On Thursday night, November 6, in Los Angeles, Maude Apatow was recognized at the Women in Film 2025 WIF Honors with the Max Mara Face of the Future Award. Boasting an impressive list of past recipients—including Zoë Saldana, Katie Holmes, Yara Shahidi, and Lili Reinhart—the award, now celebrating its 20th year, recognizes a young actor at a turning point in her career.
Apatow, 27, first appeared on-screen in her dad, Judd Apatow’s, 2007 film Knocked Up and has since carved out a space for herself in film and television with roles in Euphoria, The King of Staten Island, and One of Them Days. Now, she’s stepping behind the camera with her directorial debut, Poetic License, a coming-of-age film that earned strong reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
“I’m so lucky I had the opportunity to direct,” she tells W. “There are so few female directors. I want to spend my life trying to figure out how to uplift other women.” It’s an aim very much in line with the WIF Honors ceremony. Apatow considers her fellow honorees this year—among them, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tessa Thompson, and Judy Blume—some of her personal heroes. “I do not feel worthy,” she says. “Judy Blume taught me my love for reading. Tessa’s such a badass. I actually cannot believe I’m being honored alongside them.” Another hero? Her grandmother, who, along with her mom Leslie Mann, instilled in her a love of Max Mara. “I hope my grandma gives me her coats someday. They’re forever pieces.”
Below, Apatow discusses taking her seat in the director’s chair and the style advice from her mom that she struggles to follow.
Apatow with past WIF Max Mara Face of the Future Award honoree Lili Reinhart.
What was it about Poetic License that inspired you to make it your directorial debut?
When I first read Poetic License, I thought it was so funny, truthful, and weird. It had a sort of timeless feeling, but it also felt fresh in the way young people were written. I understand the characters and their struggles. I wasn’t searching to direct anything, but it was always in the back of my mind. So when I read the script, I had a moment like, “Oh, I get this. I think I might be able to pull this one off.”
Your mom, Leslie Mann, plays the main character, Liz, in the film. Was it weird directing her?
My mom is my best friend. I’ve always admired her so much as an actress. Going into it, we were nervous, but it ended up going so smoothly. We were in sync the entire time. It felt like we could read each other’s minds. I’ve been so lucky that I’ve gotten to watch my parents collaborate. I was young, but collaborating with them, too, was a very special thing. When you know someone so well, you know what they’re capable of, so you can challenge them, and that’s pretty amazing.
Should we expect more films from you in the future?
Yeah. I love directing. I’d love to do a musical. I’m a big musical theater girl. I think that’s really hard to capture the magic that you get watching live theater. A few people have. I want to try too, so we’ll see.
Now for some Style Notes questions. Did you raid your mom’s closet a lot growing up?
Yeah. We have the same shoe size, so that was major for me. But now she raids my closet. I’m giving back for all the years that I was stealing her stuff.
You’ve walked a lot of red carpets during your career. Are there any looks you regret?
I have so many weird ones. When I was a kid, I had no idea what I was wearing. I was dressing myself, and thinking, “Oh, I need a little heel,” even though I was 12. I would go to Target and buy heels because I thought it would make me look sophisticated, but it was a total flop.
Apatow with her family in August 2012.
Gregg DeGuire/WireImage/Getty Images
What is the best style advice you’ve received from your mom?
My mom always says, “Wear it.” If you buy something nice and you think, “I’ll save this for a special occasion,” you end up forgetting about it. She says, “Just wear it, use it.” I’m still like, “Can I do that?” I’ll get a purse and then I’ll just keep it on my top shelf. Then I’m like, “What am I doing? I’m just looking at it. Just use it.”
Warning: spoilers for season three of The White Lotus ahead.
Season three of The White Lotus packed a lot of questionable things into its eight-episode run: an incestuous threesome, intrusive murder-suicide fantasies, and endless brand collabs, to name a few. After ending on a shocking note, with toxic but lovable couple Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) and Rick (Walton Goggins) meeting a tragic end, the series’ Thailand-set third season set a high bar for chaos and mystic symbolism. Creator Mike White is surely up to the task, though—and naturally, the Emmy-winning HBO hit has already been renewed for a season four. Here’s everything we know about it so far:
Where will The White Lotus season four be set?
Deadline broke the news in September that season four will take place in France (though the news hasn’t officially been confirmed by HBO yet).
Now, Variety has learned that production for the series has been scouting shooting locations in both Paris and the French Riviera. The publication’s sources think the series will likely unfold largely in the South of France, with a side plot happening in Paris.
While the first three seasons took place exclusively at Four Seasons properties, HBO has reportedly not renewed its partnership with the hotel chain. And while no other hotels have been locked in for filming yet, Variety reports that production has scouted the chic Le Lutetia on the Left Bank of the Seine in the Saint-Germain des Prés neighborhood (where artists including Charlie Chaplin, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso and Josephine Baker all stayed), and the five-star Ritz Paris, which opened in 1898 and was visited by a similarly iconic crew of historic figures, including Coco Chanel and Marcel Proust.
Given its close, confined quarters at one hotel property, The White Lotus filming experience has been described by many past cast members as a cross between a sleepaway camp and a reality TV set. It’ll be interesting to see how the new setting affects this installment’s outcome.
Are any former cast members returning?
Though each season of the anthology series features a new group of nepo babies, beloved character actors, and other casting wild cards, White has also always brought back at least one character to tie together the thread between seasons. In season two, it was Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) and Greg (Jon Gries), who galivanted around Italy on a moped before Greg set Tanya up to be killed in a murder-by-gays plot. This time around, we were reintroduced to Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), who finally got hers after being ghosted by Tanya—though in a characteristically cynical White-twist, she turned around and did the same thing to Pornchai.
So who could be coming back next season? Wood confirmed to W that, despite some fan theories, there’s no chance Chelsea or Rick will return. Maybe we’ll circle back to Belinda and Pornchai—will White want plot symmetry between seasons, with Pornchai somehow getting justice this time?
The other most apparent loose end is with the Ratliff family. After the slow, season-long build-up toward Timothy revealing to his spoiled and sheltered family that he had lost all of their money, it was disappointing to be denied that climactic moment as a viewer. He was also apparently facing time in federal prison. Will there be Zoom calls with Jason Isaacs from his cushy minimum security institution next season? Will we see Parker Posey’s Victoria working at a hotel, rather than visiting one as a guest? Will Patrick Schwarzenegger’s Saxon go on his own spiritual journey, inspired by the death of Chelsea? The possibilities are endless.
There’s also the chance of an all-star season, with the ensemble solely comprised of past cast members. White has said he’s open to the idea, with HBO CEO Casey Bloys riffing that maybe Molly Shannon’s character from season one knows Victoria. “There are so many connections between all these awful people,” he told THR.
When will The White Lotus season 4 return?
There’s no release date yet—stay tuned for updates. Filming will reportedly begin next year.
Charlotte, Lisa, Carrie, and Seema head to the bridal fashion show, where Carrie is still complaining about the restaurant she voluntarily went to, as her gaggle of yes women validates her feelings. This would bother me more if this scene didn’t provide such a feast of fashion for the eyes, so let’s dive into the looks:
Charlotte is angelic in her tonal ensemble featuring an off-white Cult Gaia coat, beaded Emilia Wickstead resort 2024 pencil skirt, collared blouse, and nude Roger Vivier pumps. Her outfit provides some relief when placed next to LTW’s, which is comprised of a clashing plaid Harbison suit and fall 2024 coat with burgundy lace-up Gucci boots and two (yes two) Marni Butterfly bags. Carrie, meanwhile, is in arguably her best look of the season, courtesy of Patrick McDowell, who designed the matching floral shirt and skirt specifically for Sarah Jessica Parker. She wears the pieces with a brown coat, black Sonia Rykiel crystal bag, and satin Mary Jane heels from Aquazzura. The foursome is completed by Seema in a leather coat from Fendi’s fall 2024 collection, a brown turtleneck sweater dress, green Fendi Peekaboo bag, and brown pointed-toe boots.
While costume designers Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago find their footing in this scene, the show’s writers most certainly do not. Carrie is blaming the restaurant for internalized insecurities she clearly needs to deal with. She admits these to Charlotte later, but still can’t give that poor Korean BBQ spot a break. But to me, the worst is the disrespect exhibited toward this fashion show, which features a collection of Amsale gowns. Seema and Carrie hardly peek at the models while catching each other up on their latest news. Charlotte and LTW are similar, though they seem to glance at the runway every once in a while. Respect the front row, ladies!
My biggest problem with this scene comes when Seema asks Carrie why she wanted to get married, and she says, “Because it meant I was chosen.” How passively pathetic? You were chosen? It places all the power into Big’s hands and says nothing about a connection, about her worth, or anything that can be described in any way as meaningful. The statement reveals Carrie’s true reasoning behind her insecurities surrounding loneliness—it means no one else has chosen her— and it makes her a little less sympathetic in my eyes.
Warning: spoilers ahead for season three, episode four of Industry
It’d be easy to dismiss Sweetpea Golightly, the stylish blonde rookie banker played with verve by Miriam Petche in the propulsive third season of Industry. We first meet the new sales and training graduate filming a “morning in the life” TikTok for her 50,000 followers on the Pierpoint trading floor. “Always be the first on the floor, and ABSTBB: Always be secure in that bag, bish,” the wanna-be influencer tells her “corporate girlies.” A tabloid story about “embezzler heiress” Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela) is displayed on her computer screen when her embattled supervisor arrives at work. “Bet your DMs were filthy when all this dropped,” she says. “I’m guessing a lot of unsolicited dick pics.”
“In the script, she was described as ‘Gen Z on steroids,’” Petche says of the cheeky designer-clad trainee hoping to score a permanent position at the fictional investment firm at the center of the critically acclaimed workplace drama. Sweetpea has quickly acclimated to the frenzied London trading floor, where the wheeling, dealing, and drugging of her ambitious and often cutthroat colleagues rarely leads to any lasting satisfaction for them. Now, with Pierpoint banking on its new ethical and social impact IPOs,Petche’s spirited performance as the whip-smart newcomer with a secret side hustle plays a pivotal role in the self-absorbed traders’ fortunes. And they underestimate her at their peril.
“I’ve met a few people like Sweetpea, with her kind of confidence, going into situations where she might not know exactly what’s going on, but she completely backs herself,” the much more reserved Petche tells W over Zoom from her hometown of Brighton, England, where she lives with her two Golden Retrievers, and spends as much time as possible at the beach swimming.
For the former child actress—as a teenager, Petche appeared alongside Bella Ramsey in the U.K. kids’ series The Worst Witch— auditioning to play the self-possessed zoomer was a no-brainer. She had been a fan of the show since Abela told her she was cast back in 2020 (the two acted together in a play called Runts in London in 2016). “It was kind of a full-circle moment for us,” she says about their reunion. Petche left to film in Wales even before officially graduating from the prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she had been studying for the previous three years.
Unlike Pierpoint’s new hire, Petche was apprehensive about joining the established ensemble. “I respected them all as actors and really wanted to impress them,” she explains. But she quickly clicked with the cast, who were “lovely and kind and down to earth and hardworking. After my first rehearsal, I was like, Oh, I can breathe.”
Getting under Sweatpea’s skin began with asking the show’s creators, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, about that unusual name. “One of my first questions was, ‘Is this a nickname, or is this her birth name?’ And they said, ‘It’s her birth name.’” They also said “Golightly” wasn’t meant as a Breakfast at Tiffany’s reference. She fleshed out a backstory and decided that, appearances to the contrary, Sweetpea isn’t posh. “I didn’t see her coming from money, which is why she’s so eager to prove herself and wants to show off her gorgeous clothes.” It turns out Sweetpea’s second career as an OnlyFans model pays for those pricey outfits—and foul-mouthed market maker Rishi (Sagar Radia) is one of her clients. Petche is more modest. “It’s not me, it’s a body double,” she says.
Another challenge for the young actress was sounding authentic while spouting the show’s sometimes impenetrable financial jargon. Once Petche learned that even the veterans didn’t always understand their characters’ trader talk, she instead focused on conveying the emotions behind the information. Which, for Sweetpea, becomes heightened as the bankers continually disregard her, like when she tries to tell them about the findings of her “risk model indicator.”
Can Petche relate to being underestimated based on her appearance? “It’s hard for me to look at that objectively in my life,” she says. “But I can understand [how] Sweetpea feels. She has so much to offer, and people just take her at face value. I haven’t so much felt like that.”
She also doesn’t quite possess Sweatpea’s swagger. “I like to believe that I advocate for myself. [But] she sees how to be one step ahead and calculates how to push herself forward. Whereas I’m probably more like, Wow, look at this big room. Not to belittle myself, but…she’s completely confident in her abilities and where she belongs, which is something I could learn from.”
As for the attention this breakout role is likely to bring, Petche has no expectations. “I’m going to let things come as they come. I’m lucky enough that I have the best support system in the world—my parents, my sister, and my dogs.” Fashioning a career like Jodie Comer’s is a goal. “She’s worked across the board in TV, film, and theater, and there doesn’t seem to be a limit to what she can do. She is completely dedicated to her craft and lets the work speak for itself.”
Bob Mackie was never much for nightlife. “I was in my studio, working away, and I couldn’t have been happier,” he says. But perhaps no designer is more responsible than he is for broadcasting glamour, pizzazz, and pure spectacle into Americans’ living rooms. Born and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Mackie always knew he wanted to be a designer. Encouraged early on by the legendary costumer Edith Head, Mackie worked for a time under the midcentury pioneer Jean Louis before breaking through on his own with the outfits for Mitzi Gaynor’s Las Vegas revue in 1966. He went on to help shape the stage and screen image of a Mount Rushmore of legendary divas: Carol Burnett, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Diahann Carroll, and, perhaps most iconically, Cher.
In time, his clients wanted to wear his designs in everyday life—and so did their fans. Runway collections and some of the most eye-popping red carpet gowns of all time followed, but Hollywood remained his true love. (He has a Tony, nine Emmys, and three Oscar nominations to prove it.) Mackie’s life story will be told in the documentary Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion, to be released later this year; in the meantime, the designer takes us behind the scenes of his dream factory and the glittering moments that defined his career.
“I tried out for cheerleading because I knew I wasn’t going to be a football player,” says Mackie (top right). “I thought to myself, Well, it’s the closest thing to show business without being in show business.” Though Mackie remembers those times fondly, he did have one fashion note for his alma mater: “We had the worst school colors. They were maroon and gray. Can you imagine?”
Mackie, seen here with his elder sister, Patricia, grew up with a supportive family, but they didn’t quite understand his Hollywood dream. So he took matters into his own hands by studying the careers of those who came before him. “I always wanted to go to Chouinard Art Institute,” he says. “Many of the designers in Hollywood had gone to that school back in the 1920s.” Originally enrolled at Pasadena City College, Mackie made it to Chouinard after winning a scholarship.
In 1961, Mackie left Chouinard after a year and worked as a sketch artist for Edith Head and Jean Louis. He was often at the NBC costume workroom, having outfits made. He was so excited he ended up decorating the workroom’s door with his drawings for Christmas.
Mackie first encountered Barbra Streisand in 1963, when she guested on The Judy Garland Show while he was working as an assistant costume designer. But their most significant collaboration would come on the set of 1975’s Funny Lady, where this photo was taken. “I stood behind her and I looked,” says Mackie. “She was quite amused by the fact that I was almost doing her facial pose.” She sent him this signed copy afterward.
Harry Langdon/Getty Images
“Diana Ross is one of the most gifted and talented and hardest to live with ladies I know,” says Mackie. They first collaborated on a television special featuring the Temptations and Ross’s group, the Supremes. “It was a big salute to Broadway, and it was so much fun to do,” says Mackie. “And I got an Emmy.” They worked together for decades, creating looks for the screen, the stage, and the red carpet. This nude-illusion bodysuit, worn on the cover of Ross’s 1970 album Everything Is Everything, has frequently been emulated but never quite duplicated in the years since.
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
“Bernadette Peters is my oldest friend in this business, in television especially,” says Mackie. “We had her on The Carol Burnett Show I don’t know how many times.” Here, the pair attend the 1986 Met Gala. In sharp contrast to today, he says, back then society types were still a bit stuffy about entertainers joining the event.
Fairchild Archive/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images
Mackie’s first foray into consumer fashion was a collection for the lingerie brand Glydons in 1979. Predating the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show by decades, the extravagant runway show was staged at Studio 54.
“I’m not going to say any more about the Met Gala moment,” says Mackie, referring to the Marilyn Monroe dress that Kim Kardashian infamously rewore in 2022. Mackie was the sketch artist for the Jean Louis dress, which Monroe had worn to serenade President John F. Kennedy at his 45th birthday celebration in 1962. Mackie described Kardashian’s decision to unearth it as a “big mistake.”
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Madonna wasn’t a regular Mackie client, but the one time they crossed paths made pop culture history. Fashion editor Marina Schiano dolled up the Material Girl like Marilyn Monroe in a Mackie runway sample for a 1991 cover of Vanity Fair. On set, Madonna said she wanted something like it to wear to the Academy Awards, and Schiano told her to call up Mackie and ask him to make her something special. “She wore that dress all night—to perform, at the parties. We got a lot of publicity,” recalls Mackie.
“They were giving Joan a big to-do in San Francisco, where they were showing Land of the Pharaohs, in which she played an Egyptian queen of some sort,” says Mackie of this night with Joan Collins, circa 1981. “We were right in the heart of the gay district in San Francisco. That place was packed. And there she was, dressed like that, in a brand-new dress that I did for her.”
Harry Langdon/Getty Images
“I was on pussy patrol because Cher was stark naked except for some chains,” says Mackie of the heavy metal–inspired photo shoot for the singer’s 1979 rock album, Prisoner. “There were all these guys around with hardly anything on. She said, ‘Stay there so nobody will see anything.’ I said, ‘What do you mean, see anything? You’re naked!’ ”
The singer with Burnett on the show Cher in 1975.
Mackie did the costumes for all 11 seasons of The Carol Burnett Show, where he met Cher. “Sonny and Cher were on the very first season. We were repairing a beaded dress, and she said, ‘Someday I’d like to have a beaded dress.’ And I said, ‘Well, you could.’ She said, ‘No, we can’t afford it right now.’ I said, ‘When you’re ready, I’m ready.’ ” Here she is with Raquel Welch in 1975.
Frank Trapper/Corbis via Getty Images
After donning Mackie at the Oscars in 1984—where she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, for Silkwood—Cher returned in 1986 to present the Best Supporting Actor award in one of the most famous creations by the designer. “I said to her, ‘Do you think maybe it’s too much outfit? You’re pulling focus from the actual winner of this award,’ ” recalls Mackie. “And she said, ‘Oh, no. I don’t know who it’ll be, but he’ll love it.’ ” Don Ameche ended up winning for Cocoon and did, in fact, love it: “He said, ‘I would not have my picture in every paper in the country with Cher if she hadn’t dressed like that.’ ”
PL Gould/Images/Getty Images
Mackie never really intended to show his work on the runway. “I wanted to design for movies, stage, and Broadway—anything other than fashion.” Still, so many private clients called on him that he began producing regular collections in the 1980s. How did the established New York fashion guard respond to Mackie’s arrival? “They were all very nice. Some of them made shirts that said HOLLYWOOD BOB on them.” Mackie celebrates after a show, circa 1986.
Mackie was the guest judge on the very first episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, long before the show became an Emmy-winning machine. “I thought I’d never get out of there. Do you know how long it takes for drag queens to put on their makeup?” he asks. The show invited him back in 2023 to honor him with the first ever Giving Us Lifetime Achievement Award.
RuPaul has worn Mackie’s creations numerous times, including a silver version of the signature flame dress to the 1995 VH1 Fashion and Music Awards.
Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage
It’s not a surprise that the man recently responsible for styling some of Hollywood’s biggest superstars has a fondness for Mackie. “This dress was kind of a tribute to My Fair Lady from a Broadway collection that I did. Law Roach found it, and he was hanging on to it for something special.” Roach ended up putting it on then-client Anya Taylor-Joy for the 2020 premiere of her film Emma. “On her, it was amazing,” says Mackie.
Fairchild Archive/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images
Iman, a frequent muse and presence on his runways, closed out his 1983 show in a towering bridal ensemble.
“Miley is one of those creatures who was born to be onstage,” says Mackie. “You can’t beat her—it’s amazing.” Cyrus’s team had reached out about pulling from Mackie’s archive for her 2024 Grammys performance of “Flowers,” and she eventually settled on a one-of-a-kind beaded fringe dress from a 2002 collection. The piece fit like a glove, and she performed her choreography in front of the designer. “She’s one of the Disney kids. They’re just so well-trained. They know about rehearsal, and they know about getting everything right—the lighting and the hair. There’s never a detail she’s not worried about.”
Each year, the best and brightest in television are honored at the annual Emmy Awards, bringing out the biggest stars in the world of TV, and, increasingly, film. And while the Academy Awards remain the, well, Academy Awards of fashion, when it comes to the red carpet, the Emmys also have their own history of glamorous, show-stopping dresses. Think Sarah Jessica Parker in a pink confection of a Chanel haute couture gown at the 2003 ceremony, or Olivia Wilde in that wedding-worthy Reem Acra in 2008. There was also Jennifer Aniston doing boho chic in beaded Chanel in 2004, a polka-dotted Chloë Sevigny in 2009, and Tracee Ellis Ross immediately going down in history in a fuchsia ball-skirt gown by Valentino Couture. This weekend, we have our second Emmys of the year (since last year’s writer’s strike pushed the 2023 awards into January 2024). The actual 2024 awards promise to be a good one with nominations for Ayo Edebiri, Selena Gomez, and Anna Sawai—a list that all but guarantees more fashion moments rolling around very soon. Until then, a look back at the best Emmy Awards red carpet dresses of years past.
Ayo Edibiri in Louis Vuitton
Gilbert Flores/Variety/Getty Images
Edebiri took home her first-ever Emmy Award in a scultped, leather Louis Vuitton ankle-length dress.
The White Lotus star made quite a welcomed statement in this unique, floral Marni number at the delayed 2023 ceremony.
Colman Domingo in Louis Vuitton
Michael Buckner/Variety/Getty Images
Domingo looked incredibly dapper in his long Louis Vuitton evening coat
Zendaya in Valentino
Trae Patton/NBC/NBCUniversal/Getty Images
Zendaya was dressed to win at the 2022 Emmy awards, and the trophy she took home for her role in Euphoria matched perfectly with her custom Valentino ballgown.
It’s no wonder the Squid Game actress stays loyal to Louis Vuitton when they create pieces for her like this sequin-covered dress she wore to the 2022 Emmys where she was nominated for her first award.
Anya Taylor-Joy in Dior
Rich Fury/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
Taylor-Joy looked like a glamorous buttercup in a custom Dior dress at the 2021 awards.
Michaela Coel in Christopher John Rogers
Rich Fury/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
Coel was all about color at the Emmys in 2021, where she took home the award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her show I May Destroy You.
Emma Corrin in Miu Miu
David M. Benett/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
Corrin’s Miu Miu look was a controversial one, but what’s not to love about this quirky, chic masterpiece?
Yara Shahidi in Dior
Rich Fury/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
Shahidi looked like an old Hollywood starlet in an emerald green Dior dress at the 2021 ceremony.
Regina King in Schiaparelli Couture
Image courtesy of James Anthony
While the 2020 Emmys were fully remote due to COVID, King still showed out in an embellished Schiaparelli couture dress.
Tracee Ellis Ross in Alexandre Vauthier
Ross, too, did not come to play, and she even rolled out the red carpet for herself.
Viola Davis in Alberta Ferretti
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc/Getty Images
Though Davis didn’t take home the award for Lead Actress in a Drama series in 2019, she did make it onto our best dressed list thanks to the custom, black and white Alberta Ferretti.
Kendall Jenner in Richard Quinn
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
Jenner was one of the first to wear Richard Quinn on the red carpet, and in our opinion, she made a pretty good billboard for the British designer.
Thandie Newton in Brandon Maxwell
The bright bubblegum pink hue of this Brandon Maxwell gown pairs perfectly with its sleek design.
Tracee Ellis Ross in Valentino Couture
It seems pink was a big trend on the 2018 Emmys red carpet, and Ross also got the memo.
Sarah Paulson in Carolina Herrera
Paulson looked like an Emmy trophy herself in this paillette-covered Carolina Herrera dress.
Nicole Kidman in Calvin Klein By Appointment
The unexpected, tea-length hem of this Calvin Klein dress is likely what helped it land a spot on our best Emmys dresses list.
Priyanka Chopra in Jason Wu
Chopra looked like a bonafide movie star (or, in this case, television star) in this red hot Jason Wu dress at the awards in 2016.
Sarah Paulson in Prada
ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images
Paulson loves to bring some sparkle to the Emmys red carpet, and she did just that in 2016 with the help of a completely embellished, emerald Prada gown.
Lady Gaga in Brandon Maxwell
This Brandon Maxwell dress may look simple, but the unexpected silhouette made it a perfect choice for Lady Gaga.
Kerry Washington in Marc Jacobs
Who says an Emmy dress has to be full-length? Washington proved it very much does not when she wore this silver Marc Jacobs number to the ceremony in 2015.
Kiernan Shipka in Dior Couture
The then-fifteen-year-old Shipka found the perfect way to look age-appropriate while still cutting edge in a gorgeous, embroidered Dior couture top and black cigarette pants.
Lizzy Caplan in Donna Karan
Caplan looked simple and elegant at the 66th annual Emmy Awards in 2014.
Allison Williams in Giambattista Valli
Williams smartly kept the styling of this Giambattista Valli simple so as not to over power it.
Gwen Stefani in Atelier Versace
Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic/Getty Images
The singer went for a cool and casual Versace look at the awards in 2014.
Rose Byrne in Calvin Klein Collection
Byrne looked gorgeous in this peachy two-piece set at the 65th annual Emmy Awards in 2013.
Michelle Dockery in Prada
Dan MacMedan/WireImage/Getty Images
It’s too bad Dockery didn’t win the Emmy for Lead Actress in 2013, because we would have loved to see this two-toned gown take the stage.
January Jones in Jason Wu
Jones has always been known for her slighlty avant garde style, and the Jason Wu dress she wore to the Emmys in 2012 remains a perfect example of her red carpet aesthetic.
Lucy Liu in Versace
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In 2012, Liu proved that when in doubt, a slinky, metallic Versace dress is always a great choice.
Evan Rachel Wood in Elie Saab
Fairchild Archive/Penske Media/Getty Images
Wood’s red lip was the perfect accent to this beautiful, sparkly Elie Saab gown.
Nina Dobrev in Donna Karan
We can’t decide what we like more about Dobrev’s 2011 dress, the neckline or dramatic skirt.
Christina Hendricks in Zac Posen
The Mad Men actress’ signature red hair played off the pale periwinkle of her Zac Posen dress perfectly.
Claire Danes in Armani Privé
Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images
Good thing Danes took home the award for Lead Actress in a miniseries for her performance in Temple Grandin in 2010, because this Armani gown was made for a winner.
Connie Britton in Burberry
Clearly, 2010 was the year of sequins and sparkle at the Emmys.
Barrymore looked like a modern princess in her tulle-covered Monique Lhuillier confection.
Sandra Oh in Marchesa
Frank Trapper/Corbis Entertainment/Getty Images
The rope belt on Oh’s Marchesa gown is giving a welcomed touch of Scarlett O’Hara to this otherwise very modern dress.
Chloë Sevigny in Isaac Mizrahi
Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images
It’s not often we see prints on the Emmy red carpet, but then again, Sevigny always marches to the beat of her own style drum.
Mila Kunis in Monique Lhuillier
Jeff Vespa/WireImage/Getty Images
Kunis’ deep red Monique Lhuillier dress walked the perfect balance between edgy and demure.
Evangeline Lilly in Elie Saab
Jason Merritt/FilmMagic/Getty Images
Lilly looked gorgeous in her art deco-inspired Elie Saab gown at the awards in 2008.
Olivia Wilde in Reem Acra
Wilde’s Reem Acra dress had a chokehold on all the fashion girls in 2008.
Halle Berry in Emanuel Ungaro
Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic/Getty Images
It’s always exciting when stars have a bit of fun with hemlines and step away from the standard full-length look.
Mischa Barton in Oscar de la Renta
Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic/Getty Images
Almost twenty years later and we’re still thinking about Barton’s ODLR dress from 2005.
Jennifer Aniston in Chanel
Aniston was nominated for her role in Friends in 2004 when she wore this gorgeous white and gold dress to the ceremony.
Sarah Jessica Parker in Chanel Haute Couture
Chris Weeks/FilmMagic/Getty Images
Leave it to Carrie Bradshaw to attend the Emmys in an extremely glamorous, Chanel haute couture gown.
Keri Russell in Armani
Steve Granitz/WireImage/Getty Images
This Armani gown fit Russell so perfectly, it almost looks like it was painted on her body.
Angelina Jolie in Randolph Drake
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images
Jolie attended the 50th annual Emmys in 1998 wearing a nude Randolph Drake dress with an asymmetrical, off-the-shoulder detail.
Helen Hunt in Laurel
Steve Granitz/WireImage/Getty Images
Hunt was wearing this slinky silver dress when she took home the award for Best Lead Actress in a comedy series thanks to her work in Mad About You.
Fran Drescher
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc/Getty Images
When you play a fashion icon on TV like Drescher, you better dress the part, and she very much did in this lace corset and black mini skirt at the ceremony in 1997.
Joan Collins
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images
The Dynasty star epitomized ‘80s glamour in a gold lamé gown at the awards in 1986.
Diahann Carroll
Vinnie Zuffante/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Carroll looked as glamorous as ever in an embellished black and white gown with a plunging neckline and high slit at the Emmys in 1985.
Mary Tyler Moore
NBC/NBCUniversal/Getty Images
Moore picked up the award for The Dick Van Dyke show in a dress with a criss-crossing bodice and white opera gloves.
Lucille Ball
Michael Ochs Archives/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
The comedy icon looked gorgeous in a white fur coat and embellished dress at the 9th annual Emmys in 1957.
Finding your way as a teenager can be brutal. A whirlwind of big emotions and desires is tough to make sense of, let alone communicate. The need for social acceptance can feel intensely urgent, even if it means being untrue to yourself. And the adults raising you never seem to get it. What’s a kid to do?
Filmmaker Sean Wang dives deep into these growing pains in his debut feature Dìdi, a heartfelt follow-up to his Oscar-nominated short documentary Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó. Wang’s coming-of-age tale, now in theaters, centers the inner world of Chris (Izaac Wang), a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy growing up in the Bay Area suburb of Fremont in the late 2000s. Chris regularly bickers with his older sister, lives with two doting matriarchs—his mother, Chungsing (Joan Chen), and his Nǎi Nai (paternal grandmother, played by Chang Li Hua), both of whom immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan. His free time includes recording the neighborhood shenanigans that he and his friends get into for his YouTube channel. But he also yearns to belong; the film beautifully captures the nuances of navigating being a first-generation kid fluent in a culture that the adults raising him are not.
Joan Chen as Chungsing Wang and Izaac Wang as Chris Wang in Dìdi.
Courtesy of Focus Features
The script began to materialize when Wang was 22, though he credits an “existential crisis” at 26 for getting his creative wheels turning. “That was the [age] both of my parents immigrated to America. For the first time, I had a direct connection to what my parents’ experience was,” he says. “They didn’t speak the language and didn’t have any friends and hoped for the best. It felt wild and made me empathize with the experience they had—and while trying to raise two more-or-less American children in America. As we get older, the gap becomes wider and wider.”
But Wang’s hope for what comes next is clear: that Dìdi unlocks inspiration in a new generation of storytellers. “Hopefully 10, 20 years from now, this movie won’t be unique and there’s a bunch of coming-of-age movies about Asian American kids and the different kinds of experiences that they live.” And, Wang adds, “shoutout to my mom.”
W caught up with the director about seeing his parents through a more empathetic lens, bringing the AOL era back to life onscreen, and his advice to budding filmmakers ready to tell their own coming-of-age tale.
Fremont is a big part of the movie. Have your feelings about your hometown changed as an adult compared to when you were a kid?
Yes, absolutely. So much of what I thought was a negative—like growing up in what I considered at the time to be a boring, mundane suburb—is what made it so fun. My friends and I would meet up and go do whatever, create our own fun.
Courtesy of Focus Features
The Bay Area is diverse, but Fremont especially is a deeply rooted immigrant community. I’d go to my best friend’s house and eat home-cooked Korean food, and then have a really amazing home-cooked Pakistani dinner at my other best friend’s house. I didn’t realize how special and unique it is to grow up in such a multicultural community until I got older. I’m really appreciative of it now.
So much of Dìdi feels anchored in teenage angst and the dynamic between Chris and his mother. There’s a specific grief and sense of isolation I think a lot of first-gen kids don’t recognize or process about their parents’ experience in a new country until adulthood. Did those sort of themes and meditations come up for you when working on Dìdi?
Definitely. There was a lot of life informing art with this movie. Growing up, you only know what you know. You’re not growing up like, oh my immigrant parents…that’s just the world you’re born into. Then you start thinking, what is my context and what is the context of the generations before me?
Mahaela Park plays Madi, Chris’s love interest.
Courtesy of Focus Features
It was cool to experience the early 2000s nostalgia in Dìdi, like seeing a character scoping out an old-school Myspace profile of a crush, having your feelings hurt by a friend’s Top 8, and hearing the AIM messenger sound.
The movie takes place in 2008 because I was 13 that year. The Internet was such a big part of our lives, but it wasn’t our whole lives. I thought about the movies I loved like Stand By Me and The Sandlot and I was doing that with my friends during that time—just running around outside and hanging out until the sun sets. But it was fun to integrate all of that Internet language into our movie in a way that felt not gimmicky and just a part of the story.
Many Asian people from different walks of life, and especially Asian boys and men, have shared how seen they felt watching Dìdi. Do you have any advice for upcoming filmmakers who might feel inspired to tell their own story after watching the film?
I would say look inward. There’s so much noise out in the world now with Instagram, the Internet, and everything coming at you all at once. The exercise I had to keep doing for myself on this movie was trying to make it more personal. I get a lot of people asking me what advice do you have for Asian American filmmakers…but you’re also a filmmaker, you’re not just an Asian American filmmaker. A lot of people were like, how did you nail the Asian elements of this movie? Just think of your own life experience. The things that are closest to home for you are the things that you know the most intimately. All of that is a resource as a director and a filmmaker.
Courtesy of Focus Features
Bringing a movie to the big screen is a huge feat. What’s one aspect of this experience that makes you especially proud?
I’m really proud of the number of people who worked on this movie, for whom it was also their first feature experience. My producers Carlos López Estrada and Valerie Bush, it was their first movie as producers. It was my first movie as a writer-director. My cinematographer, who I’ve worked with for ten years, it was his first narrative feature film. My editor, who edited the movie Missing which takes place almost completely online, it was her first live-action narrative. It was the casting director’s first time casting a feature.
People would maybe advise against that, but I felt so strongly in my gut that these people were right for the job. We weren’t hiring them based on their résumés. And a lot of that energy and excitement of having never made a feature before seeped into this movie—not necessarily knowing the “right” way to do it because we’d never done it before, but trusting when it felt right to us. That sort of naivete worked for the better.
Gena Rowlands, the singular actress whose career in Hollywood spanned nearly 60 years, died on Wednesday, August 14, at the age of 94. Earlier this year, her family announced that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. While many remembrances will focus on her performance as the older version of Rachel McAdams’s character in The Notebook—perhaps her most popular work of this century—Rowlands was in many ways America’s first true independent film star. Rowlands and her husband, the actor and director John Cassavetes, took roles in more lucrative mainstream films in order to fund their passion projects paving the way for American independent film as we know it.
The old crack about The Velvet Underground is that while few people originally bought their debut album, everyone who did formed a band. Something similar could be said about Rowlands. Her work in Cassavetes’s films, little seen at first, went on to be a major influence on acclaimed stars like Laura Linney and Sarah Paulson. Chloë Sevigny recently went viral for raving about Rowlands in front of Kim Kardashian. Though, perhaps Hollywood has no greater Rowlands acolyte than Cate Blanchett.
“When I see the work of Gena Rowlands, the intense authenticity and the immediacy of her acting seems to me to be the closest that anyone has ever come to capturing on film that special quality, that presence, of a live stage performance,” Blanchett said while presenting Rowlands with an honorary Oscar in 2015. “There is quite simply no membrane between Gena and her audience. She makes me forget entirely that she’s not actually inside my brain.”
P. Shirley/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Rowlands was born in Cambria, Wisconsin to a homemaker mother and a politician father, a member of the Progressive Party. She studied acting in New York and performed throughout much of the ’50s on both stage and the small screen. She married Cassavetes in 1954, and the pair often appeared opposite each other in film and television. Rowlands’s film career took off in the ’60s with supporting roles in films fronted by the likes of Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, and Rock Hudson. But her star rose in 1968 with the release of Faces. Directed and independently financed by Cassavetes, the film is now considered a landmark in American independent cinema. Martin Scorsese and Robert Altman acknowledged its influence, and a young Steven Spielberg famously worked on the film as an unpaid runner. Rowlands had a supporting role as a high-end sex worker, and in a review at the time, Roger Ebert praised her for “[avoiding] the heart-of-gold cliches,” instead portraying a character who “has her own problems and a deep reservoir of human sympathy as well.” A young Paul Schrader, then working as a movie critic, noted that Rowlands seemed to truly come alive in the film in comparison to her other Hollywood work.
United Archives/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Rowlands would take the lead in Cassavetes’s 1974 film A Woman Under the Influence. Originally written for the stage, Rowlands decided there was no way she could play her character, a working-class mother struggling with alcoholism and mental illness, eight times a week. It almost wasn’t made until Peter Falk, best known as TV’s Columbo, took a co-starring role and provided $500,000 in funding.
Cassavetes gave Rowlands wide leeway to interpret the role as she pleased.
“He said Gena, I wrote this with you in mind …and you said that you wanted to do it, well then do it,” Rowlands recalled in 2015. “It was the most wonderful feeling of freedom. The part belongs to you …It’s freed me up in many things since so that when I hear the word ‘action,’ it’s not any pressure. It’s mine to do with what I think is right.”
Rowlands turned in an uncompromising, confrontational, often upsetting, and yet fully human performance that left critics at the time struggling to find anything else to compare it to. The film originally struggled to find distribution. Cassavetes called up art house cinemas himself to get it booked. But a rave review from Richard Dreyfus on national television provided a boost of influence. “I went crazy. I went home and vomited,” he exclaimed on The Mike Douglas Show. Rowlands was nominated for an Oscar for her performance and also picked up a Golden Globe.
Rowlands and husband John Cassavetes at the 47th Academy Awards.
Michael Ochs Archives/Moviepix/Getty Images
“It is the most compelling, unexpected, unpredictable ten minutes of film that I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen acting like that,” Falk told Rowlands in a reunion years later of her performance of the film’s climatic breakdown scene. “You’re going to watch this scene of this lady here, it is going to get you. I don’t care if it’s 100 years from now. It will always be powerful.”
Rowlands with James Garner in The Notebook.
Melissa Moseley/New Line/Kobal/Shutterstock
Rowlands continued to make films with Cassavetes (most notably Gloria and Opening Night) until his death in 1989. She maintained a long career in television films, winning three Emmys, including for her starring role in The Betty Ford Story and a supporting role opposite Uma Thurman in Hysterical Blindness. She also appeared in Strangers, opposite her own on-screen icon, Bette Davis. Rowlands continued to find roles in Hollywood pictures throughout her life, including in Hope Floats, Something To Talk About, The Skeleton Key, and, most notably, The Notebook, directed by her son Nick Cassavetes. Though, her true legacy remains in her profound impact on independent film.
“It’s a tricky life,” Rowlands once said of her and Cassavetes’s juggling act of using their Hollywood paychecks to finance their own films. “But it was so exciting and wonderful because you were doing what you really wanted to do.”
Of all of her madcap co-stars in Fantasmas, the surrealist HBO comedy odyssey from the mind of Julio Torres, Martine has a clear favorite: “I love Melf, we’re very close,” she says of the ALF-like alien featured in the first episode. “I would love to see them soon.” If you ask fans, however, it’s Martine who is perhaps the series’ biggest breakout star. In it, she plays Vanesja (the j is silent), a performance artist who’s posed as a talent agent for so long that she actually became one. The character serves as something of the voice of reason for Torres’s self-named protagonist, imploring him to pursue lucrative commercial work so he can finally secure “proof of existence” (the show’s catchall analogy for a Real ID and credit score). Julio, however, would rather spend his time tracking down a lost oyster earring.
Fantasmas is a natural evolution of the work Torres began on Saturday Night Live with sketches like “Wells For Boys” and “Papyrus” and continued most recently in his directorial debut, Problemista. For the mononymous Martine, however, her co-starring role is something of a surprising career turn. Though she’d acted in small parts in Torres’s work before and had a role in the Robert Pattinson-produced indie, Rotting In The Sun, she was previously best known as a rising force in the art world. When we talked, she was in Vancouver for the opening of her first Canadian solo show ANTI-ICON: APOKALYPSIS, a collection of images in which the artist poses as archetypal heroines in a way meant to evoke modern advertising.
Though Torres and Martine hail from different disciplines, the themes of the creative duo’s work overlap. Here, they discuss Dylan O’Brien’s Fantasmas lingerie moment, the influence of The Little Mermaid, and just about everything except how they actually met. On that point, they can’t quite remember.
Torres wears Balenciaga top, shoes, and pants. Martine wears Manolo Blahnik shoes, stylist’s own top, bottom, headband and earrings. Handbag, Martine’s own.
Let’s start with Vanesja. I had initially placed her in line with Patsy Stone from Absolutely Fabulous, Karen Walker from Will & Grace, or a Christine Baranski type of character, but she’s her own thing. What were your reference points for her?
Martine: Well, I like your examples. I love those characters, but I felt like Vanesja gained a lot of freedom by being very indirect.
Julio Torres: I like that she is more questions than answers. She’s a bit of a riddle. She could be a spy pretending to be a performance artist pretending to be an agent. She’s constantly double crossing herself and all wrapped in this packaging that is very Samantha Jones. I feel like the name was very informed by Ursula from The Little Mermaid’s human form, Vanessa, who is, now that I think about it, a good reference point: Something complicated pretending to be something that isn’t as complicated. A sea witch pretending to be just a lady that can sing.
M: Pretending to be a bride. Vanessa’s moment is really to get married, but it’s stolen from her.
JT: Her motives are also a little obtuse because it’s not like she loves the prince.
M: She mostly just can’t handle Ariel succeeding.
JT: She’s supposed to be like, oh, she wanted the kingdom, but it’s like, does she really?
Disney villains are all sort of queer-coded, so maybe she’s disrupting the heteronormativity?
M: Yes. Ursula’s very minority coded.
JT: She really is. I mean, she’s the only octopus in that under-ocean kingdom.
M: Yeah, we don’t get a reason either. Just like Vanesja, the reason is not offered to us. The reason is there for us to ruminate on.
I was reading some of the other interviews you guys had done, but I saw two different versions of how you met.
JT: [Laughs] So what is the truth?
One story said it was at an archery competition. The other said it was maybe at a video shoot about an archery competition, but that was unclear.
JT: I see where you might be confused, but the answer is yes.
Is this like when my co-workers asked me what I did over the weekend and I don’t want to tell them the whole truth?
JT: Yeah, you’re like, I took it easy, but then I didn’t. And I should have, but it was fun….until it wasn’t.
M: It’s kind of like, “Wish I stayed home.”
JT: There is something about art and friendships where, because we are in constant consumption of each other, work and play just blend a lot. It’s a little hard to place, “What do I know about Martine through my hanging out with Martine, and what do I know about Martine by just consuming Martine?” if that makes sense.
M: We both put out a lot of media. We both have tried to reach out through media to find some community or semblance of reflection for ourselves. We’ve cultivated our careers through using social formats.
JT: I found my way into making film and TV through standup. I met and befriended a lot of peers who are, like me, sort of off-center and a little off the beaten path, but I was very determined to always say yes to doing shows for tourists in Times Square and doing just the worst broadest comedy clubs because I thought that reaching out of my ecosystem felt important not only to what I want my work to say, but to my development. I think that there is something in the packaging of Martine’s work, it’s engaging with fashion editorial and commercials and logos and publicity, that also has the same preoccupation to not be an artist exclusively for other artists.
Torres wears Marni top and pants, Comme des Garcons Homme Plus shoes, his own hat. Martine wears Marni jacket and skirt Matteau top and her own shoes.
I love that the show aired on television at 11 PM on a Friday. It reminds me of the television I’d watch late at night when I was younger just trying to find something else. I’m wondering if you had any favorite late night TV shows?
M: Oh my god, yes!
JT: Will you give an example?
M: So I would get off the bus….
JT: Let’s start there.
M: I lived on a dirt road. The bus would not go up that dirt road. It was too steep. There was nowhere for it to turn around, so I would walk alone to and from this kind of shepherded transit to school. On that road was where a lot of crazy magical awakenings occurred. It was also a place where I could make up time if the bus was running late, and I knew that I could get home in time for MADtv. I loved MADtv. I was like, this is so weird, funny, and so inappropriate. I would watch it alone and was pretty confused trying to sort out what I was supposed to laugh at and what I wasn’t. Not that that’s anything I really get caught up in, but it was fun to be stuck with so many choices.
JT: I really loved Late Night With Conan O’Brien. That was very informative to me. I love that it was in conversation with his more mainstream peers and subverted it. It felt funny for the sake of funny and very stupid and ridiculous and unburdened.
Let’s talk about the Dylan O’Brien moment that the internet seems to love. Did you just put out a call that “We need a hunk who’s comfortable with lingerie and having an existential breakdown?”
JT: He wasn’t fleshed out until later in the writing process. Just, the idea of Vanesja having this client who actually believes her and actually has a career was very funny. The lingerie was one of Martine’s many little jokes that she would text me.
M: The lingerie is sexy, and I don’t think it’s funny.
JT: I think people are liking it because it’s sexy. I don’t think anyone’s laughing. Everyone’s like, “Oh!”
You’re opening people’s eyes.
M: And closing doors.
Torres wears stylist’s own top, Comme des Garcons Homme Plus shorts, his own shoes. Martine wears Alexander McQueen dress, her own shoes.
I’m so intrigued when artists step into pop culture. Martine, you’ve acted before, but this is your first main role in a series. How has that experience been for you?
M: My health took a turn. I got shingles while we were filming. Luckily, I’m not in a legal dispute with Julio at this time, but I was very ill. I think I lost the fun in it towards the middle. We were working simultaneously on a timeline where I had this big performance at The Whitney Museum and Julio couldn’t even come to it because he was filming the show. His boyfriend was in it, James Scully, among many other New York hunks, and it was called Supremacy. I did it. I came back to set, and I had this mysterious rash, which quickly escalated into a weeping blister, as medical providers call it, because it pops and it oozes. It weeps and it spreads. So I really had to look at the way that I deal with anxiety. Also it showed me how serious I am about acting, despite having so much fun and it being about letting go to have fun. I think that’s when my best performances are. I learned that I wanted to be the best I can be. I like acting. I think I’ll do more.
Have you been following the memes from the show?
M: I haven’t seen any memes.
I thought you had a whole story of Melf memes on your Instagram.
M: Oh, those are my memes. I’m obsessed with Melf. They wouldn’t like me using that word. Melf is just so inspiring to me—the way they have not changed for anyone else, just perseverantly themselves and so generous, so unfearful. They don’t internalize other people’s fear—and they’re hot.
Has there been talk about a season two, or is it too soon for that?
JT: It was news to me that this was seen as a series. I was like, “I don’t know what it is.” I suppose that I would be open to revisiting this world in some capacity. I have no idea what that would look like.
M: I would say part of Julio’s gift is this organic structure. It’s important to both of us that things feel effortless. When you say you’re not quite sure what this is, you explained it once to an audience as a Trojan Horse, and I believe that that is what it is. It is this pioneering vehicle that’s taken on the structure of something that people understand.
All episodes of Fantasmas are now streaming on HBO Max.
In Oh, Mary!, a historical fever dream written by and starring Cole Escola, they portray former first lady Mary Todd Lincoln as a narcissistic problem drinker and would-be cabaret singer in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. “Unrequited yearning, alcoholism, and suppressed desires abound in this one-act play that finally examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln through the lens of an idiot,” state the play’s press notes.
Inhabiting the role of wife of the 16th president of the United States with a thirsty black wig and frothing-at-the-mouth lunacy, Escola is the hottest of hot messes onstage, flashing the audience bloomers one moment and chugging paint thinner the next. The acclaimed 2012 biographical historical drama Lincoln this is not. It should be noted, however, that Steven Spielberg (the director of Lincoln), Sally Field (who played Mary Todd in the film), and Tony Kushner (who wrote the screenplay) all swung by the Lucille Lortel Theatre in Manhattan’s West Village one evening to catch Escola’s bonkers spin on the shared source material.
Prada cardigan, sweater, pants, and hat; stylist’s own shoes.
After selling out nightly and twice extending its run, the play transferred to Broadway this summer. It’s been a whirlwind—and, dare one say, unexpected—main-stage moment for Escola. A performer as unabashedly queer as they are crackers, they are best known for their cult YouTube parodies of Little House on the Prairie, called “Our Home Out West,” and for playing a diabolical twink in the HBO Max series Search Party.
Sitting in Bryant Park one recent afternoon, Escola discussed the writing process behind Oh, Mary!, the emotional stakes of imposter syndrome, and manifesting a rich better half—while accidentally swallowing a fly mid-conversation.
Oh, Mary! is a play that wonders: What if the wife of Lincoln had been nuttier than a fruitcake?
I like to say, very glibly, that I did no research for this play about Mary Todd Lincoln. But I have been developing it for years. All the shows—solo comedy shows, sketch shows, everything that I’ve written for myself and self-produced—have been getting me ready for this.
What did you model your vision of Mary Todd on, if not the annals of history?
Well, I just thought, What would be the dumbest thing that First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln could dream of and want with her life? And cabaret made me laugh really hard. But also I, Cole Escola, do secretly want to be a cabaret star, desperately. Mary is just me. She cares so deeply about what people think of her, but she has a huge blind spot and doesn’t realize that people actually find her grating and annoying and hate her. And that is me.
Looking back, when did you first notice that the general population finds you grating and annoying?
I think around the time I started vocalizing, which was maybe two months.
The Row belted dress, bag, and shoes; Oliver Peoples sunglasses; Assael necklace; Fogal tights.
Critics, at least, are effusive in their praise of Oh, Mary! The play recently swept the Dorian Theater Awards, hosted by GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics.
The thing is that the play is also about being gay. I think we all—“we all” meaning queer people—have that experience of being a kid, saying something, and the whole room turning and looking at you like you just took a shit on the floor, and realizing, Oh, I guess I’m not supposed to like the color pink. Wait, that’s so annoying. Please don’t print that. Or if you do, you can add a headline: “It’s Okay to Wear Pink.”
Do you see performing as an inherently autobiographical act?
With all of my characters, I don’t go into it thinking I want to explore this part of myself. Anytime I feel like I want to do a character like this, afterwards I can unpack it and it’s like, Oh, the goblin commuter of Hoboken is me exploring how I feel in romantic situations—which is like a disgusting creature trying to flirt.
Who needs romance? Theatergoers are swooning over you.
The early audiences were very, very enthusiastic. But I thought, Oh, that’s just my friends, aka drunk homosexuals. I didn’t know if other people would like it, but I was very pleased that the people I wrote it for got it and love it. And now more people are getting it and enjoying it—or at least buying tickets to it—and that’s really all that matters.
What has been the response to some of the show’s more deranged scenes, such as when the former first lady drinks her own vomit?
I mean, one joke is Mary’s skirt goes up and there is underwear with hearts all over it. No one laughs at that, but it’s something that means a lot to me, so it stays. The best part of this whole experience has been the people who come up to me after the show, people I worked with at Joe’s Pub or who came to see my shows at the Duplex. They look at me, and they’re so proud and excited. It makes me really, really emotional, as if I scored a goal for the team. It makes me want to cry. [Tears up]
It’s okay, take your time if you need a moment.
No, sorry, it’s—I just swallowed a bug. I literally just swallowed a bug! [Starts singing] “I know an old lady who swallowed a fly.”
Prada cardigan, sweater, pants, and hat; stylist’s own shoes
You not only star in Oh, Mary!, you wrote it. What was that process like?
I wrote myself an email in 2009 with an idea: Abe’s assassination wasn’t such a bad thing for Mary. That was the seed. I loved the idea so much. I was so excited by it that I was afraid to write it. I was afraid that once I got it on paper, it wouldn’t work. Then, in 2020, during lockdown, I made myself sit down and write it. It reminded me of a movie when a writer gets a burst of inspiration and stays up day and night writing. One morning, it just came out of me. I was like, “I can’t stop. I have to write this as long as I can.” That happens about once every seven years, if you’re lucky.
Flash forward to today, and your “short legs and long medleys,” as you put it in the play, are on Broadway.
I’m worried that moving to Broadway is trying to milk the moment too much, as if we had goodwill from people and now they will want to take us down a few notches. I’m terrified that I’m done. I peaked. It’s over.
That’s the attitude! So, what’s next for Cole Escola?
I’m looking for love. I think my next partner should be rich. Rich people are always nice and grounded and funny.
Hair by Walton Nunez for R+Co at See Management; Makeup by Mical Klip for Makeup by Mario; Fashion Assistant: Celeste Roh; Hair Assistant: Leah MacKay; Tailor: Elise Fife at Altered Mgmt; Special Thanks to Hurley’s Saloon.
Get ready for a whole lot of references to florals for spring, girding your loins, and the color cerulean (though even we are not immune). There are reports that a sequel to the cult classic fashion film, The Devil Wears Prada, is in the works, and Meryl Streep as well as Emily Blunt have already signed on.
Puckfirst announced the news, which unsurprisingly has the Internet spinning. It has been reported that Oscar-winning producer Wendy Finerman is behind the project, and now, with Streep involved, others are more willing to sign on, including the original film’s screenwriter, Aline Brosh McKenna. The sequel will apparently follow a more modern storyline, with Streep’s hard-edged magazine editor Miranda Priestly facing impending retirement and the decline of the magazine industry. Blunt’s Emily Charlton, meanwhile, is now an executive at a major luxury group (akin to LVMH or Kering), forcing the two old foes to go head-to-head, as Miranda now needs Emily (and her advertising dollars) to keep the fictional Runway off the ground.
The news of a sequel really shouldn’t come as too surprising. The Devil Wears Prada is constantly discussed and referenced, yes, but there has been more action around the film recently. Earlier this year, Anne Hathaway joined Streep and Blunt on stage at the SAG Awards, where they quoted the movie to the joy of fans everywhere. Last year, too, when Hathaway and Blunt were paired together for Variety’s Actors on Actors, they discussed their love for the movie that helped make them famous. Then there’s the musical, starring Vanessa Williams as Miranda with music by Elton John, which began previews in Plymouth, England over the weekend before its opening in the West End in October. Plus, the film’s 20th anniversary is coming up in 2026…coincidence?
Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep, and Anne Hathaway at the SAG Awards in February 2024.
Michael Buckner/Variety/Getty Images
As for Hathaway and the film’s other actors like Stanley Tucci, there is no solid information regarding their involvement in the reported sequel. In fact, the actress was dubious when asked about the possibility of another Prada film just a few months ago, though she did sound interested in the off chance something came together. “We all love each other and if somebody could come up with a way to do it, I think we’d all be crazy not to,” Hathaway told V Magazine of joining on to the hypothetical project in April. Don’t expect Adrian Grenier to return as Andy’s much-maligned boyfriend, however, as last year screenwriter McKenna herself said that if she were to write a sequel, Andy and Nate would definitely not still be together.
As of now, Disney has not responded to the reports, so it’s unclear if this is all a pipe dream or something more serious to get excited about. Until we learn more, that’s all (we told you we aren’t immune to references).
