Maya Hawke on Hot Ones: Eminem Is the Antidote to an Industry Begging “Daddy, Do You Like Me?”

The Stranger Things star says the arts lost Eminem's punk spirit. Her fix is putting him on.

Maya Hawke sat down with Sean Evans for the newest episode of Hot Ones, posted Thursday (Oct. 22) on First We Feast's YouTube channel, and somewhere between the bonfire-flavored wing and the Taylor Swift question, the conversation turned to Eminem. Evans put her own words back to her: she has described "The Real Slim Shady" as "the epic of our time." He wanted to know why.

Her answer had nothing to do with chart numbers or rhyme schemes. It was about attitude, and about what she thinks her own generation of artists has lost.

The full episode from First We Feast. The video starts at the Eminem question, around the 14:09 mark. Quotes below are transcribed from the episode, with filler words lightly trimmed.

"I'm cooler if I get bad reviews"

Hawke started with a diagnosis of the whole business she works in, and asked whether she could curse first. Evans told her to let it fly.

Maya Hawke: "The arts has really lost its, like, 'fuck you' attitude toward the industry. And like, 'I don't need your love. I'm cooler if I get bad reviews, 'cause it means I'm a rebel, right? It means I'm making something that's not a part of your system.'"

Then she described what replaced that attitude, in a voice anyone who has watched an artist refresh their reviews will recognize:

Maya Hawke: "We've really started to be like, 'Really, daddy? Daddy, do you like it? Did my movie make money? Is it good? Do you like me?' ... I miss that punk spirit."

And then the punchline, which got a laugh from the table:

Maya Hawke: "So sometimes when I'm feeling too 'daddy, do you love me?' I listen to my Eminem, and I'm like, 'I don't care if daddy loves me. I'm free. I'm not a part of your system.'"

Why "The Real Slim Shady" fits that answer

Hawke didn't quote a single bar, but she didn't need to. "The Real Slim Shady" is built on exactly the stance she's describing: a lead single from The Marshall Mathers LP that took shots at the Grammys, at pop stars and at anyone who expected a polite follow-up to his breakthrough, and became the biggest hit of his career up to that point anyway. The song's whole joke is that the more people told him to sit down, the more of them wanted to be him.

That is the "not a part of your system" posture Hawke says she reaches for. Eminem has kept it long after the shock-value era, too. Kamikaze was an entire album aimed at the critics who panned the record before it.

Eminem, then Taylor Swift

The very next question on the show was about Taylor Swift, and Hawke, a longtime Swift fan, picked "But Daddy I Love Him" or "Betty" as the song that should represent her in an American anthology of poetry, because "they tell a full story, like epic poetry." It's a fun pairing, two artists most people would file in separate worlds, held up back to back as poets by a guest whose own music leans singer-songwriter.

Hawke's latest album came out in May. On Hot Ones, at least, the record she says she plays when she needs to stop caring what anyone thinks is an Eminem one.

What we could not verify

Evans's question says Hawke has previously called "The Real Slim Shady" "the epic of our time," and Billboard repeats that, but we could not find the original interview or post where she first said it. We also could not confirm which Eminem songs or albums she means when she says she listens to "my Eminem." The quotes above come from our own transcription of the First We Feast episode.

Header image: Maya Hawke on Hot Ones (frame from YouTube video). Credit: First We Feast / Hot Ones.