The Secret to Amelia Dimoldenberg’s Online Superstardom? Control

阿米莉亚·迪莫尔登伯格（Amelia Dimoldenberg）的在线超级巨星秘诀：掌控力

For someone whose on-camera persona could hardly care less, the real Amelia Dimoldenberg cares a shocking amount. About pretty much everything, it turns out, that touches her work as director and host of YouTube sensation Chicken Shop Date, red-carpet celebrity inquisitor, and creative engine behind a raft of in-development TV and film projects.

对于一个在镜头前表现得“毫不在意”的人来说，现实中的阿米莉亚·迪莫尔登伯格（Amelia Dimoldenberg）却有着惊人的掌控欲。事实证明，凡是涉及她工作的事物，她都极其上心——无论是作为 YouTube 现象级节目《炸鸡店约会》（Chicken Shop Date）的导演兼主持人，还是红毯上的明星采访者，亦或是幕后一系列正在开发中的影视项目的创意引擎。

Edits on each of the awkward, uproariously funny Chicken Shop Date episodes? She does them. In-depth prep before greeting everyone from Hudson Williams to Ethan Hawke at the Oscars? She does that too. IP? She owns it—with great pride. The online algorithms whose whims dictate who sees what, and how much of it? Dimoldenberg may not control those, but she’s done a damn good job of conquering them. All through the meticulous control she wields over every other aspect of her projects, her process, and where both are taking Dimoldenberg next.

《炸鸡店约会》中每一集尴尬又爆笑的剪辑，她都亲自操刀。在奥斯卡颁奖礼上迎接从哈德森·威廉姆斯（Hudson Williams）到伊桑·霍克（Ethan Hawke）等各路大咖之前，她会进行深入的准备工作，这也是她亲力亲为。知识产权（IP）？她拥有它，并引以为傲。至于那些决定谁能看到什么、看到多少的在线算法？迪莫尔登伯格或许无法控制它们，但她已经出色地征服了它们。这一切都归功于她对项目、流程以及未来发展方向的每一个细节所施加的严密掌控。

I first encountered Dimoldenberg years ago on TikTok, where short clips of her Chicken Shop interviews—she’s made everyone from Billie Eilish to Paul Mescal squirm under the inhospitable lighting of a humble British chicken joint—routinely find millions of eyeballs. So it was a delight to sit down with the very sharp, very funny Dimoldenberg at WIRED’s New York studio, where we talked about being prepared (she is, very), when creators will get the kind of credit their peers in traditional entertainment do (in her view, death needs to be involved), and why everyone assumes her YouTube show is a podcast (it is, she repeats emphatically, not a podcast).

我几年前在 TikTok 上第一次注意到迪莫尔登伯格，她那些《炸鸡店约会》的短片——让从比莉·艾利什（Billie Eilish）到保罗·麦斯卡（Paul Mescal）等各路明星在英国简陋炸鸡店那不友好的灯光下局促不安——总是能获得数百万次的观看。因此，能在《连线》（WIRED）纽约演播室与这位敏锐又风趣的迪莫尔登伯格坐下来交谈，我感到非常高兴。我们聊到了“准备工作”（她确实准备得非常充分）、创作者何时才能获得与传统娱乐业同行同等的认可（在她看来，这可能得等到人去世后），以及为什么每个人都以为她的 YouTube 节目是播客（她郑重地重申：那绝对不是播客）。

I could have kept going, but Dimoldenberg had a red carpet—The Devil Wears Prada 2 premiere, to be specific—to get glam for. We started our conversation discussing another high-fashion event: the Oscars, which Dimoldenberg recently joined as the Academy’s Social Media Ambassador and Red Carpet Correspondent for the third year running. More specifically, we began by talking about a clip our producers played of Dimoldenberg’s interviews, many of them remarking on just how hot and sweaty things got. Which is why, if you’re reading this instead of listening to it, we start off by talking about pee. Enjoy!

我本可以继续聊下去，但迪莫尔登伯格还要去参加一场红毯活动——具体来说是《穿普拉达的女王 2》的首映礼——她得去化妆准备。我们的谈话从另一场高级时尚盛事开始：奥斯卡颁奖礼。迪莫尔登伯格最近连续第三年担任奥斯卡学院的社交媒体大使和红毯记者。更具体地说，我们从制作人播放的一段她的采访片段聊起，片段中许多人感叹现场有多么闷热。这就是为什么，如果你是在阅读这篇文章而不是收听音频，我们开篇聊的是“尿”的原因。请尽情阅读！

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. （本文为采访节选，为篇幅和清晰度进行了编辑。）

KATIE DRUMMOND: Welcome to the Big Interview, Amelia. 凯蒂·德拉蒙德： 欢迎来到“大人物访谈”，阿米莉亚。

AMELIA DIMOLDENBERG: Thank you for having me. Sorry, that clip you played before we started talking, I was like, “Wow, that is real boots-on-the-ground journalism right there.” 阿米莉亚·迪莫尔登伯格： 谢谢邀请。抱歉，刚才我们开始谈话前播放的那个片段，我当时心想：“哇，那真是实打实的现场新闻报道啊。”

How did it feel to hear yourself talking about butts, sweat, and pee? 听到自己谈论屁股、汗水和尿液，感觉如何？

Well, it’s interesting, because that is definitely part of the genre of my interviews. However, there’s so much more to them than that. That’s obviously just one slice of it. That’s, I guess, a bit more playful. I mean, they’re all playful in a way, but yeah, I was cringing a bit. 嗯，这很有趣，因为这确实是我采访风格的一部分。然而，我的采访远不止于此。那显然只是其中一小部分。我想，那可能更俏皮一些。我的意思是，它们在某种程度上都很俏皮，但说实话，我还是觉得有点尴尬。

I’m sorry, I didn’t pick that clip. I’m going to blame the producers. How do you get ready for those interviews? This was your third time doing the Oscars red carpet, which is, and I’ve been a journalist for a very long time, an intimidating environment. 抱歉，那个片段不是我选的，我要怪制作人。你是如何为这些采访做准备的？这是你第三次走奥斯卡红毯，作为一个做了很久的记者，我认为那是一个非常令人生畏的环境。

I spend probably two months thinking about it. Researching every single nominee; watching all of the movies. I write with my sister, Zoe, so we work with our writing partner to prepare questions for every nominee that the Academy would like us to interview. I think it’s really important to prepare individual questions for each person, because I think that’s how you get a more interesting nuanced interview from someone. 我大概会花两个月的时间来思考。研究每一位提名者，观看所有的电影。我和我的姐姐佐伊（Zoe）一起写稿，我们与写作搭档合作，为学院希望我们采访的每一位提名者准备问题。我认为为每个人准备个性化的问题非常重要，因为我认为这样才能从对方那里得到更有趣、更细腻的采访内容。

I love thinking of questions for each person and thinking of ways in which you can speak about their films and their work in a way that is playful and unexpected but shows the level of research that I try and do. 我喜欢为每个人构思问题，思考如何以一种俏皮且出人意料的方式谈论他们的电影和作品，同时又能展现出我所投入的研究深度。

I love watching celebrity interviews. I always have. I’ve loved being a consumer of pop culture since I was very young. It’s a fun job for me to do the prep, but it definitely reminds me of when I was studying for my exams at school, just cramming. 我喜欢看名人访谈，一直都很喜欢。我从小就热爱消费流行文化。对我来说，做准备工作是一项有趣的工作，但这确实让我想起在学校备考时那种临时抱佛脚的感觉。

This year was my third year doing it, and I had more time than ever. So I felt really confident. I felt really good. I also loved my outfit. I think all of those things really do make a difference because, as you say, it’s an intimidating, intimidating environment. 今年是我第三年做这件事，我比以往任何时候都有更多的时间。所以我感到非常自信，感觉很好。我也很喜欢我的造型。我认为所有这些因素确实产生了影响，因为正如你所说，那是一个非常、非常令人生畏的环境。

How do you think about your role on that red carpet? I’m curious about this in the context of the work that you do overall, this sort of “creator journalism.” There’s a distinction there that I think is becoming blurrier and blurrier. 你是如何看待自己在红毯上的角色的？在你的整体工作背景下，我对这种“创作者新闻学”感到好奇。我认为这其中的界限正变得越来越模糊。

I don’t have strongly held views about it. I talk to the WIRED staff all the time, and I hope they don’t mind me saying this on the podcast, but they serve as talent more frequently now than they used to, and they need to be on camera. They need to be making that direct connection to their audience. 我对此没有特别强烈的看法。我经常和《连线》的员工交流，希望他们不介意我在播客里说这些，但他们现在比过去更频繁地担任“台前人才”的角色，他们需要出镜。他们需要与观众建立直接的联系。

But for you, when you’re on the red carpet or you’re sitting down in a chicken shop, how do you self-identify? 但对你来说，当你在红毯上或坐在炸鸡店里时，你是如何自我定位的？

I feel like I am in the business of making entertainment. I think that’s a distinction from journalism in a way. You know, I studied journalism. I have a degree in journalism, but I always feel like I’ve been more drawn to making something within the entertainment space. 我觉得我从事的是娱乐行业。我认为这在某种程度上与新闻业有所区别。你知道，我学过新闻学，我有新闻学学位，但我一直觉得我更倾向于在娱乐领域创作内容。

A lot of the creators who are working the red carpets now, I think that’s their approach too. It’s not necessarily that they’re trying to get a scoop, for example, but they’re trying to make something that is entertaining, and people really connect with those interviews. 现在很多在红毯上工作的创作者，我认为他们的方法也是如此。他们不一定是为了抢独家新闻，而是为了制作出有趣的内容，而人们确实与这些采访产生了共鸣。

Obviously some are stronger than others. The first time I did the red carpet was maybe five years ago now, for the GQ Man of the Year Awards. I remember at the time it being such an exciting moment because nontraditional talent hadn’t taken those roles. 显然，有些采访比其他的更出色。我第一次走红毯大概是五年前，是在《GQ》年度人物颁奖礼上。我记得当时那是一个非常令人兴奋的时刻，因为非传统背景的人才此前从未担任过这些角色。

It’s always been important for me to make sure I stand out in a crowded space. I’m interested in creating a moment, something that people can connect to that stands out online because there’s so much content now. 对我来说，确保自己在拥挤的领域中脱颖而出一直很重要。我热衷于创造一个“时刻”，一些人们能够产生共鸣且在网络上引人注目的内容，因为现在的网络内容实在太多了。

It’s interesting because you bring the academic training of a journalist and certainly the obsessive need to prepare or over-prep. 这很有趣，因为你既带来了新闻工作者的学术训练，也带来了那种对准备工作甚至过度准备的执着。