
Who knows why certain celebrities give interviews to magazines about topics of which they know very little. My guess, in this instance, is that Aubrey Plaza’s publicist was like, “Hey! You need some publicity, and Bon Appetit is offering it. Would you interview with them?” I’m sure her response was a very sour, “Sure. Whatever.” And then she stared lovingly into Andy Dwyer’s eyes.
Anyway, the interview went as you might expect an interview to go with a woman who is pictured eating a bowl of cereal. She admits to a love of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cap’n Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, and Spaghetti-Os. In other words, she reveals why she is the perfect woman. But for whatever reason, the sameness of Plaza’s brand of quirky, sour indifference seems to rub some people the wrong way. Like Vince over at FilmDrunk, whose irrational hatred of Plaza is his only known weakness. Or, say, Ritch Duncan, over on Dumb As a Blog, who vivisects the interview because he’s missing a chunk of his soul.
Bon Appetit: You’re half Puerto Rican. Did you grow up cooking traditional food?
Aubrey Plaza: It’d be a lie to say I “grew up cooking.” But I was around a lot of food. My grandmother has been trying to teach me the basics–sofrito and rice and beans.
My take on that quote: Plaza is trying to find something with which we can relate to a food magazine. Rich Duncan’s take:
RD: I’m sorry, you’ve “been around food?” You’ve seen it before, right? You know what food is? OK, we’re setting the bar there? That’s a pretty low bar.
Then, later:
BA: You grew up in Delaware and moved to New York for college. What food did you discover in NYC?
AP: Katz’s Deli was a big thing for me. I grew up in a suburban Irish Catholic community. There wasn’t a lot of pastrami. Or latkes. Or matzo balls. I mostly ate SpaghettiOs with chopped-up hot dogs in it.
Duncan’s response:
Rich Duncan: So, you went to one of the best food cities in the world, dug deep, and found.. one of the most popular delis for tourists in New York. I guess we’re not getting the Spaghetti-Os recipe?
OK. This response is fair. You don’t name-check a tourist-y destination if you want any food credibility, but come on? She’s from Delaware. She eats Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
Next question:
BA: And now you’re a big-shot actress. You’re in a new movie that co-stars Bill Murray, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III. Did you guys share any meals together?
AP: Yes, one dinner. It was one of the most special meals I’ve ever had.
BA: What’d you eat?
AP: It was Greek–some kind of fried cheese thing. I don’t really do dairy, and he said, “You’re gonna eat this. And you’re gonna eat it right now.” I was like, “Anything you say.” Because anything Bill Murray says, I will do. He’s the king.
OK. This is where Rich Duncan lands his hardest blow.
RD: You know milk is dairy, don’t you? You JUST TOLD US that all you eat is breakfast cereal. There’s literally a picture of you with milk running down your chin accompanying this article. Do you know anything at all?
LEAVE AUBREY ALONE. I will not have you disparaging Aubrey Plaza and her food ignorance, even if all your points are sound, damnit.
But here’s the unfortunate kicker, and the reason Rich Duncan is so rightfully outraged: Bon Appetit did not go into this interview blind. They knew she didn’t no sh*t about food, and chose to run this piece anyway. They interviewed her LAST YEAR where she ALSO prattled on about apples and almond butter. Also, Yoga. GOD. Way to ruin your reputation as the world’s best girlfriend, Aubrey.
Whatever, Rich Duncan. WHATEVER.

(Source: TruTV)
(Interview: Bon Appetit)
(Image Source: Emily Shur, Bon Appetit)
(Hat Tip: Mayor Burnsy)



Hey, now, don’t go talking trash about almond butter and yoga.
Also, touristy deli aside, matzo ball soup is delicious.
It is. Especially if you find somewhere that f*cking puts the matzo balls in the broth instead of hot water so they have flavor.
WTF? Shouldn’t he be taking issue with the magazine? She has the proper respect for Bill Murray, that’s what I took from this. And Rich Duncan is an ass.
uh, yeah, and as for the milk in cereal bit… HAVE YOU FUCKTARDS BEEN TO A GROCERY STORE IN THE LAST 10 YEARS???? There are literally 10 times as many non-milk/milk-like products as there are kinds of actual milk – like tiny milk section followed by GIANT FUCKING UNBELIEVABLE AISLE LONG ALMOND, SOY, WHEY, WHAT THE FUCK EVER NOT MILK PRODUCTS.
whey is milk protein…
Yeah, my girlfriend can’t eat dairy so we just get soy milk. I still eat a shit ton of cereal. CAN’T HOLD ME BACK SON!!
Dear Rich Duncan:
Do you really think someone who a year ago prattled on about almond butter and yoga drinks cow’s milk on her Cap’n Crunch? There are other kinds of milk, you know, like almond or soy or that sweet nectar I gently caress out of your mother’s saggy bosom. Do you know anything at all?
There’s soy milk, of course, but that would require Rich Duncan to not be an asshole.
hasn’t this rich duncan, if that is his real name, heard of dairy substitutes? Soy milk? Almond milk? Rice milk? Cocunut Milk? Hell, I’ve eaten cereal with orange juice before. Food magazine article critic hack…
I’d like to find this Rich Duncan. I’d like to find him and I’d like to SLAP him. Hard.
I don’t know. I like that with a slight spelling change Rich Duncan could be the name of a high class donut shoppe.
Wow everyone’s missing the obvious Lactose-free milks
except that lactose free milk is still dairy. but you maybe right… “I don’t really do dairy” could be a veiled reference to the fact that milk with out lactose is not really dairy. Hence further proving she knows shit about food and that Rich Duncan, by default, is an ass.
So I watched Safety Not Guaranteed this weekend on the Netflix. She’s adorable and cute and stuff, but she was playing to her type which was boring. Aubrey Plaza for a Tomb Raider reboot!
Why can’t she be staring lovingly into my eyes, damnit?
You can eat cereal out of the box without any milk too… I eat a couple boxes of Golden Grahams a week that way. Also, no dirty dishes.
Fuck you Rich Duncan! Leave Aubrey alone!
So this post contains responses to someone’s responses to another person’s responses to a person’s questions?
All the heads are up all the asses.
Shall we include your response to the thread too? That is some snow-level meta-analyisis there, good sir.
You know, there’s a reason (other than When Harry Met Sally) that Katz’s is a tourist destination. Because they have great food, and because lots of New Yorkers eat there.
Reading comprehension failure.
There are two ways to read this that don’t involve having one’s head planted far up one’s ass.
One, she grew up eating SpaghettiOs with hot dogs. I don’t know many people who didn’t do this growing up.
Alternately, she was a college student trying to survive in Manhattan. College students are poor as fuck, you entitled twat stain. The college ramen diet is well-known for a fucking reason.
I never understood the ramen diet thing when you can be fuller and buy more vegetables for the same amount.
College students are stupid and lazy. Getting veggies requires going to a store that carries them and the cooking/making a salad. Ramen can be as easy as pour water, microwave.
And irresponsible because they aren’t used to being away from mom, who did EVERYTHING for them.
Even lazier is eating the ramen raw. Good times.
Maybe, MAYBE, Aubrey Plaza is shy and introverted (and ADORABLE) and you should LEAVE HER ALONE RICH DUNCAN.
Wow, the “Not Dairy Milk” section of Trader Joes, is a-flurry with Rich Duncan japes.
The onus is on the publication, and the editing of the article. They chose to make it a feature, and they chose the subject. At least she answered honestly, and didn’t commit three random Alton Bronw recipes to memory before the interview.
It’s interesting that in the second paragraph, Ritch Duncan’s first name is spelled “correctly”, but then he’s “Rich” for the rest of the article.
Anyway, I’m guessing our girl Aubrey isn’t going to sweat a post from a guy that blogs for truTV. That channel is nothing but clip shows of people falling down manholes and hot air balloons exploding, right?
Keep us updated
I liked your interview just fine, Aubrey.
(she scours the internet for hours to find articles about articles about articles about herself, right?)
This whole thing screams of the “fool me once, shame on you” idiom.
I read Duncan’s post with the ‘Parks’ opening music playing in my head; Greatly improved his muddled musings.
Hey hey hey, I hate her character on Parks, because it’s basically just Daria, not Aubrey Plaza.
so, what you’re saying is that you don’t actually watch Parks & Rec, right? c’mon, there’s no way you’ve watched more than 2 episodes and would say that. More likely, you watched the half an episode 2 years ago, and that’s it.
Nope, vince is right. I’m a huge parks fan AND an Aubrey Plaza fan, but outside of random episodes where they have her act like an adult for a brief moment, she’s an almost unredeemably one-dimensional character.
1. Basically like Daria is a compliment, not an insult.
2. The brief moments of growth and humanity that we see from her informs all her other actions and makes them more tolerable
Actually when you put it that way, Daria was a better character. By far.
Also, i assume the Greek fried cheese in question was halloumi, which is fucking delicious. Don’t eat it, you’ll get addicted.
or saganaki
I would assume that Greek fried cheese would involve sticking fried cheese up someone’s butt.
But then again, I live in Amsterdam.
She also appeared as a judge on some Food Network show (next FN star?). I am guessing she is a closet foodie trying to keep her hate-everything image.
In my perfect world Aubrey is married to me but we rarely get to see each other because she is in jail for stabbing you in the neck with a pair of scissors for calling her a “foodie.”
/nothing personal just really hate the word “foodie” and wanted to make a joke about Aubrey stabbing somebody and also they’re super-strict about no sharp objects on the ward.
agreed, hence my point about her wanting to keep her foodie-ness a secret haha. I don’t know of any alternative descriptors for them besides “hipster douchebag” and “asshat”
A minor gripe: why do so many men describe their dream girl as one who turns her nose up at a healthy lifestyle (loves Cinnamon Toast Crunch and eschews yoga) when, for 99.9% of the population, there is no way in hell you have a body like Aubrey Plaza’s without being at least a little bit health conscious? Do you want the looks or the who-gives-a-fuck attitude? Cuz ya can’t have it both ways, son.
Isn’t Plaza proof that you can? And the fact that it’s a rare combination of two at-odds attitudes would make it desirable? Hence the whole “dream girl” part.
Some people have a ridiculous metabolism and just built small. She could be one of them.Just because you look like her doesn’t mean you are completely healthy or in shape.
I know it’s possible, but my point is that it’s very rare- the vast majority of people who look like Aubrey work at it. I suppose I just fail to understand why it’s more desirable to have a “fuck it” attitude and look like that than to achieve it through eating reasonably and working out.
And for the record, I’d bet good money that Aubrey Plaza puts in her fair share of time at the gym and keeps the crappy food to a minimum.
Wait. Whoa. Hold on there, cowboy. Are you telling me that male fantasies are unrealistic?
Fuck, man. That just ruined my whole day.
Oh Aubrey, you beautiful creature, you’re like the Ann of awkward interviews.
I am now hell-bent on fighting Rich Duncan. You don’t wanna fuck with FLAMINGO LEGS. I can kick at angles that normal-legged people could only dream of.
That is the most thoroughly frightening threat I have ever read good sir.
This guy sounds like a jerk, I would like to meet him so I could inform him of his douchebag status.