Alex Cooper has made a career from candid conversations, but in her new documentary Call Her Alex, the podcaster-turned-media mogul is turning the mic on herself.
The first time I heard Alex Cooper speak, she was describing how to give a blow job. She coined the “Gluck Gluck 9000” on her newly released podcast, Call Her Daddy.
It was 2018, and I was on a road trip when one friend leant forward and grabbed the aux cord. “I’m obsessed with the ‘Daddy Gang’ (a term used to describe the fandom). You have to listen to it,” she said before pressing play on the episode.
It was an unusual soundtrack to our commute, and I was both disgusted and intrigued by what I heard. The podcast, which at the time was co-hosted with Cooper’s friend, Sofia Franklyn, was undoubtedly crass and problematic (mainly because Dave Portnoy’s Barstool Sports network owned the podcast). Still, it also felt refreshing to hear women talk about sex like men.
Say what you like about Alex Cooper: that she has set back feminism or she spreads misogyny masked as sexual liberation, but turning a blow job into a $125 million dollar media empire is no easy feat. Especially when, historically, sex has ended the careers of countless women. In fact, Cooper has had a number of those ostracized women on her podcast, including Monica Lewinsky.
Inevitably, Cooper struck out on her own in 2020 and signed with Spotify for $60 million. As part of the podcast’s rebrand, Cooper transitioned the show to an interview format where she has sat down with everyone from Hailey Bieber and Chappell Roan, to Vice President Kamala Harris and Jane Goodall. And it only goes up from there.
In 2023, Cooper launched a Gen Z-focused media company called Trending and the Unwell podcast network with her husband Matt Kaplan. She also expanded her brand with the release of an electrolyte drink and a partnership with the National Women’s Soccer League. All the while, she continued her role as host of Call Her Daddy, which recently secured a $125 million deal with SiriusXM.
Now, Cooper is pivoting and expanding her brand once again, this time for a two-part documentary titled Call Her Alex that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last night and will drop on Disney Plus.
From exclusive clips from her childhood to breaking her silence on sexual assault, the series exposes a side to Cooper that we haven’t seen before.
“When you’re filming a documentary, there is a level of exposure that I wasn’t used to,” said Cooper during a Q&A following the screening of Call Her Alex. “You’re really seeing me in my life with my husband. I know you guys know how private Matt and I usually are, but I think this was a goal to show a little bit more. … It was hard to trust the process in moments because I didn’t edit this and usually, I edit everything. So it was just a nerve-racking experience overall, but it turned out.”
Ahead of the series release in Australia, here are the biggest reveals from Call Her Alex.
Why Did Alex & Sofia Franklyn And Have A Falling Out?
There has been speculation around Coopers decision to part ways with her former Call Her Daddy co-host, Sofia Franklyn and take over the podcast as the sole host. In Call Her Alex, Cooper finally sets the record straight.
Despite the belief that the pair were long-time friends, Cooper reveals that Franklin and she had only known each other for a few months before launching the show.
The documentary then goes on to explain that Cooper entirely invented the idea of women speaking openly about sex for the podcast and that the pair ultimately had different visions for the podcast’s future.
As Call Her Daddy skyrocketed in popularity, both sought to renegotiate their original three-year, $70,000 deal with Barstool Sports. According to Cooper, Barstool offered what she saw as a dream deal: stay for one more year and gain full ownership of the show.
“Sofia didn’t want to take the deal, but I did,” Cooper says. That marked the end of the duo. Cooper continued solo, even recording her first episode alone from her parents’ basement during the pandemic.
Was Alex Cooper Sexually Assaulted?
For years, Cooper has alluded to a traumatic experience in college that she would “talk about it when she was ready”. In the new docuseries, Cooper broke her silence, revealing she was sexually harassed by her female soccer coach, Nancy Feldman.
Growing up, Cooper played soccer competitively and went on to secure a full-ride scholarship at Boston University. Over her first two years of college, Cooper says Feldman became fixated on her — asking her who she was dating and for details about her sex life, making comments about her body, and always wanting to be alone with her in meetings, where Cooper says she would stare at her and put her hand on her thigh.
“It was this psychotic game of, ‘You want to play, tell me about your sex life. I have to drive you to your night class, get in the car with me, alone,’” Cooper says in Call Her Alex. “I started trying to spend as little time with her as possible, taking different routes to practice where I knew I wouldn’t run into her, during meetings I would sit as far away from her as possible, literally anything to not be alone with this woman.”
Inevitably, Feldman kicked Cooper off the team and continued to coach at the university until she retired in 2022.
In the Alex Cooper documentary, Call Her Alex, Cooper returns to the soccer pitch at her former university.
“The minute I stepped back on that field, I felt so small. I just felt like I was 18 years old again and I was in a situation with someone in a position of power who abused that power,” Cooper said during the Q&A, where she broke down in tears.
“I felt like I wasn’t the Call Her Daddy girl. I wasn’t someone who had money and influence or whatever. I was just another woman who experienced harassment on a level that changed my life forever and took away the thing I loved the most.”
Where Can I Watch The Alex Cooper Documentary?
You can watch the two part series Call Her Alex on Disney Plus from June 10 in Australia.
Stream Call Her Alex on Disney Plus from $15.99/mth. Subscribe here.
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