Alex Cooper talks about his life.
The Call Her Daddy podcaster, 29, is featured in the November/December 2023 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, which hits newsstands on November 14. In the interview, he talked about his record deal with Spotify, the development of Call Her Daddy, new business, international tours and fandom.
On her life right now:
“I feel like I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing, so for me, this is what happiness looks like. I think also, with my personal life, it’s been nice that I’m trying to plan a wedding in the midst of launching a company. Interesting timing that Matt [Kaplan] and I chose to do both, but it’s allowing me to go with the flow and not sit and ruminate about things there’s no point in sitting and stressing about.”
On being a workaholic:
“I am a bit of a workaholic. I can never emphasize enough how obsessed I am with creating experiences for people to consume. This was never about fame. This was never about money. If I stop getting paid for this tomorrow, I’m going to still do it.”
On her relationship with Spotify, where she is the highest-paid female podcaster on the platform, and what will happen when negotiating her new contract:
“My relationship with them so far has been amazing. I’m very hands on with my product, as you know, and I need a partnership of people that are going to just be like, ‘Do your thing.’ They’ve been great. So yeah, I’m going to do a renegotiation and see what happens. It’s a little bit different now because I’m not just the show—I have a network of people and it’s a bigger situation now, so probably the number will be bigger. That’s something I’ve been thinking about: ‘Is it good or bad for the number to come out again?’”
On transparency when it comes to women and money:
“I had a lot of therapy sessions when the first deal came out. Because I was like, ‘Whoa, it’s just not normal to have the amount of money you’re making public and that amount at such a young age.’ I did see the backlash of ‘She doesn’t deserve that’ or ‘She’s so greedy.’ I’m like, ‘Oh my god, no one said this about Joe Rogan. No one said this about the SmartLess podcast guys.’ But I’m the type of person that loves it, because it means there’s opportunity to help the conversation progress. It’s less about me….It’s a new benchmark for women in the industry.”
On the perception that a woman who’s assertive about getting what she wants is a b*tch:
On signing influencers Alix Earle and Madeline Argy to launch podcasts with her network Unwell:
“It’s been fun to put on the producing hat and to give them an outline of like, ‘This is what your podcast should look like.’ But on the other end, being like, ‘But let me be so clear: I’m here to help. You’re the star. You got here because you are so talented.’ …It’s like a passing of the baton to the next generation I believe in.”
On those attempting to position her and Alix Earle as each other’s competition:
“Before this announcement, people would comment, ‘We know that Alex Cooper doesn’t want to have Alix Earle on because she doesn’t want to help Alix Earle, and Alix Earle doesn’t want to cross over with Alex Cooper.’ It was this whole conspiracy. It was interesting to see how people think about women in media, that two huge forces on their own have to stay separate because their brands are slightly similar. But actually, the two of us were like, ‘If we align, we could take over the world.’”
On her fiancé, Matt Kaplan:
“Matt is so confident and not cocky. He knows who he is. He knows what he stands for. He’s the most giving person. He’s also the most romantic man I’ve ever met in my life…. That’s not to say that we don’t fight. But Matt and I have put so much work into this relationship that when we’re having a disagreement, we’re coming from such a place of love. No one’s winning. We don’t need to prove points. It’s about, how do we get back to making sure we both feel good and seen in the relationship?”
On working with her fiancé, Matt Kaplan:
“When Matt and I met, every single night we would talk about what was going on in our businesses. He would come home with a movie script and I’d be like, ‘Wait, I know I can make this better.’ We’ve just been so enamored with each other’s industries. And being a film and television major, I always really wanted to be a producer or director. I was like, ‘You are literally in the industry that I want to break into, and I’m also in the industry that you can help grow.’ So we decided, why don’t we put our ventures together and make everything even bigger?”
On what she’s like as a partner:
“I am the most emotionally present person. Sometimes when Matt’s going through it, he has a hard time allowing himself to acknowledge it. Matt is learning to open up. I think I’ve allowed our relationship to grow because of the work I’ve put into, like, ‘No, let’s sit down at the table tonight, let’s put our phones down. What was your day like?’ …I really do a good job, I think, at slowing things down and emotionally reconnecting to make sure that we’re good, we’re solid.”
On the importance of her friendships:
“My bridesmaids know who they are, but they won’t be wearing the same color dresses or standing up there with me and Matt. They’re my bridesmaids because they’re my best friends. Friendship means everything to me. I’ve had the same four best friends since I was in second and third grade, and they’ve been my rocks. I don’t have a best friend in the industry; I’ve kept it very Newtown, Pennsylvania ….They treat me the exact same way they did when we were in our little soccer uniforms at school. I remember going through my Spotify deal and I was having a mental breakdown because I was just like, ‘The world is staring at me,’ and they came and hung out and drank tequila and played board games. They were like, ‘We’ll remind you who you are.’ They’ve always been there for me when I’ve gone through things.”
On journey toward healing from a traumatic experience with a coach at Boston University:
“I’m in the process, which I’m proud of myself for. Now that I’ve created this platform, I feel new wisdom in certain aspects of my life, from experience and therapy and people I surround myself with…but with this specific thing, it’s so personal to me and it took such a toll on my mental health. Recently, I reconnected with a lot of the people that I played soccer with who were around when things were happening and it’s been pretty cathartic. I met up with one of my teammates in Santa Monica who I hadn’t seen since we graduated—we didn’t even say hi, we just both started crying. There’s another woman that went through it with me, and we finally saw each other recently and it’s just wild to talk about it together. Connecting with these other women with these scars, that’s the first step to me actually being like, ‘Oh my god, I’m feeling better.’”
On what she’d say to her younger self:
“F*ck everyone who makes you feel like you’re not good enough, because you are. I wish I could go back and tell that awkward girl writing sad thoughts in her diary: ‘We made it, Alex. You’re going to be fine.’”
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