“Vibes Are Great, Honestly”: Let’s Meet Apple Martin

How does the daughter of two megastars end up so grounded, quick-witted, and sharp? Never mind that her mom built a wellness empire and her dad fronts one of the biggest bands on the planet—Apple Martin just has it. She grew up singing and playing guitar, and now, at 20, the Vanderbilt Law student splits her time between the library and the stage. On campus and at Interview, where she interned two summers ago, she’s just a regular girl with a private Instagram. But in the media, she’s still the baby who set tabloids on fire in 2004, or more recently, the so-called “mean girl” who raised eyebrows at Le Bal des Débutantes last December. So how does she juggle all these versions of herself? Her former boss, Interview editor-in-chief Mel Ottenberg, finds out.

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SATURDAY 11 AM MARCH 1, 2025 NASHVILLE

APPLE MARTIN: Hello?

MEL OTTENBERG: Hi. Wait, what are you guys talking about? We can keep it casual.

MEKALA RAJAGOPAL: Oh yeah, we were just talking about how it’s finally bomber jacket weather in New York.

OTTENBERG: Okay. Are you in New York, Apple?

MARTIN: No. I’m in Nashville in my fun little apartment.

OTTENBERG: Wait, what’s Nashville weather like?

MARTIN: It was absolutely stunning this week. I got to wear a dress.

OTTENBERG: There’s 21 more days until winter is over. Spring is coming.

MARTIN: Thank god. I need it so bad.

OTTENBERG: What’s Vanderbilt like?

MARTIN: Weather or vibes?

OTTENBERG: Vibes.

MARTIN: Vibes are great, honestly. It’s so much easier for me to get out of bed and walk to class when it’s pretty outside. Um, yeah. It’s really busy because after spring break I have tech week and I have to get everyone’s costumes ready for the show.

OTTENBERG: Tell me about the show.

MARTIN: Oh my god, so—I’m in the lovely Vanderbilt Original Cast, the esteemed cabaret theater group. This semester’s show is a musical parody of Love Island called Love on an Island. It’s so fun. The songs are phenomenal.

OTTENBERG: So, wait. Is drama one of your majors?

MARTIN: No. [Laughs] I’m a law, history, and society major, but I wish I would’ve taken—maybe I’ll take a theater course before I leave. It’s a fun balance between my very different extracurriculars and my major.

OTTENBERG: Does Love on an Island / law and history mean that you’re undecided what you’re doing in life?

MARTIN: Pretty much. [Laughs]

OTTENBERG: That’s cool. I mean, who knows? You’re 19, right?

MARTIN: Yeah—no, I’m 20. Oh my god, I’m 20.

OTTENBERG: You’re a junior?

MARTIN: Mm-hmm.

OTTENBERG: Yeah, okay. So we have no idea what we’re doing, but do we want to be an actress?

MARTIN: I would love to do theater because I adore it so much. I’ve obviously never done film before, but I’ve been trying to get involved in student films. I was born a theater kid.

OTTENBERG: Can you sing?

MARTIN: Yeah. I have a very low voice so whenever we’re doing harmonies it’ll be like, “Alright, it’s the boys and Apple.” [Laughs] I’m singing my absolute favorite song ever this semester, which I’m so excited about. I’m definitely not the best in the org, but I love it.

OTTENBERG: What’s the vibe of a 2025 college experience right now? Just in general. I got out of college a long time ago.

MARTIN: It’s a little tense, but also people want to have fun.

OTTENBERG: Yes.

MARTIN: People, including myself, are very scared, but that also means that everyone’s coming together and talking about what’s going on. But the vibe when I’m with my friends is so fun—that’s the most important thing to me right now, just hanging out with them. I went bowling. That was a great time. Just doing fun activities that take you out of the world.

OTTENBERG: I loved keg parties in college. Are the kegs happening?

MARTIN: Honestly, seeing college in the movies, I thought there would be kegs everywhere but there are not. You see a lone keg once in a blue moon, but I wouldn’t say that people are more sophisticated about it—I think they’re just really heavy and people don’t want to do it. [Laughs]

OTTENBERG: Oh, right. It’s too much of a production. Wait, but do people drink at Vanderbilt?

MARTIN: They’re drinking at every college, I think. [Laughs]

OTTENBERG: Okay, good. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.

MARTIN: Just no kegs.

OTTENBERG: Okay. So we met because you were our intern.

MARTIN: I was.

OTTENBERG: Apple Martin was our intern summer of ’23. Was it fun?

MARTIN: I had the most phenomenal time and I miss it so much.

OTTENBERG: You were working on the archive. I feel like your summer project was archivist.

MARTIN: Oh my god, yeah. It was so fun. And I reorganized the whole thing and I remember it took a good amount of time because I had to log all of the magazine pages. I think it was only logged until 1999, and so I went from there on. I got to flip through all the magazines and see the evolution and it was really—

OTTENBERG: I can’t believe I didn’t think to have Gwyneth Paltrow Interview issues on set during our photoshoot. That would’ve been so obnoxious and sick. Maybe awkward but—

MARTIN: Gorgeous.

OTTENBERG: How many covers do they have, your parents?

MARTIN: Is it bad that I don’t know? [Laughs]

OTTENBERG: I don’t know either. So, as an intern, your style is definitely low-profile. Is your style overall very low-pro?

MARTIN: I think it depends. I feel like my style hasn’t been fully actualized yet, but I’m slowly getting more into it. Day to day, I’m wearing Doc Martens—my red Oxfords, jeans, a white t-shirt, and a jacket— but then I have my fun and fabulous stuff. Honestly, the Interview shoot made me be like, oh my god, I need to start having more fun and not be scared.

OTTENBERG: Yeah. You look good in clothes. Do you have your mom’s ’90s minimal stuff or did she throw it all away?

MARTIN: Oh my god, of course.

OTTENBERG: You have it all?

MARTIN: Not all of it, but I’ll sneak into her closet and steal little things. My absolute favorite stuff is her old Calvin Klein from the ’90s. I have a lot of it and it’s the best thing in the world.

OTTENBERG: Amazing.

MARTIN: Going into her archive closet is just heaven on earth.

OTTENBERG: Is it organized or is it easy to steal from?

MARTIN: Both. She lets me steal stuff because she’s like, “I saved it all so that you could steal it.”

OTTENBERG: Right.

MARTIN: And then she’s always like, “You have to be so careful.”

OTTENBERG: Right. It’s very Calvin Klein. It’s like she’s on the street. She looks hungover. It’s a paparazzi picture.

MARTIN: Yeah. She’s in, like, a cheetah print coat—hair clips, sunnies, and some cool wedged sandals. And I love that.

OTTENBERG: Besides your mother, who are your style icons?

MARTIN: Oh my god, I love Jane Birkin. Obviously, those little babydoll dresses. For my day to day, I pull a lot from the ’90s supermodel vibe, and then when I’m going—

OTTENBERG: Model off-duty.

MARTIN: Yeah, or British farmer. [Laughs] I’ve also been really getting into the ’60s and ’70s. I feel like we need color to come back.

OTTENBERG: Right, okay.

MARTIN: I want fun eyeshadow and fun clothes. But I don’t really care if they come back. I’m just going to start doing it again.

OTTENBERG: I love that. Wait, what color eyeshadow?

MARTIN: I love a really light blue matte eyeshadow with fun ’60s— the little downturned eyeliner. I think that’s stunning. If you’re in jeans and a t-shirt and have a fun thing happening on your face, it’s your own.

OTTENBERG: How do you keep yourself low-profile if there seems to be almost an uneven interest in you. Does that weird you out or is it fine? The reason I’m saying that is because I remember someone found out that you were going to be an Interview intern the day before you started and it got around on socials.

MARTIN: Did it really?

OTTENBERG: Yeah. And I was like, “Oh my god, I wonder if her mom’s going to think that I told everybody.” Which, of course, I did not.

MARTIN: Oh, no.

OTTENBERG: Then the debutante ball was such a big thing, but you also keep the mystery. How do you do that?

MARTIN: It’s interesting because I grew up with that uneven balance of getting out of the airport with my mom and being bombarded with cameras, and then just being a normal kid. I remember I read Discipline and Punish [by Michel Foucault], which is a great book, but talking about the surveillance state—I feel like I’ve grown up with that, which is really scary and makes me very anxious about making mistakes.

OTTENBERG: Right.

MARTIN: So I was really discouraged from doing anything in the public eye. Also, I was like, “I don’t think we need another celebrity child in the world.” I just try to do what feels right and block out anything regarding me in the news to the best of my ability. And I’m getting a lot better at being like, “Fuck it.” I’m not going to be scared. I just want to do what seems fun and figure my life out.

OTTENBERG: You just want to do stuff you want to do and you’re not going to be freaked out about it.

MARTIN: Well, I’m working on it. [Laughs]

OTTENBERG: I think that’s cool. What about law are you into?

MARTIN: So, the reason why I was originally like, “Maybe I’ll be a lawyer,” was because I loved acting, but I was insecure and nervous, so I was like, “Oh my god, if I’m a lawyer, I can perform on the stage in a trial setting.” It’s insane that I thought that. Also I cannot lie, I was like, “I’ll just be Elle Woods.” [Laughs] It’s a lot harder than it looks. I don’t know how she managed to go to law school every day as fabulous as she did. But I love history. I love true crime. I love investigating. I also think it’s fun to look at the history of law and see how you can implement it in a modern context. If I were to be a lawyer, I would just want to help people. That’s probably the biggest thing.

OTTENBERG: Help people, be Elle Woods, be a performer, true crime.

MARTIN: Yeah. [Laughs]

OTTENBERG: I love it. Okay, so when you were finishing up as an intern, I asked you, “Who should I put in the magazine?” You said Trisha Paytas. I haven’t done it yet. Who else do you think should be in the magazine? Just give us as honest an answer as possible. Don’t feel like you’re being interviewed. I mean, you are being interviewed, but—

MARTIN: Honestly, Doechii. You already did something with her, but I think that you need to do it again. And then I still think Trisha Paytas, of course.

OTTENBERG: You’re not wrong.

MARTIN: I’m obsessed with her. She’s a Taurus, and I think that her putting on her own Broadway show, which I watched the livestream of, was absolutely phenomenal.

OTTENBERG: Apple, you’re a Taurus. What does it mean to be a Taurus?

MARTIN: Oh my god, I was actually with one of my friends last night who’s also a Taurus, and then we FaceTimed my other friend who’s a Taurus and did tarot card readings. Everybody, whenever they hear Taurus, they’re like, “food and stubborn.” I will not deny that I love food and I can also be stubborn, but I feel like Tauruses are very—they want to be connected to people. They want to be connected to the earth. They love spirituality. They love their alone time and unwinding and taking care of themselves. A dream for me is a bubble bath and candles and books—just relaxing alone, but also having really deep connections with people.

OTTENBERG: You just described me perfectly.

MARTIN: Are you a Taurus?

OTTENBERG: Yeah, my birthday is April 25. And yours is the 26th, right?

MARTIN: No, my birthday is May 14, but so close. [Laughs]

OTTENBERG: So close. Do you know what your moon sign is?

MARTIN: My moon is in Pisces, so I’m very emotional. But then I’m a Capricorn rising, which crushes the tears, but I have a good monthly cry where it’s all released.

OTTENBERG: Do you ever read stuff about you on the internet that is upsetting? Speaking of emotions.

MARTIN: After the Chanel show, I did. Then I quickly realized why everybody has always said, “Don’t do it.” Because even if you see a million positive things, there can be one thing that absolutely wrecks you. So, I’ve stopped now and I avoid it like the plague, because I know myself and I know that if I see stuff that isn’t true and that’s really upsetting to me, I’m going to be like, “Oh my god, I should never go out in public again.”

OTTENBERG: Gotcha.

MARTIN: I’ve tried to be like, “People are going to say stuff, and that’s okay.” And like everybody, there’s going to be stuff that isn’t true and stuff that is upsetting, and all I can do is just be the best that I can be and be with the people I love and not read random, crazy conspiracies.

OTTENBERG: Wait, are you on Instagram, just not publicly?

MARTIN: Yeah. I love my Instagram.

OTTENBERG: How many followers do you have?

MARTIN: Let’s see. Not many. I have 1,794 followers.

OTTENBERG: Okay, cool. So, she’s on the internet.

MARTIN: I am, but I only follow my friends and my friends follow me. But I love to curate my Instagram and make it nice.

OTTENBERG: Is it like you and your life?

MARTIN: Yeah. And politics. I post a lot of stories about what’s going on.

OTTENBERG: Interesting. What are you doing tonight?

MARTIN: So, I might be going to a basketball game, but I did not claim my student ticket, so I’m trying to find somebody who will lovingly donate one. And then I was supposed to go to Mardi Gras this weekend but I sprained my ankle really badly, so me and a couple of my friends are doing Faux Gras. We’re going to dress up and we’re going to—there was discussion of getting beignets and watching The Princess and the Frog in crazy outfits.

OTTENBERG: I love it. What’s your look?

MARTIN: I have a couple options because I planned for a weekend of crazy outfits. I have this really fun hot-pink lace set; it’s like little shorts and a little tank top. I was thinking of wearing that with gogo boots and glitter and fun. But I have a couple options, so we’ll see.

OTTENBERG: Well, I think you should do the eyeshadow.

MARTIN: Oh yeah.

OTTENBERG: Has pop-girl 2024 turned into pop-girl 2025? Who are you into?

MARTIN: I’ve been listening to a lot of Lady Gaga recently, because I think 2011 Lady Gaga has come back right when we needed her most. And I study and write essays to really intense Russian classical music because—

OTTENBERG: Wow.

MARTIN: It makes me type really fast.

OTTENBERG: Cool. Which composer?

MARTIN: I love Tchaikovsky. I love listening to the entire Nutcracker soundtrack constantly. I listen to a lot of movie scores, particularly Wes Anderson movie scores. And then a lot of LCD Soundsystem and Fontaines D.C.

OTTENBERG: I just got a record player. I have all these records from 25 years ago and I’ve been listening to lots of Stanley Kubrick soundtracks. I think you should get into it.

MARTIN: I also just got a record player. It’s right there.

OTTENBERG: Oh, wow.

MARTIN: It doesn’t work all the time though, but I’m getting there.

OTTENBERG: Mekala, you got any questions? I’m done with my questions.

RAJAGOPAL: Do you cook?

MARTIN: Yes. I love cooking.

RAJAGOPAL: What do you like to cook?

MARTIN: Oh my god, this is my favorite part about living alone in an apartment, is that I get to cook all the time. I make phenomenal garlic bread. Out of this world. I might make that later. I also love making Caesar salad, but from scratch—dressing and croutons.

RAJAGOPAL: Okay, with the anchovies?

MARTIN: I put capers instead of anchovies. It is very sacrilegious to classic Caesar salad enthusiasts, but I don’t like it.

RAJAGOPAL: I do capers instead as well, actually.

MARTIN: I feel validated.

OTTENBERG: It’s your twist. What do you think the rest of 2025 is going to be giving?

MARTIN: Chaos would be my first instinct. I’m honestly not very positive about it right now, but in an ideal world, I would hope that we get a fun disco summer. I hope that we can just dance through the pain.

OTTENBERG: That sounds good to me. Well, thanks for being in Interview—wait, was this your first-ever interview and photo shoot?

MARTIN: Yeah.

OTTENBERG: Thank you for doing it with us. We appreciate it.

MARTIN: I would never do it with anyone else. Hello? You guys are my work fam.

OTTENBERG: True. And also, if you think of someone—

MARTIN: I’ll text you.

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Hair: Evanie Frausto using Bumble and bumble at Streeters.

Makeup: Frankie Boyd using Tom Ford Beauty at Streeters.

Nails: Nori using Nailberry at See Management.

Fashion Assistants: Nicholson Baird & Chloe Shaar.

Hair Assistant: Courtney Peak.

Production Coordinator: Claudia Malpeli.