Hanging out and talking with Mikey Madison over a couple of days as she cooked breakfast pancakes, attended events and revisited her childhood home was a unique experience – and a perfect example of what Hollywood Authentic represents. Fiercely talented yet shy and incredibly honest, Mikey shared the artist at the core of her work without artifice. And it was a fascinating moment for me; I was watching a star being born. This issue is all about capturing rising raw talent. Monica Barbaro, who I last photographed at the Golden Globes during Top Gun: Maverick’s awards run, is now a formidable awards contender as Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown. Leo Woodall, who shot into our consciousness with The White Lotus, is now Bridget Jones’ possible new romantic interest. Malachi Kirby, a BAFTA winner with Mangrove, is now headlining a new binge-watch obsession. They say that luck is just a case of preparation meets opportunity. But it’s also about integrity and feeling sure that when opportunity knocks, you never miss.
When I first started Hollywood Authentic one of my more cynical friends questioned how Hollywood could possibly be authentic? Especially since it dealt for the most part in fiction. The more I connect with artists who are open, genuine, unapologetically flawed and vulnerable, the more apparent it becomes to me how wrong that friend was.
Paul Mescal by Greg Williams
Take our cover subject, Paul Mescal, who opened up about mental health and self doubt while showing me his horse skills he learned for Gladiator II. Or Naomi Ackie, who creates deliberately ‘ugly paintings’ as a form of therapy against her constant need to strive for perfection. Both remind me of the lyric Ben Mendelsohn once quoted to me from Leonard Cohen’s song Anthem; ‘Forget your perfect offering; There is a crack, a crack in everything – That’s how the light gets in.’ I’m proud that Hollywood Authentic continues to show the cracks – and the light – through honest conversations with artists.
In 2020, Cate Blanchett and I sat in the back of a car at a locked-down Venice Film Festival – where she was president of the jury – and discussed the idea I had for a magazine. She suggested a shoot with her chickens and I imagined what that would look like on the cover of Hollywood Authentic.
It was 2022 when we published our first issue; Sean Penn kindly agreed to be on our cover. Since then, I’ve continued to imagine that shoot with Cate and her chickens. Six months ago, my wife Daisy designed a gown inspired by Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep for our fledgling Hollywood Authentic clothing range. We knew who we wanted to see in it and announced to the team that our dream was that Cate would wear it in a pair of muddy wellies holding a chicken in her potting shed. We got on with manifesting it. Fast forward to a serendipitous encounter at Glastonbury and hey presto…
Greg Williams and Andrew Upton by Cate Blanchett
This issue represents another example of artists showing their generosity in inviting me into their lives to show an unseen side of themselves. Generosity and motion is what links all our subjects in this issue; they’re driving kid’s electric jeeps (Cate), vintage tractors (Josh Hartnett) and Ferrari race cars (Nicholas Hoult) while talking about what propels their passions and careers.
For this issue we also invited more collaborators into the Hollywood Authentic family. I met portrait photographer Charlie Clift at BAFTA a couple of years back and was immediately impressed by his work – he captures Lennie James for “a little nonsense”. We’re also thrilled to have Stephen Merchant guest-write his love letter to a Hollywood classic, Double Indemnity. Our now regular contributors are back: Gary Oldman and Gisele Schmidt write about the work of legendary Hollywood photographer Sam Shaw, Abbie Cornish gives us a review of Toronto Mexican restaurant Quetzal and Arianne Philips interviews veteran costume designer Albert Wolsky. Mark Read is also back turning his masterful lens to the Marin County Civic Center.
We’ve come full circle from that chat in Venice 2020 as we bring this issue to Venice 2024. I can’t wait to see what we take to the floating city in years to come…
Our fifth issue of Hollywood Authentic marks a full-circle moment and point of change. We first created a simple rag of a magazine – 32 pages, no staples – and took it to Cannes two years ago. This year, we’re bringing our bigger, more beautiful evolution of the magazine back to the festival, now with an expanded team and content.
This issue, we welcome our new contributors shining a unique light on cinema – both the making of it and the enjoyment of it. Gary Oldman and his wife Gisele Schmidt join us to talk through their shared passion for film photography and the shot that sparked their romance. Abbie Cornish parlays her foodie passion into reviewing must-visit restaurants. Legendary costume designer Arianne Phillips provides insight into iconic on-screen wardrobes – having worked with Tarantino on Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood, she interviews Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction costumier, Betsy Heimann. And Esquire’s UK editor-in-chief Alex Bilmes sings the praises of his favourite movie, In The Mood For Love. We’ve also expanded our editorial team and I’m proud to welcome film journalist Jane Crowther as editor-in-chief. Plus architectural photographer (and my college classmate) Mark Read brings his cinematic use of light to the bricks-and-mortar gem of a golden-era picture palace, the United Theater, in downtown LA.
Greg Williams and Zoë Saldaña
With more pages we’ve been able to tell more stories of the craft, dreams and drive that inspire practitioners in the movie industry. Zoë Saldaña, who graces our cover, invited me to the beach to talk mortality, process and feeling like a diamond. Her ballerina training was evident as she danced across the sand. Also in California, Adria Arjona took me on a DIY journey round LA that provided insight into her acting process. I also hung out with Jack O’Connell in his local London neighbourhood, discussed inspiration with Julia Roberts in her trailer, followed the making of Mothers’ Instinct on set with Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain in New Jersey, and talked ‘A Little Nonsense’ with Stephen Merchant.
I would like to say a big thanks to our advertisers for their support in making Hollywood Authentic a reality – I even shot the L’Oréal one you will see in the print edition ;). It’s all quite the glow-up from a garage enterprise to the fully fledged periodical you’re holding in your hands. We made this magazine for those obsessed with cinema and aim to provide an insider’s perspective of the dream factory.
When we launched Hollywood Authentic last year we had a simple ambition: to revive the type of Hollywood coverage found in vintage copies of Life, Look and Picture Post – the time when photographers were tasked with capturing the more intimate side of Hollywood.
Work that repeatedly caught my eye was Dennis Stock’s shots of James Dean. I first saw the photos aged 12 when my father bought me the In Our Time Magnum Photographers book. Stock took James Dean to the farm where he grew up and the Winslow family who raised him after Dean’s mother died. This device of taking an artist to the psychological and physical comfort zone of their childhood produced some amazing pictures, revealing and intimate. Back home in Fairmount, Indiana, the movie star dressed down in work clothes and hung out with the locals (both human and livestock) and played his bongos beneath a glum February sky. The personality became a person to the viewer.
Creator/Instagram
Linking James Dean with Austin Butler, the cover star of this issue, is not simply a lazy way of juxtaposing two actors who share striking good looks and charisma by the yard. ‘James Dean was the actor I obsessed over as a kid,’ Austin told me. He acknowledges they shared the pain of the early loss of a beloved mother. So, when I suggested a return to Anaheim, where he spent his formative years, I knew it was always going to be a bitter-sweet experience. Driving down in his two-seater 1970s Alfa Romeo we met his teachers at his primary school and visited his childhood home. Neither of which he’d been to in 20 years. I also filmed the experience. Please take the time to watch the 20-minute video online. This particular story has really cemented in my mind what I want Hollywood Authentic to do at its apex – look at an artist’s origin story to better understand their creative process.
This cover story for issue four of the magazine is exactly what Hollywood Authentic is all about. And the experience also has had an effect on its future. We’ve decided that with such unique access we should dedicate as many pages as are necessary to bring these moments to life. From now, Hollywood Authentic will run to more pages (twice the previous page count and on a much better paper stock), so that it can take you deeper behind the curtain and give you the best insight into the world of entertainment and its artists.
We also join Paolo Sorrentino for a first look from the set of his as yet untitled film in Capri. We meet Ava DuVernay in Venice, join the Clooneys at their Albie Awards in NYC and discuss “A Little Nonsense” with Jack Huston.
For those of you who have been following us on the journey that is Hollywood Authentic, you may notice some changes to this, the third issue. Principally, how we have gone big on the cover story – 16 pages big, to be exact. Hollywood Authentic is constantly evolving, and now you will start to find much more online at hollywoodauthentic.com, where I share videos, audio and update you more regularly on what we’re up to.
The printed magazine is therefore becoming more and more of what I always wanted it to be: an opportunity to create the kind of features on actors that inspired me when I first got into photography and were found in the pages of magazines like Life back in the day. The task, then, was to spend time with the artists and give readers a rare insight into the kind of people they really were, the type of insight that only comes if you break away from predictable, organised press access and instead get to do real stuff with these real people.
The response we have had to the first two editions of the magazine has been great. It seems that readers and industry insiders alike recognise that we are trying to create something different here. One studio executive went so far as to tell me, ‘Hollywood needs this’, by which I took him to mean that fans of film need to be reminded that the movie industry is made up of talented, complex, interesting, creative artists rather than “celebrities”.
One man who knows all about talent and complexity is this issue’s cover star, Brendan Fraser, Oscar-nominated for his extraordinary performance in The Whale, a powerful redemption story. Brendan’s own tale could in many ways be similarly described. From the early years when he spent much of his time wearing a loin cloth, he became a huge star and then gradually slowed down making movies. The reasons for his absence from our screens are what we discuss in the feature. And the way back he has found.
I asked Brendan to drive me around Los Angeles as a way of getting to know him, and he took me in a ’71 Chevy truck to some illuminating places, including the old Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard. It was raining, and the closed-down movie theatre proved quite the metaphor. We discussed struggles with body shape, big and small. Earlier this month, the internet rushed to support Sam Smith after trolls tried to shame them for their size. Perhaps Brendan’s role in The Whale will help to usher in a new perspective on body image. It feels like a pivotal moment to me.
If Brendan is emerging back into the limelight, then Thuso Mbedu is just starting out on her career and shining brightly after starring in The Underground Railroad and The Woman King. She is utterly extraordinary in both. In our new slot “The Breakfast Club”, we meet over a bowl of cereal to discuss the higher purpose that drives her forward.
There are many photographers who have inspired me to work the way I do today – people who managed to capture their subjects’ intimate moments. Think of William Claxton hanging out with Steve McQueen as he rode his bikes in the desert, or Edward Quinn in Sophia Loren’s room at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, or Dennis Stock documenting James Dean getting a trim in a barbershop, on his uncle’s farm or – of course – mooching through Times Square, huddled in his overcoat.
Photo by Annick Muller
Which is why it was so great to get to spend a day on set with Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe and hang out in her trailer. It made me feel I was somehow accessing a piece of history.
And though the pictures the likes of Claxton, Quinn and Stock took back then have become part of history, they are as fresh today as they were when first published. Because they show us something that is rarely seen – the person behind the myth. Ironically, these images contribute in no small measure to that myth themselves, often much more so than any shots more officially orchestrated.
I have made it my business to build relationships with the actors that I meet and prove my trustworthiness to them, so I too can capture uncontrived and spontaneous moments. Often this happens over time. Though the images of Ana in this issue relate to her latest role – as Marilyn Monroe in Blonde – they are actually the culmination of a relationship that goes back six years; one in which I saw her grow from being a little-known Cuban actor at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, who didn’t speak English, to an artist who received a 14-minute standing ovation at this year’s Venice Film Festival for playing the most famous American woman in history.
Along the way I was with her in LA when she was cast in Blade Runner 2049, buying hot dogs and getting a salsa lesson in the rain (when I asked how she’d mastered the English language in a year, she told me that it was necessary ‘when your rice and beans depend on that…’). I was also by Ana’s side while she was making Bond, and then Blonde – and then Bond again when I returned with her to No Time to Die for her mesmeric and scene-stealing turn as agent Paloma. So when we ran into each other in Venice, where she’d come for the premiere of Blonde, we hung out for several days and I shot more pictures of her and interviewed her for this edition.
But Hollywood Authentic is not just about glamorous occasions and locations. It’s also about the stories that actors don’t often tell. Take Eddie Marsan, one of Britain’s most talented performers, with whom I spent a day visiting the Hackney streets he grew up on. We looked up his childhood friend, mentor and “babysitter” Emanuel, with whom Eddie used to go dancing. And suddenly we were back there, with Eddie and Emanuel doing their moves, like a couple of teenagers.
You are looking at the inaugural issue of Hollywood Authentic, a project that is very dear to my heart, and one that has been gestating for the past 20 years.
Over that time I have developed a particular approach to my shoots, aiming to give people an insider’s perspective and the sense of an authentic, first-person interaction with my subjects.
There is a precedent here: back in the day, movie stars would allow photographers and writers into their world. A magazine like Life, in a window that spanned the 40 years from the ‘30s to the ‘70s, would regularly publish intimate profiles of the actors of the day. This type of journalism gave us so many of the iconic images we remember. And brought the magic of the dream factory to a wider audience.
That’s what Hollywood Authentic is all about. It’s a love letter to the movie industry – and not only the one based in California. Our aim is to make you feel that you are breathing the same air as the artists – whether that’s fight training with S.o.pé. Dìrísù or returning to Warner Bros Studios 20 years after my first visit, and discovering that what was a few sheds on an airfield is now a world-class facility playing host to Eddie Redmayne and Jude Law for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
Photograph by Gary Oldman
The method, whether I’m on set or in someone’s house, is the same. Put them at their ease. No team, just my camera and video camera. I record a chat and then hand it over to a team of great writers. It means the pictures and the conversation has an unusual intimacy. Star of Bridgerton Season 2, Simone Ashley, for example, came over to my place in LA, cooked my family and I a curry and opened up about the position she now finds herself in, representing South Asians in her role in the drama.
For issue one, we naturally asked ourselves who the ideal cover star might be. Who is genuinely Hollywood Authentic? And how could we acknowledge, too, that at this moment in our history the world seems to have been turned upside down. For me there was an obvious choice. Sean Penn has always been one for going his own way and speaking his mind. When we heard that he was in Ukraine at the start of the terrible conflict there, we knew we wanted to get his insight. The war in Europe also brought back personal memories for me of being a kid under Russian bombardment in Grozny at the beginning of my career when I worked as a photojournalist. I wanted to hear what Sean had to say.
Luckily for us, he understood what we are trying to do here and agreed to meet. Hanging out and driving around Malibu with him, and being welcomed as a guest in his home, was a genuine privilege. As I write this, he’s heading back to Ukraine.
