FEBRUARY 2019 InSTYLE 135strange to have that going on at the same time. NL:
Yeah. I mean, that’s sort of the prickly thing for all
of us to reconcile.
JK: OK, so I have this great memory of seeing you at
Chateau Marmont when you were young and hys-
terical and amazing. You came downstairs wear-
ing high-waist jeans and a Norma Kamali bathing
suit. I remember thinking, “This is the chicest girl
I have ever met. She’s wearing a f—ing bathing suit
to dinner.” Now the Kardashians do that all the
time, but that was in the ’90s. No one was doing
that. NL: I’m going to go out on a limb and say the
Kardashians never quite do it with a punk edge.
They do many things, but being a little bit punk is
not one of them. Chloë Sevigny turned me onto
Norma Kamali, as she turns me onto all things.
Certainly having Chloë as the one I was looking up
to my whole life was really formative. She is the
coolest, smartest person in the world. She was into
these Norma Kamali bathing suits, so I went to
Midtown and bought myself some.
JK: I think our delightful friend and stylist Cristina
Ehrlich would be a big fan of that look. NL: Actu-
ally, she would. You and I also share the amazing
costume designer Jenn Rogien, who works on Or-
ange and did Girls too. I told her I wanted my char-
acter [on Russian Doll], Nadia, to be the perfect
blend of Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei in My Cousin
Vinny. She knew what that meant, and that’s what
we did. As a result, I would say that’s also become
my go-to street-style look, with a little Michael
Jackson thrown in, white socks, Gucci loafers.
JK: I love your look in Russian Doll. I don’t know if
this is a spoiler, but you really do wear the same
outfit a lot. NL: Obviously, when you see the show,
there’s a very specific reason why I’m wearing the
same thing so often. But when you think about men
in movies, did Jack Nicholson have a lot of changes
in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest? There’s some-
thing fun about getting into the character’s bones.
It ’s funny how one outfit can tell so many stories.
JK: You have to manage so much creating a show
like this... NL: It’s a real beast. You’re managing
every actor, you’re in the writers’ room, you’re in
preproduction, you’re shooting the whole thing—
every aspect of every day has a million choices and
decisions. The idea that you’re really in your uni-
form might even be something I got from Orange. I
think it’s part of how men get so much done.
JK: No, that’s true. NL: I lo v e d r e s s i n g up a s muc h a s
the next guy when it’s appropriate. If I’m on my way
to a Chanel event or going to some party with
Chloë, I’ll put an outfit on and I’m over the moon
about it. But, for example, when I think back to how
many pencil skirts they had to deal with on Ally
McBeal, I love the idea of a modern woman on a TV
show not having to spend all her energy changing
back and forth all day. It gives you a lot more time
for all the other things you want to be doing.
JK: This is the perfect way to pivot into the bad ass
question. What makes a badass, Natasha? NL: In
many ways I think of Amy Poehler as my personal
touchstone of a badass. I think that probably the
biggest misperception of a badass is that they ’re a
selfish person. There’s something about the word
“bad” that implies, like, “mean” or something.
More and more what I find to be true of adult life is
that it ’s so much cooler to be a nice, good person. It
really helps you sleep at night. Being honest about
where you’re at and not feeling like you need to
h ide you r t r ue sel f is pret t y bada ss.
JK: I agree, and I am so happy about your life. NL:
Yeah, this hasn’t been an easily won journey, so all
t h a t s t u ff w e ’ v e t a l k e d a b ou t i s v er y p er s on a l t o me.
Having women who believe in you is not just a plati-
tude. These relationships are the most important
thing in my life.
JK: Wait, I just realized that, Jesus, you’re not 40
yet? F— you. What are you looking forward to the
most in the next decade? NL: I guess turning 50,
which nobody really leads with. I heard it’s the new
17 [laughs]. Honestly, I’m just confused that I’m
not 4 0 yet. Nora Eph ron d id n’t even d i rec t her fi rst
movie until she was 50. I don’t throw the patriar-
chy around as much as I should, but I think it’s kind
of a false idea that the teen years and the 20s are the
best for women. In the 30s, 40s, 50s—that’s when
the magic starts happening.Russian Doll premieres February 1 on Netflix.Making History
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 114
that’s Jackie Robinson.” Then they called the
whole family over—oh my god. So when you hear
things like that...
What’s next? My publicist, Beth Laski, and I have
formed a [production] company called Pastimes.
One of our first projects is about Ida Tarbell, a
muckraking journalist during Teddy Roosevelt’s
time and probably the most well-known historian
of her day. She did a whole long series on the cor-
ruption of Standard Oil, which brought about the
lawsuit in the Supreme Court that broke up the
company.
Who is the ultimate badass woman? Eleanor Roo-
sevelt. She spoke up and used her platform to do
good, especially for other women. She was un-
afraid of people criticizing her. She would say,
“They ’re not really criticizing me; they just don’t
like my ideas.” She was a welcome thorn in FDR’s
side, always willing to argue with him, always will-
ing to question his assumptions. And she made a
rule that only female reporters could come to her
press conferences.
That is badass! That’s how a whole generation of
female journalists got their start. She used her
power for causes she cared about, especially re-
garding civil rights and women. Once the war
started and the factories were finally hiring
women, she set up a system of nationwide day-
care centers that not only took care of the kids but
provided hot meals for the women to take home at
the end of the day so they wouldn’t have to shop
and cook. So she was just way ahead of her time.
Who was the most badass president? Teddy Roo-
sevelt, for sure. He did what he wanted in his life
and loved being president with every fiber of his
being. He would be the best challenger to Trump
today, if we could bring a guy back. He knew how to
fight. His time was similar to ours, as the indus-
trial revolution had shaken up the economy much
like the tech revolution and globalization have to-
day. The rural working-class people felt cut off
from the cities. Roosevelt said if people in differ-
ent regions started thinking of other people as the
other, the country would fall apart. He was able to
channel all that emotion into progressive reform,
which was something positive.What is your takeaway from the surge of women
running for office in 2018? Somebody told us last
night that the average age of members of Congress
is dropping by 10 years with this new class going in
and that 40 percent of the Democrats are women.
In the battleground states of Texas and Nevada,
five times as many millennials voted [in these mid-
terms] as in 2014. That just shows that at times
when our moorings seem to be undone, people can
still believe in politics. It ’s really important in a
democracy.
At 29, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just became
the youngest person elected to the U.S. Con-
gress. Does leadership demand different things of
youth? Young people have to learn in office. In poli-
tics or any career, you don’t go in full-blown. You
may have some inborn traits that help you, but
you’ve got to learn how to develop leadership skills.
Do you have any career advice for young
women? When I graduated from college, I’d got-
ten a full ride to go to France. But I had a boy-
friend, and he was transferring back from
Berkeley to Harvard to be with me. So I felt too
guilty and never took the full ride to Paris. I guess
I’d say to my 20-year-old self, “Go to Paris.”
Was your husband ever jealous of Abe? He
loved him too. My husband was such a great writer,
and when he was working on speeches for Bobby
Kennedy and Johnson, Lincoln was a big part of
the rhythm and the poetry. If [I] had been [inter-
ested in] Millard Fillmore or Franklin Pierce, I
don’t think my husband would’ve been as under-
standing. QMover & Shaker
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 125
to mine,” says Silver. “But I had to keep going. I
have no choice but to per severe.”
That maternal instinct has rubbed off on Sil-
ver, who doesn’t have any kids of her own but re-
turns to Rwanda several times a year to check on
the children she’s essentially fostering from afar.
She rents a house and supports five kids in Kigali
who would otherwise be living on the street, an act
she calls the most badass thing she’s ever done.
This came about after she met a small homeless
boy named Kevin who was suffering from a foot in-
fection. “I paid for him to go to the hospital, [and]
he got his foot treated,” she recalls. “And after that
I was like, ‘Oh my god, what else can I do?’” Silver
now refers to herself as their mom and has hun-
dreds of photos of them on her phone, which she’ll
happily show. She also runs a project that helps re-
habi l it ate ex-prost it utes by teach i ng t hem to sew.
“It’s very therapeutic for me as well, and it
keeps me grounded, in case I ever dare say, ‘Oh, my
life is so hard. I can’t afford these Prada shoes,’”
says Silver. “I have these women who...their
st r ug g le is a lways more t ha n mi ne.
“I’ve always been attracted to outcasts,” she
adds. “And I don’t know if it ’s because I study so-
ciology or whatever, but I’ve always been ob-
sessed with just fixing things and making them
better.” She laughs. “I don’t do that with men,
though. Let them make themselves better.”
When she’s not in Rwanda, Silver divides her
time between London and New York City and is
continually in transit (she’s recently learned the
importance of collecting all those air miles). Some