The ELLE Women in Hollywood event featured several young performers who’ve made major moves in 2022 and whose potential influence in the industry is just coming to light. You know what image or image came to mind? The Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue 2010.
Two years before, Vanity Fair August 2008 issue featured “Hollywood’s New Wave”, and it was also four white actresses, two of whom were repeated in the 2010 Hollywood Issue – Kristen Stewart and Amanda Seyfried.
The conversation at the time was why it was more of the same, why Hollywood “It” Girls were always white. Because if you look at the history of that annual issue, the lack of diversity is undeniably consistent. And the excuse at the time was that “we can’t find the talent”. Which of course resulted in a distracting chicken and egg discussion about whether or not there really wasn’t enough talent or if it was because the systems in place didn’t encourage the emergence of inclusive talent.
To go back to 2022 though, well, you could easily produce a Vanity Fair Hollywood issue covers with the breakout talent featured in this post:
-Ariana DeBose, reigning Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner
-Quinta Brunson, just won an Emmy for writing on Abbott Elementary, one of the most exciting creatives in television right now
-Ayo Edebiri, the star of one of the most talked-about new series of the year, The Bear. She is AMAZING on the show, played Sydney, the best character on the show.
-Thuso Mbedu, the star of The Woman King, after making a huge impact in The Underground Railroad, and could be contending for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Also just “signed a first-look deal with Paramount Global” to produce programming focused on “equity, climate, and health”.
-Whitney Peak who’s the lead in Hocus Pocus 2, which just broke the streaming record on Disney+ when it came out
-Keke Palmer, the star of Nope, which hit #1 at the box office this summer
-Jurnee Smollett, whose movie Lou went #1 on Netflix last month
-Lauren Ridloff who plays Makkari, a member of Marvel’s Eternals, the first deaf superhero.
I could keep going, and that’s just who attended the ELLE party last night. The talent was always there. And now there’s more talent than ever.
