Nicole Kidman won’t pretend that certainty and exuberance are at an all-time high in Hollywood. “Everything’s hard now,” she says. Yet she still just picks the scripts, like the erotic drama Babygirl, that speak to her. “If it’s seen as a risk, I’ll take these risks,” she says, “but I’m not going to hang too much on that because fear can set in.” Danielle Deadwyler’s strategy is to glide between genres, though frank stories about the past are a speciality: “I’m trying to ride the decades, man, in a time where people don’t want you to be aware of history.”
Actors bored by the scripts—or lack of scripts—they see get proactive. Sydney Sweeney launched a production company. Lisa, from the K-pop sensation Blackpink and soon to be seen in The White Lotus, built a talent management company. Dev Patel cowrote and directed Monkey Man. “I know that I’m not a slave to what’s out there anymore,” he says.
Glen Powell took the reins in his career by cowriting Hit Man. Along with Twisters and Anyone but You, it made him a bankable star. “I try to think audience first rather than me first: What does the audience want to see?” he says. Zoe Saldaña has given audiences what they want in blockbuster franchises, but it was the audacious musical Emilia Pérez that fulfilled her. Bill Skarsgård is making his name playing creatures of the night, most recently a new (but very old) vampire in Nosferatu. “There are people that play themselves, and they’re brilliant,” he says. “I need to transform as far away from me as possible.”
That sound you hear is Jonathan Bailey agreeing: “I’ve been bored by seeing people play the same part seven times.” After his breakout performance in Bridgerton, he’s building a varied résumé with Fellow Travelers, Wicked, and Jurassic World Rebirth. Josh O’Connor has been remaking himself constantly since playing Prince Charles on The Crown. He shot La Chimera, playing a crumpled British tomb robber and speaking Italian, and transformed into a chiseled bad boy of tennis for Challengers.
One more thing our cover stars have in common? Ncuti Gatwa, who plays the legendarily irreverent Doctor Who, may well be speaking for everyone here when he says, “I’ve never really listened to ‘You need to change yourself for the industry.’ That’s not gonna happen.” —Essay by Rebecca Ford
Interviews by Anthony Breznican, David Canfield, Rebecca Ford, Joe Hagan, Chris Murphy, Joy Press, Erin Vanderhoof, Savannah Walsh, Keziah Weir, and Kase Wickman
Clothing and shoes by Alaïa; earrings by Bulgari; ring by Bulgari High Jewelry.Photograph by Gordon von Steiner; styled by George Cortina.
Zendaya
STARS IN: Dune: Part Two, Challengers, The Drama
Movie star. Emmy winner. Fashion icon. The Euphoria superstar has stepped into her leading lady era with sci-fi and a tennis ménage à trois. As a fierce coach in Challengers, Zendaya had to get physical with her costars—sometimes too physical. “I’m like ‘Goodness, girl, stop putting your hands on people,’” she says.
Shirt by Gucci; glasses by Jacques Marie Mage.Photograph by Gordon von Steiner; styled by George Cortina.
Glen Powell
STARS IN: Twisters, Hit Man, Chad Powers, The Running Man
If you need somebody to play a classic leading man, call this guy. He’s been an action hero, a chameleon, and a heartthrob (in Anyone but You) in short order. Once, the industry didn’t seem to want him at all: “As a struggling actor, there’s no harder place to live than Hollywood.”
Clothing by Schiaparelli.Photograph by Gordon von Steiner; styled by George Cortina.
Nicole Kidman
STARS IN: Babygirl, The Perfect Couple, A Family Affair, Lioness
English (US) ·