The Golden Globes team must be pretty pleased with the red carpet turnout because real stars showed up and unless there’s a major gaffe or scandal, it looks like the show will continue on as it always has.
I’m focusing on four specific women who are all surging in their careers but at really different stages.
Anya Taylor-Joy was in yellow Dior and I want to talk about the styling here. She has a relationship with Dior and as Lainey mentioned months ago, Anya has a new stylist now and is no longer working with Law Roach. Check out her outfit at the Globes in 2021.
She does quite a few red carpet appearances but is a very scandal-free name and a bit of an enigma. Her work skews towards riskier roles (not popcorn blockbusters – yet) but she became popular the modern way: a Netflix series many of us binged while still laying low because of the pandemic. There are actresses that ping our radar at the same time their team coordinates a big PR push and you can see that happening with Anya. It’s very obvious that there’s a whole plan in place for her career.
From a relative newbie to a seasoned vet…Jessica Chastain. For an A-list Oscar winner, she is really exposed but not overexposed. She keeps her family life very private and keeps her work at the forefront while also using social media, creating a kind of public armour, much in the same way Kerry Washington has. They both work a lot and are famous and down-to-earth and politically active and almost “accessible” but really, what do we know about them? Not much. Jessica is youthful and still in the meaty part of her movie stardom but it also feels like she’s moving this really respected, mentor-ish role. (Slide 3 below)
Then there’s Ana de Armas, the breakout star of Knives Out who had a very public relationship that she has totally and fully put behind her. Not many actresses come out of dating a much-more-famous movie star like Ben Affleck unscathed and she has. Blonde was supposed to do for her what Elvis is doing for Austin Butler but Blonde struggled in public perception because of the source material and director. Marilyn Monroe has a more complex legacy than Elvis, who still has an ex-wife and daughter to give their stamp of approval. Blonde won’t be her Zero Dark Thirty but she is in the room, for sure. And did you see the way Colin Farrell singled her out when she presented his award? That was extremely something. I texted Lainey immediately.
Julia Garner was nominated twice and won once, a great way for her to put a bow on Ozark and Inventing Anna got her loads of press and eyeballs on Netflix. It feels like she is nearly tipping over into overexposed in these spaces – partially because she broke out on Ozark in 2017, which seems like forever ago – and I would love to see her lay low leading up to that and then go for a total takeover alongside Madonna. Brilliant or bust, that movie is going to get so much press.
Lainey and I discussed this post and as I was filing, I realized I forgot one of the names on the list she gave me: Margot Robbie. This means I wasn’t super excited about seeing her, the dress was fine, and she got lots of camera time because of where she was sitting. Margot Robbie is halfway between It Girl (she hit that with The Wolf of Wall Street) and Oscar winner. She’s an established actress and like the other women, isn’t building her persona around her real personality or private life. Thirty years ago, she would have been a major movie star but the nature of fame is so different now. She stars in a lot of movies (and has not done TV since early on in her career) but there’s still a question mark: is she a movie star? Can she get butts in seats the same way Julia Roberts or Sandra Bullock once did? If not her, can anyone? Many actors credit luck with their success and it’s also the magic of timing: being the right kind of star in the right place at the right era. Barbie comes out in five months and is expected to be a huge movie. Margot and Barbie will be back here in year.
