Amelia Dimoldenberg has become the queen of cringe, and for good reason. The journalist and comedian made a name for herself conducting grimace-inducing interviews and going on awkward dates with musicians and celebrities on her YouTube series, Chicken Shop Date. Now, she’s back on everyone’s mind again as a handful of interviews shared between her and the actor Andrew Garfield, have charmed the internet. To me, I’m obsessed with the interviews, but they also demonstrate why Dimoldenberg and her unique voice make her one of the most delightful up-and-coming figures to watch.
The first interview now enshrined in internet virality takes place at the 2023 Oscars, at which Dimoldenberg served as the official red carpet host. Upon meeting Garfield on the scene, he opens up the conversation with an absolutely swoon-worthy greeting, “I only ever want to see you,” after which to which he corrects to, “I only ever want to see you in these kinds of situations.” Throughout the conversation, the two go back and forth about each other’s horoscope sign compatibility. Wheezing and and giggling, the two barely get a single coherent sound-byte in — it’s lovely and cute and everything you’d want out of an Andrew Garfield moment.
After that clip took off, fans quickly noticed that this has not been the only cute interaction between the two. In another interview between her and Garfield, we see her charm the actor in perhaps the least likely way possible: by talking about his armpit. In the interview, Dimoldenberg and Garfield share pleasantries, but after some commotion around them, she tells Garfield he’s special because of his armpits which is perhaps a reference to his GQ shoot. Garfield questions her decision to bring it up, but Dimoldenberg insists, “No I think it was my favorite image.” Afterwards Garfield replies, “Really?” and she says, “It’s the background on my phone.” He says, “I don’t know what that says about you.” But she just says back, “You look hot!”
Fans have started to project their own narratives onto the clips, saying that there could be some sort of budding romance between the two or that the interactions are inherently romantic. Of course, when we look at these posts hurriedly squished into our one of many endless social media feeds, all we see is the flirting part. What’s less visible is that this moment is actually the culmination of a carefully honed interviewing voice Dimoldenberg’s has been working on for years through series like Chicken Shop Date.
In Chicken Shop Date Dimoldenberg goes on a date with someone — like an actor or musician — and asks them questions. It’s part-interview part-date and Dimoldenberg sits in the role of awkward first encounter perfectly. The interviews play like an uneasy conversation between tweens that may or may not know various social cues. The gold of her content is when she will lean into perhaps the most cringe-worthy moments, and lets an interview subject sing an old and poorly-written rap or perhaps admit to Daniel Kaluuya’s face that she’s into him without directly telling him she’s into him.
This is the voice and background she brings to her red carpet interviews like with Garfield. And it works! By watching her flirt with Garfield, I get to blush and giggle my way through watching them talk. It’s great, and it just goes to show that after years of doing this that the entire awkward bit really shines and it’s already given us one of our favorite celebrity moments of 2023.
