Euphoric Rise: Zendaya, the youngest Emmy award winner

At just 24, Zendaya already has a Marvel role, an Emmy and a certified platinum song under her belt

At an age where most people are only just starting to navigate their career paths, 24-year-old American actress and singer Zendaya just took home the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role in the smash hit HBO show, Euphoria. She’s the youngest actress in history to win the award, beating out stiff competition from Tinseltown veterans like Laura Linney, Sandra Oh and Jennifer Aniston. She has also been lauded for playing the straight-talking MJ in Marvel’s wildly successful Spider-Man franchise, released two hit albums and recorded a platinum-selling song – Rewrite the Stars, from the soundtrack of the 2017 musical drama The Greatest Showman. The world, it seems, just can’t get enough of Zendaya.

Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman – to give her full name – was born on September 1, 1996, as the only child of teachers Claire Marie Stoermer and Kazembe Ajamu, a.k.a. Samuel David Coleman. Painfully shy from the get-go, she was forced to repeat kindergarten in order to socially acclimatise with her schoolmates. At six, she was introduced to acting when she and two of her friends, the only black children at their private school, convinced the principal to allow them to perform a play for Black History Month. “I was Bessie Coleman,” she remembers, “My friends were Harriet Tubman and Madam C.J. Walker. We just felt we needed to raise awareness about the importance of these women.”

From that day on, Zendaya was smitten. Every summer, she would accompany her mom to her second job at the California Shakespeare Theater, acting in several of their productions. She also signed up for dance lessons and joined a dance troupe for three years. Her first taste of stardom, though, came when she landed one of the lead roles of Disney Channel’s Shake It Up in 2010. By the time she graduated high school, the multi-talented teen had starred in two more Disney TV shows, penned an inspirational book for tweens titled Between U and Me, and released a solo album featuring a song, Replay, that went platinum. She also starred in season 16 of Dancing with the Stars at 16 years old – then the youngest-ever contestant on the show – and wound up finishing strong in second place.

The 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes On Fashion - Arrivals — Zendaya and Law Roach at the 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp in New York City. (Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for THR)

Never one to rest on her laurels, Zendaya also found time in her busy schedule to indulge her love of all things sartorial. In 2016, she found her own clothing line, Daya by Zendaya, and also starred as a guest judge on the 15th season of Project Runway. Two years later, she was signed by fashion label Tommy Hilfiger as its global women’s ambassador and collaboratively released several Tommy Hilfiger x Zendaya capsule collections.

71st Emmy Awards - Arrivals — Zendaya at the 71st Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

The crowning achievement of her young life, though, possibly came earlier this year, when she nabbed the coveted Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her leading role as Rue in the HBO hit series Euphoria. Loosely based on the Israeli TV show of the same name, Euphoria delivers a vibrant, almost brutal depiction of contemporary US high school life, burnished with the very real issues of social media, drugs and more. Zendaya was lauded in all corners for her gritty portrayal of the reckless recovering teen drug addict, with The Guardian calling her performance “mesmerising” and “astonishing”, and The New Yorker even dubbing her “the best part” of the series.

“Although Euphoria was amazing and exciting, it was also extremely stressful. It gave me anxiety every week”

Eager to give back, the actress has found a unique way to raise funds and awareness for different causes – by using her birthday as a means to raise funds for worthy initiatives. When she turned 18, she partnered with Convoy of Hope – a philanthropic relief organization with whom she has been connected since 2012 – to raise money to feed over 100 malnourished children in Haiti, the Philippines, and Tanzania. The following year, following a trip to South Africa with UN AIDS, she hosted another fundraising project, this time to help the country’s AIDS orphans. To celebrate turning 20, Zendaya once again teamed up with Convoy of Hope, this time managing to raise US$50,000 for the organization’s Women’s Empowerment Initiative.

Spider-Man: Far From Home Premiere — Zendaya attends the Premiere of “Spider-Man Far From Home” at TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Glenn Francis/Pacific Pro Digital Photography)

Speaking about her passion for charitable and social endeavors, she says, “I don’t just sing, dance, and act because I love it,” she says. “You have to have a purpose, and mine is to connect with the world, to get across messages that are important. I’d much rather be known for leaving a little stamp of positivity on one person’s life than for the last project that I did.”

“I’d much rather be known for leaving a little stamp of positivity on one person’s life than for the last project that I did”

She still does, however, have multiple projects looming on the horizon, with her next high-profile appearance set to be in the upcoming remake of Frank Herbert’s cult science-fiction novel Dune (2021) alongside co-star Timothée Chalamet. She has also reunited with Euphoria director Sam Levinson in the upcoming drama Malcolm & Marie, a production that was shot in secret during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Perhaps her most anticipated silver screen return, though, is the reprisal of her beloved role as MJ in the as-yet untitled third sequel of the Spider-Man franchise, set for release in 2021. After that, the path seems less clear, though given Zendaya’s smart choices – both onscreen and in the charity sphere – chances are her star can only continue to rise.

Text: Tenzing Thondup

Photos: Dominic Miller, Bulgari

Blunt Talk: How A Quiet Place actress Emily Blunt learnt to speak out

If you were going to cast the anti-Hollywood – an untinsely town that was the very antithesis of the world’s most high-profile movie production centre – a very good place to start would be Wandsworth. One of London’s least-distinguished boroughs, it is home to a number of neighbourhoods – notably Balham and Tooting Bec – that are all but shorthand for dull places to live among many metropolitan Brits.

Nevertheless, it was here, on 23 February 1983, that one of Hollywood’s currently most-bankable icons – Emily Olivia Leah Blunt – first put in an appearance. Born into a Britain where unemployment had just hit an all-time high and where the tabloids of the day were going to town on the recent discovery of the lair of a serial killer (just 14 miles from where baby Blunt lay cradled), few would have put money on the fact that, 37 years later, she would be one of the world’s most in-demand actresses.

Indeed, the current level of her commitments is dizzying. Not only is she returning to cinemas this month in A Quiet Place Part II (a sequel to the 2018 smash hit horror movie she starred in alongside her husband John “The Office US” Krasinski), she is also tipped to be starring in The English, a new TV Western series coming courtesy of the BBC and scheduled to hit small screens globally next year. As if that was not enough, she and Krasinski are also rumoured to be in talks to play, arguably, the most famous couple in the Marvel comics universe – Sue and Reed Richards, a duo that makes up 50 percent of the Fantastic Four and are better known as, respectively, the Invisible Girl and the modestly-monikered Mr Fantastic.

To be fair, this is not quite the rags to riches story so beloved of paid Hollywood legend-makers. In fact, it would be something of an understatement to say that the young Emily was born into a life of obscurity. The second of four children, her father, Oliver, was a high-profile barrister, while her mother, Joanna, was herself an actress. Nor do the family’s claims to fame end there – her grandfather was a Major General and one of her uncles was a local Member of Parliament. While such a lineage is clearly no guarantee of success, it was – at the very least – something of a door-opener for the aspiring young actress.

There was however one very literal impediment on her road to cinematic acclaim – from the age of seven, the young Blunt suffered from a debilitating stutter. Looking back on that difficult time, she now says: “Stutterers don’t feel understood. It’s not psychological. It’s not that you’re nervous, it’s not that you’re insecure, it’s not that you can’t read, it’s not that you don’t know what you want to say. It’s neurological, it’s genetic, it’s biological. It’s not your fault.”

It took her seven years to finally overcome the problem and only then with considerable counselling and therapy from the American Institute for Stuttering. Clearly a great believer in paying her dues, she is now one of the New York-headquartered charity’s most high-profile patrons.

With this key obstacle out of the way, it wasn’t long after that when her star quality was spotted during a performance at her thesp-friendly sixth form college in Surrey. It was enough to secure her an agent and her first professional work swiftly followed. Her stage debut, though, didn’t see her appearing in just any old play.

No, aged 18, she took to the boards in a production of The Royal Family, a satire on a US acting dynasty directed by Sir Peter Hall, the former head of the UK’s National Theatre. Not only did this see the young actress appearing alongside true acting royalty – in the form of leading lady Dame Judi Dench – it also saw her singled out as the year’s Best Newcomer in the London Evening Standard’s annual theatre awards.

A string of other stage appearances followed before she made her TV debut in 2003’s Boudica, the tale of an ancient Celtic warrior woman. The following year she arrived – apparently fully-formed – on the big screen, winning widespread acclaim for her role as a young woman with romantic aspirations in My Summer of Love. From there, she was set on the fast track to Hollywood success.

Naturally, her talent and looks also caught the attention of a host of would-be Hollywood beaux. It was, however, ultimately a Canadian – the multi-award-winning singer-songwriter Michael Bublé – who she embarked on her first high-profile relationship with. It was not long after the two went their separate way that she was introduced to Krasinski, who was then riding high as the audience touch-point in The Office US, a remake of a highly-successful BBC comedy series. The two got engaged the following year and married in July 2010 in Italy. Speaking at the time, a clearly smitten Blunt described the moment Krasinski proposed saying: “All I can tell you is that there were flutes playing in the background, butterflies, there were angels showering us with rainbow drops.”

Some 12 years later, with the angels still clearly on their side, the couple have two daughters – Hazel (five) and Violet (three) – with both their off-screen and onscreen partnership both seemingly still going strong. Neither does marriage or maternity appear to have diminished her allure, with FHM magazine recently designating her as one of the world’s 100 Sexiest Women. Next up, she’ll be hitting Hong Kong cinemas on March 19 in the long-awaited A Quiet Place Part II.

Text: William Elliott
Photos: AFP

High Bourne: Matt Damon has taken his acting career to stellar heights

Imagine missing out on earning a cool US$250 million. That’s the nightmare that actor Matt Damon recently revealed to be his biggest career regret. The sizeable amount would have been his payout had he accepted the starring role in director James Cameron’s smash sci-fi hit, Avatar (2009), which held the record for being the highest-grossing film of all time for nearly a decade until it was dethroned by Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame earlier this year.

Speaking on this missed opportunity, Damon said: “Jim Cameron offered me Avatar. And when he offered it to me, he goes, ‘Now, listen. I don’t need anybody. I don’t need a name for this, a named actor. If you don’t take this, I’m going to find an unknown actor and give it to him, because the movie doesn’t really need you. But if you take the part, I’ll give you 10 percent…’”

Given that Avatar would go on to rake in a staggering US$2.7 billion, that 10 percent would have equated to a quarter of a billion dollars in the actor’s pocket. As fate would have it, though, he ultimately turned down this golden goose opportunity due to scheduling conflicts. However, massive payday aside, he had a bigger regret: “In having to say no, I was probably passing on the chance to ever work with him. So that sucked and that’s still brutal.”

While he may have missed out on this hugely-lucrative role, that’s not to say that Matt Damon is destitute by a long shot. In fact, as of 2019, his current wealth is valued at a respectable US$160 million, according to Forbes, which ranks him as one of Tinseltown’s highest-earning leading men. What’s more, the experienced 49-year-old thespian has enjoyed what few other of his ilk have managed – the perfect balancing act between Hollywood longevity and personal happiness.

But it seems big screen success was always in the cards for him. Matthew Paige Damon – as his birth certificate reads – was born on 8 October 1970 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as the second son of Kent Telfer Damon, a stockbroker, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a professor of early childhood education. With his parents divorcing when he was just two and his subsequent inability to embrace his mother’s “by the book” child-rearing approach, the lonely youth saw acting as his sole reprieve. It was through his high school theatre productions that Damon finally found his true calling, while also meeting fellow thespian and life-long friend Ben Affleck in the process.

Soon thereafter, his scholastic aptitude saw him enroll at the prestigious Harvard University where, during his freshman year, the aspiring actor made his big screen debut with a bit part in the 1988 rom-com Mystic Pizza. When he was subsequently cast as Lieutenant Britton Davis in the 1993 Western Geronimo: An American Legend, Damon chose to drop out of university to pursue the role, deeming it a career-maker. Sadly, the film flopped at the box office, and it wasn’t until 1997 that he finally caught the attention of the world’s cinemagoers.

That was the year that Good Will Hunting – penned by Matt Damon and his childhood pal Affleck – hit the silver screen. The tale, which follows the journey of an MIT janitor-cum-mathematics savant (Damon) as he finds his place in the world, was to be his first taste of cinematic success, with the then-27-year-old receiving his first nominations for Best Actor, while also winning the accolades for Best Original Screenplay at both the Academy Awards and Golden Globes that year.

After that, his star was unquestionably on the rise, as he set about solidifying his reputation as a true Hollywood A-lister through a series of critically-acclaimed performances such as the eponymous protagonist in Saving Private Ryan (1998), a fallen angel in Dogma (1999) and the antihero in The Talented Mr Ripley (1999).

It was during the following decade, though, that he truly entered the big league, thanks largely to his participation in several big budget franchises. His first franchise role was in the heist movie, Ocean’s Eleven (2001), where he starred alongside such Hollywood luminaries as Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Andy Garcia. The movie’s blend of fast-paced action and charismatic dialogue was such a success that it spawned three more sequels.

But it was another franchise-starter that transformed the actor into a bona fide action star – The Bourne Identity (2001), the spy action film that saw Damon take on the mantle of Jason Bourne, a superspy suffering from amnesia who has to avoid assassins on his journey to regaining his identity. Another box-office hit, it spawned four sequels that collectively grossed US$1.6 billion worldwide.

Soon thereafter, following a series of high-profile romances with actresses like Minnie Driver, Winona Ryder and Rhona Mitra, Matt Damon finally found true love away from the limelight with Luciana Barroso, a bartender he had met while filming Stuck on You in Miami in 2003. The couple wed in 2005, and are now the proud parents of four daughters, including Barroso’s child from a previous relationship.

With the new insight gained from becoming a father, the actor discovered a passion for humanitarian work, particularly in the field of clean water initiatives. To combat this crisis, Damon co-founded H20 Africa Foundation, an NGO dedicated to providing clean water to the needy in Africa. The organisation eventually merged with another charitable body, WaterPartners, to form what is now known as Water.org in 2009, whose mission statement is to “pioneer market-driven financial solutions to end the global water crisis”. The big-hearted actor is also a keen supporter of other causes, including combating AIDS, poverty and war atrocities through a number of other organisations.

But that’s not to say that he’s allowed his onscreen career to languish. In the last decade alone, he’s garnered praise for such diverse roles as that of South African rugby team captain Francois Pienaar in 2009’s Invictus (which saw him nominated for Best Supporting Actor at both the Golden Globes and the Oscars), a Texas Ranger in the Coen Brothers’ 2010 Western True Grit, and a castaway astronaut in not one, but two sci-fi hits – Interstellar (2014) and The Martian (2015).

Next up, though, Damon will have his feet back on terra firma, appearing in the historic biopic Ford v Ferrari in the role of Carroll Shelby, the famed US car designer who, together with Henry Ford II of Ford Motors, aims for an underdog victory against Italian motoring marque Scuderia Ferrari at the prestigious Le Mans race.

After that, the A-lister looks set to reunite with his old pal Affleck to co-write a script 22 years after their previous effort, the afore-mentioned Good Will Hunting, catapulted both actors to superstardom. Their upcoming collaboration with producer-director Ridley Scott and Oscar-nominated writer-director Nicole Holofcener, tentatively titled The Last Duel, will see Damon travel not to the stars, but to the distant past this time – the 14th century to be exact – in a story of a ‘duel to end all duels’ between a knight and a courtier.

While there’s little concrete information on that particular project, the all-star power behind it suggests that something truly special could be in the making – one that will allow audiences worldwide to remember just what makes Matt Damon such a Bourne star.

Text: Tenzing Thondup
Photos: AFP

Maid in Hollywood: TV darling Elisabeth Moss head to the big screen

It’s the TV series that, whether by luck or by design, has seemed most zeitgeisty in the #MeToo world, a post-apocalyptic, satirical, shot-from-thehip, righteous screech of anger at never-shouldhave- been male domination. Or, as the TV guides preferred to bill it, The Handmaid’s Tale. Based on the 1985 dystopian novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood, the multi-award winning Canadian writer, the programme – already in its third season – caught the imagination of a generation, embodying and taking to the extreme the eternal battle of the sexes, leaving women angry and emboldened, and any male with a tad of self-awareness shamefaced and contrite.

Although the timeliness of its debut – its first episode was broadcast shortly before the downfall of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein sent the #MeToo movement global – undoubtedly played a huge role in its success, its enduring popularity is also down to the stunning performance of Elisabeth Moss, the Los Angeles-born actress who brought to life the pivotal role of Offred, the eponymous handmaid whose tale is told.

Born in July 1982 to two musicians, it’s safe to say a love of performing has always flowed through her veins. Although, at the age o f just eight, she moved New York City to train as a ballerina, her acting abilities soon eclipsed her fancy footwork and saw the young actress cast in Lucky Chances, a 1990 NBC miniseries. Her big break, though, didn’t come for another nine years when she was ultimately cast as Zoey Bartlet, the fictional daughter of Martin Sheen’s equally-fictional US president in the critically-acclaimed The West Wing. It was a character she was to play for the next seven years, while also finding time for guest appearances in a number of other high-profile TV shows of the time, most notably Grey’s Anatomy and Medium.

Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson in AMC series Mad Men

Then, in 2007, she was cast in a role that would ensure she would be far more than a one-hit wonder. This was the role of Peggy Olson, a frumpy and overly eager secretary in Mad Men – a sustained riff on the glories and grotesqueries of the US advertising industry in the ’60s – which arguably allowed her a wider pallet than her West Wing days. As her role evolved, Moss went on to be recognised with both Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

Despite this acclaim and Mad Men’s demanding schedule, she still found time for a number of other high-profile roles, most notably as Robin Griffin in Top of the Lake, a gritty Sundance / BBC drama – a role that took her some 12,000km away from Tinseltown to the far-distant city of Queenstown in New Zealand. Playing a detective specialising in sexual assault cases assigned to investigate the disappearance of a pregnant 12-year old girl, it was the performance that saw Moss win her first Golden Globe for ‘Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television’.

While she couldn’t put a foot wrong on stage or screen, away from the greasepaint and critical adoration, things were a little less steady. Her marriage to actor and former star of Saturday Night Live, Fred Armisen, lasted just eight months. It was a disaster somewhat mitigated by Armisen publicly confessing the couple’s subsequent divorce had been largely down to him. Not one to duck to such a PR gift, Moss then went on record saying: “One of the greatest things I heard someone say about Fred is: ‘He’s so great at doing impersonations’. The greatest impersonation he does, though, is that of being a normal person”.

Moss herself, however, has not been immune to accusations of not being normal, with many such jibes centring around her lifelong commitment to Scientology, a cult-like religion that has had frequent run-ins with various US authorities over many, many years. Indeed, perhaps because her career has been quite so scandal-free, it’s the Scientology issue that the more dogged / less imaginative journos have returned to time and again, with many suggesting that her allegedly misanthropic religion is wholly at odds with her feminist credentials.

Eventually driven to try and end these seemingly interminable intimations, Moss ultimately took to her Instagram account to state: “Religious freedom and tolerance and understanding the truth and equal rights for every race, religion and creed are extremely important to me” – a declaration that, almost certainly, did absolutely nothing to stem such accusations.

A more robust defence of her feminist allegiances, of course, has come courtesy of her role in The Handmaid’s Tale, arguably her most high-profile and heartfelt performance to date. For three seasons now, she has wowed viewers as the series’ heroine, a woman constrained by the dictates of a society more male dominated than even ’60s Madison Avenue. With reviews of the series having remained more or less positive throughout, Moss proved a popular winner of the 2017 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. The series also saw her win her second Golden Globe, this time as Best Actress in a Television Series Drama.

The Kitchen will see Elisabeth Moss share top billing with two other actresses who have graduated from the small to the big screen – Melissa McCarthy and Tiffany Hadish. Whether her own role – as an Irish mobster’s wife who, herself, ultimately embraces the dark side – marks her formal ascension to movie stardom or proves just another intriguing digression in her TV-centric career will rather depend on just how much kerching she brings to the box office.

Text: Bailey Atkinson
Photo: AFP

John Wikipedia: Keanu Reeves, the man behind the reluctant assassin…

Although gifted with a Hawaiian first name that loosely translates to “cool wind over the mountain”, life has been far from a breeze for Reeves, who turns 55 this September. His English showgirl-turned-costume-designer mother split from his Asian-American geologist father when he was just three years old, with Reeves Senior permanently exiting the picture 10 years later. At the age of 17, following a nomadic childhood and an early adolescence that saw him live as far afield as Sydney, New York and Toronto, he headed off to Hollywood with very little to lose. By then, much to the disappointment of the maternal grandparents who had largely brought him up, he had already been expelled from high school. To this day, he is yet to officially finish school.

Despite working on his thespianic credentials since the age of nine, having appeared in countless theatrical productions, he didn’t, however, register on the Hollywood star Richter scale until 1989, when he played the eponymous Ted in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, a time travel comedy that remains a cult favourite and which, in 1991, gave rise to its own, equally lauded sequel, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey.

It was while riding high as MTV’s 1993 Most Desirable Man that tragedy once again crossed his path, with his close pal and former co-star River Phoenix dying of an overdose at just 23. Clearly still feeling the shock waves more than 20 years later, Reeves told one interviewer in 2014: “River was a remarkable human being and actor. We got along very well and I miss him. I think of him often.”

To many, it seemed that Reeves threw himself into a series of even bigger projects in the wake of the tragedy, landing his most high-profile role to date in 1994’s action-drama Speed, however, just three year later he surprised the studio he turned down the role for the films sequel Speed 2. This, though, would come to be seen as a signature move by Reeves, as he has, since then, frequently ducked big-buck offers in favour of playing roles he coveted or working with actors he admired – notably Al Pacino in The Devil’s Advocate and Gene Hackman in The Replacements. It also led to him to negotiate a highly-unusual profit sharing deal for The Matrix and its sequels, which saw him take a pay cut to ensure the franchise’s special effects and costume designs remained cutting-edge, and later donating US$75 million to be shared between the production team as a sign of his appreciation.

keanu reeves — A young Keanu Reeves in *Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure*

While riding high on the acclaim occasioned by the first Matrix film, fate dealt Reeves another bitter blow when the daughter he was to have with Jennifer Syme, his production assistant girlfriend, was delivered stillborn. Not surprisingly, the subsequent grief put a huge strain on the couple’s relationship, which ultimately ended in Syme’s death two years later in a calamitous car accident. With blow piling on blow, that same year – 2001 – saw his half sister Kim diagnosed with leukemia, a condition that would take the best part of 10 years to overcome.

Perhaps reflecting his own turmoil, the next decade saw Reeves increasingly drawn to playing complex, troubled men. In 2005, he took the title role in Constantine, an occult detective film based on DC Comics’ Hellblazer comic book series, while 2008 saw him memorably play an alien messenger in a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, a ’50s cult favourite. Reeves’ most ubiquitous role in the opening decade of the 21st century, however, was arguably Sad Keanu, a paparazzi-snapped meme that caught the then-middle aged actor alone and forlorn on a park bench, with just a half-eaten sandwich for company.

Then came 2013, the year Reeves took on the title role in John Wick, the film that arguably resurrected his career and saw him once again embrace the action hero mantle he had once so memorably discarded. Bringing the reluctantly unretired assassin to the big screen proved a natural fit with the actor’s innate stoicism and fondness for wry humour, with the casting proving to be box office gold.

Keanu Reeves as iconic Matrix character Neo

In addition to his natural affinity for characters with a dark side, many have speculated that Reeves’ own personal tragedies gifted his depiction of Wick with unusual depth. Seemingly confirming this in a 2006 interview, he said: “Grief changes shape, but it never ends. People have a misconception that you can deal with it and, one day, say: ‘It’s gone, and I’m better’. They’re wrong. When the people you love are gone, you really are alone.” As to whether his renewed success has lightened his load at all, that will have to remain a matter of conjecture. He has, however, green-lit a return to two of his greatest hits, with Bill and Ted 3 (apparently called Bill and Ted Go to Hell) already in production and rumours growing of a return of The Matrix sometime soon. And Speed 3? Well, even for the rejuvenated Keanu Reeves, it’s safe to assume that some things are just beyond redemption…

Text: Bailey Atkinson
Photos: AFP

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Scarlett Johansson: What’s next for the Black Widow post-Avengers: Endgame?

Even well before Avengers: Endgame burst into cinemas across the world at the tail end of April, there was no doubt that this was going to be something of a game changer. After all, this was to be Marvel’s magnum opus, the epic conclusion to the staggering 22-movie-long narrative that had been the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) Infinity Saga. And, indeed, over just its opening weekend, the three-hour film’s total takings were said to be an eye-popping US$1.2 billion, the highest first-two-days figure for any movie ever.

While Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man and Chris Evans’ Captain America may have been central to this success, an equally important element of its appeal is none other than Black Widow, portrayed to perfection by Scarlett Johansson ever since the character first high-kicked her way into the MCU in 2010’s Iron Man 2. Across the near-decade since then, Johansson’s stock has risen, if anything, faster and further than The Avengers, which is now very much the Marvel mothership. Indeed, last year, Johansson’s take-home pay was a very tidy US$40.5 million, making her the world’s highest-paid actress and bringing with it the acknowledgement that she now truly is among the pantheon of all-time greats.

Her current mega-success, though, is a far cry from her eminently humble beginnings. The Black Widow-to-be was born in a low-income household in New York on 22 November 1984, the daughter – and child three of four – of Karsten Olaf Johansson, a Dutch architect, and his wife, Melanie Sloan, a producer. Showing a precocious interest in acting, Johansson made her professional debut in a 1993 Late Night with Conan O’Brien comedy sketch when she was just eight years old. Her first stage appearance – in Sophistry, an off- Broadway play, which saw her star opposite Ethan “Training Day” Hawke – followed soon after. She was then cast in one of the title roles of Mannie & Lo, a 1996 dramedy telling the tale of two down-on-their-luck sisters.

It was in 2003, though, that Johansson finally landed the two roles that transformed her fortunes – Griet in The Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Charlotte in Lost in Translation, a critically-acclaimed 2003 romantic dramedy. The latter, it seems, was a role she was born to play, with this bittersweet May-December romance opening to near-universal acclaim, while also securing ScarJo – as she has been unwillingly christened by fans – a much-coveted Golden Globe nomination, as well as the Best Actress accolade at that year’s BAFTAs.

This acclaim set her on course for a slew of big-budget starring roles, including Michael Bay’s sci-fi thriller The Island (2005) and Woody Allen’s psychological drama Match Point (2005), as well as such rom-coms as 2007’s The Nanny Diaries, co-starring Chris Evans, the future Captain America.

It was in 2010, though, that she truly entered the big league. Not only did she receive a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Feature Actress in a Play for A View from the Bridge, her Broadway debut, she also won the role that saw her permanently seared into pop culture consciousness – Black Widow, Marvel’s enigmatic assassiness.

Her take on the former Russian spy-turned-superheroine saw her career go – largely – from strength to strength. There were, however, one or two missteps along the way, most notably her appearance in Ghost in the Shell, a 2017 adaptation of a Japanese manga series. The entire production proved highly controversial, largely on account of its almost all-Caucasian cast, with many of them playing roles that were originally written as Asian characters. This, said many, was Hollywood “whitewashing” at its very worst.

Her personal life, meanwhile, has also been subject to several ups and downs. Most notably, after a series of high-profile romances, in 2008, she married Ryan “Deadpool” Reynolds, a union that ended in divorce just two years later. She married again in 2014, this time to Romain Dauriac, a French journalist, with whom she has a daughter, Rose Dorothy Dauriac. Three years later, she was once again single.

Reflecting on these painful experiences, she mused: “While I think the idea of marriage is very romantic – it’s a beautiful idea and it can be a beautiful thing – I don’t think it’s natural to be monogamous.” Judging by her recent engagement to actor Colin Jost, though, she’s clearly had a change of heart.

Romantic entanglements aside, there is one particular role that she has already confirmed and which has the world even more intrigued – the return of the Black Widow. Those few of you yet to see Endgame should look away now as a key plot point is about to be discussed.

Given that Natasha Romanov – what the Black Widow calls herself while her lycra is at the dry cleaners – sacrifices herself in the battle to de-Thanos the known universe, how come her debut solo movie has been confirmed as part of Marvel’s Phase IV slate? Sequel, prequel or timey-wimey trickery? Whatever the score, we’ll be there, alongside countless other millions. Don’t forget the popcorn.

Text: Tenzing Thondup
Images: AFP

ED Space: A closer look into the life and songs of Ed Sheeran

While certainly not the first overtly-sensitive bloke to find success with a guitar and a mellow tune or two, English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has been on a seemingly never-ending roll these past few years, releasing hit after hit and breaking worldwide tour-taking records in the process, most recently selling out his two night residency at Hong Kong Disneyland, though breaking hearts yet again when the second show had to be cancelled due to uncooperative weather. In fact, the ginger singer’s ongoing ÷ (pronounced “divide”) tour has already brought in some US$432 million, while Forbes estimates his net worth to be around US$80 million. Not bad for a tousle-haired troubadour not long out of school.

His studiedly unstudied Mister Average charm, mellow persona and wilfully wispy chin have managed to capture the hearts of ‘Sheerios’ on a global basis. Admittedly, his catchy chart toppers and occasionally saccharine lyrics have also played a part in his indefatigable rise – all of which begs the question, what exactly are Ed Sheeran’s songs about? And what was it about his seemingly unremarkable upbringing that gifted him such a clearly prodigious talent?

His singer-songwriter persona – heartfelt chap with a guitar – seemed already fully formed when he released The A-Team, his debut single back in 2011. While many were enamoured by the song’s folksy qualities, underpinning it all was a far darker tale than a casual listen might suggest. In fact, its gentle melody masks the tragic story of a homeless woman (‘Angel’) who is obliged to become a sex-worker to support her Class-A drug habit.

According to Sheeran, the inspiration for the song came to him after he played a gig at a homeless shelter, presumably a locale where many similar hard-luck stories lurk. Whatever its exact genesis, it went on to be a smash hit for the young songsmith – debuting at number three on the UK Singles chart, while also scaling the Top 10s of Germany and Australia, to name but two.

His success reached a new high with the release of x (“multiply”) in 2014, his second album, which went on to top charts across the world, including securing the number one slot in the crucial US market. The break-out tune here was Thinking Out Loud, the third song from the album to be released as a single.

Declaring the soulful ballad to be his walking-down the- aisle song, many fans detected a new maturity lurking below the hummability of this particular ditty. While some saw his advocacy of fidelity and forever love as betraying a more adult world view, others cynically dismissed it as the product of his increasingly sophisticated personal PR mill.

While Thinking Out Loud would remain x’s signature anthem, the album’s fifth single, Photograph, also proved itself no slouch, going double-platinum in the UK and quadruple-platinum in the US. While that would be an astonishing achievement for any song, it’s particularly remarkable for one that nearly didn’t get released at all.

During the production of x, it was recorded some 60-70 times, with Sheeran apparently unconvinced it matched the feel of the rest of the album. As take 71, presumably, pressed all the opposite quality control buttons, the world did ultimately get to hear this brooding musical meditation on homesickness and the travails of long-distance love. It subsequently transpired that the track was a heartfelt paean, within which the lovestruck lyricist had coalesced his feelings about Nina Nesbitt, a fellow musician and his former girlfriend.

For many, it seems as though Sheeran’s entire oeuvre revolves around his emotional attachment to troubled, unloved or much-missed women. Despite his clear predilection for the ladies, though, he has managed to duck any suggestions that he is merely a jobbing Lothario, with his reputation for straightforward sentimentality and one-man-womanry remaining – perhaps surprisingly – intact. Indeed, in March 2017 with the release of his third and most recent album – ÷ (“divide”) – his role as the world’s pre-eminent choirboy-cum-chart-topper seemed more secure than ever.

Despite this, the now-super-rich strummer showed no sign of resting on his laurels. Indeed, he told one journalist that he’d approached the latest collection as though on a mission to write the best love song of his career. When Perfect, the fifth single from the album, hit the airwaves in August 2017, the overall sentiment of fans and the music press alike was: “Mission accomplished”.

Even for an artist no stranger to superlatives, Perfect did extraordinarily well. In total, it went on to reach number one on 36 national music charts across the world, with the consensus very much that this was, indeed, the best love song of Sheeran’s career – to date at least. As the song focussed on his relationship with girlfriend – and, later, wife – Cherry Seaborn, its success was doubly-sweet for the plectrum wielding poet.

Now, with the mixture of cheers and cries of disappointment (thanks to one of the shows becoming a victim of a downpour) of his Hong Kong audience still ringing in his ears, what’s next for the the boy-next door that the whole world loves? Well, a new album for one thing, with the smart money being on him issuing a new set of songs in time for Christmas 2019. The even smarter money goes on his upcoming – apparently Springsteen-influenced – release being entitled – (“minus”). Even if he does surprise fans and dumps his love of mathematical album titles, it is most unlikely, however, to subtract from his global popularity.

Text: Bailey Atkinson

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Brit-born actress Olivia Colman is suddenly Hollywood’s hottest property

Envisage the archetypal Hollywood leading lady. What springs to mind? Young? Beautiful? Willowy? The kind of sex appeal that would arouse an addled octogenarian from miles away? Yes. All of the above. What probably doesn’t spring to mind, however, is Olivia Colman.

Yet, this 45-year-old Brit actress is the toast of Tinseltown as the winner of this year’s Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Anne, the 18th century British monarch in The Favourite. For many, this was Hollywood belatedly recognising that, almost imperceptibly, the last 20 years had seen 45-year-old Colman emerge as one of the acting profession’s all-time greats.

Her relatively low profile can, in part at least, be attributed to the fact that she refined her skills not in US films but, rather, in the more rarified surroundings of UK TV. She first came to the attention of the British public playing Sophie, a neurotic ex-girlfriend-to-be in Peep Show, a cult comedy that eventually ran for nine series. Then, she conquered a series of major roles – a small-town policewoman in the smash-hit crime series Broadchurch, the evil godmother in the cult comedy Fleabag and an alien-possessed parent in Doctor Who, to name but three.

From 2010 onwards, however, her career went through something of a sea change. Out were the goofy comedy roles and in came the meaty dramatic parts – an abused wife in 2011’s harrowing Tyrannosaur (2011) and Margaret Thatcher’s daughter Carol in The Iron Lady (2012), with Meryl Streep playing the title role. It was, however, just two years ago that Colman truly joined the big league and become internationally unmissable. That was the year she signed up for the role of the older Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix’s internationally-adored real-life royal soap The Crown.

Reflecting on her feelings when she knew she would be replacing Claire Foy, the 34-year-old English actress who had played the young Elizabeth to huge acclaim, Olivia Colman said: “I was such an enormous, binge-watching fan of The Crown. So, when the call came to join the cast, I was very uncool – ‘Yes, please, straight away, immediately’ – and didn’t really consider the inevitable pressure I was letting myself in for by signing up for something that was already so successful.”

Part of that pressure proved to be playing a woman famed for her absolute composure and reluctance to show emotions – traits that Colman sees as almost the complete opposite to her own character. Speaking after filming got underway, she said: “I emote. The Queen is not meant to. She’s got to be a rock for everyone and has been trained not to show her feelings. For me, though, when in character, if I received some bad news, I wanted to cry. In the end, I had to wear an earpiece and try and screen out my natural emotional response by listening to the Shipping Forecast whenever things got too intense.”

While playing the current Queen of England obliged her to remain uncharacteristically buttoned up, playing Queen Anne – her two-and-half-centuries-previous predecessor – in the film that took her to Academy Award glory, allowed her to give far freer rein to her emotions. In her bid to bring to life an eccentric, half-forgotten, grief-prone 18th-century monarch – one who sacrifices her regal role to win the love of certain of her most favoured subjects – Olivia Colman was obliged to shed any inhibitions and any notions of matriarchal insouciance. This freed her to deliver a true tour de force performance, one that is unlikely to be forgotten any time soon – not least because, as well as the Oscar, it also won Colman Best Actress at both the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes.

Unlike the majority of her fans – many of whom have long been convinced of her uninimitable greatness – Colman, herself, seemed somewhat taken aback by the very sweep of her success. Indeed, her Academy Awards acceptance speech was pretty much a masterclass in taking onboard unexpected adoration: “It’s genuinely quite stressful. This is hilarious. I got an Oscar…”

Her stock-in-trade self-deprecating humour aside, Olivia Colman still found space in her acceptance speech to try and inspire any watching actresses-in-waiting, saying: “Thank you. And to any little girl who’s practicing her own future acceptance speech back home, well you never know.”

Text: Suchetana Mukhopadhyay
Images: AFP

Bale-zebub: Have Satanic forces made Christian Bale a devilishly fine actor?

While thanking the Lord (alongside your mom, pop and agent) for any success that comes your way is pretty much de rigueur for Hollywooders of every hue, giving a big shout-out to Beelzebub as having a big hand – well, a cloven-ish hoof – in your on-screen achievements is a tad more unusual. Come this year’s Golden Globes, though, that’s exactly what Christian Bale – the UK thespian previously best known for his Batman trilogy – did as part of his Best Actor acceptance speech.

To be fair, given that he took the accolade in question for his performance as Dick Cheney, the decidedly diabolic former US vice-president, in Vice, the crowd pretty much knew where he was coming from. Thankfully, dubious Satanic influences aside, audiences across the world felt that Bale was pretty much on the ball in his interpretation of President Bush’s rightly-scorned right-hand man, a conclusion that awards’ juries across the world seem to have concurred with.

In many ways, it’s a wholly apt recognition for an actor whose commitment to his craft has become the stuff of legend. In order to bring the older, bulkier Cheney to the big screen, for instance, Bale completely transformed his physique, adding a good 18kg and shaving his head. He also hired a movement coach, a speech coach and even acquired a neck exercise machine to nail the look of the famously thick-necked politician.

This, however, was not the first time that the actor had embraced physical change for a role. Indeed, Bale worked out six hours a day to get the killer physique required to portray Patrick Bateman, the charming and good-looking serial killer at the heart of American Psycho (2000). Far more drastic, however, was the resculpting he undertook for The Machinist (2004). In order to fully inhabit the part of Trevor Reznik, a severely-emaciated insomniac factory worker, he lost 28kg and restricted himself to starvation-level rations for months on end.

More impressively still, within just six months of The Machinist’s wrap party, Bale had managed to bulk up 20kg to convincingly don the cape and cowl of the decidedly big and butch Dark Knight in Batman Begins (2005). It was clearly an effort worth making. Bale’s look and performance, together with the visionary genius of director Christopher Nolan, saw the movie – and its two sequels – set a new highwater mark for cinematic superheroics and for action movies in general.

While his fans and the film fraternity alike remain in awe of his on-screen chameleon-esque abilities, there is one off-screen role that that actor is seemingly forever synonymous with – being notoriously difficult on set. This less-readily-desirable perception stems back to 2009, a time when an audio clip of the actor going ballistic and accusing cinematographer Shane Hurlbut of walking through his shot during the filming of Terminator: Salvation leaked online.

A year earlier, in 2008, just before the premiere of The Dark Knight, Bale’s own mother and sister reported him to the police, accusing him of verbally assaulting them at London’s Dorchester Hotel. While it led to the actor being arrested, he was later released without charge.

For some, his volatility and obsessive perfectionism can be traced back to his somewhat erratic childhood. Born in Wales in 1974, his father, David, was a pilot, while his mother, Jenny, earned her living as a circus clown. The demands of his mother’s profession saw the family lead a somewhat itinerant life, with young Bale growing up in an eclectic range of locales, including the south coast of England, Portugal and the US.

Pushed towards a life in show business as a child, he found himself auditioning for TV commercials and the like from the age of eight onwards. Then, at just 12, he debuted in Empire Of The Sun (1987), director Steven Spielberg’s WWII coming-of-age drama, to considerable acclaim.

Despite this early success, it proved to be a difficult time for Bale. His sudden shift into the spotlight made him the target for many of his school’s most vicious bullies, to the extent that he almost called quits on his acting career there and then. Fortunately for film fans everywhere, he thought again and continued on the path to Hollywood superstardom.

While Vice is still on international release, he is scheduled to return to the world’s multiplexes over the coming summer in Ford v. Ferrari, the true-life tale of the rivalry between two of the world’s finest motor-racing marques. Even in the unlikely event that it crashes and burns, it’s still fair to say that Bale has had a hell of a career.

Text: Suchetana Mukhopadhyay

First Lady: Will First Man see actress Claire Foy get her first Oscar?

“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” was the unexpected response from soon-to-become Hollywood’s leading lady as she accepted the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series at the 70th Emmy Awards back in 2017. It’s hardly the faux modesty / humblebrag that characterises the pre-polished, unconvincingly surprised award speeches because Claire Foy, the winner in question, is hardly your typical Tinseltown thespian…

Born, back in April 1984, in Manchester, her father, David, was a photocopier salesman and her mother, Caroline, a lynchpin of the local pharmaceutical logistics sector. It was an unthespian beginning for an actress not only destined to be Hollywood royalty but also to be feted for her bravura small-screen performance as the matriarch of Britain’s own royal family – Queen Elizabeth II.

Perhaps driven by the pain of her parents’ divorce when she was eight-years-old, Claire Foy was ambitious from the start. At just 13, she set her sights on becoming a ballerina, although a diagnosis of juvenile arthritis soon ended her dream of a dance career. Four years later, she was dealt another blow when a tumour developed on her optical nerve. Thankfully, it was benign, but it still added to the many woes that punctuated her childhood. Asked about her abiding memory of that time, she says: “Illness. It was a horrible and debilitating period for me, but it made me realise that if I was ever going have the kind of life I truly wanted, I would have to grab it.”

And grab it she did. With her tumour treatment complete, she enrolled at Liverpool’s John Moores University with the vague idea of eventually becoming a cinematographer before finally moving to Oxford School of Drama to become an actress. After completing her course, she worked her way up through regional theatre, before graduating to bit parts for the BBC, then eventually, undertaking bigger roles, most notably Lady Persephone Towyn in Upstairs Downstairs (2010), a period drama detailing the lives of the British aristocracy in the run-up to World War II.

Then, in 2016, her big break came when she was cast as Queen Elizabeth II – the part for which she was eventually honoured at the Emmy Awards the following year – in The Crown, a big-budget production by Netflix, which ambitiously set out to chronicle the lives and loves of the British royal family through the latter half of the 20th century. Foy clearly shone in the role. Indeed, even the Queen – the woman she has so beguilingly brought to life on TV screens across the world – has confessed she is a fan.

While many feared the warts-and-all approach of The Crown would prove controversial, it transpired, however, that it was ultimately the studio politics behind the series that made headlines across the world. When, against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement and a worldwide initiative aimed at closing the gender pay gap, it came to light that her male co-star, Matt Smith, was receiving a far higher salary than her, Claire Foy suddenly found herself the poster girl for the misogynistic remuneration issues that had long plagued the film and TV industry. Ultimately, the series producers apologised and awarded her a massive retrospective pay rise.

Sadly, despite such a victory, she soon bowed out of the series. This, however, was not down to any actorly fit of pique, but was instead occasioned by a 30-year leap in the narrative, which required the more age-appropriate Olivia Colman (44) to take on the role of Her Majesty in her later years.

Since her forced abdication, however, Foy has been offered lead roles in three big-ticket Hollywood productions. In the first of these, Unsane, she played a woman mistakenly committed to a mental institution after being pursued by a stalker. Not only did she garner great notices for her memorable performance, the film was also remarkable for one particular innovation – it was wholly-filmed on an iPhone 7. More conventional in cinematographic terms was First Man, which saw Foy again scoop up several award nominations for her performance as Janet Armstrong, the wife of Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon.

For Claire Foy fans – and their number is legion – there is some bad news, though. Following 2018’s three-movie-spree and the end of her commitment to The Crown, she is planning to take a little time out this year, saying: “Last year was really rewarding and amazing, but quite exhausting. As a result, I’ve done nothing since last summer and I plan to carry on doing nothing for quite a while longer.”

Despite her protestations, she does have at least one film-related event in her diary – the 25th of this month, the date of the 91st Academy Awards. The word is she’s pretty much a shoo-in for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in First Man. No doubt, her many fans will indeed be over the moon should this particular prediction be borne out.

Text: Bailey Atkinson
Photos: AFP