Dear Gossips,

Yesterday, Variety posted their matchups for this year’s “Actors on Actors” series, and it’s mostly good and only a little bit ridiculous.

Here’s the lineup:

Andrew Garfield (We Live in Time) & Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool & Wolverine)
Ariana Grande (Wicked) & Paul Mescal (Gladiator II)
Selena Gomez (Emilia Pérez) & Saoirse Ronan (Blitz, The Outrun)
Angelina Jolie (Maria) & Cynthia Erivo (Wicked)
Zendaya (Challengers, Dune: Part Two) & Nicole Kidman (Babygirl)
Drew Starkey (Queer) & Harris Dickinson (Babygirl, Blitz)
Kate Winslet (Lee) & Zoë Saldaña (Emilia Pérez)
Daniel Craig (Queer) & Josh O’Connor (Challengers)
Pamela Anderson (The Last Showgirl) & Mikey Madison (Anora)
Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) & Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain)
Demi Moore (The Substance) & Amy Adams (Nightbitch)
Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) & Tilda Swinton (The Room Next Door)

First of all, I am glad to see Pamela Anderson included because so far, she hasn’t got much momentum this awards season, and a high-profile event like “Actors and Actors” might help. Secondly, I am glad to see most of these pairings make some kind of sense, someone clearly put some thought into the kinds of conversations these pairings can have. There are a couple pairings that make no sense—Ariana Grande/Paul Mescal, and Andrew Garfield/Ryan Reynolds, the latter because Reynolds is not a serious inclusion—but mostly I can see the logic of these pairings.

Zendaya and Nicole Kidman, for instance, feel like two generations of actors working in similar styles. They’re both statuesque beauties who gravitate toward complicated, even unlikeable characters, they both have notably cold screen presences (though Zendaya can get out of ice cube mode easier than Kidman can, Kidman has just learned to lean all the way into her natural on-screen chilliness), they’ve both done prestige dramas and prestige TV, they’re both defining figures for their generations. I will always long for these conversations to be more substantive than they are—“Actors on Actors” is too much part of the machine for true spontaneity—but I feel like even within the framework of trophy trail propaganda, these two can and hopefully will have a lively conversation. Ditto for Daniel Craig and Josh O’Connor, who also feel like two generations of the same kind of actor.

I am also holding space for Angelina Jolie and Cynthia Erivo, two divas playing divas, I can’t wait to see how their conversation turns out. In a similar vein, Harris Dickinson and Drew Starkey is so babygirl coded I expect a full internet meltdown when that interview hits, at least among the under 25 set. Selena Gomez and Saoirse Ronan have a child star connection, Kate Winslet and Zoe Saldaña have a James Cameron connection, and Demi Moore and Amy Adams are both starring in films notable for their body horror, and I REALLY hope they talk about that.

Colman Domingo and Kieran Culkin are maybe the most intriguing pairing, though. Colman is old enough and experienced enough to have been through this before and not be wowed by any of it, and Kieran Culkin is one guy I sincerely believe would rather be at home on his couch. I feel like they are two eccentrics with the highest potential to break out of the awards season machinery and just have a lively discussion. I have learned to settle for entertaining when it comes to “Actors on Actors”, but every once in a while you get a pairing that reaches a truly illuminating conversation. On the other hand, I really hope Tilda Swinton brings up the time Adrien Brody bought Elsa Pataky a castle and then she dumped him for Chris Hemsworth. Tilda chaos challenge!

If you’re wondering what I mean when I say that these conversations have become too manufactured to be really substantive, please read Matt Zoller Seitz’s excellent profile of Willem Dafoe, online here. Dafoe is open, engaging, thoughtful, funny, he reaches past the surface, talking about things that can sound stupid but expose his vulnerability both as an artist and just as a person in the world.

So much stuff like “Actors on Actors” is designed to feign vulnerability without actually putting anyone in a position of being vulnerable, because to be vulnerable is to be exposed, and celebrities do not want to be exposed. That’s why celebrity profiles are on life support, and social media is a curated dreamscape. But sometimes a celebrity reaches a place where they no longer fear exposure and you get an interview like Dafoe’s which is exposing and illuminating and INTERESTING. Willem Dafoe seems interesting. It’s been a while since I watched “Actors on Actors” and thought anyone was genuinely interesting.

Live long and gossip,

Sarah

Nicole Kidman Gossip

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