Beyond her role in the breakout HBO series, Reid has taken on several heart-wrenching projects this year, including her starring role in Missing. A follow-up to the film Searching, the thriller follows June (Reid), who must take matters into her own hands when her mother goes missing while on vacation in Colombia. “Playing June was the most challenging role I’ve had yet because of the technical aspects of production. Everything was filmed on iPhones, watches, and computers, so I couldn’t rely on stage partners or camera angles to emphasize emotions. It really pushed me as an actor,” she admits.
It’s hard to believe that Reid needed any more pushing, especially considering her uncanny ability to embody the circumstances of her characters’ lives without getting lost in them. When I ask how she does it, she confesses, “I always try to step into my character’s shoes wholeheartedly and experience how they’re feeling and experience their given circumstance while also not neglecting how I would feel. It’s hard at times to differentiate the two, so I always have to remind myself that my character’s reality is not mine. That helps me escape the sadness, fear, or whatever my character’s going through.”
Reid makes a concerted effort to remind herself that there are grains of truth in every character she’s playing, even if she’s in a world that feels far out, like that of HBO’s adaptation of the video game The Last of Us. While the critically acclaimed series follows the fallout from a fungal disease that turns people into zombie-like creatures, it’s not lost on Reid that the global-pandemic story line hits home, as it’s comparable to what we’ve collectively been dealing with for the past few years. She states, “Of course, their pandemic is way different than what we went through, but it’s still a similar situation of feeling isolated and alone and not knowing what to do, and I think that’s so beautifully depicted in the series.” She pauses, then continues, “Even with these last few episodes, you can feel the sadness, the loneliness. That’s what many of us felt during these last few years. My character [Riley] and her friend [Ellie] are just young people trying to figure it out in this crazy world. That’s what everybody’s doing—we’re all trying to figure it out amid all the madness and noise.”
H&M has revamped its activewear selection with the release of its new line, H&M Move, designed to get people moving in unexpected and style-forward ways. Naturally, the brand tapped none other than actress, activist, and fitness icon Jane Fonda to be the face of its Empower campaign.
“H&M is a huge clothing business,” Fonda told Who What Wear at a launch event at H&M’s new Move Studio in Brooklyn. “When they said [they were] going to launch this campaign to get people to move, I thought, that is something I should get in on.” As the brains behind one of the most successful workout crazes of the 1980s, Fonda knows a thing or two about getting people excited about fitness. She credits its continued success to her making “a point of including all kinds of people” in her videos, as well as the simple yet easy-to-follow moves. Another way to get people moving? Great activewear, and for Fonda, that means skipping neutrals. “I love all the bright colors,” she said of the pieces in H&M’s new Move line.
While Fonda believes movement is critical for lifelong wellness, there are also other tenets she deems just as important. For starters, she says that “staying curious” and “interested in people and life” are vital, as well as surrounding yourself with solid friendships. “I have very brave, smart, women friends,” she explains. “They are all younger than [me], but they make me feel brave and put starch in my spine.”
Now that you’ve been adequately convinced to get moving, shop H&M’s new activewear offering, including a few pieces from the Move collection below.
Let’s talk about Lady Phoebe. She is an aristocratic socialite whose every move is followed by paparazzi, but despite what many may assume, she is arguably the kindest person of her friend group. What really stood out to you about her?
When I got this audition and I read the byline of the character and it was like, “She’s famous, and she loves the tabloids, and she’s a party girl,” I was like, “Oh yeah, I know the type.” But then it followed on with “but she’s the loveliest person you’ll ever meet.” I thought it was such a lovely take on… You know we are poking fun at these characters at the end of the day, but it’s really nice that, even though she’s privileged, she’s trying to make good with it, and she shows kindness to everyone that enters her world. And just because she doesn’t step outside of her world doesn’t necessarily mean she’s a bad person. So that was really lovely. And it’s also nice.
I was always happy on set—well, for part one of it. I remember we were all standing around in Sundry House, the set of Sundry House, and one of our directors was like, “And remember, you all hate Joe, or Jonathan. You all suspect him,” and then he went, “Apart from Phoebe!” And I was like, “Aw, that’s just sweet.” And I was like, “See, Penn, I’m your friend.” And he was like, “Yeah, you are friends with a serial killer.” And I was like, “Wait, actually fair point. That makes her even more vulnerable.” That’s the thing I was even more worried about when we were getting the scripts through. … I hope that Joe recognizes that she’s a good person because even the best people in previous [seasons] he has always found fault with them. … I hope that if he can see the goodness of the character, then the audience, in turn, will because we are watching it through Joe’s lens.
It’s true—everyone in the group has their suspicions about Joe except for Phoebe. Why do you think that is?
I don’t know whether it’s just because she’s blindly trusting him for whatever reason because he’s interesting and he’s American and he’s gorgeous. So she’s like, “Great! There’s nothing wrong with you.” So maybe she’s looking at it from a shallow perspective. I don’t know, but I also think he’s shown her kindness, and she’s always been in front of people who have been harder or bitchier. Even the men she surrounds herself with are sometimes as bitchy as the girls. I think she’s so welcoming, and she sees a guy that is not from London, doesn’t have a lot of friends, and she wants to extend this kindness that she has to him, and she feels like he’s this lost little lamb that needs taking under her wing, and she’s got the means to do so. So I think that’s the least of her troubles. It’s like, “Yeah, of course, hang out with us. That’s not an issue. Let me learn about you, and hopefully, you can give me some love that I so desperately need that I’m not getting from anyone else.”
In terms of building the character, did you have any specific people or references in mind?
I had a few. At first, I thought she was going to be a little more Kate Moss, a little more rock and roll. But that’s just because I want to be Kate Moss even though I’m so not cool like Kate Moss. There’s a joke in my friendship group that I’m Kate Moss’s grandma probably, just like an old lady. So I was like, “Yes, she’s like Kate Moss rock and roll!” And they cast me, and I [thought], “Actually no, she’s probably a little more prim and proper.” But I know styling-wise … and actually character-wise also she was very much based on Paris Hilton because it’s the most obvious reference. When you think pink heiress, you think of Paris. You know, Paris is also infamously kind to her fans as well. Not going into spoiler territory, but the way Phoebe deals with her stalker is incredibly kind. Watching Paris’s documentary, she really invites her fans out to meet her, and I can imagine Phoebe probably doing the same thing.
Also, [I was inspired by] our British socialites, especially from the ’90s, who were always photographed just having fun on nights out, being girly girls. They are all just having a white-wine night out, but they are getting photographed doing so and maybe stumbling over to another bar. I drew a lot of references from that. I think Phoebe is alluded to being a party girl, but we don’t really see it on-screen because a lot of it’s about how she interacts with people.
She seems like a fun character to play, especially from a fashion sense. Can you tell me about the wardrobe conversations for Phoebe?
Our costume designer, Sam Perry, is amazing, and I love her. She put me in the coolest stuff I think I’ll ever wear on a TV show. So obviously, the mood board was a lot of Paris Hilton—Paris Hilton and blazer dresses and power suits because, at the end of the day, Phoebe is a businesswoman like Paris Hilton, and they are businesses themselves, so she’s got to take herself seriously sometimes. We had a whole shopping day where it was like walking into Aladdin’s cave of designer dresses, and it was amazing. We wanted her to feel sexy in her clothes but not desperately sexy. She’s sexy because she wants her boyfriend to fancy her and notices he’s slipping away.
We had a whole shopping day for that first dress from the first episode, and I remember the note was something like… Because I tried on so many sparkly dresses and that was one that was quite big for me, the note [said] that it looks like it could fall off at any time, which it did. I feel like I walk around in that dress in the first episode like I’ve got rigor mortis. I was so scared of that dress falling down. I never lift my arms. So yeah, it was just sexy, and even when she’s got a pearl necklace on, it’s a Vivi Westwood. It’s got that little fun—I call her Vivi Westwood like I know her. Rest in peace. You know, it’s fun. She’s always taking something quintessentially British and posh and putting a fun sparkle on it. And even if I’ve got a plain pink dress on, they would put tinsel in my hair. So it was Barbie-fying lots of stuff.
Ironically, doing just that—performing in front of people—is often anxiety inducing for Waisglass. In a moment of real honesty, she admits to me she panics any time she gets an audition. But Ginny & Georgia was different. Reading the sides for Maxine, she immediately fell in love with the character. “With her fast talking, with her oversharing, with her morbidity, she just popped right off the page for me, and I felt an immediate connection,” she says. “I’ve never had that happen before. I was just so excited to get into the room, and … when I got into the room, I said to the casting director, ‘How much fun can I have with this? How crazy can I go?’ And he was like, ‘Go nuts!’ I did, and I think that informed what Max became.” Sure enough, Max, in all of her energetic and eccentric glory, became an instant fan favorite.
A full two years passed between filming season one and season two (thank you, COVID), but as soon as Waisglass sat back in the hair-and-makeup chair, it was like Max had never left her. “I cried,” she laughs.
Though, it’s safe to say the Max we return to at the beginning of season two, which premiered last week, is far from the bubbly 15-year-old we know and love. Still reeling from the betrayal of Ginny and Abby and mourning the fallout of her relationship with Sophie, Max is heartbroken, bitter, and self-involved. But this season proves to be a growth period for her, a story line that also intrigued Waisglass. “What I’m excited for, definitely near the end of the season, is that Max is more sure of herself, and she knows what hurts her and what helps her, and she sets boundaries, which is really a beautiful thing, especially at 15,” she says. “I didn’t even know the word boundary until I was 22, so I’m very proud of her. I think she is very mature.”
But it’s not all doom and gloom for Max this season. We get to see a healthy new relationship for her. “The difference there is that, instead of chasing Sophie, Silver is just someone who sees [Max] and really likes everything about her. [She] likes her style [and] likes her energy, and it isn’t forced, and Max doesn’t feel like she’s trying, which is a really beautiful thing,” Waisglass says. There is also Max’s performance in Wellsbury High School’s fall musical production of Wellington (definitely not Bridgerton!), which proves to be yet another scene-stealing moment for Waisglass. The actress adds, “Max’s arc with Wellington is she’s letting other people take that spotlight, and she’s understanding her space and her role in her life. It kind of mimics her role in the show.” We also get to see more of the relationship between Max and her twin brother Marcus (“We have some really beautiful scenes together”) and, of course, the return of MANG. “That was also something that immediately attracted me to the script when I first read it because I love a good female friendship and representation of a good female friendship,” she says.
Scían is played by Michelle Yeoh, who is having such a moment right now. What was it like working with her?
We were talking about projects she had done before. I think we were talking about clothing, and in the conversation, she was like, “I was shooting this film, and we had to do part of it on green screen,” and I was like, “Oh, what was the film?” She was like, “It’s this film that has hot-dog fingers.” In my mind, I was like, “Hot-dog fingers? Okay, what B movie is this?” I only clocked it when I went to see Everything Everywhere All at Once, and when I saw the hot-dog fingers, I gasped! I messaged her (I call her Mama Michelle), and I said, “Mama Michelle, you just inspired me again. I can’t believe it.” I already knew beforehand when she was cast what an honor and privilege it was to be able to witness her work and to work with her. Then to be able to actually go through that process and learn so much from her personally and professionally, it’s just cool. And to see her now getting her flowers, I’m just like, “Wow, what an amazing position to be able to witness someone who I now regard as a friend … get her moment at her age.” It’s just incredible. I love it.
Up next, you have the Russell T Davies limited series You & Me. It’s a contemporary love story that focuses on three different characters. Can you tell me about your character Jess and what intrigued you about the project?
Immediately after doing The Witcher: Blood Origin, I wanted something that was quite simple and delicate. It was a much smaller world, and you get a little insight into these two people, and it came at the perfect time. [My character] Jess, we find her in a place where she is trying to figure out what to do in London. She has a strong sense of self, but she doesn’t know what she wants to do. And she meets Ben, a person who changes the course of her life. We get to witness little moments of their relationship growing and where they go. I was drawn to it because I haven’t seen many stories in London trying to capture that pocket of life where you are out of university, and you don’t really know what you want to do, and you’ve got some sort of qualifications, but you are broke, and you are living in this capital city that has everything on offer, but it doesn’t seem on offer to you, which I think that happens for a lot of people. And you maybe meet somebody, and you nestle in together, and they become your person, and they become closer to you than your family, and you create this little pocket of your own world, and you become obsessed with it. I really got that from the script when I first read it, and I really wanted to be that person that created that pocket of the world.
In terms of fashion and beauty, you seem to be someone who has a lot of fun mixing up your look.
I love fashion. I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m somebody who knows all the designers, but it’s an extension of my creativity, from my nail color right down to my socks. However I’m feeling on a day, I like to wear that and let that be an extension of my mood. That’s what has been so much fun as well. Doing these projects and press for them, I’ve been able to play around with my identity in so many different ways. I’m being introduced to different designers from either stylists or looking ideas up for character costumes or stuff like that. So yeah, I definitely love fashion. It’s a thread within my artistry.
The Witcher: Blood Origin is now streaming on Netflix.
For people discovering you for the first time, how would you describe your music? And what song of yours should they start with?
That is a very interesting question. I have a few different projects coming out, so I’m touching on a lot of different genres at the moment, which is cool, but my solo project that is out now, Younger Skin, is more R&B based because that’s the core of who I am. It’s foundational for me. And the song I would want people to listen to off of there would be “Out of Time” just because it encompasses everything. It tells the story of who I am as an artist.
You released your debut EP, Younger Skin, in October, and it’s your first-ever solo project. How does this collection of songs reflect where you are at personally and as an artist?
This project, for me, meant everything, only because it is the foundation. It is the introduction for people into who I am as an artist. I’ve been around and in the recording industry for years, but this is the first time that I was actually able to tell my story honestly and just talk about what it’s been like for me as an artist in this industry trying to pursue this full-time. So Younger Skin is that for me—the embodiment of who I am as an artist. It actually tells the story of my journey, and it ends up where I am today, which is in this position of empowerment. I have a really great team of people around me. I am finally able to let my guard down and be myself completely and explore. Every day is a learning process for me.
Is there a song on this EP that is particularly close to your heart?
It’s hard because really the entire project is a complete story. I feel like all the songs can stand on their own, though, and for me, “The Others” really represents… I feel the most connected to “The Others” just because I felt guided while I was writing it, and while we were in the studio, it came about so seamlessly and effortlessly. The melodies came really easily, and the lyrical content was there, and I really did feel like there was something in the room with us, like a bigger energy guiding us [and] like this is definitely the right thing to do at this moment.
Can you tell us a bit about your creative process of writing and recording music?
It’s a fun process for me. I am constantly listening to music, as you can imagine. As an artist, I’m always drawing inspiration from things around me but also mostly music. So whenever I know I’m about to go into the studio to start a new project, I start collecting songs that feel like the direction I want to go in and gather a sound. So sonically, it always comes together like that. And then once I’m in the studio, we usually tinker around with keyboards and guitars or whatever to come up with a theme. … Once we have a rough melody, I like getting on the microphone and mumbling things and just seeing what comes out, and it usually fumbles out of me. There will be a lyric that will pop out, and it will remind me of something that’s going on in my life or some story a friend told me or a movie I’ve watched, and we build it from there.
In Jess, Olivera found a fearless, smart, and ambitious young woman. “What I love about her the most is she has a lot of courage in every aspect of her life,” she says. “She shows courage in life because of the circumstances she’s in. She never had a relationship with her father. She’s going through the grieving phase after losing her mother. She’s a Dreamer, so she’s a recipient of DACA, so that in itself is another form of courage she’s had to put on. But she’s also courageous in her friendships. She’s not afraid to be wrong. She has courage in the fact that she’s constantly there for her friends no matter what. And she has courage in her belief in herself, and I think that’s really beautiful.”
Olivera’s entry point to the character came via their shared care for family and their Mexican heritage. Though Jess is first-generation and Oliviera is second-generation, they both have very strong ties to Mexico, which allowed the actress to relate to and understand Jess better.
While stepping in to lead a beloved franchise (and filling the shoes of Nicolas Cage) is no easy feat, Olivera took the responsibility seriously and felt safe in the hands of the creators who entrusted her with the role. It also helped that she had co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones to lean on. The legendary actress, who plays black-market-antiquities dealer Billie Pearce, was like a mother figure on set. “She was so willing to put me under [her] wing, and I really felt like she was going to take care of me,” Olivera shares. “She definitely pulled through for me in moments when I felt like certain set days were more difficult. It was a really grueling filming process. TV works really fast, and I was in almost every scene, so that was very tiring. Every single time she would come to set, she was constantly checking in on me. She was like, ‘How’s my princess?’”
For an actress early in her career, that kind of mentorship proved invaluable. Zeta-Jones also gave Olivera the reassurance to speak up for her needs and take her time. “She gave me a lot of encouragement, and it helped me feel less stuck in that process,” she says. “It was just really lovely to get to hear that she had had similar experiences herself and learned that… In a scene, don’t rush. Take your time. We can take it again if we needed to.”
It’s powerhouse women like Zeta-Jones as well as the likes of Sandra Bullock, Amy Adams, Viola Davis, and Sandra Oh and their diverse acting résumés (crossing over from TV to film and across comedy to drama) who continue to be an inspiration for Olivera. “They have had such longevity in their careers, and what more could I want in mine just starting out? I look up to them,” she says, her eyes starting to light up. Olivera’s exposure to the cinematic world started at a young age when her obsession with the animated film My Neighbor Totoro (“I watched it every weekend”) showed her that something existed in the world where she could escape, feel certain emotions, and be a part of a story that wasn’t her own. And it’s that transformative element that continues to fuel her passion for the craft.
The same goes for Olivera’s fashion philosophy. “I never want to be held to dressing one way,” she says of her ever-evolving aesthetic. When asked if she has any current style icons, she is quick to name Janelle Monáe—with whom she shares a stylist, Alexandra Mandelkorn. “She is constantly showing up to show out!” she says of the actress and musician. “With her, even when she shows up to the Met or any look in general, it’s just so uniquely her. And she can also do a variation of a bunch of different looks.” Similar to acting, red carpets offer Olivera a sense of escapism.
As for the National Treasure: Edge of History press, Olivera and Mandelkorn have some tricks up their sleeves. She can’t tell me much but says to expect some clever nods to the project and maybe some Latin American designers. “For me, I love a lot of patterns. In general, I think color is really brilliant, and if it’s done in a way that suits me, then I think we are hitting the money,” she adds.
Aside from the standard salutations, my rudimentary Italian doesn’t get me very far. Fortunately, Tabasco is accompanied by her translator, Chiara Nanni, who helps our conversation flow despite the language barrier. I begin the interview by asking about Tabasco’s initial impression of Lucia, to which she quickly responds, “Do you mind if I start in Italian?” It’s rapid-fire from there as we discuss Lucia’s potential backstory, character arc, and, of course, bold “look at me” style. “My first impression [of Lucia] was an incredibly positive one. But I was curious about how elements of her personality would shine through,” Tabasco explains. Prior to auditioning, she did not realize that Lucia was a sex worker, but when on set with the series’ writer and director, Mike White, they were able to further develop the richness of her character and critically determine that Lucia did not pursue sex work from a position of desperation, but rather with a sense of self-empowerment. This, Tabasco acknowledges, is an important distinction: Lucia does not serve as a representative of all sex workers or their experiences. Her story is about one woman in a very particular time and place.
From that perspective, it is important for audiences to see that Lucia’s high energy and ebullience are intentionally reflected in bold costumes, which appear in almost every color of the rainbow. Though Tabasco is quick to denote Lucia’s little red dress in the premiere as the best visual representation of the character, the sequined lilac minidress with the heavenly motif is also special and appears significant to Lucia’s growth. “I’ve never interpreted a character like Lucia, where her body is such a focal point,” she says. “She is so free, and that’s a big part of her story.”
This sense of autonomy and self-expression informed not only the costume design but also Tabasco’s acting choices. The White Lotus is, surprisingly, one of Tabasco’s first forays into the world of comedy. (In Italy, Tabasco is known for her roles in police and medical dramas.) Still, she claims to have only improvised one line: Let’s fun. “Given my dubious English, I say ‘let’s fun’ when at the table with the two guys. At the moment, I thought it was grammatically correct, but then I saw Mike was laughing, and I was like, ‘Why are you laughing?’” she recalls, poking fun at herself. After filming that scene, “let’s fun” became a phrase often used among the cast and crew.
8. Strong lip or a strong eye? Red lip and kitten liner.
9. You’re having your nails done. What’s your go-to color? I usually do a different color on thumbs than rest of hands, and it might be a combo of red and pink.
10. What is your beauty philosophy in a sentence? Nature will make you the most beautiful inside out, so be in it as much as possible.
Before I ask Chalamet for her insight on all things Parisienne chic (her father is French, and she grew up speaking the language), we start with the basics and head back to school with Kimberly and the rest of the Essex crew. Season two of College Girls, which premiered on HBO in mid-November, wastes no time rehashing the messiness of freshman year with the story picking up shortly after season one’s finale. Though, returning to picturesque upstate New York from her small hometown in Arizona may have been less jarring for Chalamet’s character than it was for the actress herself. With a full calendar year passing between the premieres of seasons one and two, plus nearly as much time between filming, Chalamet was concerned about reentering Kimberly’s very particular and well-developed headspace after so much time away. Unlike her character’s continued woes about finances, frat bros, and the female reproductive system, the season premiere makes it clear that Chalamet hasn’t missed a beat. Kimberly is back and, if I may say so, even better than last season.
“When we started filming again, I had a moment of panic where I was like, ‘I did this. … What if I can’t redo it?’” confessed Chalamet. “I never thought I would do comedy. But it’s about timing. Timing is so important, and I was like, ‘What if I don’t have the timing? What if I can’t hear it anymore?’” Once Chalamet was on set, however, the lovably naïve Kimberly quickly reappeared thanks in part to a relatable character arc that takes place over season two’s 10 episodes. Chalamet was particularly proud of the narrative that creators Mindy Kaling and Justin Nobel wrote for Kimberly about finding the means to pay her tuition. “When you’re 18 years old and you decide to get money, you find a way to get money. She finds a solution that leaves the door open, but the consequences may come back later on in your life,” she says. Needless to say, there’s ample humor injected into an otherwise nerve-racking predicament, which provides several opportunities for Chalamet to shine.
I was scrolling Instagram and came across a headline that stopped me dead in my tracks: “Jonathan Majors Made Glen Powell Pitch Him Devotion While Completely Naked in a Russian Bathhouse.” I need to know more. How did this happen?
What’s so crazy about that headline? That doesn’t seem that crazy. I guess I’ve just been pitching that way my whole career, and finally, somebody wrote about it. No, the funniest part of that… Well, there are two parts to that story. One is that I knew that I wanted Jonathan Majors to star in this, and I’m such a fan of his work that I was like, “Where can I meet Jonathan?” And they said, “Go to New York.” So I was like, “Okay, cool. I’ll meet him in New York. Where does he want to meet?” And they said there is this bathhouse. I think it was in the West Village or something like that, and I was like, “Alright, cool.” They were like, “Is that okay?” And I was like, “Yeah, sure. That sounds fun. We will steam and pitch.” So it was really funny in the fact that we walk into this Russian bathhouse, and yes, very quickly you get completely undressed. I think two minutes into knowing each other we were completely naked. Did I pitch him naked the whole time? No. But were there times we were talking about the movie while [naked]? Yeah, sure. It bonds you together. It’s all honesty. It’s all on the table—metaphorically, literally, the whole thing. It was an appropriate start to our relationship. We had to be in the trenches together, so you might as well just put it all out there and know who you are in the trenches with, I guess.
Amazing! So it’s safe to say Devotion wouldn’t have happened without you. You were the one to recommend Black Label Media option the rights to the 2014 book Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice about the friendship between naval officers Jesse Brown and Tom Hudner during the Korean War. Why were you so invested in bringing Brown and Hudner’s story to the big screen?
First off, it was a story nobody knew about that I thought was such a beautiful story of how far you are willing to go for a wingman. Also, my grandfather was a Korean War veteran, and there were no movies that had been made about it. It’s literally a forgotten war. Nobody talks about the Korean War. So to do service to every person wearing uniform during that time period, I think [it] is really important. But I also think the racial conversation that happened because of this movie [is important]. When I read the script or when I read the book, I immediately was like, “What a complicated relationship between these two men.” It was one that didn’t boil down racial dynamics like a lot of movies in the ’90s or early 2000s did, where it simplified it down to “Oh, I didn’t like you, but now, I like you.” There was something so modern about the story. For instance, modern-day racial conversations. During the Black Lives Matter protests, it was “Post a black square,” and I was like, “What does that do?” Solidarity is such an important thing, but how do we do it in a way that’s real? How do we put skin in the game? How do we change the conversation? All of these things are at a much different level than just things that make you complicit or things that make you not feel guilty. And this movie felt like all those things that were going on in my head and conversations I was having with different friends. It really felt like it explored a modern-day conversation with a classic friendship. And I think that’s what drew me to the story, and over the course of developing it, the nuances of it just became more and more exciting. I’m really proud of what it is and how it exists.
How did you come across the original book?
I had a friend that recommended the book to me, and then my uncle recommended the book to me, and I ended up reading it on this fishing trip with my family. We all ended up reading it and being like, “Wow, there is a movie here.” And the more I thought about it, it’s not an obvious movie because the ending is a certain thing and the dynamic between the two of them. They are not like best friends, but they are really like soulmates, and the Korean War is not necessarily like a war that a studio goes, “Let’s make a movie about the Korean War!” So there were all these kinds of things against it, and that, for me, was when it started feeling more obvious—when the chips are down. When something is too obvious, sometimes it blends in with the filmography of every other thing, and it doesn’t rise to challenge the filmmakers or the actors to make something special. And because there were so many things against this, I go, “Everybody on board is going to have to rise to the occasion to make this thing really special,” and everybody did.
You play Tom Hudner and actually had a chance to meet with him shortly before he passed away. How did your meeting with him influence your role as a producer on the film and your portrayal on-screen?
It’s a really great question because it’s really tough to meet the person you are playing. I’ve played real-life people before, but I think this is the only time I’ve actually gotten to meet the person I’m playing. And to look a family in the eyes—the Hudner family, the Brown family, Tom Hudner himself—and say, “If you give me the rights to this book and your life, I’ll tell the story correctly,” it’s a promise that you just hope you are able to keep, and it really does put a lot of pressure on you to do it right.
In terms of the character, you actually have to separate yourself a little bit. I’ve become such great friends with the Browns and the Hudners, but you really have to separate yourself and go, “This was a man who was flawed. This is a man who had insecurities and wants and needs and was disappointing to people close to him and all these things.” That’s what you have to do as an actor. You have to throw rocks at your characters, and because I love this man so much, you don’t want to throw rocks at him. But if you don’t throw rocks at him, you don’t have a movie. So it really made it very interesting and complicated to play, but [Tom] Cruise on Top Gun always said this one phrase that has really become a big compass for me, which is “pressure is a privilege.” When you make something that has a lot of pressure on it, especially something with familial pressure [and the] pressure you are putting on yourself to tell the story right, it means you are doing something right. Showing this movie to those families was so nerve-racking for me. They loved it. They are obsessed with it and such supporters of it. But it’s a thing. This is the legacy of these two men, and to show that on-screen in front of the world was more naked than I felt in front of Jonathan Majors at a bathhouse.
The universe has a funny way of bringing things full circle. For actress Anna Diop, finding her way to the film Nanny was one of those moments. It started a couple of years back when a writer on the show Titans emailed her about an exciting new filmmaker named Nikyatu Jusu. He thought she could be the next Barry Jenkins and encouraged Diop to check out her work. She watched Jusu’s short film Suicide by Sunlight and was blown away. “I was so taken by the originality of the story—the way that it was told through this dark genre, the social issues she was contending with in the story, the characters. Just across the board, I was really impressed with this filmmaker,” she says from a hotel room in New York City. Diop sent Jusu’s stuff to her reps hoping to connect, but nothing came of it. Two years went by. Then, Nanny appeared in her inbox. Jusu was looking for her lead, and she wanted Diop to read for it.
Nanny premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it nabbed the coveted Grand Jury Prize (it is the first horror film in the festival’s 44-year history to do so, and Jusu is only the second Black woman to win the honor), and Diop’s excellent central performance has received immense critical praise. The film is a poignant look at the immigrant experience, centering on a young Senegalese woman named Aisha (Diop) who takes a job as a nanny to a wealthy family in hopes of bringing her son to the United States. But when a violent supernatural presence begins to haunt her dreams and creep into her reality, it threatens everything she’s worked for.
“We haven’t seen many films focused on an individual that is outside the primary part of our Western society,” Diop says of what initially attracted her to the film. “This is a woman who is a domestic worker and an immigrant, and it excited me that we were doing a project that was focused on her, that the gaze was on her, that it was depicting the nuances and complexities of her humanity.” There was a lot for Diop to connect to personally too. The actress herself is Senegalese. She immigrated to the U.S. at a young age with her mother, who worked as a nanny. Growing up, she was surrounded and raised by women who worked these jobs, and she experienced firsthand what it is like to survive in spaces that weren’t built for her.
Aisha is someone Diop deeply related to, and when I ask what was important for her to show audiences with her portrayal of the character, she tells me that what was written in the script was already so rich. “[Jusu] really wrote a full person,” she says. “You see Aisha fall in love. You see Aisha in moments of loneliness and depression. You see her love for her child. You see her try to navigate the craziness that is Amy. You see her love a child and take care of a child that isn’t her own.” With so many layers already on the page, it was Diop’s job to make each of those moments honest and full, which she does triumphantly.
Interestingly enough, before Diop was attached to the project, Aisha wasn’t specifically Senegalese yet. Jusu had always planned to tweak the script to fit whatever actress would play the part, so when Diop signed on, she updated the role to fit the specificities of Senegalese culture.
Having spent most of her life in the U.S., the actress had to work at finding her Senegalese accent, so she enlisted the help of a professor and linguist in Senegal to find the right balance. “I couldn’t just do a true full-Senegalese accent because people would struggle to understand,” she shares. “But luckily, it still made sense for Aisha’s character because she’s very educated and has been studying English for a very long time, so we still found what was true but also clear enough.” Diop worked with the dialect coach for three to four hours every day for two weeks leading up to filming.
Additional prep included creating music playlists that Aisha might have listened to. Think lots of old-school soulful and spiritual Senegalese music mixed with some newer Senegalese artists and a little bit of Lauryn Hill. There was also the unique tactic she employed to understand Aisha’s various states of psychosis throughout the film.
“I bought four large cork boards and hundreds of flash cards,” she tells me. “I had pink ones and blue ones. The pink ones were the ones where she was having a normal moment where she knows she’s sane and everything is fine, and I wrote down the event of that scene. ‘Aisha walking down the street. She’s about to board the subway.’ Okay. ‘Aisha meets Malik. They flirt.’ Okay. And then in blue, I wrote all the moments where she’s not sure what she’s experiencing is reality or what the fuck is going on. ‘She finds herself in a pool drowning in water.’ ‘She finds herself suffocating from a sheet.’ All of those moments, I put it all on the boards, and what I saw was, at the beginning of the board, you see a little bit of blue here and there, a little sprinkle. And then as the film progresses, you see more and more blue and the ascension of her insanity and madness. That helped me because we shoot out of sequence. So before my day would start, I’d be like, ‘Okay, we’re doing scenes 13, 49, and 12. I’m sane. I’m sane, but I’ve experienced this much blue, so I’m this much deranged or confused about what’s going on.”
The slow burn of a young woman on the cusp of losing her mind is what makes the psychological thriller so enthralling to watch. That and the beautiful cinematography by Rina Yang. Moving through dreamlike states and the real world, the blue- and yellow-tinged lighting creates an eeriness, and scenes involving bodies of water are deliciously haunting.
It was Jusu’s intention to mix an American immigrant story with genre as a way to create more entry points for people to find the film. Coming off its award at Sundance and its premiere at TIFF, the success of Nanny has the potential to open doors for more projects like it. “I hope it inspires people—filmmakers and writers that have those stories inside of them that they want to tell, that they are afraid won’t get the attention or won’t sell. I hope it inspires them to want to tell those stories and encourages them to tell those stories,” Diop says. She also hopes the film elicits a larger understanding from audiences of how we benefit from these types of workers who are often invisible and how their existence within our society helps us to do the things we do. “I hope it expands people’s empathy and also their perspective of their places in the world,” she adds.
This kind of original and impactful storytelling is what drives Diop as an actress. She describes herself as an actor’s actor, one whose education of the craft is never finished. There was a summer Shakespeare course at Oxford, then a famous acting teacher in New York and a range of studios in L.A. She has read every book she can get her hands on. “I never wanted another actor to know about another technique that I don’t know about,” she admits. The result is a successful 16-year career. But at 34 years old, there’s so much more she’s eager to take on. “Across the board, across race and cultures, filmmakers … are telling new stories and in sometimes new ways that are mixing genres or playing with new genres. That makes me really excited, and I hope to be a part of their orbits,” she says. Universe, are you listening?
Catch Nanny in theaters now and streaming on Amazon Prime Video December 16.
Let’s take it back to the beginning. How did your journey with The Fabelmans first begin?
It was April of 2021 around Easter, and Amblin [Partners, Steven Spielberg’s production company] sent an email to my agent and manager, and as soon as they saw Amblin, they immediately sent it to me—like, “Oh my god, your name has come up. This is an opportunity of a lifetime!” So I did a self-tape, and I actually forgot to slate and do the full. In auditions for self-tapes, they always want a full-body shot, and I forgot to do both of those things. I sent it in, and I felt so sad and was like, “I hope I didn’t just ruin my dream self-tape.” But within a few days, they said, “Steven really liked it, and we’ll keep you posted.” That was all I really needed. Even if I didn’t get the part, that was going to satisfy me. And then on my birthday, I got a call from Steven, and he wished me a happy birthday, and he said I was going to be a part of the movie.
What an epic birthday gift! Outside of it being a Steven Spielberg project, what aspects of the story resonated with you when reading the script?
Steven likes to say that no family is perfect, and I definitely could tell what the story was by the sides I was given. It was such a powerful message to really normalize regular families and imperfect families, and I think it’s a very relatable subject for many people, myself included—just to normalize that nobody is perfect. No family is perfect. We all have issues, and that is okay, and that’s normal. I think that was a really powerful message that I’m very glad to be representing.
You play Reggie Fabelman, one of the three younger sisters of the central character, Sammy. What conversations did you have with Spielberg about his own relationship with his sisters?
Well, he definitely said that through writing it he got to be closer with each and every sister, especially Anne, who my character represents. They would tell me little stories about their childhood and how their mom would cut their hair, and I actually cut my bangs for the role. They just told me stories about their relationship when they were younger and their relationship together with their mother and their father, and that was really special to get to hear about that.
Oh, I love that you got to connect with Anne too.
Oh, definitely. We still talk. We go out to lunch every now and then to catch up. She gives me miniatures, which is lovely. She’s like an aunt that gives gifts all the time. She’s so sweet. She gave me her high school ring from, I think, 1967.
That’s so special. What did you enjoy about stepping into this role?
Oh my gosh. Obviously, I enjoyed being on set and working with Steven and getting to work with my on-screen family, but I really got to know Anne, and I really got to know Reggie, and I got to create Reggie. It was such a learning experience for me to be bold and brave and to take acting risks. On the first day after a few takes, I pulled out a little improv, and Steven laughed and loved it, and I definitely think stepping into Reggie… She helped me become more confident and speak my mind. I really enjoyed that.
You and Chris O’Dowd were cast first. Did you do any chemistry testing together? Or with Jason Momoa?
I did a chemistry [test] with Jason but not with Chris. I got lucky because Chris and I just clicked on set, which is weird because our characters don’t click immediately in the movie. But we got along really well.
The chemistry test with Jason was on Zoom, and at first, I was really nervous because this was my first time meeting him. But again, he made me feel very comfortable. I had a really fun time reading our scenes together because he actually got up in the middle of our scene to quiet down his dog that was barking. That moment brought me back down to earth, and I was like, “Oh, he’s a real person.” It immediately took away all the stress and ended up being really easy.
Knowing that you’re early in your career, why do you think it’s important to tell these kinds of complex coming-of-age stories? Or is it more about the character that you’re looking to play?
After reading the script, I told the director, Francis Lawrence, during my audition that, even if I don’t get this role, I’ll still watch the movie because I felt very connected to Nemo. Her coming-of-age story, as I was filming it, felt like it was my own coming-of-age story. I felt like I was going on this big journey with Nemo. The things that she realizes in the movie have helped me in real life—to be patient with people and be more aware of my surroundings.
I noticed that you spend a lot of time underwater in Slumberland. But I assume that’s all CGI and special effects, right? What was it like acting through such imagination?
It was pretty insane. Some parts were terrifying. Some parts were thrilling. I think I was so terrified that it became thrilling for some of the scenes. But it has always been my dream to do stunts. So getting to do a lot of my own stunts was really cool. We filmed a lot in a pool, so I was underwater for water scenes.
Oh, wow! I didn’t realize you were really in the water. I thought that was all special effects.
Yes, but the crew was very calm about it. And they were like, “If you ever need a break, just let us know.” So I felt calmer filming those scenes. But there was just one stunt that I did that I was very nervous for (it was when I fell off the boat), and when I was practicing and the waves started going, I was like, “I can’t. I can’t do this. I’m sorry.” My stunt double Giuliana comes up, and she’s like, “You know what? I’m going to show you it’s totally okay. If you can’t do it, let me know, and we’ll put your face on my body.” So she demonstrated it and was talking me through it step by step. Then we started the waves at 50% speed and then 75% and then 100%, and it just became a lot easier.
Well, kudos to you. I’m blown away. I thought that was the magic of cinema, but really, it’s the magic of acting. That’s amazing. You have a lot of solid acting experience under your belt now. You are obviously very multitalented—musicals and stunts now, of course. What kinds of roles are you looking to pursue next?
I really want to be in a horror movie. I’m a scaredy-cat, and I cannot watch horror movies. They freak me out unless I’m with a good group of people. But I would love, love, love to be in a horror movie. I want one that’s like super graphic, a lot of fun makeup. I want a cool fight scene where my nose is bleeding and I’ve got this big injury or I play a monster or I’m possessed. That would be so much fun because I’d get to see what it’s like behind the scenes. … In Slumberland, there was not a lot of big, crazy, bloody action/scary stuff, so it’d be cool to see how horror movies work.
The 30-year-old found inspiration in podcasts too. Though Canfield admittedly isn’t much of a podcast girl, she found the stories from former New York detectives crucial in understanding the more sensitive aspects of the job. “I think a lot of detectives, especially if they worked in the force for a long time, have a very tough exterior shell,” she says. “I was quite surprised and moved at times hearing these often men, who were grown and had long careers, get emotional or hearing their voices break when they were talking about emotional moments because of their colleagues or because of a particularly troubling case.”
The character Janine is nothing if not loyal and determined, a lot like another of Canfield’s beloved on-screen counterparts—Jess Jordan, Kendall Roy’s right-hand woman in the Emmy-winning HBO series Succession. Canfield laughs when I bring up the comparisons but argues they have one major difference: their choice of footwear. “Jess won’t be caught dead in a flat shoe,” she says. “She wears a stiletto. She likes her feet to hurt a little bit, and she runs around on the tips of her toes. And Janine wears flat shoes that lace up, and she’s always ready to run. But not run away, like run after.”
The supporting role quickly became a breakout moment for Canfield, with Jess becoming somewhat of an anomaly among Succession fans. There is even an entire Ringer article dedicated to the character, asking the important questions about her all-consuming job. Does Jess have a chance to eat well-balanced meals? Does she hydrate? And why has she stayed by Kendall’s side all this time? The love for the tireless C-suite assistant is far from what Canfield expected going into the project, but she’s happy to be caught up in the wave. When I ask about what’s to come in season four, which returns next spring, she leaves me with this: “From what I’ve read and seen so far, it’s going to be a real doozy.”
This movie is so action-packed and features incredible special effects. What was your reaction to seeing the completed film for the first time?
Jessica, I was blown away. I almost started crying. For the most part, I was doing green screen for everything. And this was the first time I’ve ever been in a movie like this before. When I saw the final product, I almost got down to my knees and started weeping because I felt so grateful. I can’t believe this is what I am in. I never, in my wildest dreams, could have imagined it to be that. And the way they shot those action sequences and the soundtrack with it, it was art. That’s a combination of not just the CGI and the special-effects team but Jaume, most definitely Jaume. And then our DP, Lawrence Sher, he’s just out of this world. He won an Oscar for Joker. And just going back to the Western references—like Lawrence of Arabia, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly—those big cinematic-scope Westerns were definitely a style inspiration for this movie. And oh my god, did they pull it off.
Okay, let’s switch gears for a minute. Everyone wants to know when season two of Sex/Life is happening. What, if anything, can you tell us about what’s next for Billie?
[The date of] season two of Sex/Life has not been announced yet, but I’m pretty sure it’s happening next year sometime. But I’m not at liberty to say more than that now. All I can say about that is the season this year is a little different. The themes this year are really about hope and second chances—wherever your imagination can go, if you can imagine Billie talking about second chances, [and] what that would mean.
And for me, I’m sitting in this chair right now in front of you. I don’t really know too many people who have this opportunity. To sit here and talk to you about the Netflix series, this huge movie I’m a part of, and to be a female in this position is just really fucking cool to me. At the end of the day, I sit back and think, “Damn—no matter how things pan out, I’m just lucky.” I’m so grateful.
The show was watched by 67 million households in its first four weeks and centers on empowered female sexuality, which we don’t see a lot on TV. Did you know it would be such a hit?
No, not at all. My job as an actor is to tell the highest level of truth for this character. That’s the only thing I can think of—to focus on her emotions, her feelings, who she is. To make sure I’m acting between the lines and to be so full of life and be present and just raw, that was my job. I also had a lot of personal life to draw from at the moment. I’m actually writing a book right now about all of that. But I was floored when I saw the response that all those people tuned in. Again, I sit here with so much humbleness. I guess hard work works. And keep going. Just put your head down, stop and smell the roses every once in a while, but this too shall pass just like everything else. I don’t get too attached to success. I don’t get too attached to failure. I just try to do me every single step of the way, and as long as my kids are provided for and I’m happy and healthy and they are too, that’s all I care about.
