producer now: “Once I produced something and I realized how much of an impact I can have, I could never go back. Now I’m, like, f–ked, because I’ve always gravitated toward more of a leadership position in whatever I’m doing. For Child’s Play, I wasn’t a producer, but I was acting like it—watching the monitor when other people were doing their scenes when I should have been in my trailer relaxing or something.”
Her future career goals: “I’m entering a space right now where it’s like I’m so used to relying on this patriarchal idea of waiting around for someone to say, ‘You’—some brilliant man. I still have that voice inside my head that wants that. But it’s like, I’m 34. I can do it myself. All the people who are my heroes created their own things. I’m ready to do that. I’m sick of doing other people’s sh-t. I want to do my own sh-t.”
I find her both inspiring and awful, if that makes sense. Like, I actually hate the kind of people who just do weird, awkward performative sh-t just to “get attention” or “make themselves laugh.” It feels like there’s an undercurrent of nastiness to it, that they’re making fun of all of the normal people just trying to walk through the mall without becoming part of some garbage youth’s performance art. But on the other side, I like that she represents a different kind of personality for Hollywood, that you don’t have to be a super-A-list Reese Witherspoon-type to produce your own sh-t and want to develop your own projects. So… hate-respect for Aubrey, I guess.
Photos courtesy of WENN, and Peggy Sirota for Cosmopolitan, sent from promotional Cosmo email.
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