- Really, if I break this down, you're saying,
"He's a very lovely individual and he might be bisexual,"
but the way it came across, was very, you know,
snide and everything like that.
Hello, folks, it's Woody Cook here
for the Attitude cover shoot for the magazine.
I'm very excited.
I do a lot of things.
I do some music, Djing, some presenting stuff, done some TV.
I own a company called Truth Tribe
which is all about spreading truth,
love, positivity, and education and music at the same time.
You know, it's all, I'm fingering a lot of pies.
I'm doing quite a lot at the moment,
but it all seems to be working out.
How would I describe my aesthetic?
I think my aesthetic is wearing whatever I want, really.
I mean, I quite like Hawaiian shirts for some reason,
but I also, I really like weird trackies
and stuff like that as you can tell.
For me, it's just about having different socks.
And I don't know, I like the weird utility style sometimes
with the weird, you know, like loads of pockets
and stuff like that, but I also like
just stuff that's a bit different.
I like standing out
without looking like flex flex,
'cause a lot of people it's about watches
and this and that and I just want to be weird,
and with a sort of gender-bending style,
it's like, I don't know,
I don't even think it's that much of a thing,
like, my dad used to wear dresses,
apparently my granddad used to wear the occasional dress.
It's just is one of those things where
it's just, it's drip, it looks cool.
I feel free.
And I just thought, one day I looked in the mirror,
I wear similar things quite a lot.
How do I step more into being more unique?
'Cause I think my dress sense is being myself
and it seems to work for me.
- [Interviewer] So when you do step out,
say, wearing a dress, for example, do you tend to get,
is it always a positive reaction?
- To date, touch wood, and this might be wood,
I've not had any bad reception for it.
I've had, "Oh, you're a hero”, all this.
I'm like, "I'm not a hero, I'm just wearing a dress."
Like, women wear dresses.
You don't go, "Wow, you're so brave."
It's just, it's one of those things where I just,
yeah, I enjoy doing it.
I felt powerful doing it.
If it had to be a dress I felt comfortable in,
you know what I mean?
I had to feel like I was the shizz,
but yeah, I've just had a really warm response
from everyone and yeah, I think it's...
Ah, my life the last five years,
I've just done everything I could
to push myself out of my comfort zone.
Every time I found something that made me feel
a little bit anxious, I was like, I'd address it.
So there were so many elements in my life
where I was like, I would be afraid
of maybe public speaking.
I'd be afraid of this.
And every time, I'd throw myself in the deep end
way over my head, running before I could walk,
and then now I'm just, I have no shame.
I just do what I want.
And I just don't think about it.
So coming out and ‘The Circle’, everything like that,
I'd actually come out before, I did this little shoot thing
where I talked about just my opinions
on the world, being yourself,
and the problems with mental health
and everything like that.
But then on ‘The Circle’, OK, it was a huge audience,
I just remember there was this moment where
we all had to do paintings of each other
and the painting came up of me
and there was me in the middle
and then there was like, "Too nice?"
with little snakes, and they were like,
they were actually saying, "Is he a catfish?
No one can be that nice."
I'm going, "Well, thank you,
but also, I'm not a snake."
And then there was this other stuff.
And then just in one corner
is a big rainbow love heart, I like,
called it the big gay love heart
with an aubergine in it.
And I'm like, "Hmm." It felt a bit weird
'cause you've put the, "He likes dick,"
in with, "He's too nice, he could be a snake."
Like, really, if I break this down, you're saying,
"He's a very lovely individual and he might be bisexual."
But the way it came across was very, you know,
snide and everything like that.
But honestly, for me,
the funny thing was for the rest of the show,
everyone only sent me the big gay love heart.
And that, isn't that funny?
Like you sent me the regular love heart.
But now I'm a gay,
you have to send me the big gay love heart.
And I thought it was just funny how it's like,
"Oh, I'm, you know, I like gays,
you know, I love LGBT."
And like, for me, it's just like,
love hearts are love heart.
Love is love.
And I just, yeah, I had a really warm, positive response.
I mean, I grew up in Brighton.
Everyone's bisexual, everyone's gay.
I mean, I had 18 mates, did a little study.
16 of them were not straight
out of my core friendship group.
Maybe that's just Brighton, but I think for my generation,
it's a very different thing.
I really appreciate these past generations
that really struggled through it
so that I can be in a generation where I can be myself.
And I've had an almost unanimously positive response.
My folks are great.
Yeah, recently,
"Woody's kicked out, Woody's gotta fend for himself.
Woody can't afford a bread?"
No, me and my parents were like, we've always agreed
that like, "You're a normal kid.
You don't want to be a trust fund kid.
You don't want," you know,
I see all these people who are, like, 20 with a BMW
and I'm like, "Oh," it just upsets me.
When you were given something so much,
you don't ever learn how to earn, it disrupts you.
You got to earn things in life, otherwise,
there is no point to life.
Without that... The drive to do anything is the reward chemical.
But if you've already had it warped
by getting given everything,
you never earned, you never learn it.
You know, so for me, it was like,
it was always common sense
that I'd go out and do my own thing.
And what I actually said in the interview was,
"It's going really well.
We've agreed and I've been doing really well.
OK, last week I had to borrow bread from my housemate,
but besides that I've been killing it."
And then they twist that like,
"Woody's been off his face till four in the morning,
been cut off from his parents.
Woe is me."
It's just, and then I'm reading it.
Oh, crikey, you know what I mean?
They can turn, make a story out of anything.
What was my highlight of this year?
I've had too many to count.
I mean, like, literally, last night,
I was opening for my dad to thousands of people
in my hometown at Brighton Centre, that was wonderful,
but then like two, three weeks ago,
I gave a speech at Cambridge University
to some old professors, to this big crew of people,
to the guy who runs Sandhurst, you know,
like I think it was a Lieutenant Major
or Lieutenant Colonel and then I'm like,
oh, there's me, a 20-year-old dyslexic,
who's now gonna publicly speak
to all these people way older than me,
way more qualified than me,
and I came up and I gave this speech
and it was so rising, I almost cried.
I started with, "Why am I here?"
And I talked about my life.
And then I think the main bit of the speech
was the fact that, look, we all have different problems,
look, I had a mate who
had to leave a war-torn country.
I had another mate whose, like, dad died
and he's been, you know, like four years ago,
and he lives on his own.
And just, it's one of those things where
I then go, "How can I feel sad?"
Like, I feel guilty.
I've had so much in my life,
but I realise everyone has their own story.
Everyone has their own struggles.
And it's not about what you've been through.
It's about how you adapt and move on.
And so I think a big part of my year was just doing that
because three years ago I would have,
you know, I'm dyslexic.
I get stage fright.
I would have been like... (stutters).
Absolutely shat myself on stage.
So for me, it was so good, and also talking about,
you know, being bullied for being bisexual
and all this stuff to a load of very masculine guys.
And I didn't feel any shame.
And so as much as I've loved doing all these gigs and stuff
and had an incredible year, that was a real moment for me.