It was only a matter of time before Amy Schumer graced the cover of Vanity Fair.
Perhaps the most talked about person of 2015, she is profiled in the magazine's May issue—and photographed by Annie Leibovitz, no less. In it, she speaks candidly about how her life has changed since Trainwreck exceeded box office expectations and Inside Amy Schumer won its first Emmy. "To have someone that smart and talented but at the same time that relatable is rare," Kent Alterman, president of original programming at Comedy Central, says of her appeal. "And I think partly what fueled her popularity so quickly is that what she had to say resonated for both men and women. She kind of transcends gender—ironically, because a lot of her stuff is about gender. But it's never alienating. It's relatable to men and women simultaneously."
These days, according to Trainwreck director Judd Apatow, Amy "is as fearless as ever. She is smart and will make thoughtful adjustments now that a much larger audience is listening. Our friend Colin Quinn discussed the dangers of speaking out publicly about sensitive topics when he was promoting his book [The Coloring Book: A Comedian Solves Race Relations in America], and he said, 'You can say whatever you want if you really mean it.' I think Amy is brave and she means it. She will always say what she thinks is important to say. That is why people love her."
Here are four things we learned from Amy's Vanity Fair profile:
1. Kim Caramele used to police her tweets. Amy's sister, who is a writer and producer on Inside Amy Schumer, is her closest confidante. While the comedienne relies on her younger sibling in a number of capacities, Kim is quick to point out that Amy is "not like this dramatic person who will call me with problems every night. She doesn't call for emotional support." In fact, she says, "It's more like if she tweets something or posts a picture of herself on Instagram sitting on a toilet, I'll text her and be like, 'Babe...?' And she'll be like, 'Sorry!' She used to ask me, like, 'Can I tweet this?' And I'd be, 'No!' But now she doesn't ask me and I just yell at her after the fact."
2. She wants a better work-life balance. "I love all the things that I'm doing, but that all my time is accounted for? I'm not Joan Rivers, where I'm like, 'A full calendar is happiness.' I would love to do nothing, like waking up and not knowing what you're going to do that day. The other day I was so overwhelmed I left work an hour early and I just went and watched Labyrinth on my sister's couch." Yes, the 1986 Jim Henson movie in which David Bowie played a goblin king. "It was a big deal in our house growing up," Amy explains. "It holds up. I mean, the movie's weird, but it just felt so good to just lay there, while it was still light out, and watch a movie."
3. She shares the perks of fame with her friends. Amy's apartment in New York City's Upper West Side is littered with pictures of her oldest pals. "It's all my friends from high school—these girls, these monsters. They're afraid I'm going to forget about them. So, like, they keep buying me things, to remind me of them," she jokes. Amy also introduced them to Jennifer Lawrence and worked with the star's team to get them tickets to The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 premiere last year. "I was like, 'I have to bring all my friends from high school.' They were like, 'Are you serious?'" she recalls. "I was like, 'Yeah, if I go and don't bring them, it'll be an issue.'"
4. Her mission to end gun violence isn't over. In the summer of 2015, in the midst of promoting Trainwreck, Amy noticed "a million" missed calls from her publicist. "I was laughing before I called her back, because I thought it was going to be like a sex tape had surfaced or something." Two women were killed and nine other people were injured as the result of a mass shooting in a Louisiana movie theater. "The idea of people trying to go out and have a good time—you know, like looking forward to it?—I don't know why that makes me the saddest," Amy says. She remembers watching the news alone in her hotel room. "I was just like, 'I wish I never wrote that movie.'" Hearing that it wasn't her "fault" only made Amy feel worse. "I just felt helpless and stupid," she says. Amy contacted the victims' families and made donations on their behalf. She also called up Chuck Schumer, a New York senator and her second cousin once removed. "I got a call, and he was like, 'Amy, this is your cousin Chuck.' And I said, 'I hope this is you asking me to help with guns.' He laughed. 'Yeah, that's what this is.' I was like, 'Let's go. Let's do it.'"