Kaia Gerber sees new plays whenever she canparticularly small, off-Broadway plays.
Kaia had chosen a drama about two women confronting the consequences of the new spate of anti-abortion laws.
After an intense 70 minutes without an intermission, we were both eager to discuss what wed just seen.
THE LISTENER“I’ve always been quite mild-tempered. My family called me the easy one.”
he said, addressing Kaia.
Did that make any sense at all?
I guessed it was a Kaia specialty.
THE HIP CROWDThe book club she started in 2020, Library Science, is informed by Kaia’s edgier, less commercial sensibility.
Once that premise came on
They lost you, Kaia said.
Yeah, he said.
And Kaia and I turned toward each other, ever so slightly closing ranks.
SPOTTEDKaia is venturing onto the stage with a role in a new play by Will Arbery,Evanston Salt Costs Climbing,premiering in Los Angeles in January.
Alright, he finished, and scuttled away.
Then our big black car arrived, and we escaped into it.
Once we were in the car, though, Kaia immediately pointed out the irony of his interrupting us.
BUTTONED UP“I always remember having the sense that she was somebody who knew herself very well,” says Kaia’s friend Gracie Abrams.
The play had been about unseen men passing laws with an appalling outcome for the pregnant woman.
I love a man being like, Did that make any sense?
We shook our heads, and laughed.
NEW POSITION“In a sea of chaos, it’s quite calming to be with Kaia,” says Marc Jacobs.
The people who are making the decisionslike thatgentlemandont understand, she said.
After more discussion, she added, Have you read bell hookssThe Will to Change?
And then shell watch the reaction.
Some people catch that shes putting them on, but others launch into pedantic explanations.
It is quite entertaining…to see them react to me, she told me.
She plays with this stereotype in her acting roles as well.
FOOT FORWARD“For someone whose job is to be looked at, she’s actually looking back much more than anybody realizes,” says Will Arbery.
Kaia felt protective of her.
She actually was an intellectual woman who helped him write and had a lot to offer.
THE LISTENERIve always been quite mild-tempered.
POISED AND PRETTY“Acting is a way for me to be an eternal student,” Kaia says.
My family called me the easy one.
Kaia spoke about the catharsis found in reading about rage.
I was early, so I watched the door.
I dont know what I expectedan untouchable supernova of beauty that would instantly tilt the rooms attention toward her.
I approached her and she immediately smiled and embraced me in a warm hug.
After we ordered, I remarked that her interest in books like Despentess seemed counter to her unassuming demeanor.
She told me, Ive always been quite mild-tempered.
My family called me the easy one.
I didnt need anything.
And I kind of prided myself on not having big feelings.
But she loves characters in novels and plays who express intense emotions.
They are a reminder that you’re free to have these feelings….
I didnt always feel like there was space for it, to be honest.
Reading is one place she explores her darker depths.
The other place is in her acting.
She told me about working with her movement coach.
Its about being in your body, she said.
You do a lot of repetitive movements to fatigue the parts that are second nature.
Its all about gettingactingcloser to the bone.
Ive really learned about where we store our trauma.
Sometimes laughter or tears can come through this work, as a memory floods over you.
She described a scene in which she had to get really angry.
She told her coach it would be difficult because she didnt access that part of herself often.
But after an hour, her coach said, Yeah, youre fine.
you could act that.
You need a place to put it, she said of these feelings.
And thats because of her intelligence.
She doesnt get involved in the drama.
And its not because shes better than, or that she has any sort of arrogance.
Its none of that.
In a sea of chaos, its quite calming to be with Kaia.
The first time he worked with her, he was surprised by her transformation in front of a camera.
She wore a pair of giant Celine glasses with clear lenses.
On another, plainer face, and on a person with less confidence, they might look nerdy.
On Kaia, the glasses emphasized that the eyes you are gazing at are gazing back.
Maybe they were another stab at the cliche that a model cant have an intellect.
When someone brings up an author or a book, Kaia will sometimes respond with deadpan obliviousness: Who?
And then shell watch the reaction
Yet the funny thing is that Kaia absolutelyisa nerd.
To relax, Kaia organizes her house, printing labels with her label maker.
What does she do to de-stress once everything is labeled?
I open a drawer and start organizing.
But it wasnt just that.
Kaia and I talked at length about things like using a highlighter versus using a pencil while reading.
When I mentioned that I teach a class on satire, she asked me to show her the syllabus.
Nothing about Kaia is surface-level fluffits all much deeper.
Traveling around the world was more interesting to Kaia than attending school.
But she still found ways to study.
Hes British and came from a background of artists and intellectuals, and was obsessed with books.
Jonah became one of her best friends and a kind of college professor, she said.
He would share his syllabi with her.
He took her to McNally Jackson and helped her pick titles.
She told him, I cant read Camus, and he was like, Why not?
So they would read and discuss everything from Plato to Rimbaud to Renata Adler.
Jonah now runs one of her favorite places, Reference Point, a rare-book library and bar in London.
It doesnt have to feel pretentious, she told me.
Its pretentious if you make it pretentious.
And in fact, talking and connecting through books is the opposite of pretentious.
When I spoke to Jonah, he was effusive about Kaia.
She is a voracious reader, he told me.
Wildly astute and observant.
It was a refreshingly old-school analog gesture in this day of vapes and Zyn pouches.
He, like Kaia, reveres physical books.
Overexposure to the totality of human knowledge all at once makes it hard to dig in, he said.
Kaia, he added, cuts through some of that noise with her book club.
Contemporary curation is about deep reading and deep focus.
Shes aware that many actors are not in that position.
Also, because she has been modeling long enough, she gets to work with people she loves.
When she read it, she thought, No one would ever cast me in this.
What is she like?
Shes genuinely curious, but I also think it is a strategy to deflect attention.
And she does get a lot of attention.
She has mixed feelings about living a public and private life.
And about social media, which she often removes from her phone.
I mentioned to her that I thought she handled her account very well (more of that curation).
She is good at Instagram wit.
But it doesnt change the basics: I dont give a shit about you.
All my love to your sister, she was a wonderful friend.
Her comment under the photos is a book for someone I used to know.
NEW POSITIONIn a sea of chaos, its quite calming to be with Kaia, says Marc Jacobs.
Kaia manages to avoid trolls by only letting her friends comment on her posts.
And sure enough, Marc Jacobsno slouch at a good IG joke himselfadded multiple heart emojis under Kaias post.
Other friends emoji-ed it as well.
But the trolls found a way to comment nonetheless.
I thought it was quite funny and cheeky.
You ruined my joke, Kaia said.
The post wasnt directed at any specific person or ex.
Each determined it was a different ex.
(It turns out many men have sisters.)
And the attention did kind of ruin the joke.
Kaia said she mostly avoids looking at gossip.
She learned from her parents not to hide or change your life to avoid attention.
The challenge is to accept and play with the attention but dont let it control you.
This reminded me of something she told me at the Greenwich.
She has a Julian Wasser photo of Joan Didion hanging over a banquette in her kitchen.
Didion is one of Kaias many heroes.
Shes read everything Didion has written and quotes her easily.
It was so dated, she said, the cliched ideas of what a smart woman should look like.
If you look closely, the surface reveals what is underneath.
Kaia, Id noticed, has a number of faint, subtle tattoos on her body.
The other tattoo says i know, with both words crossed out.
POISED AND PRETTYActing is a way for me to be an eternal student, Kaia says.
The next night I was invited to a Library Science event at the Hotel Chelsea.
A life of material poverty but artistic plenitude.
The Chelsea has been renovated into a luxury hotel.
Bars and event rooms were filled with young, beautiful people.
Kaia got up to speak.
She looked bohemian but polished in a layered lace top and a dramatic, spangled gold necklace.
Library Sciences clout now allowed Auder to finally do a reading there.
And maybe the kids are alright.
Already, multiple fashion websites had analyzed what she was wearing.
Special thanks to Highline Stages.
The December issue is here featuring Kaia Gerber.
