Ariana Madix and Her Poker Faces

It is the winter of 2024. Inside, away from the freezing cold, the crowd around me at the opening night of Ariana Madix’s first Chicago run has been doused in the sort of gasoline they reserve only for the real stars. Light a match and the whole place would have exploded, the New York Times writing in the morning: “Actress Ariana Madix accidentally burned the beloved theater to the ground during her very first number. The crowd had already begun their standing ovation. There were no survivors.”

Madix says, looking back: “It just felt like everything had aligned and everything had come together and all the hard work and the weird meandering paths that I took through all these different things to get there paid off.”

It would not be the first time Madix surprised us — and by us, I mean, those that had been on the ride with her long before Broadway, before Love Island, before St. Denis Medical and television accolades. When she was a bartender and funny girl about town on CollegeHumor, then Vanderpump Rules. She says, of the time before reality TV: “I was just working to try to be able to pay the rent at that point, while I was also doing CollegeHumor sketch videos and I was doing a million different jobs. I was a go-go dancer. I was someone who promoted cigarettes for Camel at one point.”

As it were, many of her CollegeHumor alumni would similarly evolve beyond the claustrophobic box of Youtube sketch comedy. She speaks of them fondly. “The people who were making those CollegeHumor videos back then like me are actual powerhouses now. Sam Reich, Sarah Schneider, Josh Ruben, Vincent Peone, Pat Cassels. The list goes on. You look at the people who came from this, like Streeter Seidell, and are now writers and producers and directors of all of our favorite comedies.”

A decade down the weird and meandering paths, I’d be washed away by the frenetic energy in the crowd that night at Chicago, when nobody yet knew that she was about to reinvent herself. The night the lights went down in Chicago, as my friend and I later joked. The night Ariana Madix broke out of the box.

What followed was record-breaking numbers for the production and a return stint as Roxie Hart, alongside a gig hosting the American version of the cult hit British dating show, Love Island. Still struggling to find its identity after a bubbling under series premiere and a pandemic season set on a hotel roof, there seemed no one better suited for the job than the newly crowned Patron Saint of Women Everywhere. While Love Island was a dream job for Madix, the boxes she’d been put in by audiences and her previous reality TV gig were anything but. And so, she assembled her glam Avengers — stylist Emily Men, hair artist Carl Bembridge, and makeup maestro Krystal Dawn — and got to work.

“I was very determined to come in there and make a moment because I felt like I needed to show up and show out and show the world that I deserved to be the host of the show,” she tells PAPER, quite seriously.

Together, the foursome crafted a premier look that both broke the internet and later, the ceiling on Love Island entirely. She entered the villa for the first time in a gold Di Petsa dress, which sold out immediately. She had more hair than most would know what to do with and a strut inspired by Beyoncé, as she tells it. “Beyoncé is always a huge inspiration for this in general, especially with those walks. I always think of her doing the catwalk during the Renaissance tour.” Ariana Madix is always Ariana Madix, of course, but if she does channel a diva’s spirit when entering the villa, it’s “this mermaid ultra glam pop star legend version of me.”

That premiere, a make-or-break moment for both her career and the future of Love Island, set the franchise on the path to be the most watched, most talked about event that entire summer stateside. And the summer after, and probably this summer, too, should the trend continue.

I wrote at the time, in this very magazine, “Madix’s mere presence in the villa has had an unmistakable effect on the contestants. They seem — more than the previous five seasons — charged by their proximity to her. The most recognizably scorned woman on the planet, risen above the wreckage of her personal life in the tightest little dresses anybody has ever seen.” A star sparkling out beyond the Milky Way, visible in the daytime and at night from the shores of Fiji.

Over the next two years, we both circled each other for this story, with Madix’s team inviting me to performances on Broadway and looking for time to work around her increasingly hectic schedule. The stars finally aligned, mere moments before she was set to jet back to the Villa for the upcoming eighth season. She is between doctor’s appointments and suitcases, hurriedly trying to tie up the loose ends before island time swallows her whole. There are no latex dresses or floor length ponytails to be seen — just Ariana Madix, the aspiring actress from Florida with big dreams and those weird and meandering paths to travel down.

Read our entire interview, on everything from CollegeHumor to the Camel cigarettes she hawked and the poker face she’s trained for those Love Island recouplings, below.

I want to get into the culture around the show, but I’ve also written about your work for many years now, which I know you know, because I’ve seen you in the comments. To start: I was in the audience for your opening night on Broadway for Chicago. Take me just back for a second to that moment. When you first came out, what were you feeling?

I was so excited. Granted it was so loud in there, to the point where I think a bunch of us were having a hard time even hearing the orchestra, which at times I think threw us for a loop because when we rehearse, there's no one there. And of course you have your moments, you expect applause and things like that, but it was wild and you can't stop the show to wait for the applause to die down really. You just have to keep going. It felt like the culmination of everything that I had worked for for 20 years, because I had gone to school for theater, and I had planned and dreamed and manifested and done all these things to try to get on Broadway and to have that actually happen and have that moment be a real moment to me was just… I don't know, it just felt like everything had aligned and everything had come together and all the hard work and the weird meandering paths that I took through all these different things to get there paid off.

And for my mom to be able to be there and everything, it was everything.

I went with my friend Natalie Walker, who's a seasoned actress, and she was like, "I've never seen a Broadway crowd like this before in my entire life." It felt like the room could burn down at any second. Did you feel that too throughout your run?

Something that I took with me from Dancing with the Stars, that helped me with that and also was similar to that energy: I'm someone who really does feed off of a live audience. It feels like this symbiotic relationship. And I think that that's something that's so cool about live performance and theater; you really are in this energy exchange and it sounds kind of hokey when you talk about it, but then when you're in the room like that, you feel it. Yes, the performers are the ones on stage, but the audience is also kind of giving as well and it's a really cool thing to be a part of. I definitely feed off of that for sure, especially when you're performing for four or five weeks with eight shows a week and you got that Sunday matinee, and there's one person in the audience that's really laughing at the things.

That little piece of energy can get you through it when you're maybe having a hard time.

The live audience component of Love Island is obviously not in the room with you, but they are on social media. I joke with my boyfriend: I spend more time with the Love Island cast than I do with him while it's on because it's the only nightly thing we get. How much does the live audience play into it for you? Because obviously you're sequestered, but not as sequestered as the cast. You still have your phone, you can see what's going on and obviously you're aware of the culture around the show. Do you feel that energy, even in the villa, and it's just the Islanders? Or do you try to lock all of that out?

I feel like when we're in the villa and we're filming, it's out of sight, out of mind because you are locked in and they certainly can't pick up on anything from me. So I can't lead anyone to think that, oh, there's this really funny meme of you. I can't even let that be known. But of course, when the episodes are airing and I'm seeing all of these fun TikToks or fan discourse and things like that, it's really interesting and it's really fun. I love scrolling and seeing just clips of the show or the way people are enjoying it. It really makes me feel good about what we're doing and seeing that people are having as much fun with that as we are, because I think we do have a really fun time making the show and we're all very passionate about making it the best it can be.

So when other people are picking up on that and grabbing onto it, it feels really validating And also it cracks me the fuck up.

Do you find it hard to, not even talking about what the audience thinks, but what you think, separating yourself from it as the host?

I mean, in some instances I'm definitely encouraged to. I'm definitely encouraged to, when I make an appearance on Aftersun to talk about my thoughts on the episodes, or when Peacock sets up a press day. They really want me to give my thoughts and feelings.

But then when I'm actually in the villa with the Islanders, I think there comes a point where, yes, of course there's going to be moments where things are happening in front of me that I have feelings about, but I'm not going to come in and say, "Hey, what you did three days ago, but when I wasn't here…" you know what I'm saying? So if it's happening in front of me, let's say at a Casa Amor recoupling, I'm very much privy to that happening in front of me. I'm part of the moment.

I think in those moments, yes, of course I try to keep a poker face, but I don't even think my producers would even want me at that point to keep a poker face because they would want to know what I think as it's happening in front of me. But I think it's tough sometimes. Even when I do maybe say something here and there, I'm just giving a little bit. If we were to debrief in my dressing room, oh, trust me...

On the topic of dressing rooms: the Di Petsa dress that you came out with in the first episode of your first season was groundbreaking, and also had all the kinds of headlines written about it. It really felt like it heralded a new era for the show, especially with you as the new host as well.

Going into that first season, how much were you like, let's really make a huge splash with the glam? Or were you just like, I like these clothes, and then it just so happened that it also really hit with the viewers?

I was very determined to come in there and make a moment because I felt like I needed to show up and show out and show the world that I deserved to be the host of the show. I think I tend to take even small jobs and I make them big in my head, because in my mind I think every job is an opportunity to get another job. And I felt like this was one of my dream jobs. So I made sure that I stalked my glam people online and I personally requested that they be my glam people for this season.

Me and my stylist, Emily, were working overtime trying to find the best looks because I also was really inspired by Maya Jama. She is an incredible host in the UK and she also happens to be one of the most stunning women on the planet. And I felt like if I'm going to be part of this trifecta, essentially, of Maya Jama, Sophie Monk, again, icon legend, and me, I have to rise to that occasion and I have to rise to that level of where these women are at. And in order to do that, I wanted to come in with some really, really showstopping looks. I'm not in every single episode. So when I am in, it needs to be impactful in my opinion.

There was a very specific idea I had in my head of what the glam had to be for Love Island. Someone would say, "Well, what about this person?" And then I'd go and I'd be like, “There's a lot of beautiful beach waves, but I need the hairstyles to run the gamut of creativity. And when it came to the glam, I was like, I need to look like a baddie. We can play with natural, we can play with whatever, but I want to come in there looking like a fucking baddie.

Naturally beautiful is definitely a way I would describe it, but I don't think that Carl's hair, for instance, is what I would describe as: “This just grew out of my head.” It’s 100 pounds of hair.

Yes! I want every single kind of look ever. For a red carpet or something like that, it's not, "Hey, here's this budget, who do you want in the world?" Because that just doesn't work like that normally. So it was a really fun opportunity to just really stalk some people online and find that right combination. And they knew each other, they're friends, and they've worked together a bunch. So I felt like it worked out great. We shot some PR things and the villa tour before we shot the premiere with the gold dress. So that was maybe our third glam together. I feel like the third glam is when you really hit your stride.

Obviously you're not playing a character, you're Ariana Madix on and off the show, but with the way that people will style themselves, they'll channel a character or channel an idea. And you said a baddie. I'm curious, who are you channeling when you're putting these looks together? What people are you pulling from different creative inspirations?

Beyoncé is always a huge inspiration for this in general, especially with those walks. I always think of her doing the catwalk during the Renaissance tour. Gosh, I love her so much, but I feel like she's a big inspiration in terms of the looks for this in particular, because I feel like my actual personal style takes very different inspiration. So for Love Island, it's a very Beyoncé heavy, very pop star vibes. And then I've been a Zara Larsson fan for quite some time and I feel like her aesthetic at this point has really also lent itself to that. I think about being this mermaid ultra glam pop star legend version of me.

Which is funny because at home, I'm always thinking, I want to wear black.

Is there a favorite look that you've worn or a look that you go back to?

I really liked the one that was the netting and all the different colored sequins and stuff. When I first tried that dress on, it didn't look like much. You could kind of see a vision. I wasn't sure if we were going to end up using it. And then they decided to do the intro to Casa Amor in a different way and we needed a look. And so we decided to use that one. When the hair all came together with the longest, most luxurious mermaid curls you've ever seen, that became one of my favorites. And it's so funny, because it wasn't even probably going to get used the entire season.

I only know how to do one hairstyle myself and it's a slick back ponytail with a braid, but it was a slick back ponytail with a very, very long braid and this multicolored dress that I had found in an Instagram ad. Shout out to Instagram ads.

Sometimes it really is just a struggling indie designer that is using business tools to get their word out and it actually does work.

I think Instagram Ads have a bad reputation for a reason, but I'm here to tell you guys there are some hidden gems.

Obviously this is PAPER, and we're not just going to talk about Love Island. I've followed your work for a long time, and I ran across something I'd never seen before, which is a New York interview with a small blurb from a bartender. And it's a bartender at Butter. Her name is Ariana Madix, and the article's called “What The Bartender Knows” from 2009. You tell a little spiel about overcharging and long island iced teas. It felt very, "Oh yeah, she obviously had a whole life before anyone ever met her on TV."

I feel like a cat. I have had nine lives, but yeah, I did have quite the life before any of this. And I have to be honest with you, I do not recall how that came about whatsoever. I don't know if it was a friend of a friend. I'm sure somebody will maybe come and say, "Hey, remember it was me. " But I remember them shooting that photo back when I used to cut my own bangs.

It felt like seeing an old friend when I saw your bangs. I was like, "Oh my gosh, I know this person. I remember."

Honestly, I don't even know what I was talking about, because I've never done that. I thought it was a funny thing to say. They were like, "Tell us your craziest stories." I was like, "Sure. Yeah. " Especially no one ordering Long Islands at Butter. I must have been referring to… because at the same time, I think I worked at Johnny Utah’s. Maybe that's the Long Islands.

What do you remember about working at Butter? Did it feel like back then, the dreams that you have now, they were still there, just dormant, or you were just working at this the whole time? Take me back to 2009.

It does feel like I was working at this the whole time, and it feels like there was obviously a lot of stuff in the middle in between, which people probably actually know a lot more about… than what I consider ... I don't know. I think of it differently when I look at the big picture. I was just working to try to be able to pay the rent at that point, while I was also doing CollegeHumor sketch videos and I was doing a million different jobs. I was a go-go dancer. I was someone who promoted cigarettes for Camel at one point.

Do you remember what flavor it was? Was it Camel Crush?

Oh, it was when they were really trying to get into the fucking Snus of it all.

Oh God.

It was awful. I never tried it, I don't know what I was doing promoting it. And at one point I was a Miller Lite promo girl. I don't know. I was doing everything under the sun to pay the bills. I started at Butter as a hostess because a friend of mine, that was her college job, and I needed a job coming out of college and she said, "Go interview as a hostess." I was a hostess there for a while and then I asked them if they would be willing to train me as a bartender, because I'd love to make more money and I'd love to bartend, and they agreed. And so that really is how everything kicked off with the bartending of it all.

But it's crazy, because the people that I worked with there are still some of my closest friends. I just hung out with them when I was in New York. They're also my boyfriend's closest friends. They're actually how we even met in the first place.

Oh really? That's an interesting connection I wasn't expecting.

It really all goes back to Butter.

You mentioned a few things, the Miller Light and the go-go dancing. And there was another thing that I saw…which is the lingerie football league. I found a site—

Oh, good God.

There's no information about it that has survived except this clipping on a Blogspot from a hundred years ago. What was it? Was it just a promotional thing for something”

No, it was legit football, but in booty shorts. And I got into it thinking it would be a fun athletic thing to do to also get paid. And then it was way too involved and it was very short-lived for me. When I say short-lived, not even a game or anything.

You were like, wait a minute, actually lingerie, football….

And they were expecting me to come out to Long Island to practice. And I was just like, this is not going to work for me.

Where did you go-go dance?

Mansion, One Oak, Cielo. Where else? A bunch of places. I feel like Mansion was the one that I was at the most. And then sometimes there would be events.

You grew up in Florida, where you went to school for theater. Was there a moment growing up where you were like, this is the thing for me? Was it a TV show you watched, an actress on screen, a movie? What was it that really stoked this fire in you?

I feel like it was when I was little and we would be watching reruns of I Love Lucy on Nick at Nite. I think as a family of ... Well, as a society, we were in love with her. So I think I was just one of millions of people who just absolutely loved it. I just remember, even as a small kid, I wanted to be in the play. The play. The play! And if there was no play, I wanted to be in the dance recital or I was putting on comedy routines in the living room for my parents who of course thought I was so funny.

I went to a Catholic school until eighth grade and I was really involved in the theater program there. And then when I went to high school, it was a public school, but there was a really big, really great theater program there. I immediately became the smallest fish in the biggest pond. And I was surrounded by some of, still to this day, some of the most talented people I've ever known. And I just thought, okay, I need to find my place here, because I don't know that I'll ever be as good as my classmates, but I'll find where I fit in to all of this. And for me, it was just that I wanted to keep doing it. I found so much joy being on stage. I wanted to move to New York straight out of high school and my parents did not let me do that.

I don't know that I would have the same level of mental capacities that I expanded by going to classes and learning all these other things and getting the degree. That's probably true, but I would probably be a better dancer and I would probably be a better singer.

You mentioned doing CollegeHumor videos. How did that start in the first place?

I was in school and this was the eBaum’s World days. And CollegeHumor had only barely started to create their own content, but they were one of those sites, like eBaum’s World, where they would have the funny videos, the memes, the blogs and they had this one thing that was like, “cute college girl something, something.”

I did see that and was nervous to bring it up!

I was like, well, maybe this is how I can get involved. Maybe if I can do that, then maybe I can be in some of the videos. I'll contact them, maybe they'll know who I am from this, and then when I go to New York, maybe I can be in the videos. So that's how that started, because then when I moved to New York, I was able to get a general meeting with them, and I was like, if you ever need somebody for videos, I would love to act in them. And it's really crazy to think, the people who were making those CollegeHumor videos back then like me are actual powerhouses now. Sam Reich, Sarah Schneider, Josh Ruben, Vincent Peone, Pat Cassels. The list goes on. You look at the people who came from this, like Streeter Seidell, and are now writers and producers and directors of all of our favorite comedies.

Probably not all the humor has translated since then—

[Laughs] Definitely not.

I'll say one that has held up, at least in the way that we still talk about it, is the guy with the shitty car who has a huge dick.

Oh, I love that one. That's a funny one. That one actually didn't even shoot until much later, when I was living in LA.

How long was that collaboration for? I mean, you must have been working with them for years then.

It was years. It kept going, because when I moved to LA, right after I moved to LA, there was one that they were like, "Would you consider maybe coming back and doing this Britney Spears music video?" And I just thought, well, my icon, my legend, Britney Spears, yes, of course I will come back and do this video. And then from that point forward, it was like every once in a while, maybe if there was something that popped up that fit, of course they would reach out and if I could make it happen, make it work, I would always want to make it happen with them. And now with Dropout…

I love Dropout.

I'm always like, holler, let me know.

Dropout's reading this for sure and they're going to hit you up for sure, for Very Important People, where they put you in some crazy costume.

I'm obsessed with that one.

Katya just went and got put in alien drag.

I saw the reveal, but I haven't seen the interview.

I was cackling. Now, back to you. Over the long arc of your career, you've done Dancing with the Stars, reality TV, Love Island. You just wrapped up with St. Denis Medical for the season. Is there anything looking back that has surprised you the most?

Broadway is the one that will always be, I think, the biggest pinch me moment.

And the way that I said it would happen is actually how it happened as well. I was living in New York. I remember my friend Lauren, one of my first friends, we worked together at Butter. Well, moving to LA, she was like, "Don't worry, you'll be back. You'll be on Broadway." Because I was moving to LA to try to get some TV credits to make more of a name for myself, to be able to get these auditions. So then when it actually happened that way, it scares me actually, the manifestation powers of it all.

And then St. Denis, honestly, I was the biggest fan of The Office and of Parks and Rec and these early shows that are in the mockumentary workplace comedy genres. If I could be in a comedy on TV, it would be one of those shows. I was supposed to only just do one episode. When they brought me back, it was really, really exciting, because it made me feel like I had done a good job and it made me feel like I had all the things that I wanted to do.

I don't know how to say this. It felt like a correct dream of mine, or that when I did think of myself as someone who could be in a show like that, that I wasn't wrong. Because sometimes I wonder, am I delusional?

I've never interviewed a man that thinks like that. I only interview women that think, is it right for me to want this? I thought to myself, was it okay for me to want this? And it's like, yeah, we do make ourselves feel smaller.

I feel like I need to get permission from who, where, I don't know where! Or I always sometimes think, am I in trouble? Again, who am I in trouble with? Then, when something validates or reassures my dreams like that, it makes me feel like, okay, I am doing all the right things and I can keep dreaming and I can keep being this ambitious person and keep going.

You said in your Instagram comment when you were sending off the show, "It's goodbye for now." I might be paraphrasing, but do you know about the future of your character on the show?

I mean, it seems like it's for now. The way they left it off really seems like it's lending itself to: she could be back.

I want to end on a question that I was thinking of while you were just talking about your dreams. Especially for women who come from the reality TV world, who get introduced to people or find a name for themself on reality TV, I think the world can be so harsh on what you can do, what's possible for you. So many people come from comedy, acting, they wanted to be an actress, they wanted to be a dancer, so many things. And how you end up in front of a camera is not necessarily as simple as: you wanted to be a reality TV star when you were born. Usually there's other things along the way.

What advice do you have for other women who feel like, I want to be a designer, I want to be a writer, I want to be an actress, but feel stuck, or put in a box where they are right now?

I always say: fuck boxes. I have always hated them. I'm claustrophobic by nature, so even hypothetically, in a metaphorical way, I hate being put in a box. Anyone who feels like they're being shoved in a box, and someone's trying to close the lid, fuck that shit.

I think it's important to remain a student of whatever it is that you love. And if you just keep going and keep learning, someone out there, as Lady Gaga said, there could be 99 people in a room, there will be somebody and that number will grow. It'll start maybe with one person, but that number will grow, of people who see you. I think that it's hard, for so many of us, to feel seen, but once you have somebody who you feel like actually sees you, it gives you so much power to keep going.

Even if you are a singer, there's other things about you, you're not just a singer. In the same way that when women become mothers, people want to say that they're just mothers. We are full people. We have so much that we're interested in and so much that makes us who we are. We are multidimensional and I don't think anybody should ever just be put in one singular box. I will fight that so hard, kicking and screaming.

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Story by: Joan Summers

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