On Friday, March 20, online personality and YouTube channel host, Brittany Broski, came to Bucknell as the spring semester Center Stage performer. Her time on stage was met with laughter and enjoyment from the assembled audience of students, staff and Lewisburg locals, but before her moderated talk, Broski sat down with The Bucknellian to discuss her career and overall approach to celebutante.
What has it meant for you to be able to come and speak at universities across the country, especially as someone on a continuous pursuit of knowledge, and how important is it to you to have these experiences?
Great question– I feel like […] It’s more so an experience for whoever, you know, is dumb enough to show up– not dumb enough, that’s obviously a joke, but it’s more so, like, if I had watched someone similar to me when I was in college– because I did love content creators and I was in college– the landscape is so different now, where it feels like there really is a cookie-cutter version of someone that you want to tune into every week and I feel very honored that some people think of me that way because it’s very full circle for me. I mean, I grew up on the internet. Like Jenna Marbles, you know, women like that, it’s like, I f**king loved her. I loved Liza Koshy. I loved these off-the-beaten-path women who were deeply intelligent and very witty and like, if there was an opportunity when I was at school to go see them, like, I wish I could have taken it, you know? So I think that while there’s the fun part of it, of like, oh my God, you’re real, I can’t believe you’re real and there’s the other half of it, like I genuinely am interested in what she has to say. And so that part of it, I kind of take a bit more seriously than I’ll ever let on […] college is hard and it’s a transitional period for a lot of people and it’s very easy to be like, ‘uh, I’ll just drop out and find some job on the Internet’ and it’s like, the bare minimum you need for a job nowadays is a college degree. So that’s kind of my secret mission when I do these kinds of shows is like: stay in school for as long as you need to, because real life will meet you eventually and… you can change your major! And like, you’re around your friends, enjoy it, you know, even if you’re in a little college town like this, it’s like there are charms to it that go away once you become a real adult. So I’m a big advocate for higher education and pursuing knowledge and education, even beyond your college years, you know, like, we never stop learning and […] I love doing shows like this, because it’s like, college may be like, ‘Uhh, f**king college,’ But it’s like, this is the heartbeat of Gen Z, you know?
You somewhat touched on this already, but being a part of fandoms yourself growing up, do you think that helps you connect with people who like to engage with your content?
Absolutely. Yeah, sometimes it’s like, I don’t know what to do with it because I’m like, it honestly makes me reflect. I’m like, oh my God, I used to act insane. No, genuinely. And I still do too, where it’s like, if I love something, I’m gonna be crazy about it. So, I give people a bit more grace when they come up to me and they say some crazy bulls**t where it’s like, why would you ever say that? And I’m like, you know what? I used to read fan fiction– and I still do. So it’s like, I get it. So it is a very full circle, you know, I completely understand the lived experience of being a fangirl. And when you love something and it’s just, you know, like… it’s all-consuming. I have such empathy for it, but at the same time, what is the personal boundary of, you don’t know me? And I don’t know you. So where does that… you know, it’s odd and I can reflect back on when I was a teenager to be like, wow some celebrities really gave us grace as fan girls and some did not and I’m finally understanding, like, damn, they were kind of valid, but, you know? It’s this ongoing conversation that ebbs and flows of, like, I couldn’t do this job and I wouldn’t do this job unless I had people like that, that really loved me. And I also wouldn’t be who I am if I hadn’t been on the other side of it, of like, I really f**king love this thing, you know? So, yeah, it’s very– I need to go to therapy.
So, Harry Styles.
Ah– go ahead.
Obviously… on Royal Court, and you’ve met Hozier, Pedro Pascal… In these moments, how do you remain grounded? And also, how do your goals change– moving goalposts, I know on Broski Report this week, [Harry Styles was] number one on your manifestation list. How do you move on from there?
I genuinely, like, that is such a great question because I don’t know. Yeah. It’s been, like, when you start a creative endeavor, especially in (insert mocking voice) “Hollywood,” it’s like you can have these high in the sky dream guests, dream opportunities. What do you do when they happen? Yeah. It really is like an out-of-body thing. Like, I was just at the Oscars on Sunday. Like, what the f**k are you talking about? Standing face-to-face with Conan O’Brien talking about, ‘Do you use dude wipes?’
No, genuinely and then I’ll look back at those moments kind of having this, like, out of body cringe experience of like, ‘Why am I, why am I there?’ But then it’s like, no, I’m there because I, this is my job, you know? Like, I do stupid interviews and I humanize the people that I speak to and try to get through all the smoke and mirrors to the heart of the person, you know, ’cause that’s important. I wish that I had that when I was still like a 16-year-old feral fangirl, you know what I mean? Like, if I had had the Harry Styles Royal Court episode when I was 16, b**ch I would have been at the hospital. Like full-on psychosis hospitalized. So I understand the gravity of my job and even though it is just fun at the end of the day, like, it’s just fun and it’s entertainment and it’s Hollywood. When the world around you is crumbling, those things sometimes matter way more than they should, because it’s like, you know, a diamond in the rough. It’s like a distraction for how awful the world can be. And that is not lost on me. So sometimes when I get in this spiral of thinking, like, ‘Girl, and who the f**k am I?’ And, like, my show is dumb and I shouldn’t be here and whatever, but then I kind of go back to thinking, like, some people really need this. They need the Broski Report to be like, for one hour a week I can just escape into her stimming for an hour.
That’s not lost on me, you know, that that’s a connection point that, for me sometimes I’m like (insert comical voice) ‘I have to film the f**king Broski Report’– like, it’s in my house. And then like, I read the comments and I’m like, yeah, that’s… that’s why I do it. But yeah, the goalpost does change forever and ever and now I genuinely like, next week, I have a week off for the first time since December and I’m gonna rework on my vision board because ‘check, check, check’. It’s crazy, b**ch! Manifestation’s real. It’s real. Tarot cards are real.
You’ve talked about, on Royal Court, wanting to be like a space outside of the other Hollywood sort of lack of “fun.” Obviously, you ask those engaging questions near the end of the episodes, but you still find a balance between that and the humorous parts. What is your strategy for striking that balance?
The strategy is to get the dumb s**t out of the way first. So it’s like once the spotlights come off and we take a moment after royal interrogation to be like, ‘how was that? Can I get you water or anything?’ It’s kind of like, oh, the hard part’s over… and the hard part was me being like, ‘Do you poop or fart?’ You know? This is not a gotcha style TMZ or Hot Ones interview […] and I just mean hot ones in terms of like the spicier the s**t gets, the more vulnerable the questions are. I’ve kind of reengineered that, where I’m gonna ask you stupid, topical questions related to things you’ve done, things you’ve been in, things you’ve said in the past, maybe opinions that you hold really strongly and we’re just gonna riff on it. Then from there, we calm down, you know? So it’s kind of the opposite thing from Hot Ones, where it’s heating up towards the end and for me, I get it out of the way in the beginning, so that it feels natural once we relax into this warm bath of the vulnerable questions, you know and they feel almost more endeared to me to answer them, versus out the gate, if I was like,” Broski says with a comical voice, ‘So, when you got a divorce your your wife…’ Like, they’d be like, ‘Who the f**k are you?’ So it’s very well thought out and I have a great team of creatives around me to execute it.
