Interviews

Golden Globe winner Aaron Sorkin’s second directorial work, The Trial of the Chicago 7, became timelier than he could have thought when he started the project. He also wrote the script.

If historians look back on noteworthy cultural stepping stones from the year 2003, some might point to the Challenger disaster, the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California, the premiere league debut of Ronaldo for Manchester United or even the completion of the Human Genome Project. But for any teenager during that time, the weight of the world belonged to The O.

I May Destroy You is a ground-breaking drama series on HBO. The show was created by and stars Michaela Coel as Arabella Essiedu, a breakout writer who was sexually assaulted after having her drink spiked.

Wayne Wang is one of the pioneers of Asian-American cinema and had a huge hit with The Joy Luck Club, the film that showed Hollywood studios that audiences were not afraid of an Asian cast if the story was good. But he was just as good adapting Paul Auster's complex New York stories to the screen in the memorable Smoke (and its companion, piece Blue in the Face, co-directed with Auster).

Like many young people, Zach Sobiech had a dream. In the case of the Lakeland, Minnesota, native it was to write and play music that audiences would listen to.

In The Undoing, Nicole Kidman stars as Grace Fraser, a therapist with an affluent New York life style that almost seems too good to be true. With a doctor husband who adores her, a young son, who is thriving and doing well in his prestigious private school, and a job that satisfies her intellect, she has what one could consider the perfect life.

Anya Taylor-Joy plays fiercely independent characters in three movies this year: Emma Woodhouse in Emma directed by Autumn de Wilde from the 1815 novel by Jane Austen, Marie Curie’s daughter Irène in Radioactive by Marjane Satrapi with Rosamund Pike, and Marvel Comics' superhero Magik/Iliana Rasputina in The New Mutants.   She also plays teenage chess prodigy Beth Harmon in the limited series The Queen’s Gambit, created and directed by Golden Globe-nominated screenwriter Scott Frank from the 1983 novel by Walter Tevis.

Natalia Dyer is best known for her role as Nancy Wheeler on Stranger Things. The Tennessee born actress faced another kind of challenge when she accepted a role in her latest movie Yes, God, Yes.

In the new film Rebecca, Golden Globe-nominated Armie Hammer plays Maxim De Winter, a man best described as romantic, rich, prudish, sinister, and full of secrets. As the great-grandson of tycoon Armand Hammer, the 34-year-old Santa Monica born actor could logically have developed in a similar fashion.

Actress, filmmaker, and author Miranda July, has enjoyed an eclectic career, initially inspired by the Riot Grrrl Movement and her friendship with bands such as Bikini Kill, Excuse 17, and Heavens to Betsy. Often described as quirky, the material she gravitates towards has been compared to that of Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, as evidenced in her movies, Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) and The Future (2011).