mike - Hollywood Authentic

February 10, 2025

Photographs by MARY ELLEN MARK
Words by GISELE SCHMIDT & GARY OLDMAN

Hollywood Authentic’s photography correspondents Gary Oldman and Gisele Schmidt look at the work of an outsider who innovated technique and equipment for on-set photography and whose Elvis and Sophia pictures cemented a personal relationship.

Christmas is my favourite time of the year – not because I relish getting gifts but because I love giving them. I’m a planner. I don’t wait for the last minute to start shopping; it’s a carefully thought-out process and, at times, arranged weeks, even months, ahead of time. My ears always perk up when family and friends mention they like something, or are nostalgic about some memory from their childhood, or have a specific interest/hobby, or that they should have gotten this, that and the other thing. I file it away in the back of my mind and when the opportunity arises, I do my utmost to select that ‘perfect’ gift. Gary nicknamed me ‘The Finder of Rare Things’ – a title I wear very proudly. However, the rarest gift I have ever found is him.

Bob Willoughby, Elvis, Gary Oldman, Gisele Schmidt — Elvis and Sophia Loren by Bob Willoughby

Our first Christmas many moons ago was filled with many ‘firsts’. It was the first holiday my son, William, would not be with me as it was his father’s ‘turn’; it was the first holiday I would be staying with Gary and spending time with his sons, Gulley and Charlie; and it was just around the time we admitted to each
other that we were no longer just dating. In a nutshell, it was a highly emotional time. I was heartbroken that William would not be with us but recognised that this provided me a chance for two of Gary’s boys to get to know me a little better, and for them to begin to understand how much I cared for, appreciated and understood their dad. But how does one do all of that in a gift? I owe it all to the late, great Bob Willoughby.

My mom in her 20s was a knockout. No joke, a cross between Sophia Loren and Ingrid Bergman – don’t believe me? I’ve got pictures to prove it, but I digress. She is a huge Elvis fan; so, naturally I grew up listening to his albums and watching his films. When I was selecting images for a Bob Willoughby exhibition, I instinctively chose his photograph of Elvis Presley and Sophia Loren at the Paramount Commissary in 1958. I never had the opportunity to talk with Bob about his photography as he had passed away in 2009, but his son Christopher would regale me with many a tale: Bob was with Sophia and they were seated having lunch when all of a sudden Sophia jumped to her feet having spotted Elvis walking through. Bob believed they had never met before but somehow in moments, she was sitting on his lap tousling his hair telling him how much she loved his music! The incident was over as quickly as it had transpired, but luckily Bob was there and caught every frame of it. The sequence is quite special but the standout for me is featured here – though Elvis is not looking, we know exactly who he is and the smile on Sophia, that’s unabashed joy. Perfection.

Gary visited the gallery many times and he would always eye this photograph; however, he was always hesitant to get it for himself. As if the joy expressed within the image was something he didn’t deserve or hadn’t yet found. All the photographs he had acquired were rather ‘work related’. Directors directing, actors acting, or a quiet moment on set. This photograph was so much more than that. It was spontaneous, intimate, and the captured act was one for one’s own enjoyment. Sophia loved Elvis and she saw an opportunity to tell him so. And this was mine. I was greeted with that same smile when he unwrapped his gift of these shots, and I am greeted with that same smile every morning when he brings me coffee in bed.

Bob Willoughby was the original ‘outsider’ in the genre of the motion picture still. He was the first photojournalist hired by the major studios to take photographs – a liaison between the filmmakers and the leading magazines of the time. He could be shooting for seven different publications but know exactly what each one needed in terms of editorial content and design layout while capturing what was essential to each film. But it didn’t even stop there; he was an innovator, too. He created the silent blimp for 35mm still cameras – a covering that was placed over the camera to minimise the sound of the shutter, making it less distracting for the actors and avoiding detection by the film sound department. He was the only photographer who used radio-controlled cameras that would give him coverage when it was physically impossible to fit in on set or be present for action shots. And he also devised special brackets that could mount his cameras above the Panavision cinema cameras, providing unprecedented vantage points.

Anne Bancroft, Audrey Hepburn, Bob Willoughby, Dorothy Dandridge, Dustin Hoffman, Elvis, Gary Oldman, Gisele Schmidt, Rock Hudson, Shirley MacLaine, Sophia Loren — Dorothy Dandridge by Bob Willoughby

Dorothy Dandridge was famously quoted saying, ‘I have always been a rebel, an outsider.’ I believe that’s why Bob and Dorothy had mutual respect on the set of Otto Preminger’s film, Carmen Jones, for which she became the first Black woman to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. Bob photographed Dorothy taking a break while seated on an apple box. Dorothy focused likely on some directorial notes being spoken by Preminger; it is understandable how Bob’s lens would rather be turned to her, the real star of the production.

Willoughby studied film at the University of Southern California. His photographs show an understanding of the filmmaking process, the responsibilities of the cast and crew to generate a particular scene, and the dedication it takes to get it all right. Bob’s photograph of Shirley MacLaine on the set of the film Can Can encapsulates these elements of repose and high drama by featuring the actors and directors simultaneously on and off set with the use of a mirror.

When I photograph on set, I do love to snap images in the quiet moments. Finding an actor or crew member when they least expect it or are in preparation for the next scene. The fascination comes from the admiration that they do or understand something beyond my own purview. It’s partly awe and curiosity. Willoughby, of course, was on assignment and had the opportunity to accompany them beyond the limits of set and we are ever grateful for his end results…

Rock Hudson was filming A Farewell to Arms in Grado, Northern Italy. Having an opportunity between scenes to return to his portable dressing room to finish a letter, Bob shot the extraordinary image of all the local ladies peering in to get a glimpse of their favourite actor!

Months before filming began on Green Mansions, Audrey Hepburn was given a young fawn so that it would become comfortable around her. Audrey named the fawn Ip and had such fondness for the little creature that, to the chagrin of her dog, Famous, it ended up living with them. Ip followed Audrey everywhere, even shopping in Beverly Hills.

Willoughby’s photographs on and off set are extraordinary, but the epitome of his brilliance in taking an image that represents the ‘soul’ of a film is none other than that of Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman on a specially constructed set at Paramount during the filming of The Graduate, 1967. There are many iconic images from the set: Dustin hiding in his room, Katharine Ross and Dustin running from the church at the end of the film… But my favourite piece of trivia is that when Bob came to set and was introduced to the cast, including a young New York actor doing his first film, Bob asked, ‘Dusty?’ Whereupon he was given a strange look. ‘Your mother is Lillian and your father is Harry and you have a brother named Ronald?’ Dustin responded, ‘Ok, ok. How do you know all of this?’ Bob responded, with what I can only imagine was a huge smile, ‘I used to live upstairs in the same house on Orange Drive, I used to babysit you.’ It may be a small world, but life on set is never dull.

Photographs by BOB WILLOUGHBY
Words by GISELE SCHMIDT & GARY OLDMAN
Photographs courtesy of MPTV Images. Learn more willoughbyphotos.com

Space Odyssey

ELROD HOUSE

February 10, 2025

Photographs by KATE MARTIN
Words by JANE CROWTHER

Lautner’s bold structure in Palm Springs starred in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and still shines as an architectural gem. Hollywood Authentic is dazzled by the Elrod House.

If one thinks of an archetypal Bond villain lair, architect John Lautner’s 1968 concrete masterpiece – built among boulders and perched on a hilltop – is probably exactly what comes to mind. It may not have a launch pad for a space ship, sharks in the pool or a secret escape tunnel, but stepping inside the stark rooms with clean lines, desert views for miles and a crescent swimming pool seemingly balanced on a slope, it’s easy to see why it was cast as Willard Whyte’s home in Sean Connery’s 1971 outing as 007.

diamonds are forever, elrod house, john lautner, palm springs

In Diamonds Are Forever, Bond is on the trail of a precious stones smuggling ring, which leads him to Las Vegas and billionaire Willard Whyte. After being left to die in the desert, the British spy turns up at Whyte’s futuristic house, sauntering up the drive and slipping through the copper gate and the glass door to be confronted by bikini-clad henchwomen, Bambi (Lola Larson) and Thumper (Trina Parks). Their athletic skirmish, which ends with a dunk in that pool, shows off the house in all its glory. Bambi is first seen lounging in a chair in the cathedral-like domed lounge, while Thumper reclines on an in-room rock formation – bringing the outside inside, as was Lautner’s intention. Their cartwheeling, chandelier-swinging assault on the gentleman spy gives viewers a good look at the impressive design.

Elevated above Palm Springs and overlooking the Coachella Valley, the building sits in the Araby Cove neighbourhood and was commissioned by interior designer Arthur Elrod, who furnished the house himself on its completion in 1968. Lautner was the son of parents interested in design (their own home featured in American Architect magazine) and was a former apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright – who designed the Marin County Civic Centre, which Hollywood Authentic lauded in issue 7. When Lautner launched his own firm, he became a leading light in Californian Modernism, designing striking homes that became famous in their own right. With their unique profiles and flowing spaces, Lautner’s builds were instantly recognisable as his work and ideal for cinematography. The Garcia House on Mulholland Drive seems to float on posts over Hollywood and was famously used in Lethal Weapon 2 as the home Riggs pulls down the canyon with his truck; while George’s covetable mid-century love-nest in A Single Man was the wooden Schaffer House in Glendale. The floating spaceship only reached by funicular in Body Double? Lautner’s famed 1960 Chemosphere in the San Fernando Valley. And his Sheats-Goldstein Residence in the Hollywood Hills has featured in numerous music videos and movies, most notable as the porn king’s house that ‘The Dude’ is abducted to in The Big Lebowski. ‘Quite a pad you got here,’ the Dude notes. Quite so.

The Elrod House is certainly worthy of the descriptor ‘pad’ – Playboy magazine’s November 1971 issue ran an approving feature on it called ‘Pleasure On The Rocks’. Lautner’s vision for The Elrod House was organic architecture – incorporating the landscape in the design; making use of the rock formations around the house by integrating them into walls and pockets between rooms. Fanning the house out from the main-event circular living room, Lautner conceived a 60 foot-diameter circular space under a wheel-like roof of alternating glass and concrete slabs. Floor-to-ceiling windows allowed a 180 degree view, the retractible glass pulling back to allow the line between exterior and interior to blur, the pool to become part of the entertaining area (and in Bambi and Thumper’s case, a place to dive into). A set of steps hugged the outside of the pool to transport residents to other levels of the house.

Radiating for this social hub are five bedrooms, five-and-a-half bathrooms, kitchen and ancillary rooms, two-bed guesthouse, staff quarters and a gym with breath-snatching views across to the mountains of San Jacinto and San Gorgonio. The house’s surroundings encroach in all the spaces: Thumper’s lounging rock pushes up through the sitting-room floor like a mini version of the horizon out of the windows; the master bedroom is akin to sleeping in a cave. And next to the sunken bath, a rocky outcrop starts outside the window and continues through the glass to touch the marble tub. Succulents and cacti grow within and without.

The architect’s interest in reflecting nature in design was born when he helped his father build a cabin on Lake Superior in his home state of Michigan as a 12 year-old. He moved to California to work with Lloyd Wright and was inspired by the SoCal environment, his work irrevocably linked to the image of a palm tree, cactus and bleaching California sun. His pads were so desirable that the ultimate showman, Bob Hope, also commissioned him to create a lair for him in 1969 – an iconic building close to the Elrod House that shares similar lines and ambition. Both venues now feature as part of Palm Springs’ annual Modernism Week – a celebration of mid-century architecture, design and culture. Architectural diamonds truly are forever.

Photographs by KATE MARTIN
Words by JANE CROWTHER
Learn more about John Lautner at www.johnlautner.org

The Sound of Music

MONICA BARBARO

February 10, 2025

Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Interview by GREG WILLIAMS/JANE CROWTHER

a complete unknown, crime 101, james mangold, monica barbaro, top gun: maverick

Monica Barbaro is looking for resonance in her guitar and career as she goes shopping down Tin Pan Alley with Greg Williams.

It feels inappropriate to be looking at electric guitars,’ Monica Barbaro laughs as she runs her fingers along the contours of an ES-330, ‘given the context of our film’. I’ve brought the San Francisco native to London’s famous Denmark Street (so-called ‘Tin Pan Alley’) for some window shopping during a break in awards-season screenings for A Complete Unknown, James Mangold’s biopic of Bob Dylan, tracing the musician’s transition from 19-year-old folk singer to Fender Stratocaster-playing icon at 24. Dylan’s use of a plugged-in instrument was incendiary to the folk scene in 1965 and his ascent was watched and helped by established acoustic singer-songwriter, Joan Baez. Barbaro plays Joan to Timothée Chalamet’s Bob – and she was not a guitar player when she got the job. Now, she can spot a Martin at twenty paces and carries a fingerpick in her pocket at all times.

It’s mid-December and there’s a chill in the air as we walk the London street famous as the hub of music publishing, where Elton John brought songs to sell, Bowie lived in a van for some time, the Stones recorded at Regent Sound Studios and Dylan visited in the ’60s. As we pause to peer in the windows of a shop selling drum kits, Barbaro recalls that her role on Top Gun: Maverick was the first to require musical training (alongside the G-force flights and aerial combat classes). ‘I was supposed to drum in Top Gun. I was in drumming lessons for two straight weeks. I remember, at one point, I started crying over the drums, because I was learning to fly, I was drumming, I was learning to play pool, working out – it was crazy. And they said, “We’re cutting that.” Thank God. It would have been a very bad idea!’

Her role as the first female pilot in the franchise, Lt. Natasha ‘Phoenix’ Trace, catapulted the actor to the awards circuit and to greater recognition, and gave Barbaro a heavyweight champion in Tom Cruise – he turns up to support her at the screening later that evening. ‘Tom cares so much about making a great quality film,’ she says when considering what she learned from Cruise. ‘There’s less settling in filmmaking. If you’re going to commit all of your time and your life, and sacrifice relationships for it, you want – at the end of the day – for it to be something you’re really proud of, and not just necessarily making something people fold laundry to. To be a working actor, it’s really satisfying to get to be a part of something where the standard level is high, and you’re working with the best in the industry. I’ve gotten to do that, which is crazy.’

If you’re going to commit all of your time and your life, and sacrifice relationships for it, you want – at the end of the day – for it to be something you’re really proud of

Top Gun: Maverick also got her the audition for Baez, a role that Barbaro always knew would test her musically. ‘I played the ukelele for fun, but I wasn’t a guitarist at all. I’d tried, but then my fingers would hurt, and all the songs I liked were really hard to play. So I kept quitting – which is easy to do when you don’t have any deadlines or anything.’ She had a deadline of five months to perfect a number of Baez’s songs when she landed the part. ‘Then the strikes happened, so I had more time to practise. And that was helpful. I almost lost the job in that time because of scheduling stuff, but I just kept practising. And that’s when I learned to play and sing at the same time. I couldn’t train with any coaches, so I was just playing and singing, and I finally learned how to do both at the same time.’

She still plays now but has the bug to learn more. ‘I’m not super-comfortable strumming because I’m still really shy about it; fingerpicking you can do quietly.’ We walk to Hank’s Guitars, a fixture on Tin Pan Alley housed in a Grade II listed 17th-century building and specialising in vintage guitars where artists such as Keith Richards, The Edge and Noel Gallagher have shopped. An Aladdin’s cave of six-strings, Hank’s is wall-to-wall with guitars; upstairs – acoustics, downstairs – electric. We start upstairs where Barbaro makes a beeline for the Martins, Baez’s signature instrument. A vintage poster for a Baez album is on the wall next to them. ‘The sound of these is so beautiful,’ Barbaro says, taking one down and perching on a leather chair, surrounded by instruments. ‘I feel very lucky that I own one now. I’m not sure if production gave it to me, or if I stole it, but I’m not giving it back!’

She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a fingerpick, beginning to noodle on the strings, playing There but for Fortune. It’s the fingerpick she used throughout filming as Joan. ‘I actually carry it around all the time now because it reminds me that I want to keep playing guitar, and also it feels like this totem of proof that it happened, because it’s so surreal to me that I even got to shoot this movie at all. Putting it on feels like a self-belief thing that’s kind of magical.’ As she strums, she shakes her head and claims she’s rusty. ‘The challenge when you finish something like this is: “Can you keep yourself practising once it’s all said and done?” Because we were training hours and hours a day, and we were filming for hours and hours. Your skill level just sky rockets, and then you wrap, and you need to do other things that don’t require a guitar…’

She switches songs; ‘This is a really pretty one, Girl from the North Country.’ It’s an apt tune given she’s a NoCal girl, born in San Francisco, raised in Mill Valley, now living in LA. From a young age she trained as a dancer; ballet predominantly, while also studying Flamenco, Salsa and West African dance. She didn’t know it at the time but Baez’s son, Gabe Harris, drummed for her classes; she only realised when she began researching Baez. Growing up the daughter of divorced parents – a neurosurgeon Dad and a teacher’s assistant Mum – Barbaro was encouraged to embrace the arts. ‘My dad was the first person in his family to even go to college, and grew up very blue collar, Italian-American. I think for me, he’s definitely the person I saw as the textbook American dream. It’s an “anything is possible” kind of belief structure that was given to me by him. And he encouraged me to stay in the arts, because, for him, that felt like something he couldn’t do. But he worked really hard so that I would have the financial stability to be free enough to take the risk of becoming an artist. So I felt very supported by that. My dad is always like, “You’re not lucky. You’ve worked really hard. You’ve prepared.”’

Part of that preparation was moving to New York to study dance at New York University. ‘Dance taught me how much it takes to learn something, and to learn something to the point of absolute believability that you’ve been doing that thing for your lifetime. Dancers can immediately tell when someone is a dancer or not, even just in the way they walk. So to hold a guitar like a guitar player, it takes years and years of carrying that guitar around, and playing it, and knowing how to wield it in situations. So the challenge when it came to playing Joan was immense.’

Immersing herself in Baez’s work, documentary and memoir, learning to play and sing, Barbaro also collaborated with DoPs on her look, creating bespoke teeth and hair, and – with Hollywood Authentic’s resident columnist and the film’s costumer designer, Arianne Phillips – finding the clothes. Though the cast pre-recorded their tracks for the film, when it came to shooting, the decision was made they would all sing ‘live’ on set. That meant Barbaro singing The House of the Rising Sun in a Greenwich club and re-enacting on-stage pairings with Dylan, most notably at the Newport Folk Festival (re-created in a park in New Jersey) and filming at the Chelsea Hotel.

‘All through my pre-teens, all I wanted to do was move to New York and be a New Yorker. And I got to do that in college. Our dance studio was on 2nd Avenue, between 6th and 7th. When I go back there I do reflect on who I was then, and everything I hoped for, and everything I wanted, and wasn’t sure I could ever accomplish. And things I didn’t expect in this lifetime, like this movie.’ Filming A Complete Unknown on location in NY was a full circle moment for the actor. ‘I remember just acknowledging that I was a working actor, and having that feel monumental, walking on those same streets like, “Wow. Remember when you were so cold and broke and tired all the time, and training in dance, and being sweaty, running from one class to another, and trying to keep your head on straight, and barely doing so?” And then to just be like, “OK, now I’m financially stable, doing what I love. That’s huge to me.”’

Barbaro also talked to Baez on the phone, and told her she’d previously worked with her son. ‘She got a kick out of that! It’s got to be so weird to talk to somebody 50 years your junior who’s going to put on some long hair and play you. But she was really generous with her time. We had a great conversation. Folk is a music of authenticity. It’s not over-polished or adorned. I think they are that way about themselves. But anything that she gave me that wasn’t in her memoirs, I feel protective of, and I’ll keep that to the conversation.’

The authenticity of Baez, Dylan and the folk community is something Barbaro likes and hopes to emulate in her own life. ‘They are just very honest. They’re not holding back. They’re not trying to polish an image. Like today, I was given a couple of outfit options by my stylist, and I was like, “This is Hollywood Authentic. I think I want to wear my own clothes, and have my natural hair.”’ The idea of living fully in the present is something that she also subscribes to after the whirlwind of awards season with Top Gun: Maverick that culminated in the Oscars ceremony. ‘When I was there with Top Gun, I felt so lucky to be there, and just tried to be so present in that moment. I just kept thinking: “Embrace it. See it. Feel it.’ The awards are very helpful to films and their future promotion, and they can change an actor’s life. But one of the coolest things about being in that conversation is getting to have that sense of community in a space that can be quite intimidating professionally. It was just so exciting to be there, and to watch people make speeches and honour their fellow nominees, and really truthfully do so. It’s not fake. That was so cool.’

I would love to do theatre. I’ve always wanted to. I know it from a place of dance, but it’s also the thing that made me want to be an actor

We return downstairs to look at eclectic guitars so Barbaro can ask the staff advice on an entry point instrument. As they talk over the counter, she spots a vintage Martin in the window. It’s 124 years old with a short neck and a £13K price tag. She’s given the guitar and she turns it reverentially in her hands, fingerpicking on it while she’s shown electrics. She’s looking for resonance and coos over a vintage 1966 ES-330, similar to the Casino owned by John Lennon. Despite embodying a folk hero and playing all her songs ‘live’ during filming, Barbaro is still shy about her playing; ‘I want to be able to plug into headphones.’ She swaps the acoustic for the electric, sitting comfortably in the shop talking hollow vs semi-hollow body while she plucks the strings.

She considers what she’d like to take on next – along with transferring her skills to eclectic. ‘I would love to do theatre. I’ve always wanted to. I know it from a place of dance, but it’s also the thing that made me want to be an actor – getting to do A Midsummer Night’s Dream when I was 12. Plus, I’d just love to pivot into a totally different genre and get to learn a new skill-set. I just like the newness of it.’ She’ll film Bart Layton’s Crime 101 in London in the new year alongside Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and Halle Berry. It is, she promises, a pivot. But for now, she needs to work her way to a much-needed Christmas break and make some decisions on what’s next in 2025. One of those decisions might be whether to buy the gleaming ES-330. As we part on the street she tells me: ‘I almost walked out of there having dropped £8,000 on a guitar.’ She laughs. ‘I was like, I’ll think about it. I’ll go away and sleep on it. But I’m still in town, so I guess I could go back and get it…’

Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Interview by GREG WILLIAMS/JANE CROWTHER
A Complete Unknown is in cinemas now

hollywood authentic, greg williams, hollywood authentic magazine

The New Wave

MALACHI KIRBY

February 10, 2025

Photographs by CHARLIE CLIFT
Words by JANE CROWTHER

BAFTA-winning writer/actor Malachi Kirby is boxing clever and manifesting a purposeful career. He tells Hollywood Authentic about cooking up the perfect balance.

At the beginning of 2022, Malachi Kirby made a wish list for his next project and emailed it to his team. ‘I suddenly had this clarity about what I wanted to do next, and why I wanted to do it,’ the 35-year-old tells Hollywood Authentic during a shoot in the days before Christmas as he prepares to cook a festive feast for 12 family members. Though he’s never cooked for more than two people before, he’s as singleminded and assured that his dinner will come together as he was about his career direction when he appraised it three years ago. ‘There were four things that stood out to me,’ he says of the list. ‘I wanted to play a boxer. I wanted to do a period piece. I wanted to play someone who really existed, because I’d done a few roles like My Murder and Roots and Mangrove. There was something about those jobs that got me more excited than anything else – the research that came with it, and the weight of responsibility of telling someone’s story. And I wanted to do it in London, at home.’ Six months later the role of Hezekiah, a 19th-century Jamaican immigrant arriving in a crime-ridden London and discovering a talent for boxing in A Thousand Blows, came across his desk. Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, production would film in London. ‘This was the thing I was looking for, and it’s been given to me. Pinch yourself! And it was even more special because the character is Jamaican, and I’ve never got to play someone from Jamaica, which is where my family’s from. So this was a very special choice for me.’

a thousand blows, malachi kirby, my murder, roots, tinge krishnan

Kirby has been making acting choices since he discovered it as a kid at Battersea Arts Centre, round the corner from his home on the Patmore Estate in South London. His father died when he was six and his mum encouraged him to attend the centre. ‘Acting wasn’t something that ever crossed my mind to do. Battersea Art Centre was a space I was terrified of, but it ended up being the safest space that I ever found outside of home. Because it was a space where people were expressing themselves and being silly. And then you clapped for them afterwards. That was my first experience of acting – understanding each other, and understanding yourself more in a space that wasn’t judgemental. It didn’t make me want to be an actor, it just made me want to come back again, come back to this.’

Over time, that impetus evolved. ‘Acting is still a safe space most of the time. But my experience has changed. I’ve travelled with work. I get to dive into character’s minds, and these different periods of history and time; and learn about the world and learn about humanity. There’s all these other reasons that I love doing it now that I wouldn’t have known to think about before.’ Fame, he says, certainly isn’t the lure, despite a growing reputation and recognition as a BAFTA-winner (for Steve McQueen’s Mangrove) and an artist who’s appeared in Roots, Boiling Point and written, directed and headlined his play Level Up at the Bush Theatre. ‘I can’t get my head around why anybody would want to be famous. It doesn’t make sense to me,’ he says, shaking his head. ‘That’s the sacrifice for me. That’s the part that I don’t want but that I know can come with it. And I’ve had to have a discussion with myself about whether it’s worth it or not, in terms of what you can end up giving up, in terms of your personal life and the way that you want to live. Essentially, for me, this career and this craft is about service. I’ve had to understand that this is not something that is about me. It’s letting go of myself to tell this other person’s story. And then on the other side of that, so much of my career has been about service to other people – whether that’s having a chat with someone who’s an aspiring actor or people who watch the shows and how they’ve responded to it and the conversations that come out. And I think that’s something beautiful about it, it’s what keeps me grounded with it as well, and it makes it more of a humane thing.’ Fortune is also an aspect of his career that he keeps separate from the work. ‘I have a rule: I don’t speak about money until I’ve said “yes” or “no” to a project. That’s a boundary that’s helped to protect me to make sure I’m making the decisions from the right place. Because money can be destructive. I’m human just like everyone else. Instead I just go, “Let me focus on the script, the character. If it’s something I’m interested in from that space, then it’s a yes to that.” And then we can talk about the business side of things.’

Writing was my first-ever passion. I was very much a loner when I was a kid. Even when I was around people, I was very much within my own little bubble. Writing was the space where I first discovered new worlds, and I got excited about the idea of what else is possible out there

Kirby is used to writing his own narrative, having started with novels and poetry as a kid, through to putting on his own play in 2019; he’s now moved into screenplays. ‘Writing was my first-ever passion. I was very much a loner when I was a kid. Even when I was around people, I was very much within my own little bubble. Writing was the space where I first discovered new worlds, and I got excited about the idea of what else is possible out there.’ Acting became an extension of that exploration, and his role as Hezekiah in A Thousand Blows sent him on a true journey as he trained in boxing (‘The first part of it was getting in shape, because there was still a bit of leftover lockdown belly going on!’ he laughs) and researched his character’s origins. Though he’d been to Jamaica due to his family connections, Kirby booked a spontaneous trip, inviting Francis Lovehall, who plays Hezekiah’s best friend Alec, so the two could bond off-screen. When they got there, they discovered their director Tinge Krishnan was also on the island researching the show, involving both actors in that process before returning for filming in London. ‘It was incredible. What was just going to be a holiday, and us soaking up the energy of Jamaica and the rhythm and the culture, turned into a research trip with our director. Both Hezekiah and Alec arrive in London at the start of this show, and we’ve got to do the same thing, which was beautiful.’

The show reunited Kirby with Stephen Graham (playing dangerous East End boxer, Sugar) after the two had appeared in the acclaimed Boiling Point. ‘He made a safe space feel even safer from the get-go. And I was learning so much from him, both as an artist and as a creator behind the scenes, because his production company is also producing this. He was very protective over me, in terms of just guiding me through the conversations that needed to be had to ensure the integrity of these characters, and how to navigate this world. He was everything that I needed that I didn’t know how to ask for.’ He pauses and laughs. ‘And then we got into the ring, it was like: we’re throwing this out of the door – he’s terrifying.’ Graham is both emotionally and physically intimidating in the show. ‘I got the brief to lean up, and not eat anything,’ Kirby says of his period-appropriate physique. ‘He clearly had been given the opposite brief: “Eat all of the pies and all of the chicken, and then go to the gym!”’

A Thousand Blows debuts in early 2025 and Kirby feels that it’s going to be a good year for him. And no, he hasn’t made a wish list this year. ‘I’m going into next year very excited, which is an emotion that I’m not used to feeling. It’s not because I know what’s going to happen. I’m just really hopeful about what will happen. I am excited to delve more into my writing, and into producing, and getting more behind the scenes, and finally getting this work developed and out there.’ For his immediate future though, he’s more concerned with how he keeps all his food hot on Christmas Day and ensuring his portions are right. ‘I have three plates, and there’s 12 people coming,’ he sighs. ‘I’ve told my mum she’s not allowed in the kitchen. She’s coming to enjoy herself and put her feet up, and have some good food that’s hopefully not going to be burnt.’ He pauses for a moment and closes his eyes to think of his mother. When he opens them, he smiles. ‘It’ll be perfectly cooked,’ he says with the same certainty he seems to apply to his work. ‘I’ll be fine.’

Photographs by CHARLIE CLIFT
Words by JANE CROWTHER
Malachi Kirby stars in A Thousand Blows on Hulu and Disney+ from 21 February
Grooming by Nadia Altinbas using @lancome @sisley @patternbeauty

On Set

LEO WOODALL

February 10, 2025

Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Words by JANE CROWTHER

bridget jones: mad about the boy, leo woodall, michael morris, one day, white lotus

White Lotus and One Day actor Leo Woodall tells Hollywood Authentic about trusting his gut and getting romantic on Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.

For someone who admits to initially being resistant to acting, Leo Woodall is doing pretty well. Having made a splash as Jack in season two of The White Lotus and followed that up with One Day, he’s now playing a key figure in Bridget Jones’ life in the latest chapter of the beloved singleton’s adventures – which is where Greg Williams caught up with him on set in July. The London-born actor comes from a family of performers; his dad, Andrew, and step-dad, Alexander Morton, are actors, his mum went to drama school and he’s related to Maxine Elliott, a theatre and silent film star. ‘Having acting in my family was, I think, the catalyst in me going, “I don’t want to do that”,’ he says of his teenage reluctance to join the family business. ‘But they call it “catching the bug”. And at 19, I caught it.’

Woodall didn’t catch it from family, though – he credits the performances of other British actors essaying the sort of flawed, nuanced young men he now excels in playing himself. ‘Peaky Blinders definitely played a part. It was around the time that I would find myself pretending to be Tommy Shelby [played by Cillian Murphy] in the mirror. And earlier on it was Jack O’Connell in Skins. I was fascinated and really excited by it. For the first time, I did a little deep dive into an actor’s history, and where they started, and I looked at where he first began.’

Woodall began at ArtsEd drama school at 19 and it was there that he felt a sense of kinship, that he might be able to master acting. ‘I think the first time I felt like I was stepping into my own was at school, and we were doing A Streetcar Named Desire. I got the first three scenes. The bit up to the big “Stella!” moment. I loved it. I thought, “OK, I could have a lot of fun doing this”.’ After graduation, that fun began with the standard rite of passage for any British actor: a role in an episode of medical drama, Holby City. ‘It was a big deal because it was my first-ever professional acting gig,’ he recalls. ‘I was terrified. I had to bring quite a lot of the acting chops to that show because I had to bring all the “panic” acting!’ That formative gig led to roles on two feature films, Nomad and the Russo Brothers’ Cherry, with Tom Holland. ‘It was very low-pressure. It was just a bunch of young lads being soldiers. It was just a lot of fun, and it was great to see how those big-budget movies work.’

When I got offered the role [in White Lotus], I didn’t know what the scripts looked like. I’d only seen the scenes I’d auditioned with. I had a meeting with Mike, and he gave me a brief on what happens, but not really. And I finally got the scripts, and I read them, and was like, ‘Oh my God, this is going to be so fun’

But it wasn’t film that catapulted him into audience consciousness – it was streaming. ‘I knew The White Lotus was a big show, and based on the reaction to some of the people around me, it kind of informed that even more,’ he says of going into the audition process of the zeitgeist show with creator Mike White in 2021. Woodall was vying to play an Essex boy whose sunny disposition and romantic potential at a hotel in Sicily covered much darker depths. ‘When I got offered the role, I didn’t know what the scripts looked like. I’d only seen the scenes I’d auditioned with. I had a meeting with Mike, and he gave me a brief on what happens, but not really. And I finally got the scripts, and I read them, and was like, “Oh my God, this is going to be so fun”.’ Like Sidney Sweeney before him, on season one, Woodall was the breakout in a cast of big names, and suddenly famous.

‘It was a bit of an adjustment,’ he says of the attention. ‘You get used to people recognising you in the street, and that’s a challenge on its own. But like anything, with a bit of time, you get a bit more used to it, and learn how to navigate it. It just becomes part of the gig.’ The recognition also opened up casting doors and another novelty: choice. ‘It does take a lot of thought and a lot of conversations with the people that help guide your career, and people who are just in your life and want the best for you. You have to be good at listening to people’s opinion, and also just trusting your gut at the same time. I feel like I’m quite good at trusting my gut, and knowing what feels right and what I want to do, and what the benefits are. I know when something feels right, when I’m thinking about it a lot and it stays in my mind. You kind of already start mentally preparing for it, even if you haven’t been given an official offer. I think that’s the thing that draws me towards projects, if I’m ignited by it.’

One Day (which he auditioned for while filming White Lotus) ignited him, playing the feckless Dexter Mayhew in Netflix’s adaptation of David Nichols’ bestseller. So did playing Roxster, a young man who rescues Renée Zellweger’s widowed Bridget from a tree and presents a romantic possibility. ‘When I read the script for Bridget, I saw a lot of myself in Roxster, a kind of happy chap. So it’s not a huge stretch. The real challenge was not to buckle under the pressure of working with someone like Renée, who’s a legend, and also the pressure with a big studio, and how widely marketed it will be, and how many people are going to see it. But it felt like if I was given the opportunity, there’s no way I wouldn’t want to do it. It’s just joyous as well. I like to have a balance of things that are deeply challenging and require real blood, sweat and tears, and then also the projects that are sunny, fun, lovely and make your heart feel warm.’ So will Woodall be the new Colin Firth? After all, he does exit a pond in a white shirt in the film… ‘It was definitely never about who can replace Mark Darcy. No one can really do that.’

I feel like I’m quite good at trusting my gut, and knowing what feels right and what I want to do, and what the benefits are. I know when something feels right, when I’m thinking about it a lot, and it stays in my mind. You kind of already start mentally preparing for it, even if you haven’t been given an official offer

Woodall will next be seen in something that is certainly less cheery – in Nuremberg, he’s one of a list of accomplished actors telling the real life story of psychiatrist Douglas Kelly, who interviewed leading Nazis to determine their fitness for standing trial in 1945. Rami Malek plays Kelly with Woodall portraying the German-Jewish translator who worked alongside him. Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Richard E Grant and John Slattery round out the cast. The experience, filmed before Bridget shot last summer in London, was ‘a heaven job’. ‘Working with Russell and Rami was like, “Oh, OK. I have to bring it. I have to be the best version of myself as an actor, and as a bloke.” But, what I’m learning is, you go to work, and these highly decorated actors are also just people. Most of the time, they’re just good people, and they want to do well, and they want you to do well, and you collaborate together and try to make something great.’

When we talk in November, Woodall has just finished filming Tuner, a heist story of a young piano tuner who works with his mentor uncle, played by Dustin Hoffman. He’s now looking for his next project to ignite him. As a young British man, is he thinking about playing 007? He laughs. ‘I think I’m well out of the question for Bond. I’d love to be Bond. But I probably need to earn a few more stripes before that conversation. I love moving through this industry and seeing what comes at me.’ He pauses and considers what he now wants from the business. ‘If I can be lucky enough to stay in this position, and maybe have some choice, that’s really part of the fun. It’s basically just about what feels right, and going back to my gut.’ His gut has served him well so far.

Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Words by JANE CROWTHER
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is in UK cinemas from 14 February
Nuremberg is in cinemas in 2025

Screening Room

THE FIRE INSIDE

February 7, 2025

Words by JANE CROWTHER

At this time of year, cinema is an embarrassment of riches – the films that could have been contenders on the Oscars run jostle for position with those that made the golden nominee enclosure. In another year, The Fire Inside, a plucky boxing biopic, might have been included in awards conversations – most particularly for Brian Tyree Henry’s multi-dimensional performance as a coach.

Charting the climb of Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Shields, a determined young Black teen from Flint, Michigan, who took herself to the 2012 Olympics and astonished her opponents and the boxing community, The Fire Inside is both a classic sports flick and a story of female emancipation. As written by Barry Jenkins and directed by cinematographer Rachel Morrison (who lensed Creed), it not only tells that underdog story but provides nuance and lived-in detail to Clarissa’s struggle that wasn’t just competitive, but influenced by race, gender, geography and economics.

brian tyree henry, rachel morrison, ryan destiny, the fire inside — Amazon MGM Studios

An impoverished girl growing up hungry and caring for her siblings while her single mom parties, Clarissa (played with steely gumption by Ryan Destiny) doesn’t have many options in dilapidated Flint. But she turns up at the boxing gym of Jason (Henry), a guy who teaches the neighbourhood boys to spar when he’s not a telephone engineer. Clarissa’s diligence and Jason’s care forms her into a champ, one who could fight for America at a global level, as well as inspire other hungry overlooked girls.

Jenkins’ screenplay gives space for Clarissa to have agency not only in fighting against older, more experienced opponents but in questioning sports funding (white competitors who wear makeup and cute outfits get sponsorship and endorsements, male athletes get more deals than female) as well as the importance of financial compensation for talent. She can win gold but she needs more than praise to feed her siblings, telling her boyfriend bluntly that ‘money IS recognition’. At the same time, Jenkins expands the roles of those around this champ; her mother is a mess of contradictions, her coach isn’t merely a hardass.

Coach Jason, in the hands of Henry, is a warm, kind man who sees the opportunity sport presents to Clarissa and, without fanfare, does everything in his limited power to make it happen for her. That means taking on a fatherly, protective role and also stepping away when he needs to. In another, less crowded, year Henry would surely be planning his tux for Oscar night. As the two go for a second Olympic triumph, we see the cost of fighting for first when it’s not rewarded and the pressure on a teenager when she could be the ‘golden girl’ in every way. And though it ticks the sports movie bingo card (jogging in snowy streets, nailbiting matches, the threat of a fierce competitor), The Fire Inside succeeds in being about so much more – and reflecting audience real-life experience back at them.

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Pictures courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios
The Fire Inside is in cinemas now

Screening Room

COMPANION

January 31, 2025

Words by JANE CROWTHER

When we first meet Iris (Heretic’s Sophie Thatcher) she’s narrating a voiceover telling us about two epiphanies she’s recently had: one when she met her boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid) during a meet-cute in a supermarket and another… well, that would be telling. Her second moment of truth comes when she and Josh take their robo-car to a luxury lakehouse in upstate New York for a weekend with friends. A tremulous woman with a candy-coloured kitsch wardrobe and cute retro headbands (kinda like a Stepford Wife, wink), Iris only has eyes for Josh. But when the wealthy owner of the lakehouse, Russian possible-mobster Sergey (Rupert Friend, pocketing scenes with a florid accent and mullet), tries to force himself on her, Iris sees red. The people pleasing demeanour gives way to rage, revenge, self-preservation: a new survival mode, if you will. Which is news to Iris, because – in a plot beat unconcealed by posters and trailer – she doesn’t realise that she is in fact a ‘companion’ robot and not a real girl. Now that Iris is off-programme and best laid plans have skittered into chaos, just how much damage can be done when your AI goes rogue?

Harvey Guillén, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Sophie Thatcher — Warner Bros. Pictures

To say more, is to spoil the cheeky twists in a brisk, fun comi-horror about misogyny, tech fear and the salutary lessons of reading the small print. Once past the scene setting and narrative rules (Iris can’t lie, can be factory reset, is controlled by a phone app), Companion gets into its algorithm stride like a gen Z Ex Machina. The former good girl must fight her for her life as the friendship group unravels with the lure of money and Josh tries to control his fembot. That prompts jokes and jabs at incel culture, entitlement and the whining of a young, white man moaning that life is so unfair for him. Quaid treads a nice line between charming/charmless that he previously essayed successfully in Scream, while Thatcher aces the evolution of a naif to ninja. Lukas Gage and Harvey Guillén also bring sweet comic relief as a gay couple with a power imbalance.

Fast and loose – put any pressure on post-screening plot analysis and the wheels come off – Companion is a popcorn treat not designed to live long in the imagination once consumed. It’s not likely to instigate behavioural change, but it will entertain on a night at the flicks. Just turn your phone off…

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Pictures courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Companion is in cinemas now

Screening Room

HARD TRUTHS

January 31, 2025

Words by JANE CROWTHER

Some of the hard truths at the heart of Mike Leigh’s latest fall easily from the mouth of Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a misanthrope London mother and housewife whose daily diatribe at, and about, other people hides a crushing depression and self-loathing. When she’s not furiously polishing the leather sofa in the lounge, Pansy is berating her layabout son, scolding her cowed husband or shouting at random people in car parks or the health professionals at the dentist and doctors. She even has a scowl and a harsh word for the pigeons and a passing fox that dare to enter her garden. By contrast, her sister Chantelle (Michele Austin) is a laidback hairdresser with the patience of a saint and a vibrant social life that involves her two grown, ambitious daughters. She sees the boiling rage and frustration emanating from her sister (Pansy of course criticises her hairdressing skills) but struggles to tell her sibling a hard truth; that Pansy clearly needs mental health support.

marianne jean-baptiste, michele austin, mike leigh

A reunion of Leigh and Jean-Baptiste after their collaboration on 1996’s Secrets And Lies, Hard Truths marks a return to the velvet glove punch of the auteur’s trademark observational dramedy. With cinematography by longtime collaborator Dick Pope, Leigh allows seemingly insubstantial suburban moments to be captured as Pansy goes about her day which accumulate into a sorrow for a woman who can demand to see the manager, that checkout assistants smile more and that her husband never eats fried chicken in the house but cannot ask for the help she desperately needs.

The success in making an audience care about such a curmudgeon who even criticises a baby for wearing an outfit with pockets is due to Leigh’s sly script (gently unpicking a deep-seated trauma in Pansy from her mother’s death) and Jean-Baptiste’s performance which is the very definition of powerhouse. She rightfully deserves the heat she’s currently getting on the trophy trail. Pansy is monstrous and ridiculous, yet funny (she has a point about the baby) and vulnerable. A scene in which the two sisters attend the grave of their mother is so brusquely affectionate that it is heartwarming as Chantelle tells Pansy something many audience members will recognise in their own family relations.

They say that we can choose our friends but not our family and in this bittersweet meander through a world many of us know intimately, perhaps that is the hardest truth of all.

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Hard Truths is in cinemas now

Screening Room

THE BRUTALIST

January 24, 2025

Words by JANE CROWTHER

A talking point at Venice Film Festival for its epic running time (215 minutes including an interval), Brady Corbet’s uncompromising drama finally makes it to cinemas for audiences to decide if it’s as ambitious and empty as the building at the centre of it, or an Oscar-winning masterpiece. Following the life of Jewish architect László Tóth (Adrian Brody) over 33 years, Corbet’s opus tracks the story of America via immigration, anti-semitism, art and commerce.

Adrian Brody, Brady Corbet, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn — Universal Pictures

Arriving into New York on a boat from Hungary in 1947, László’s and our first view of the Statue Of Liberty is inverted, setting the tone for a film that seeks to play with expectation. László makes his way to Pennsylvania and his cousin (Alessandro Nivola) who gives him shelter in his furniture making business. Called to the home of wealthy industrialist, Harrison Lee Van Buran (Guy Pearce), to create a library for his study, the Eastern European genius’ work is so starkly modern that Harrison is impressed enough to commission him to design a building. The creation of that brutalist building over decades as László’s wife and niece are brought from Hungary and the Tóths become the Van Buran family pets, is the life-work and angst of the film. László attempts to find perfection in draughtsmanship and reconnect with a traumatised wife (Felicity Jones); his benefactor shows his generosity and cruelty…

Corbet and Mona Fastvold’s screenplay is dense and chewy, giving Brody the opportunity to show off the soulfulness that won him an Oscar for The Pianist and allowing Pearce to entertain with dangerous bonhomie. The two men dance around each other; one trying not to be obsequious in gratitude, the other trying to conceal his darkness. Waiting for those factors to collide as the building begins to take shape on the hill is much of what drives the film, which thrums with tension – both emotional and aural, thanks to sound design.

Lauded by critics during the festival circuit, The Brutalist is likely to be diverse to paying punters. While some will thrill to the immersive, indulgent nature of Corbet’s detailed universe, others will be tested by its unhurried pace, esoteric themes and bum-numbing length. Even the precisely styled credits might annoy. But for those looking for the bombastic results of an auteur with a vision, The Brutalist is arresting cinema that offers a unique experience. Whether you like it or not, depends on your tolerance to the didactic nature of auteurism.

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Photographs courtesy of UNIVERSAL PICTURES
The Brutalist is in cinemas now

Screening Room

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN

January 17, 2025

Words by JANE CROWTHER

Bob Dylan has purposefully been an enigma for decades and James Mangold’s traditional biopic of a small window of his life doesn’t try to answer any questions about the troubadour – rather it unpicks the ambient influence swirling around the 19 year-old when he arrives in New York from Minnesota and takes the folk scene by storm. Kicking off in 1961, Mangold tracks Dylan from his beginnings through to stardom and up to the point when he ‘betrays’ folk music by plugging in an electric guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The director admits that not everything in the film happened exactly as depicted (and apparently Dylan himself asked for a completely invented scene to be added to further fox audiences), but the result is an accomplished primer for newcomers to Dylan and an account that won’t irritate diehard fans.

timothée chalamet, edward norton, elle fanning, monica barbaro, james mangold

Bob (Timothée Chalamet) first pitches up in NY in search of his hero, Woody Guthrie. Discovering the musician is critically ill in hospital, the wannabe visits him – the first time in many that Dylan puts his needs ahead of others. Woody (Scoot McNairy) is being cared for by the nicest man in folk, Pete Seeger (Edward Norton, emanating kindness) who takes the young songwriter under his wing. Dylan, still a gangly youth, impresses him as well as established folk star, Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), setting him off on a meteoric rise to fame, prolific record making and a love triangle with Baez and Sylvie (Elle Fanning playing a thinly disguised version of Suze Rotolo). As Bob writes – and cheats and is selfish to the point that Baez tells him he’s an asshole – the world changes and informs his music; the desperation of the Cuban missile crisis, the freedom rides, Martin Luther King… The times, they are a-changing.

Chalamet had five years to perfect guitar, harmonica and Dylan’s scratchy vocals and his renditions of the classics are both spot-on and still retain an element of himself within them. As Dylan’s hair gets bigger and his jeans skinnier (via evocative costumes by Hollywood Authentic columnist, Arianne Phillips), Chalamet and Dylan infuse so that by the time he’s riding motorbikes around and behaving with the insouciance of a rock star brat, the transformation is entirely convincing. Similarly, Barbaro nails Baez’s sweet voice and zero BS attitude and Boyd Holbrook threatens to steal the show every time he shows up as sozzled man in black, Johnny Cash.

The highlight of the film is undoubtedly the ‘going electric’ moment at the ‘65 Newport Festival when, having watched Dylan do exactly as he pleases throughout his interactions, there’s a rebellious thrill in watching him purposefully plug into an amp in front of a horrified audience of acoustic fans. Once again, we’re not treated to any interior motivation to Dylan’s actions, ensuring he’s still a delicious enigma – a man who despite the biopic treatment, remains a riddle – as the title suggests, a complete unknown.

Words by JANE CROWTHER
A Complete Unknown is in cinemas now

Talking Pictures

BOB WILLOUGHBY

February 10, 2025

Space Odyssey

ELROD HOUSE

February 10, 2025

The Sound of Music

MONICA BARBARO

February 10, 2025

The New Wave

MALACHI KIRBY

February 10, 2025

On Set

LEO WOODALL

February 10, 2025

Screening Room

THE FIRE INSIDE

February 7, 2025

Screening Room

COMPANION

January 31, 2025

Screening Room

HARD TRUTHS

January 31, 2025

Screening Room

THE BRUTALIST

January 24, 2025

Screening Room

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN

January 17, 2025

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