Maya Hawke Is Actually a Sexy Receptionist Named Veronica

MONDAY NOV. 20, 2023 6:31 PM NEW YORK.

When our editor-in-chief tracked down Maya Hawke at last night’s Dior Carousel of Dreams event at Sak’s Fifth Avenue, which marked the luxury department giant’s first-ever collaboration with a fashion house, he was surprised to find a promiscuous young lady named Veronica instead. “I’ve been doing this thing where I have to come up with a character to go to these things,” said Hawke, who imagined her alter ego as a lovelorn receptionist trying to win the affections of her boss. Before an eye-popping light show and the unveiling of Saks’s Dior-dominated window display, he and Hawke talked character building and Christmas shopping.

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MEL OTTENBERG: You look flawless.

MAYA HAWKE: Thank you.

OTTENBERG: I feel like you’re wearing Dior.

HAWKE: I am. Well, aren’t we all?

OTTENBERG: I’m not. But you look great in it.

HAWKE: Well, thank you. I’ve been doing this thing where I have to come up with a character to go to these things.

OTTENBERG: That’s really healthy.

HAWKE: I have to be like, “Okay, I’m Veronica tonight.”

OTTENBERG: And who is she?

HAWKE: She’s Veronica. She’s the receptionist who’s in love with her boss.

OTTENBERG: At Saks?

HAWKE: Yeah. And she’s going to see him here tonight. Whenever his wife comes in, she always takes a long time to get the message to him.

OTTENBERG: Oh, wow.

HAWKE: She has a kind of sour look on her face.

OTTENBERG: Fuck, yeah.

HAWKE: She’s like the character in Love, Actually.

OTTENBERG: Oh, wow.

HAWKE: She’s a bitch.

OTTENBERG: She’s going to get that man?

HAWKE: No, she’s not. She’s going to have cats. But tonight, she thinks she might. So she wore her leopard print dress.

OTTENBERG: Okay, Maya. Excuse me, Veronica. Veronica’s wearing a below-the-knee—

HAWKE: Leopard-print pencil skirt.

OTTENBERG: She’s a top, Veronica’s a top.

HAWKE: Veronica’s the top.

OTTENBERG: She’s fuckin’ hot.

HAWKE: A leopard-print pencil dress and a long black cashmere coat. She’s in some heels.

OTTENBERG: Wow. I truly don’t have anything else to say, because Veronica has done it all.

HAWKE: Oh, Veronica says it all.

OTTENBERG: What is Veronica getting people for Christmas? Or what’s Maya getting people for Christmas, because I’m thinking about it.

HAWKE: That’s a great question. I’m getting books. I’ve been reading a lot this year. I’m getting a lot of books for people. I’m going to get this [Robert] Sapolsky book I read called Behave for a bunch of people. And this book that I read called When We Cease to Understand the World. And this book that I’m just reading now called Whenever I Figure Out the Meaning of Life, They Change It. Three awesome books.

OTTENBERG: I like that.

HAWKE: I steal a lot of my mother’s sweaters so I’ll probably get her a new sweater.

OTTENBERG: That’s really nice.

HAWKE: Oh, you know what I went and got today? There’s this amazing store in the East Village that makes handmade stamps and I’m not going to say who it’s for because I don’t want to spoil it, but I got a bunch of stamps for a bunch of people. These beautiful, little handmade, hand-painted ink stamps, because everyone wants more useless crap.

OTTENBERG: Yeah, but it’s stamps. Come on, let’s support.

HAWKE: Let’s support this stamp shop. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

OTTENBERG: Veronica, Maya, thank you.

HAWKE: Oh, thank you.