It’s no secret that 2022 is a big year for Harry Styles. At just 28-years-old, the pop phenomenon is touring the globe, has two big movies being released (Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman), and is on nearly every college freshman’s dorm room wall. Over the weekend, I got off the subway right outside Madison Square Garden and spotted thousands of Harries donned in colorful feather boas lined up outside hours before he was set to perform onstage.
On Aug. 23, Rolling Stone released their 2022 cover story with Styles, covering an array of topics from music to acting to his relationship with actress and director Olivia Wilde (according to Styles, he doesn’t think he’s “publicly been with anyone” — yeah, okay, Harry). And while some of Styles’s confessions were already public knowledge, others left Harries (myself included) in surprise, to say the least. While Styles is famously a man of few words, he definitely spilled the tea this time.
Read on for eight surprising things Styles revealed in his cover story for Rolling Stone.
- Styles goes to therapy.
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In his interview with Rolling Stone, Styles revealed he goes to therapy regularly, and at one point, committed to going once a week.
“I felt like I exercise every day and take care of my body, so why wouldn’t I do that with my mind?” Styles said. “So many of your emotions are so foreign before you start analyzing them properly. I like to really lean into [an emotion] and look at it in the face. Not like, ‘I don’t want to feel like this,’ but more like, ‘What is it that makes me feel this way?’”
- Styles isn’t on TikTok, but he loves looking at plants on Instagram.
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While Styles has never been on TikTok (which is maybe a good thing, TBH), he loves going on Instagram to “look at plants and architecture posts.” (Okay, so why is he me?)
Styles also carefully touched on the toxicity of social media, and especially Twitter, which he called “a shitstorm of people trying to be awful to people.”
- Styles was a theater kid.
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The pop star shared that he starred in a play called Barney the Church Man at just four-years-old, and later “transformed into Buzz Lightyear in a production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” He also played Razamatazz in Bugsy Malone (“the band leader”) and the Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
- He always showers after concerts.
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In his interview, Styles shared that post-concert showers have become a necessity for him. I mean, I don’t blame him — after being all sweaty and swarmed by thousands of fans, I’d want to take seven showers, minimum.
“It’s really unnatural to stand in front of that many people and have that experience,” Styles told Rolling Stone. “Washing it off, you’re just a naked person, in your most vulnerable, human form. Just like a naked baby, basically.”
- He was anxious about pursuing his acting career.
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Styles landed his first big screen role in Dunkirk back in 2017, but he was initially nervous about pursuing his acting career.
At the start of filming Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling, Styles was worried about acting alongside well-seasoned actors like Florence Pugh and Chris Pine, telling Rolling Stone, “In music, there’s such an immediate response to what you do. You finish a song and people clap. When you’re filming and they say ‘cut,’ there’s maybe part of you that expects everyone to start clapping, [but] they don’t. Everyone, obviously, goes back to doing their jobs, and you’re like, ‘Oh, shit, was it that bad?’”
But according to Wilde, Styles is an amazing actor (and while she may be a bit biased, I have to agree), and there was even a time on set when a scene he led brought everyone “to tears.” “The scene called for him to stand onstage with Frank (Chris Pine) and chant their creepy slogan, ‘Whose world is it? Ours!’ over and over again. Dark as hell. But Styles took it to another level. He was so fully in the moment, he began screaming the lines to the crowd, in this primal roar, that was way more intense than anything we expected from the scene,” Wilde shared.
- Styles takes pictures of everything.
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Like the millennial he is, Styles takes pictures of everything — which is surprising, considering his personal social media footprint is so small. But my question is — is he on BeReal?
- He doesn’t think he’s ever “publicly been with anyone” and likes to keep his relationships — like his current one with Olivia Wilde — private.
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While it’s no secret that Styles likes to keep his romantic life private — and especially after having his sexuality and sex life constantly scrutinized by the public — Styles also claims that he has never publicly been with anyone.
“Sometimes people say, ‘You’ve only publicly been with women,’ and I don’t think I’ve publicly been with anyone,” Styles told Rolling Stone. “If someone takes a picture of you with someone, it doesn’t mean you’re choosing to have a public relationship or something.” (Okay, but Harry, you and Olivia are always together and holding hands everywhere — that’s pretty public, if you ask me.)
But part of why Styles likes to keep his relationships private is to protect his partners. “Can you imagine going on a second date with someone and being like, ‘OK, there’s this corner of the thing, and they’re going to say this, and it’s going to be really crazy, and they’re going to be really mean, and it’s not real.… But anyway, what do you want to eat?’” Styles told Rolling Stone.
- He’s a Love Island fan.
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And perhaps the most surprising confession of his Rolling Stone cover, Styles is an avid Love Island watcher and fan — apparently, he was absolutely “gutted” that he missed the last season. I guess being “the world’s most wanted man” doesn’t leave much time for binge-watching Netflix.
