-Our next guest is a supermodel, actress,
businesswoman, and now published author.
Her first book, "My Body," is on sale now.
Please welcome back to the show Emily Ratajkowski.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Welcome back, Emily. How are you?
-Oh, I'm good. How are you? -I'm good.
It's a trip, but you were here March 10th two years ago
right before the world turned upside down.
-No. This is, like, the beginning.
This is the book -- Beginning of the pandemic for me
was coming here, and then I went to a Broadway show.
And I remember being like, "Is this a big deal?
Everybody's really crammed in the bathroom. Whatever."
You know, all that stuff. -Yeah.
-And then my husband couldn't sleep that night
because he was reading stuff about the pandemic.
And I rolled over, and I was like,
"What's really bothering you?
Because obviously something's wrong.
Because this isn't real."
I'm like, "You need to talk about it."
And then, sure enough, it was lockdown.
-It was the pandemic, yeah. -Yeah.
-It was the rare time where a spouse
is actually being honest about what they're thinking.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-I wish -- I really didn't believe him.
-Yeah. -He brings it up a lot.
He's like, "I was right." -Yeah.
Well, the rare case when you are, you try to bring it up.
-Yeah, so it's nice to be back because Ii feels like the end
of the pandemic because I'm back here.
-I think this is a nice bookend.
-Yeah. -You also spoke about the fact
that you were going to write a book when you were here.
And I've talked to some authors who found,
obviously, the pandemic was this weird silver lining
to have time to work on a book.
And other people had giant writer's block
'cause it was such an anxious time
and they actually couldn't be creative.
How did that time off from, you know,
living a normal life work out for you so far as how you wrote?
-Well, the other big part of my last couple year--
or year, is that I had a baby.
-Yeah, that changes a lot of stuff.
-So that's also crazy. -Congratulations.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you.
And I think something about the pandemic, being pregnant,
having that kind of weird sense of time that we all had
when we didn't have to show up places was really good for me.
But since he has been born,
I am the most productive person in the world just because I --
Every second is for him, and then there's extra time.
Yeah, so, two weeks postpartum,
I had to go back to this 'cause I was on deadline.
So I was, like, writing a book
and breastfeeding every two to three hours
and felt totally insane and incapable of doing it.
And now I'm here talking about it,
so I think things have worked out.
-They are very personal essays, and I'm wondering --
Obviously must be cathartic to both write them,
but now there's this moment where everybody --
You're going to share it with the world.
Like, how are you feeling in this time
where people are going to crack it open for the first?
-Yeah, I mean, I think that writing it
was sort of an act of control for me,
and creating something that was just mine felt so good.
And, you know, I think now it's a little bit of, like,
letting it go into the world and letting go of that control.
And it's been really weird to be talking about the book so much
when it's not been available to people.
-Yeah. -You know? Like, I hate it.
Because I'm like, "Well, just read the book.
I don't want to talk about it anymore."
And I feel kind of bad almost. -Yeah.
-You don't want to hear about it anymore.
So, yeah, now it's nice
that people can actually go and see for themselves.
Even the essays I was talking about a year and a half ago,
I'm ready for people to read them.
-You -- Did you share it,
along the way, drafts with parents, friends, family?
-Yeah, I did with friends. I would, you know --
Writing's such a lonely process
and especially in the pandemic and even before that, you know?
You'd have a bad day, and it would be just like --
You have to sit with the fact that you had a bad day.
But when you had a good day, you want to share it with someone.
So I'd send my friends a text and be like,
"No pressure. Here's 10,000 words.
Don't worry about it. Nobody else has read it.
And if you hate it, I'm going to want to kill myself."
But I did have a lot of female friends,
those early readers -- and my husband, as well.
And that was -- It was nice.
It was just like getting a credit for turning it in.
You know? Just doing the work. I needed that motivation, so...
-My mom was a middle-school teacher,
and she taught me French.
Your dad was a high-school teacher?
-Yes, he was. -And he was your teacher?
-Yes. He was my painting teacher.
He was really cool. His nickname was "Radda."
-Wow. Oh. That's a really good --
So, like, Mr. Radda?
-No, just Radda. -Wow.
He was a teacher who was, like, "Lose the --
Leave the 'Mister' at the door."
-Yes. It was so -- He was, like, that guy.
He would take roll at the end of class.
-At the end?
-Uh-huh. So people could show up late.
And, like, the surf guys loved him.
He wore flip-flops. I grew up in San Diego.
It's very specific.
Like, my high school was outdoors.
You know what I mean?
I'm very opposite of the East Coast vibe.
But, yeah, no, he was really cool.
So it worked in my favor.
But -- How about your mom?
-My mom was also very cool.
She was. -Okay.
-She was beloved. Like, she was a beloved teacher.
-Mrs. Meyers. -Madame.
Please. "Missus." Come on.
-Oh, my God. -Madame, yeah.
I've said this before, but the craziest thing
about going back to my hometown is she was so beloved
that I'll be in a grocery store, and someone will come up
the way I will clock it as,
"Oh, here we go. They recognize a local celebrity."
And they'll say like,
"Will you please say hello to Madame for me?"
And I'm like, "Oh, they don't care about me at all."
-So, I have the same thing with my dad. It's really funny.
People will, you know, reach out or come up to me and be like,
"I had your dad."
He's retired now, but they'll say, like, 20 years ago,
whatever, and it kind of blows my mind.
-You get to be a parent now. -Yeah.
-You have an 8-month-old. -Yeah.
-A little too young to enjoy Halloween or was he into it?
-I -- Well, okay.
So, I think he actually really enjoyed it.
He's 8 months old today. It's his birthday.
-[ Cheers and applause ] -Very exciting.
Thank you. I'll tell him.
And we dressed him as a bear,
because my husband's last name is Bear,
so it felt necessary.
But we took him out. We went to a music --
a baby music class where everybody was dressed up.
And we thought he was gonna fall asleep,
and we were walking out on the streets, and he was partying.
He loved it. We live in Tribeca,
so there were so many kids on the streets dressed up,
and he was just looking around, loving it.
It's amazing. -It's really the best.
-Yeah, did your kids --
-Yeah, I mean, they're 5 1/2 and 3 1/2, so this is --
this was the first year where they very strongly knew
what they wanted to be, which was a --
the 3 1/2-year-old was a pirate
and the 5 1/2-year-old was a cruise-ship captain.
[ Laughter ] -Whoa.
-Yeah. -Not like the COVID cruise ship.
-Maybe. -Since we're talking about --
Okay, all right. -Yeah, maybe that was
what he was. Because he was like,
"Nothing's scarier than being inside a boat with COVID."
[ Laughter ] -That documentary
really blew my mind. -Yeah, exactly.
-Yeah, okay, cool.
-He was like, "Before corona, the norovirus, like, you wished
you got corona instead of that."
So, I have a question about your professional career.
-Uh-huh. Yes, yes.
-Do you have any memory of this photo?
[ Laughter ] -I do. I do.
-You do. -Yes, I do.
-Pete was being pretty hard on himself.
-I know. I saw that.
He was being pretty hard on himself.
I think he's great.
-On the day, did he come off as a pro?
-He totally -- he's a professional.
First of all, you should know that about Pete.
-Yeah. -And he got into character
in a real way and was kind of doing, like, a...
[ Laughter ] That worked really well.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-He was a fish at the end of the day.
-As a model, you know, I was like, "Wow!"
-As a model, be honest, when you show up and there's someone
with maybe a little bit less of a pedigree, you know,
the guy who's there to be the not a model in the model shoot,
for a minute, are you like, "All right.
Let's see what you got, Davidson"?
-I think you're being a little mean.
-I'm only asking. -Pete's -- he's got the height.
-He is a tall guy. -Obviously, women find him
very attractive. -Yeah, well obviously.
Did you hear he's got a show on Tubi right now?
-That I did. I did. [ Laughter ]
-I mean they don't just give that to everybody.
-No, they don't. Very special, very exclusive.
[ Laughter ] Yes. -Yeah, you're right.
I don't know why I'm like, "How is that guy a model?"
-Yeah, yeah, I feel like only other men feel that way.
Guys are like, "Wow. What's that guy got?"
And I'm like, I mean, he seems super charming.
-Yeah. -He's vulnerable.
-Yeah. -He's lovely.
-Great. -His fingernail polish
is awesome. He looks good.
-There you go. -He's great.
-All right. Well, I'm sold. I'm gonna have him back on.
-Good relationship with his mother.
-Yeah, great relationship with his mother.
-We love it. -He's just a sweetheart.
-It's hard to find them. -Yeah, there you go.
Congratulations again.
This must be the best feeling to finish a book.
I think that that's -- having only read one --
[ Laughter ] More than one.
-More than one.
-I still can't believe that people write a book,
so you've done the impossible. -Thank you, and that's
why I just didn't tell myself
I was writing a book until it was done.
Because it just felt like the impossible.
-I want to see it. Oh, very good.
I was gonna -- my last thing was gonna be
your book-jacket photo.
How much time did you spend on this?
-So, actually, my best friend took that with a digital camera,
and she's very excited because she got photo credit.
-Oh, that's a big deal.
-So forever she'll have a little name.
You know, it's good. -Yeah, that's very nice.
-It made her happy. -You paid it forward.
-Yeah. -Hey, thanks for being here.
Congratulations on the baby.
Congratulations on the book. [ Cheers and applause ]
Emily Ratajkowski, everybody. "My Body" is on sale right now
wherever books are sold. But please remember
to support your local and independent bookstores.