Amy Schumer isn’t your typical actress. She’s funny and brash in an industry that prizes poise and elegance. It only seems fit that her Vanity Fair cover shoot would be anything but typical.
In the photograph that’s causing the most sparks, Schumer poses a cheeky tee, with fire in lieu of underwear. Within the cover story, the magazine’s fashion and style director Jessica Diehl described the look as being classic Amy Schumer rather than classic Hollywood.
“The whole attitude, the T-shirt, the slogan on the T-shirt—it just felt very real, with everything else being so surreal,” Diehl says.
Amy Schumer was pretty pleased with photographer Annie Leibovitz’s shoot, too. Everything was her idea, from the flames to the “No Coffee, No Workee” shirt, which she brought from home.
“I begged Annie to photograph me with no underwear on in just a T-shirt,” Schumer says. “I explained to her how important it was to me and she finally agreed.”
She further explained that the unorthodox glamour shoot made her feel powerful and beautiful—Schumer called the shoot one of the most meaningful moments in her life.
The rest of the shoot is a quirky collage of everything that makes the actress and writer who she is. She puckers her lips in an outfit that a classic Hollywood “blonde bombshell” might wear… while riding an actual bombshell. She poses with her sister and co-writer Kim Caramele in the middle of a mad writing session.
The cover returns Schumer to that classic Hollywood mockery with a sassy Betty Boop-inspired pose. Both the background and Schumer’s outfit are a deep, powerful red.
“There had to be some sense of humor in the glamorizing, because [the glamorizing] is not the point of her,” Diehl says. “The point of her is not to be a red-carpet star—she does so much more than dress up for premieres or press circuits.”