A fact: Rihanna is one of the coolest people alive. Another fact: Part of what makes her so cool is that she clearly gives zero fucks about anything, ever. And her particular brand of lazy charisma was shining at its full force during Thursday’s episode of Late Night, when she went day drinking with Seth Meyers.
Most celebrities tend to overcommit when they’re playing silly talk show games. That’s what makes your Lip Sync Battles and your Carpool Karaokes potentially entertaining: You’re typically watching a professional perfectionist devote considerable energy to something low-stakes and silly, and when everything is held in balance, it’s fun to watch.
But while Rihanna is clearly an extremely hard-working woman (just look at all her brands!), she doesn’t vibe as a perfectionist on camera. Instead, she vibes as someone who is extremely chill, someone who is going to go with the flow and play a silly game because why not — but who’s certainly not going to put in too much effort. And it’s incredibly charming.
She raises a skeptical eyebrow while Meyers mixes her cocktails inspired by her music — We Found Veuve in a Hostess Place is just a Hostess Twinkie dunked in a champagne flute — but she drinks them anyway. She cackles and films Meyers while he sings along badly to “Work.” When he asks her for advice about how to impress his wife on a romantic evening, she cracks a joke so dirty that Meyers gasps in shock.
“Rihanna,” he says, “this is a network television show.”
“Is it?” Rihanna replies, in a tone that suggests that she truly has no idea what show she’s on and doesn’t particularly mind either way.
That’s just how Rihanna lives her life! She shows up on a TV set and throws back a bunch of terrible cocktails, and if it all happens to go on network TV, so be it. She doesn’t care. It’s a pinnacle of cool to which we should all aspire, knowing full well that only Rihanna could ever truly pull it off.
