Suki Waterhouse is feeling nostalgic. On a gloomy spring afternoon, the 34-year-old meets me at a cozy Notting Hill pub across the street from the flat where she lived for most of her 20s. Her manager booked a table under a pseudonym, but at 2:30 p.m., the establishment is empty except for a few old men nursing Guinnesses. “That was completely unnecessary,” Waterhouse says as she greets me, looking effortless yet elevated in a Vivienne Westwood duster jacket. “But maybe it gave me an air of mystery.”
Waterhouse is the opposite of aloof. She beat me to the pub, and by the time I arrived, was already ordering a Coke and a basket of fries to share, which we take to a tucked-away corner. There’s a straw wrapper on the table, but she brushes it off, unbothered, and curls up in an armchair like a cat.
Zoe McConnell for Variety
She’s had quite the week already, starting with the Met Gala, where she turned heads in a plunging pink Michael Kors gown inspired by Greek statues carved out of rose marble. It’s fitting that Waterhouse would be dressed like a goddess; up close, her skin looks airbrushed, save for a few freckles on her nose, and her honey-blonde hair — cut into a shag that countless women, myself included, have shown their hairdressers as inspiration — is impossibly shiny. “I haven’t had that many big nights — maybe two — since I’ve had my daughter,” she says. Waterhouse shares a 2-year-old with her partner, actor Robert Pattinson, who she met at a star-studded L.A. game night in 2018. “And, yeah, we stayed out till 7 a.m.”
Highlights of the Met Gala included catching up with “Heated Rivalry” breakout Connor Storrie, who recently comforted her on a turbulent plane ride — “I was sort of clutching onto him the whole time,” she says — and seeing Stevie Nicks perform.
“I said hi to Stevie Nicks! That’s obviously a huge moment,” exclaims Waterhouse, who starred in the 2023 Amazon series “Daisy Jones & the Six,” which was loosely based on Fleetwood Mac’s recording of “Rumours.” She was also pranked by “Saturday Night Live” star Marcello Hernandez when he introduced Bad Bunny — who was made up like an old man for the occasion — to her as his uncle. “He totally got me,” she laughs.
Though Waterhouse’s life now seems the picture of glamour — moving from place to place with her little family based on film shoots and tour dates — back in the part of town where she spent her early adulthood, it feels like nothing has changed. “Whenever I come here, it brings me right back to who I was,” she says wistfully. “Growing up, Notting Hill was always this vision I had in my head of where I was going to become a woman. And that very much was the case.”
Waterhouse was scouted as a model in high school, plucked from the affluent West London suburb of Chiswick, where she grew up with her plastic surgeon father, nurse mother and three siblings. Still, diving headfirst into the city and a competitive industry was a shock. (She has since modeled for Tommy Hilfiger, appeared on five Vogue covers and walked the runway for Burberry and Balenciaga.) “That changed my life a lot, and was quite surprising,” she says, grabbing a handful of fries. “More than the work itself, it was a cultural exploration of London and the nightlife and the people, and suddenly being able to look around and put these pieces together of what it was like to be an artist. It completely blew my world open.”
Anyone who was on Tumblr in the 2010s likely first stumbled across Waterhouse as one of the London “it” girls alongside Alexa Chung and Georgia May Jagger, posing in miniskirts at all the best parties next to their rock-star boyfriends (hers was indie rock artist Miles Kane). But she felt destined for more. Acting came first, with Waterhouse scoring small roles in the 2014 rom-com “Love, Rosie,” 2015’s “Insurgent” and 2016’s “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” And behind the scenes, she was also starting to write music of her own.
The Notting Hill apartment was “where I had my mattress on the floor and my first piano and guitar, and where I first had that solitude to start writing,” she says. “It’s where I would take the wild from outside and hibernate within myself. So many stories developed here.”
She released her first single in 2016 — the lo-fi heartbreak ballad “Brutally” — followed by three more in the next three years, refining her jangly DIY indie-pop sound more with each song. But it wasn’t until she played a musician in “Daisy Jones” — the keyboardist Karen Sirko, inspired by Christine McVie — that Waterhouse decided to give music a real shot.
“I was suddenly learning piano in a very serious way for hours and hours a day. And then the pandemic happened, and I was back in London, stuck here for a year with all those new tools in front of me,” she says. “I had that moment of realizing, I really want to finally put together my first piece of work.”
Waterhouse has now released two acclaimed albums — 2022’s “I Can’t Let Go” and 2024’s “Memoir of a Sparklemuffin,” both via indie label Sub Pop Records — graduating from touring with Father John Misty to commanding festival stages and opening for Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” in London.
Of Swift, Waterhouse says, “The coolest thing about her is she gives other artists these insane opportunities that really change people’s lives. Knowing her as a friend, she’s actually been through so much. And I think the thing I always see in her is how she pulls herself through every time, and how everything that’s ever happened to her becomes another piece of art that becomes part of the legacy. That’s so inspiring — that’s the artist that you want to be.”
In a landscape that can seem oversaturated with cookie-cutter pop stars, Waterhouse delivers something different: a swaggering rock ’n’ roll edge that recalls ’70s icons like her new friend Nicks. But as Waterhouse’s star was rising, she was also going through something even more life-changing: motherhood. In early 2024, she gave birth to a daughter. Just over a month later, she played Coachella for the first time.
“It was like a fugue. It was a dream. When I had her, I had so many incredible things going on,” she says. “Maybe if I have another one, it will be a more peaceful moment. But I just knew that this time it was going to be a whirlwind. And I think as a result, everything has been so real that it hurts. It’s been amusing and so tender and fragile and hilarious and all the things.”
Balancing family life with her burgeoning career is one of the main topics of “Loveland,” Waterhouse’s third album, which comes out on July 10. It’s her first release after signing with Island Records, the label that’s home to reigning pop girlies like Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Olivia Dean.
When her contract with Sub Pop ended, Waterhouse says there was “a fascination for me of, what’s it like to be signed to a major label? I wanted to go on that ride and see for myself.”
So far, so good. Waterhouse’s collaborators on “Loveland” include “Espresso” hitmaker Amy Allen, Taylor Swift go-to Aaron Dessner and Lorde producer Joel Little, in addition to the musical partners who have been there from the start, Natalie Findlay and Jules Apollinaire. “For the first time, I had the option to work with some of the biggest people in the industry, and it’s kind of crazy,” she says. “I’m like, really?”
The 14-track “Loveland” — for which Waterhouse cites the Stone Roses, PJ Harvey and the Replacements as sonic inspiration — thematically swings between nostalgia for the wild days and nights of her youth and longing to be settled with her family. “There’s this kind of recklessness and abandon, which is always the feeling that I want to chase,” she admits. “And then there’s also this part of me that’s very much missing and yearning for the intimate, cozy moments in my life. They’re all very equally true to me.”
There’s even a track named for Notting Hill — a groovy piano-led love letter to “running around with a hangover in my early 20s” and wondering when you’ll meet your own Hugh Grant, just like in the Richard Curtis classic. Turns out, her apartment across the street is also “really where I fell in love with Rob,” she says, blushing.
“The music that I was making when I first started was very much in reaction to toxic relationships and heartbreak and that painful rollercoaster of girlhood,” Waterhouse adds. “And it’s been interesting this time around to have my heart cracked open in a different way.”
It’s not hard to tell that on “Loveland,” Pattinson is Waterhouse’s muse. The album’s opening song and lead single, “Back in Love,” is a joyous trumpet-backed ode to getting her own spark back postpartum, as well as in their relationship.
“I felt like my identity had been cut open in becoming a mother and also having a lot of expectations on myself. Internally, there’s been quite a lot of turmoil and just wondering if I’m doing the right thing. And especially, oh my God, the hormones right after you have a baby are so intense,” she says. “It’s like [I got] belief back in myself, and then also being … I don’t want to say back in love with my partner, because it sounds like I was out of it, which I was never. But it’s also a new relationship. Your old relationship has been wiped out, and so it’s building that new one and kind of celebrating the beauty in that, like, we’ve survived this.”
Raising a child in the public eye also has not been easy. Waterhouse and Pattinson have chosen not to share their daughter’s name or face publicly but are hounded by paparazzi trying to capture them.
“I think it really is possible to keep as much of your life private as possible. You can have both,” she says. “But you don’t want someone to recognize your kid in the street; it’s a safety thing.”
She also doesn’t want her daughter to feel the pressure of growing up in the spotlight. “What if she wants to be a really cool scientist?” she asks. “Twenty years from now we’ll see if she wants to do anything in the public eye.” However, Waterhouse adds that “[my daughter] is, unfortunately, quite theatrical.”
“That’s his name on my charm / That’s my kid in his arms,” Waterhouse sings on the album’s second single, “Tiny Raisin,” a sassy upbeat doo-wop fueled by “postpartum angst, but with lots of love in there too,” she says. Though the title came from a conversation with co-writer Steph Jones about “how men are really incapable of making dinner reservations” (“I can lie in the bathtub and be raisined like, ‘Have you booked anywhere yet?’” she laughs), its catchy chorus boasts: “That’s my man / Hot damn.”
The country-tinged “Morals” was also spurred by a chat with a collaborator — this time with Allen, who asked Waterhouse for her advice dealing with jealousy when dating an actor. “Oh my God, if I was worrying about that then I’d just be on the floor at this point. I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed!” she exclaims.
In a full-circle twist, “Morals” features drums from none other than Mick Fleetwood, whom Waterhouse met when he reached out for her help writing a song for an upcoming project. Surprisingly, she says “Daisy Jones & the Six” never came up. The song they wrote together is “about his relationship with… someone,” Waterhouse teases. She then used their collaboration “as leverage and asked him to drum on [‘Morals’] and he was like, ’Sure, that’s easy for me. I can whip it out in 15 minutes.’”
The album puts Waterhouse’s expansive range on full display, from the sassy bravado of “Any Man” (“I’m like, ‘Am I allowed to say this now that I’m a mum?’” she teases of its sexy lyrics) to the pensive and stripped-back “Seasons,” which she recorded at Dessner’s iconic Long Pond Studios. “He’s very egoless — I think that’s why so many women love working with him,” she says of the producer. “He has such a light touch with how he guides you.”
But the heart of “Loveland” for Waterhouse is its closing track, “Weirdo,” a lilting love song about missing Pattinson when they’re apart. “You’re on set / Is that ancient Rome?” Waterhouse sings in the opening line, then croons in the chorus: “Dreams come true / But they take me far away from you.”
“It’s acknowledging that these big life moments are happening, and it’s this whirlwind that we’re on. But at the same time being like, ‘I haven’t brushed my teeth next to you for a long time,’” she says. “It isn’t about going, ‘This is horrible and the worst thing ever.’ It’s actually just being quite settled, and the strength of knowing that these things won’t be happening to us forever.”
Luckily, London is home base for the rest of the year as Pattinson finishes shooting “The Batman Part II” and Waterhouse starts rehearsals for her North American tour, which kicks off in July in Arizona and hits venues including New York’s Radio City Music Hall and L.A.’s Hollywood Forever Cemetery. She’s putting the show together now, drawing from films like the 1988 fantasy adventure “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” and queer classic “Pink Narcissus” for inspiration.
“I want to make ‘Loveland’ this night at the opera. I’m playing theaters, and it will have kind of a baroque feeling,” she says, adding that she’s toying with the idea of having big set pieces on stage reminiscent of ’50s theme park rides.
The world of “Loveland” will also be interactive through a board game included on the inside of every vinyl copy of the album, meant to be played in tandem with the music. “It’s quite a revealing game,” she says (indeed, the player who has most recently gone through a breakup gets to roll the dice first). “It has fun elements and then also questions like, ‘When was the last time you failed?’ It’s honest and fragile and also quite funny.”
Waterhouse is reveling in the creative freedom that has come with this chapter of her career — in fact, “it’s the first time that I’m actually really the boss,” she says. Starting out as a model, she had a lot of unlearning to do.
“It takes a long time to get to a place where you have a bit more of a voice — especially in that industry,” she says, adding: “Being a young woman is fucking brutal. And then when you get older, you realize that no one really has any idea what they’re doing.”
She credits the women around her — including her “Daisy Jones” co-stars Riley Keough and Camila Morrone — with encouraging her to speak her mind both on set and in the studio. “In contrast to my own Britishness, [they] have taught me that it’s kind of great to be a little bit difficult,” she says. “It’s actually just because you fucking care. Whenever anyone tells me that somebody’s difficult, I’m like, ‘Oh, I like them. Obviously.’”
Music has certainly become Waterhouse’s dominant pursuit, but would she ever return to acting? “The desire is still there completely,” she says without hesitation. “It’s really a thing of managing when. Because tours get booked up, and then trying to manage having a family at the same time.”
She feels similarly about tying the knot with Pattinson. Though the couple never officially announced their engagement, Waterhouse was spotted with a toi-et-moi ring on her left hand shortly after revealing she was pregnant. The same ring is still sparkling there today, among many others stacked on nearly each finger.
“Nothing scarier than the actual planning part, right?” she says, grinning. “I’m gonna go to Taylor’s wedding, and maybe I’ll get some inspiration. It will be amazing.”
Now that she’s found her footing, for Waterhouse life is all about creation: of art, of family, of a loveland all her own. “I feel like I’m in it for the long run,” she says, finishing off her Coke. “I just want to keep creating, really, and maybe have a larger family … like max two more kids. That would be cool.”
Charity Spotlight: Facing the World
Suki Waterhouse’s charity of choice hits close to home. Facing the World, which helps children with facial disfigurements gain access to reconstructive surgery, was co-founded in 2002 by her father, plastic surgeon Norman Waterhouse.
When the charity started, Facing the World would fly children to London from all over the world to get life-changing surgeries. “We had the kids and families stay with us at our house for sometimes seven or eight months at a time,” Waterhouse says. “It’s not just one surgery in a lot of these cases; it can be many.”
Now, Facing the World has evolved to focus mainly on Vietnam, where facial birth defects are up to 10 times higher than in neighboring countries due to the ongoing effects of Agent Orange. The organization trains local doctors how to perform the surgeries and provides the necessary equipment; its latest mission is to raise $4.7 million to provide care for 50,000 patients in the country.
“A lot of these kids are really forgotten,” Waterhouse says. “Some of them weren’t ever brought outside and would have difficulties being part of their community.”
Waterhouse has seen the impact firsthand, having grown up around those who benefited from Facing the World. “There was one girl called Hadissa who came and stayed with us, and she talks about how surgery made it so much easier for her to go out into the world and find a job and fall in love,” she says. “It’s been incredible watching these kids over the years.”
Location: Hotel Cafe Royal; Production: Joel Gilgallon/Joon; Styling: Lisa Jarvis/Coleen Haynes; Makeup: Riley Kate/Highlight Artists; Hair: Alex Brownsell/Streeters; Full look: Schiaparelli
