Slavoj Zizek Wants to Talk About Taylor Swift, Spider-Man and His Crush on Olivia Wilde

For the uninitiated, Slavoj Žižek is the closest thing academia has to a rock star: a Slovenian philosopher who has spent four decades smuggling Hegel, Lacan and Marx into arguments about Hollywood blockbusters, coffee mugs and toilets. Somewhere along the way, clips of him ranting about ideology, went viral. Some combination of the message and the shambolic messenger — with Žižek’s disheveled hair, nervous ticks, and rapid fire delivery instantly meme-able — turned him into an unlikely social media star.

But when I reach him on Zoom, Slavoj Žižek is hot and bothered. “Let’s get this over with quickly,” he says as we start our call. “There’s a storm outside, in deep heat, it’s horrible.” Related Stories Movies 'Back to Buenos Aires' Review: A Brooding Drama Revisits the Violent Days of Argentina's Dictatorship, and the Traumas That Remained in Its Wake Movies Carla Woodcock Joins Kate Beckinsale, Katherine McNamara in 'White' (Exclusive)