I’m still making my way through the profiles in the Vanity Fair Hollywood issue that dropped yesterday but let me just tell you the first two I read: Lily Gladstone and Greta Lee. We’ll come back to that in a minute after we talk about the cover.

 

The cover, officially, is all of them: Colman Domingo, Natalie Portman, Pedro Pascal, Bradley Cooper, Lily, Greta, Jodie Comer, Charles Melton, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Jenna Ortega, and Barry Keoghan. The front fold, however, is BCoop, Natalie, Pedro, and Colman. I’m sure some people have thoughts on that and they may be unkind. But I don’t have the energy right now to scream about this. I’d rather focus on what stood out to me: which is that the four stars featured on the cover are the four oldest stars of the group. 

 

BCoop, Natalie, Pedro, and Colman are all over 40. So what I appreciate about what VF has done here is actually prioritise that this a Hollywood issue, with the four people who’ve been in the Hollywood business the longest taking front and center, instead of, you know, turning their cover into a “how can we trend on TikTok” moment. 

Can we move on to Lily and Greta now? Because this pose, Lily! 

 

And this one too, even though it’s unconventional, but not lacking in confidence and feel-yourselfness: 

 

What’s great about the interview too is that there is so much more to Lily Gladstone than the Hollywood issue, Hollywood period. She’s an Oscar nominee now, the most success she’s ever experienced in the business, and she’s already talking about maybe taking a break – to live, to listen, to stay interested. It’s such a healthy perspective to have about a world that can actually be quite small, and limiting. And of course it’s no surprise that it would be Lily to be able to articulate it so casually, without making it a big f-cking anxious deal. The reason it came back to Lily is because she can let go of it. 

As for what it’s been like for her on the Oscar campaign trail, I enjoyed what she said about Emma Stone since the two of them are considered the frontrunners for Best Actress – she and Emma have become “fast friends” during this award season, and it was Emma who sent her a ring, an “Infinity Stones” ring, that Emma also wears, because they are the “Stone” sisters. It’s a bit of insight into how collegial it can be behind the scenes during a tightly contested process. 

 

Now to Greta and, well, why don’t we just start here but ughghaapahgahaanaa, this LOOK!

I’m gagging because we’ve all been gagging, and that comes up during the interview – how social media has decided that she is mother and c-nt and queen. This entire thread is referenced, it is hilarious and it is TRUE: 

 

Greta is aware and she gets it, and she’s not mad at it. But she does talk about how weird it is, to have been in the business for 20 years and be in this moment of “discovery”, which is why I love her answer to the question of how she’s feeling right now, her dominant emotion – revenge? And she doesn’t perform gratitude, which is why she, like Lily, is the f-cking realest. Because, yes, when you’ve been at it for so long and haven’t had the same opportunities because of bias and bullsh-t, whyyyy should you lead with gratitude and not honesty? 

“Revenge! Rage! It’s complicated. I can’t pretend that it’s not. I’m a 40-year-old woman, and I have kids now. I can’t pretend that there aren’t elements to this moment for me that aren’t tricky, because it’s like being wide awake for your dream coming true. There’s no pretending that I’m naive or not understanding of the struggle and the absolute miracle it is to get here.”

And now? 

“Now that I’ve gotten this chance through Past Lives, which was absolutely the opportunity of my life, it’s fascinating. It’s a relentless exercise in honoring the spirit of what I’ve found before and also finding the joy to step into the spotlight and take it. It’s so much bigger than me. I know now what’s possible. For myself and other Asian American women. I don’t want to accept my previous reality. I can’t.”

We can’t either, we shouldn’t. As the audience, that’s our job – to show up for actors like Lily and Greta AFTER the Oscar season. 

Read the entire interview with Greta for the Vanity Fair Hollywood issue here.