As a podcaster who’s in it for the long haul, Alex Cooper’s new documentary named Call Her Alex is intriguing. I wanted to know more about her origin story.
Alex’s Instagram post about her debut at the Tribeca Film Festival sparked my interest in her docuseries. She spoke about how she’s used to attending major events, but her family is never in the spotlight. Her anecdote about her mom and sister getting red carpet ready illustrates how she remains down to earth.
Call Her Alex includes many charming videos from Alex Cooper’s awkward childhood. Her dad’s career in sports inspired her to film videos alone and with her friends in their basement. Her brother said it was impressive how she learned to edit videos in Adobe Premiere before she was 10.
It was nice to see her friend turned producer Lauren McMullen along for the ride from day one. One minute they’re joking around in front of the bathroom mirror with hairbrushes. Then fast forward to today and now they’re preparing for high-profile interviews in hotel suites and editing scripts on trains.
Alex’s parents shared very genuine perspectives compared to the supportive yet predictable insights from industry leaders. The documentary could’ve explicitly connected the dots to say how Alex’s parents’ careers influenced her journey. Her dad made her love the camera, and her mom is a therapist, so it’s not surprising she likes talking about relationships!
Likewise, the Call Her Alex documentary glossed over a couple other details even though it was two hours long. They delicately discussed Alex’s experience with her soccer coach at Boston University, but didn’t mention what Alex studied in school. And Alex’s husband Matt Kaplan appeared throughout the documentary, but they didn’t say how the couple met! Alex – please tell us how you found a man who’s not intimidated by successful women, even if you’ve told this story somewhere else! This would’ve been easy to include through an interview or voiceover while sharing clips of their flawless wedding.
Ideally the documentary would offer more context to viewers who haven’t been diehard fans since Alex launched Call Her Daddy at Barstool Sports. If filmmakers want to avoid feedback about documentaries that resemble infomercials, then you need to share more personal details and not just archival footage. These examples of omissions were clearly an oversight that wouldn’t have revealed anything too personal.
Gayle King’s endorsement of Alex was a subtle way of saying that Oprah’s best friend thinks Alex Cooper could be the next Oprah. However, I also loved the quote from Alex about how she’s paving her own way. She doesn’t want to be considered the female version of podcast icons like Joe Rogan or Howard Stern and I feel the same way. From picking guests to hosting interviews, podcasting is hard work!
I loved the clips from Meridian Hall when Alex came to Toronto on her Unwell Tour! Call Her Alex is now available to watch on Hulu and Disney+.
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