Extreme Close-Up: Interview’s Cover Conundrum

Interview’s August cover of Marion Cotillard hit the web yesterday, and while there’s no doubting it’s a beautiful image (it’s pretty difficult to make Marion Cotillard look bad), it strictly conforms to Interview’s standard cover composition: a tight shot of a woman’s face in a black, white, and red palette.
Including Marion’s cover, Interview’s past three covers, Megan Fox, Madonna, and Carey Mulligan all follow this basic composition. Out of their nine 2009 covers, six are female close ups in white, black, or red. We can’t help but wonder, why?





Interview markets itself as a hip celebrity magazine, founded by Pop god Andy Warhol and John Wilcock in 1969. Its Andy-approved covers ranged from poloroid-esque snapshots of celebs holding strange objects on a white background, to brightly colored pop portraits. Interview has attained an iconic status, not only from its heritage, but also because its unconventional format makes it a fun and insightful read. But nowadays Interview is veering further away from the realm of pop culture into women’s fashion mag territory.



Six of Interview’s 2010 covers so far are women, and nine of their ten 2009 issues were women as well. We know girls rule, boys drool, but we’d like to see some guys get the Interview cover treatment. The number of guys covering Interview is dwindling, down from three in 2008, to one in 2009, and so far only Jay-Z in 2010.

Also we’d like to see someone on the cover looking maybe just a little happy to be there. Less whitewashed doll face, a little more this please.