Kourtney Kardashian did an interview and photoshoot for Paper Magazine. Check out the interview and the photos below.
It was 2011, and the Kardashians were on vacation in Bora Bora, where wooden bungalows crouch directly above sparkling ocean. Kris Jenner stood by the water, wearing a fluffy white bathrobe and concerned facial expression. A pre-makeover Kim Kardashian, then married to Kanye West’s direct opposite, sobbed inconsolably. Her $75,000 diamond earring was gone.
As Jenner made soothing noises, a cameraman tracked Kardashian’s eldest sister emerging from her accommodation in the distance, cradling a toddler. When made aware of the jewelry emergency, she failed to emote anything resembling concern. “Kim,” she instead called out in monotone. “There’s people that are dying.”
That’s Kourtney. A blank faced deliverer of sardonic one-liners, like Daria moved to Calabasas and became an Armenian reality television star post-Lawndale. A woman so blasé that she once called off her own wedding without changing facial expressions. Over time she’s established herself as the least willing Kardashian sibling, and maybe even the most well-adjusted. Already 28 years old back when Keeping Up started filming in 2007, Kourtney also had a college degree, clothing store, and steady boyfriend. She was the first sister to settle down with children. She has always appeared at least semi-aware of her own insane circumstances — the avalanche of fans but also detractors, whose arguments actually resemble that pithy Bora Bora catchphrase. So many terrible things are happening in the world. Why must we care what these six self-loving women have to say?
Kim, possibly in revenge for the earring incident or others like it, once famously characterized Kourtney as “uninteresting to look at.” This is inaccurate. When we meet she’s sitting on a makeup chair halfway through her PAPER shoot in Los Angeles, considering a plate of grilled chicken and salad. I dart my questions around a foundation brush, half wondering why we need bother with the glam squad. Kardashian is 40, but her features are soft and youthful, even girlish. She has these huge, expressive eyes that betray the poker face.
“I just didn’t really think about it,” she recalls of those early days on E!, physically shrugging off the memories. “I never thought it was going to become this thing, but everything just happened so quickly from when we shot the sizzle reel or whatever. It got green lit straight away.” As she says it I watch a lonely cameraman capture B-roll. He has been dispatched to this pastel pink mid century mansion in the valley just in case our interview makes for good TV.
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