In a new cover story for VARIETY’s Hitmakers issue, Variety’s Hitmaker of the Year Sabrina Carpenter speaks with Reporter Selome Hailu about that “Man’s Best Friend” cover, Taylor Swift, the backlash she receives for making jokes about sex, boundaries, if she prefers music or acting, and more.
On the cover image for “Man’s Best Friend,” which drew criticism: “It was about how people try to control women, and how I felt emotionally yanked around by these relationships that I had, and how much power you’re allowing yourself to give them.
It meant one thing to me and 100 things to other people, and I was looking at it going, ‘That’s valid. Mine’s valid. What’s for dinner?’” she says with a shrug. “Not to bypass the weight that it did carry for some people. I saw it and was like, ‘That is a great point. It wasn’t the point I was trying to make.’”
On being the only featured artist on Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl”:
“Ten-year-old me, for so many reasons, could not believe it — to hear our voices together,” she says. “We definitely realized it was special, but I would have never been like, ‘Hey, bestie, put me on a song.’ She was so gracious to think of me for a song that spoke to our life experiences in such a real, genuine way. It really sums up what so many young women in this industry go through.”
On the backlash she receives for making jokes about sex:
“I think it wouldn’t matter so much if I wasn’t a childhood figure for some people,” Carpenter says, now a dozen years past her breakout role on Disney Channel’s “Girl Meets World.” “But I also can’t really help that. It’s not my fault that I got a job when I was 12 and you won’t let me evolve.”
On the sarcasm in “Man’s Best Friend”:
“There’s so much sarcasm in the album. More than people have been able to pick up on, unfortunately,” she says. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘You do know, right?’ Maybe I’ve gotta make it more obvious.”
[Photo Credit: Greg Swales for Variety Magazine, Courtesy of Variety]
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