Hawk Tuah Girl’s New Manager Reveals What’s Next for Her: “There Are Endless Opportunities”
A viral TikTok of Haliey Welch, aka “Hawk Tuah Girl,” making a sexy joke while partying in Nashville has become the gift that keeps on giving — and not just for Welch herself.
As anyone with access to social media in the past few weeks can attest, Welch has been just about as ubiquitous as one can get after her on-the-street interview with Tim & Dee TV in which she described a supposedly surefire way to excite a man in the bedroom. The attention led to an unlikely string of events that have included media interviews with publications including Rolling Stone, an onstage appearance at a Zach Bryan concert and support from Shaquille O’Neal.
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Welch’s viral fame also led to her signing with management company The Penthouse, despite Welch’s previous lack of media aspirations and not even having had a social media presence. The first order of business for Jonnie Forster, founder of The Penthouse, was to weed out the imposter accounts and set licensing deals for official merchandise brandishing her famous catchphrase. Earlier this week, Welch made her first paid live appearance at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, with sources telling The Hollywood Reporter she made around $20,000 for the gig. (TMZ reported the payday as closer to $30,000; her reps declined to share specifics of her appearance fee.)
During his first sit-down interview since signing “Hawk Tuah Girl,” Forster tells THR about traveling to her remote hometown of Belfast, Tennessee, to give her his spiel. Forster also shares why he’s turned down Hollywood offers including multiple horror films and even American Idol, the interest Welch has received from a major talent agency, how much money his team has collected from merchandise sales and what types of career opportunities he’s setting up for her — including a potential reality TV series, podcast, book and even a tour of Europe.
How has it been to deal with all the reaction to your company signing Haliey?
It’s been a roller coaster, a tsunami, an earthquake and Christmas, all wrapped in one. The team has been working around the clock since we officially started representing her, and the first cause of action was to protect her and help educate her. But the most important thing for us was to understand who she was, who she is, where she wants to go. We flew out to the small town of Belfast, Tennessee, which is an hour and 20 minutes south of Nashville, and saw her house, her dog, her horse, her friends and met her Granny Janie. It was refreshing to see somebody who’s hijacked everyone’s feeds all over the world, just be this sweet, humble, small-town girl that got the lottery ticket from God.
Why do you think the video was so popular?
It was funny, and people want to laugh right now. The juxtaposition of something that’s so sexual, but coming out of a sweet, innocent country girl and the unapologetic way she delivered it — it just took everyone by storm, and they had to watch it again. I was the same. I couldn’t figure it out. That’s why I had to go and see. But when you do meet her and listen to what she says online, she’s so fun and unassuming that you root for her. You root for someone like this who comes from a poor background, who has done right by her life and been taking care of her grandma and worked very hard in a factory job. It’s so beautiful to see the internet picking the right person to make famous.
What is it about her career-wise that felt aligned with what your company is doing?
My company has been in the entertainment business for over 25 years, and representing musicians is a big part of it. But our background has also been in new business development, strategic marketing and branding, and we’ve represented Fortune 500 companies and brands like the Marley family. We’ve been involved with documentaries, and we also published a children’s book last year with Simon & Schuster.
Why did Haliey stand out to you amid the various other viral stars out there?
Why I think she’s different than anyone else that’s come before her is, she didn’t seek this out. She was off social media for six months for mental health reasons. She would never be back on social media if it wasn’t for that night on Broadway. She had to go back on there and say, “Hey, those people are impersonating me.”
How much money has her official merch made?
It’s approaching $300,000. Right when we signed her, I was on the phone with a trademark attorney immediately and said, “Go after everyone who’s filed trademarks on this, and cease-and-desist with those.” And we had to start building her social media presence: “We can’t stop this volcano, so what do you want to do?” She’s very interested in using this new platform for the betterment of a lot of different things, not just trying to monetize. She lives with her grandma, and she’s not leaving her grandma. She’s making sure she’s not doing anything that’s going to embarrass her hometown.
Has it been tricky to find a balance, given that she went viral for a ribald comment but is also family-oriented?
It’s just not her moral fabric to do anything that she wouldn’t have done beforehand. We’ve been offered millions of dollars in deals that would be for adult-themed appearances, sponsorships, obviously OnlyFans, and that’s not who she is. She was just featured on Rolling Stone’s website, and they basically call her Gen Z’s Dolly Parton. That’s the North Star. Dolly Parton is from a small town in Tennessee, she’s funny as all get out, and she’s not afraid to say funny things about her boobs. But you still have core values of someone from a small town. It’s Rolling Stone calling her America’s sweetheart and the hero we all need right now. People love her from all over the world.
Would she consider dabbling in acting?
She’s not an actress. We’ve turned down a number of movie offers, including several horror movies. One was from a mini-major company, and the others are indies. One producer wanted to reshoot his movie’s ending to include her. I just got another offer literally five minutes ago. I’ve talked to these producers and said, “Hire an actress.” She’s not a professional actress. She’s funny. Her lane’s going to be doing comedic things and potentially doing something down the road in that way. We are looking at launching a podcast with her, which is going to be in her comedic tone, but also very relatable and very authentic to who she is as a small-town girl.
What’s the possible plan or pitch for a podcast?
We’ve been approached by three different ones. A comedy-based podcast — people just want to talk with her and get to know her more. Ten minutes ago, I literally was on the phone with one of the three-lettered agencies in L.A. They’re very keen on closing a deal with us, and we’ll take a meeting soon. We met with some agents in Nashville. We’re doing a New York press run and an L.A. press run. There are some amazing people locking us in for interviews.
Is it her hope to sign with a Hollywood agency?
She doesn’t really even know what that means. No disrespect to that. There’s so much deal-flow coming in, and we have a team that vets everything. Phase one was completed this week, which was, let’s protect her and get her social media in order. In four days, she went over a million followers on Instagram and a million followers on TikTok.
I know there has been talk about a reality show possibly being in the works. What’s the latest with that?
A reality show is being developed. There are a couple different ideas. We’ll be sitting down with a couple of the showrunners that have already had calls with us and flesh that out. There’s the docu format that would be, “Here’s someone from a small town who’s now recognizable and thrown in the deep end. What’s the day in the life?” That’s the obvious one, and we’re vetting that out. The other thing that’s really of interest to her is traveling because she had never been on a plane before this. I go, “Can you imagine if you go to Japan or France or these exotic places, and it’s like a fish out of water with you and your friends?”
How would you respond to anyone who might cynically think that part of the motivation for a signing like this is to get attention for your company?
We’re passing on every deal with every brand that is not looking for a long-term relationship with her, and those brands have to be aligned with her core values. The agents that we just talked to a couple minutes ago, they’re like, “This is a story of hope, and people love to read about that. Would she be interested in doing a book?” Down the road, as we have all these other touch points developed, I think we’re interested in that. There’s obviously massive interest in doing appearances and signing. We have 75 offers right now, just in the States. We just got offered 20 cities in Europe to go out there, and there’s a team presenting Australia right now as well.
That would be like a speaking tour?
She would go out there and tell her story and what has happened since that magical night, and then what she plans to do with the rest of her life, and then take Q&A from the audience. Everyone’s just intrigued to know how Haliey Welch from Belfast, Tennessee, is dealing with hanging out with Shaquille O’Neal and Zach Bryan and getting calls from the biggest artists in the world wanting to do collaborations.
The Zach Bryan stage appearance got a lot of attention.
Today, we got offered by American Idol because they saw her sing on the Zach Bryan stage. In the email was, “We saw her sing at the Zach Bryan show, and she had such an amazing voice. We’d love to see how we can get her on the show.” I emailed back, “She can’t sing at all. Did you even watch the performance? Because she couldn’t carry a tune in a bag.” If there’s something that is a fun promotional tie-in, we’re huge supporters of American Idol. But she’s not singing, and she doesn’t want to take jobs away from people who are talented in those regards. She knows her lane. People love to hear a girl with that accent be funny and talk about real stuff, and that’s where we’re going to focus.
Do you worry about the window for her success closing relatively quickly?
If she wasn’t who she was, we’d be more concerned about 15 minutes. But the fact that she calls her company 16 Minutes LLC, I think her head’s on straight. We’re getting offers for November and December already, so that’s a good barometer. My inbox hasn’t stopped since we started representing her, and that’s a good sign because a lot of times, these things go away in a couple days. As long as people get to hear her speak and meet her, they’re going to fall in love, and she can determine what path she wants to take because there are endless opportunities for her.
Is there a final message you’d like to pass along for any haters questioning her path?
Her 15 minutes are up. She’s already on 16.
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