Ariana Greenblatt

August 22, 2025

When we first started Hollywood Authentic, we were advised that most new magazines don’t make it past their third issue. I’m so proud to prove that statistic wrong by presenting you with issue 10, the most extraordinary issue we’ve ever created in terms of access and content.

Take my shoot with Dakota Johnson in London – a story nine years in the making and a key part of the creation of Hollywood Authentic. I first met Dakota on the red carpet at Venice in 2015 as she walked it with Johnny Depp for Black Mass. Afterward we travelled by boat to The Cipriani and I showed her the sort of photos I took – without a plan, we took a walk and shot some beautiful moments. In the same year, I bumped into Dakota at the Chateau Marmont and we made a plan to shoot the following morning. A plan with no plan. She collected me in her old pick-up and drove over to Laurel Canyon where she lived at the time. We stopped for coffee at the Canyon Store and then hung out in her backyard by the pool playing Radiohead records and chatting. The photos from that simple authentic slice of life were a stepping stone towards the shooting style I have since finessed, and right at the inception of the Hollywood Authentic ethos that I’m proud to say feels unique to other publications. Shooting Dakota in July in London felt like a full-circle moment.

A Bigger Splash, Daddio, Dakota Johnson, Materialists, Persuasion, Splitsville, Suspiria, The Lost Daughter, The Peanut Butter Falcon — Dakota Johnson and Greg Williams

Another great story in this issue is our shot-over-a-two-year-period account of David Corenswet’s rise to global fame, which began on the day he first set foot on set in his Superman costume and concluded with a flashback tour of his acting school, Juilliard.
It was amazing to experience a front-row seat to the metamorphosis of an actor becoming a star in real time – rather like when I documented Daniel Craig becoming Bond.

Equally exclusive is our coverage of Emma Watson as she gauges her new priorities with our mutual friend Hassan Akkad over a game of pickleball on the French Riviera. Emma does little to no press, so to get access to her thoughts at this time felt like a gift. It was also extraordinary to get the in-garage access to Toto Wolff and the Mercedes-AMG F1 team at two Grand Prix in Bahrain and Monaco. There’s also inside-baseball insight from Arianne Phillips and Sandy Powell, my old friends and Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, and Ariana Greenblatt talks ‘A Little Nonsense’. And we get a unique look around the Griffith Observatory care of photographer Mark Read. And did we mention the biggest movie actor in the world, Tom Cruise? As I say, our greatest issue yet…

BUY ISSUE 10 HERE

GREG WILLIAMS
Founder, Hollywood Authentic

hollywood authentic, greg williams, hollywood authentic magazine

A Little Nonsense

August 22, 2025

Photograph by GREG WILLIAMS

The Now You See Me: Now You Don’t starand L’Oréal ambassador tells Hollywood Authentic about manifestation, matches and mom’s cooking.

How important is a little bit of nonsense now and then to you?
It’s pretty important; nonsense is fun and allows me to take myself a little less seriously. If you ask the people closest to me they would definitely say I enjoy taking part in a bit of nonsense.

What, if anything, makes you believe in magic?
If we are talking about abracadabra magic then I think the magic lives in the audience’s hope and curiosity about the trick. If we are talking about universal magic – the magic of manifestation and the stars is truly what I live by. Divine timing, paths crossing and figurative signs are all examples of magic to me.

What was your last act of true cowardice?
Although I’ve gotten very close to lacking bravery, I always do it, I always go for it. I guess my last act of true cowardice was when I almost gave up on doing this big stunt. It was a battle with my own brain; I was yelling at myself in my head and did it!

What single thing do you miss most when you’re away from home?
I get really homesick a lot. There are loads of things I miss but if I were to pick one I’d say my room. My bed and when my dogs hang with me, knowing my family is just a few feet away.

Do you have any odd habits or rituals?
A ton. I’m very superstitious and a huge believer in manifesting. I won’t share my rituals because I feel like it would mess with their power.

What is your party trick?
I don’t go to parties to show this trick, but I can put a lit match in my mouth and close my mouth over the flame then pull it out and blow the smoke. It’s fucking cool if you ask me.

What is your mantra?
I have a few. ‘Everything happens for a reason’; ‘Treat people the way you want to be treated’; ‘Don’t listen to the noise.’ There’s one more but I keep that one to myself; it’s something my dad taught me.

What is your favourite smell?
I love the smell of my parents’ room, my mom’s cooking, vanilla perfume (my signature scent), and my friends. Also gasoline, a Cold Stone shop right when you walk in, the small room in my house with cleaning supplies, and a campfire.

What do you always carry with you?
Headphones. I need a new pair. The left side is blown out.

What is your guilty pleasure?
I’m not really guilty that I like these things but I guess YouTube videos and sugar.

What would be your least favourite way to die?
I’m scared of plane crashes, getting shot without seeing it coming, drowning, or if the world literally implodes. But I’m not putting any of that into the universe. No.

What’s your idea of heaven?
Ever since I learned what heaven was, I pictured a soft golden abyss with flying animals and pretty angels, everyone is happy and they take turns creating the sunsets and sunrises for people still alive. That fantasy always made me feel a little more at ease about the concept of death.

New York-born Ariana Greenblatt started her career as a pre-teen in the Disney Channel comedy series Stuck in the Middle and moved to feature films with A Bad Moms Christmas, Avengers: Infinity War, In the Heights and playing America Ferrera’s unimpressed daughter in Barbie – all before turning 16. She’s played the young Ahsoka in the Disney TV show of the same name, appeared alongside Cate Blanchett in Eli Roth’s Borderlands and has completed shooting on two films set for release this year: Fear Street: Prom Queen and Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (out 14 November). She lives in LA and is a L’Oréal ambassador.

Photograph by GREG WILLIAMS

Fear Street: Prom Queen is out now on Netflix
Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is out on 14 November

*Arguably one of the most memorable (and quotable) scenes in 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is when Mr Salt mumbles, ‘It’s a lot of nonsense,’ to which Wonka replies, in a sing-song voice, ‘A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.’

Screening Room

BORDERLANDS

August 9, 2024

Words by JAMES MOTTRAM

From Queen Elizabeth I to Bob Dylan in his electric era to The Lord of the Rings’ ethereal Galadriel, two-time Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett can do no wrong. And so she proves again in Eli Roth’s Borderlands, a rambunctious adaptation of the popular videogame series from Gearbox Software.

It’s not often that the chameleon-like Australian star graces blockbusters, although she was glorious as a Russian villain in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Hela in Marvel movie Thor: Ragnarok. Here, guns at the ready, she’s Lilith, the red-haired anti-heroine at the heart of this madcap sci-fi that owes a lot of its energy to another MCU title, Guardians of the Galaxy.

Ariana Greenblatt, Borderlands, Cate Blanchett, Edgar Ramírez, Eli Roth, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart

Set in a decaying futuristic far-away world, Lilith is a lone wolf bounty hunter who gets hired by Atlas (Édgar Ramírez), the head of a sophisticated weapons company, to find his daughter. Affectionately known as Tiny Tina (Barbie’s Ariana Greenblatt), this girl has been kidnapped by one of his own men, Roland (Kevin Hart).

After a little arm-twisting, Lilith jets off to the dilapidated Pandora, a planet she knows from her own murky past, where she soon locates her target. Trouble is, Tina doesn’t want to go home – what with her father desperate to use her to help locate something only known as The Vault.

With Lilith, Tina and Roland joining forces, they’re accompanied by a robot named Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black) and the musclebound Krieg (Creed II’s Florian Muneanu), as they progress through Pandora. Much in the way a gamer might pick their way through levels, there are keys to collect and puzzles to solve.

Director Roth (Hostel, Thanksgiving) and his team do a fine job of recreating Pandora in all its grimness, a planet that is over-populated by marauding psychos and creatures known as Threshers. There’s even an appearance by Jamie Lee Curtis as a scientist who lends a helping hand, as this ragtag group look to survive this hot toxic mess.

Along the way, there are some exhilarating action scenes – not least one race through Pandora’s rocky roads that puts a new definition on the phrase ‘monster truck’. Intriguingly, comic star Hart plays it straight as the hardcore action hero, something he pulls off with aplomb, while Greenblatt has a field day as the explosive, dynamite-chucking Tiny Tina. Best of all, Blanchett is on fire as Lilith – yet another killer role to add to her considerable collection.

Borderlands is in cinemas now

Greg’s Letter

ISSUE 10 – 2025

August 22, 2025

A Little Nonsense