Katy Perry looks absolutely amazing on the March 2020 cover of Interview magazine. Interviewed by Kristen Wiig, the stunning 27-year-old songstress opens up and talks about working on a farmer’s market selling peaches, the music she listened when she was younger, hosting SNL, doing films, being criticized, tabloids and paparazzi, and many more.
The beautiful singer admits in the cover story that she comes from humble beginnings and that she had to work for everything. “To be honest, it should probably be a cautionary thing for parents. Unfortunately, I think a lot of people are affected more by the idea of fame than the actual work ethic involved. A lot of them just want to be reality TV – type people who don’t do anything. And if they actually want to pursue a skill, whether it’s creating or writing or acting . . . Well, that’s hard. Even if you actually have the good intent to do something creative or special with your life, it’s hard. I mean, look at the number of people who actually get the opportunity.”
On hosting Saturday Night Live, Perry says that, “I thought it was really fun, and, of course, interesting and educational in terms of how the industry works . . . You know how they call SNL ‘the institution?’ It is like an institution – but in a good way. There’s nothing like it, so everyone kind of dreams about doing it. But then you actually get there and realize how much work it is and how little time you guys have to put the whole show together . . . I think we had three consecutive 20-hour days or something.”
On working on a farmer’s market selling peaches Perry admits that, “No, it was more like a very organic, hippie-dippie kind of atmosphere, where on one corner there’d be a violinist with a case where you have money thrown in, and then I would be on the other corner playing my own little original songs and people would throw in pistachios or avocados – or, if I was lucky, a dollar bill. I’m sure along the way I got some kind of hepatitis from a dollar bill being on an avocado. [Wiig laughs] But the Hotel Café was where I ended up in L.A. I’ve actually always wanted to make something like an acoustic record. My favorite record is a Patty Griffin record that I discovered while I was in Nashville called Flaming Red [1998].”
Speaking about the music she listened when she was younger, Katy confesses that, “I wasn’t allowed to listen to a lot of music growing up. It wasn’t until I started to make my gospel record when I was around 14 or 15 that I started to be exposed to more outside influences. Before that, I was actually really into Christian music. I knew all about the Christian music scene, which was a very small kind of sect,” she says. “But I knew all about that world. Then my mom would let me listen to, like, Billie Holiday and Etta James and really classic stuff like that. My mom speaks fluent French, so she was also really into Édith Piaf, which she turned me on to—although, I guess she didn’t really look into the lyrics. But as I started to hear different kinds of music, my world got bigger,” the singer recalls.
Perry also admits in the interview that she would love to do films. “But, of course, I want to do films. I’m cautious about doing them because it’s such a different world to me. It’s collaborative in a different way than I’m used to. I do a lot of collaborating with my tour, my music, and everything, but at the end of the day, if I don’t want to do something, then I can say I don’t want to do it. On a film, you have to take a little bit more of a backseat on that type of stuff — especially when you’re dealing with studios and the 77 cooks in the kitchen. I’ve got to mentally prepare to get into that world. I don’t know . . . I’m such an outsider, really. So, yes, I do want to do films, but I’ll be very specific about what I do,” she explains.
On getting a little extra criticism when trying something that one doesn’t normally do, Perry told Wiig that, “Well, if you keep on doing the same role, you’ll be typecast. I just feel like I’m going to be criticized regardless of what I do next, so I might as well do something that I feel really passionate about. I don’t even know if I could ever re-create that last record — just like you probably don’t know if you could ever re-create ‘Bridesmaids.’”
When it comes to tabloids and paparazzi getting involved in her personal life, Perry confesses that, “But I don’t really ever tolerate it — especially when it comes to my personal life or my family. When I’m working, I’m all yours. But when I’m not working, stay the f*** away. That’s how it goes. So whoever made up the idea that everyone has the right to every bit of information about you because you’re famous . . . No one made that rule. It’s not a law, and if you think it is, then you don’t really understand how the world works.”
Read Katy Perry’s full interview in the March 2020 issue of Interview Magazine.
Photos courtesy of Interview Magazine