Katy Perry: The Interview
The provocative pop star talks about her racy lyrics, risqué style, and being Mrs. Brand.
Strip away the pink and blue extensions, the bras rigged with whipped-cream cans, and other frills of her cartoonish persona and another side of pop star Katy Perry emerges: a sophisticated femme fatale. "A super power woman," she faux growls at a bistro in the Los Angeles enclave of Los Feliz.
"I have multipersonality disorder—in a very good way, of course—when it comes to my fashion choices," she says of her ability to slip from party girl to polish. "When I first started playing around with my look, it was more of a Dita Von Teese pinup thing." But the burlesque look is too high maintenance. "Dita's really dedicated," she says.
Today, Katy, 26, is wearing little makeup other than eyeliner, her black hair loose and a flowery Topshop corset-style top, jeans, and sky-high black pumps. She's driven herself in an Audi sedan and seems more like Katy Hudson, the pastors' daughter who grew up in the lower-income end of Santa Barbara, than the international phenom she's become.
To the world, Katy sings radio-friendly anthems like "California Gurls" on one of the year's best-selling albums, Teenage Dream, which features her naked on the cover with little more than a wisp of a cloud covering her bum. She's marrying British comedian and actor Russell Brand, and her 2010 exploits include getting banned from Sesame Street for a cleavage-baring Giles Deacon outfit. Both Katy and Brand have been in the center of a supernova this year. "There's no slowing down, my God, no," she says. "We're at the highest pace right now."
Katy and her big sister, Angela, her maid of honor, have just wrapped up the last meeting before the big day. "I'm up to my hairline in planning. It's a lot, especially when you're a woman of detail," she says with a sigh. Not to mention the challenge of maintaining total secrecy. She and Brand often find themselves in Spinal Tap—worthy situations: "We go through kitchens, wear disguises."
The two met in 2009, thanks to a kissing scene in this past summer's Get Him to the Greek that got cut. They reconnected later that year at the MTV Video Music Awards, and by New Year's Eve, Brand was proposing under a blue moon in Jaipur, India. Modern celebrity being what it is, Katy caught wind of his plans. "I saw it on Google [Alerts]. The press was like, Sorry, Katy, if you're seeing this, but ..."
The two seem like they are from different worlds, but it clearly works for them. Brand, a recovering alcoholic and reformed heroin and sex addict, has made a career out of mining his hard-partying past for comic relief. He suffered abuse as a child and is estranged from his father—a far cry from Katy's upbringing at Christian school and camp with her sister and younger brother, David. "We are like the Three Musketeers—actually the Three Stooges," she says. "I feel really blessed because of where I come from."
Brand, whose sober and spiritual quest includes a friendship with guru Radhanath Swami, fits right in, says Katy, who has an unmissable JESUS tattooed on her left wrist. "I always knew I wanted a great man of God, someone who was going to be an inspiration for people and also be a lovely husband and father," she says. "We're at different places in our lives, but we can still grow together. He's thought-provoking, articulate, a real advocate. I also definitely wanted to have a laugh. I have all that in him."
He's already made a mark on her life, literally: They have his-and-hers tattoos on their inner arms reading GO WITH THE FLOW in Sanskrit. His vegetarianism is another matter. (Brand gave up eating meat at 14.) "I unfortunately still crave chicken McNuggets and bacon, which is the meat candy of the world," she says.
The couple are decorating two new love nests: a place in New York and a vintage-Hollywood-style estate near Los Angeles's Griffith Park, where they ride their bikes. Katy has already painted the three-car garage pink and turned it into a closet. "It looks like a stylist's dream," she says. "My friends love it. They never have to shop."
Brand is also inspiring some of that chart-topping music. Katy wrote the ballad "Not Like the Movies" with him in mind. "The song is an encouragement to others. They don't have to settle for anything besides spectacular," she says.
Spectacular is something Katy has been working for ever since she was discovered singing in church and began working on her first gospel-rock album in Nashville at age 15. Two years later, she left Santa Barbara and headed to Hollywood.
Katy adopted her mother's maiden name to distinguish herself from Kate Hudson, Goldie Hawn's daughter, and hit the radar with 2008's "I Kissed a Girl." Despite their nice girl's naughty streak, Mom and Pop Hudson have proven to be extremely supportive, even popping up in the video for "Hot N Cold." As Katy explains, "My parents are very quirky, eccentric. They have their own world."
Such paradoxes in Katy's tale both endear her to fans and enrage foes. "I'm kind of a good girl—and I'm not," she says. "I'm a good girl because I really believe in love, integrity, and respect. I'm a bad girl because I like to tease. I know that I have sex appeal in my deck of cards. But I like to get people thinking. That's what the stories in my music do."
She is part of a new wave of pop stars—among them, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Fergie—who are reinstating the exuberant celebration of outlandish wardrobes, the wackier the better. But she says her fellow quick-change artists are more sisters than competitors. "We're all unique. That's why we all win and we all can exist. People don't want just vanilla. They want 31 flavors. I couldn't do what Rihanna does. I couldn't do what Gaga does. They can't do what I do."
Her particular flavor tends toward the saucy. "I'll tell you about my boobs and fashion," she says. "It can be hard to wear those looks"—like the ones shown here—"because they're best on people who have no curves or thighs. I don't have a Kate Moss body, but I'm very proud and happy with mine." Yet, at 13, she pined for a breast reduction. "I had really bad back problems and was a little bit thicker. Then I grew up and lost the baby fat and said, 'Hey, this isn't all that bad.'"
That is a matter of debate with the parents who had Katy's duet with Elmo pulled from Sesame Street because of her décolletage. "Well, thank God I was wearing Giles!" she says cheekily. "If there had been a problem on the set, they would have said it to me at the outset. We had many different options." She came back with a sketch on Saturday Night Live in which she squeezed into a red Elmo T-shirt, the neckline slashed to showcase what all the fuss was about. "How do you respond otherwise?"
Right now, Katy is enjoying all of her exposure. "Honey, I am the chief of my train," she says with a California-girl smile. "If critics want to hop on board, fantastic. There's plenty of room. The KP train is fun."
Credit: harpersbazaar.com & elle.com & style.com
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