W Magazine's Features Andra Day, Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson And More

Awards season is upon us y’all! And nowhere is that more evident than on the newsstands!

Source: Juergen Teller / W Magazine

W Magazine’s first issue of 2021, Volume 1, Best Performances, hit stands this week and the annual feature curated by W’s editor-at-large Lynn Hirschberg and styled by W Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Sara Moonves features some of our favorite Hollywood stars on their NINE covers. George Clooney, Gal Gadot, Riz Ahmed, Andra Day, LaKeith Stanfield, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tessa Thompson, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Vanessa Kirby were photographed by Juergen Teller for the issue, which also includes digital features, such as unique video interviews. The issue also includes portraits of more of our favorites, for example Tracee Ellis Ross, Jared Leto, Jonathan Masters, Steven Yeun and Leslie Odom Jr. We tried to include as many excerpts as we could — especially from the Black talent featured. We were particularly taken with Andra Day’s interview because she changed a whole lot about herself to play Billie Holiday — everything from her weight to her vices! Watch her interview below and check out a few choice quotes.

This is so funny that she was put off of kissing at 16! Hopefully that changed — especially because she’s kissing Trevante Rhodes in this film.

Discussing how much work she put in to becoming Billie:

“I did some pretty extreme things for the character. There was the drastic weight loss—I wanted to have a body that looked like that period in time. Starving myself made me very weak on set and slowed me down in a way that really helped with the scenes with heroin. Then I started smoking cigarettes; it made me feel like Billie. I’m very fast, and she’s like molasses. Smoking helped to drop me into those dark places.”

On whether she’s ever taken a nude selfie:

“Oh my god—especially after I lost weight for the movie, it’s all been nudies.”

Hit the flip for more greatness from this W Magazine issue.

Source: Juergen Teller / W Magazine

Lakeith Stanfield Thought He Was Being Asked To Play Fred Hampton, But Was Offered The Judas Role

You guys know Lakeith is one of our favorites for so many reasons, whether we are talking about “Atlanta,” ‘Sorry To Bother You,’ ‘Get Out’ or ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ — we loved his candid interview with W Magazine.

Speaking about his important role in the iconic film “Get Out”:

“When I said, “Get out!” I remember thinking, I hope this ends up in the trailer, and it did. At the Oscars, I had a little bit where I had to run onstage and tell everyone in the audience to get out. It’s crazy how iconic it became—people had started dressing up as me on Halloween. My mom had people coming to her door dressed as me!

We kind of feel bad for Lakeith because he’s shared the screen with Daniel Kaluuya twice and he has gotten the short end of the stick both times. The first time, in ‘Get Out,’ his character is basically a guinea pig and the second film ‘Judas and the Black Messiah,’ he’s a snitch. Good thing we can separate film from reality. He has had some difficult roles but he has mastered them so well.

On his secret skills:

“I’m good at fitting through small crevices, because I’m very skinny. I can go through doggy doors, and I can shimmy through crowds with ease. I can almost disappear if I turn to the side.”

Now that’s PURE comedy!

Source: Juergen Teller / W Magazine

What y’all think about this Elvira style hair they did on Tessa Thompson? We are ecstatic that her performance in ‘Sylvie’s Love’ is being highlighted by W Magazine.

On how her grandmother was one of her inspirations for her performance in Sylvie’s Love:

“My model for Sylvie was a person like Diahann Carroll, who was part of the Black bourgeoisie in New York in the ’50s and ’60s. It was also an homage to my grandmother, who was effortlessly elegant. She had remarkable poise, and I pulled a lot of that for Sylvie.”

Remembering her first kiss:

“I wasn’t a child actor, but my dad had a friend who was a casting director, and they put me in a music video. I kissed a young boy named Floyd, who was also in the video. That was my first kiss, and it’s on camera, immortalized for life. I was 6. I remember feeling very adult that day; I felt like I was born for this. Actually, I think about Floyd every so often.

Hear that Floyd? It’s not too late for you bro! Hit her up.

Have you watched ‘Sylvie’s Love’? It’s so sweet and simple and frustrating because you have two people so obviously meant to be who keep finding obstacles in their way. It’s definitely one of our favorite Tessa Thompson films.

Check out some great tidbits on Jonathan Majors from his feature on the flip

Source: Juergen Teller / W Magazine

We’re bigtime Jonathan Majors stans around the office and we are fairly certain he has some W Magazine covers in his future, alas the feature story on him is pretty rad. Check out the full interview HERE and enjoy excerpts below:

Jonathon Majors Quotes:

On his first date: “On my first date with my first love, we went to see Hellboy. And then we went to the Olive Garden. We ate breadsticks. It’s all about the breadsticks at the Olive Garden.”

Source: Juergen Teller / W Magazine

On which superhero he wanted to be as a kid:

“I was a big Batman guy. When I was 8, my mom made me a Batman cape and a Batman costume. I wore that outfit until I was 12 and a half. My mother put muscles in the costume, and I was convinced that I could fly. And fight crime. One time, I jumped out of the car while it was still moving. At 8 years old, I was ready: I was a crime-fighting, Batman wearing, bad motherfu**er!”

We would love to see Jonathan get to be Batman on the big screen. Hopefully the powers that be are reading this article getting all kinds of ideas.

Source: Juergen Teller / W Magazine

Our interview with Tracee Ellis Ross for ‘The High Note’ was one of our favorites of 2020 so we love that she’s getting a chance to talk about it for her interview with W Magazine. Check out an excerpt below:

Talking about where she likes to sing at home:

“More in the car. Or when I’m cleaning. During this pandemic, I’ve noticed that I’m a hummer. I hum a lot. And I end up humming Christmas songs. A lot of “Jingle Bells.”

Source: Juergen Teller / W Magazine

Leslie Odom Jr. had a pretty meaty role as Sam Cooke in ‘One Night In Miami’ but he told W Magazine he initially turned down the part. We also really enjoyed hearing about the first song he ever learned:

“Greatest Love of All,” by Whitney Houston, was the first pop song I remember playing over and over again. I didn’t think it was hard to sing. I thought I sounded beautiful.”

He’s not alone in this! Feels like most kids who grew up in the late 80’s had this same experience. It was one of our first songs too.

Source: Juergen Teller / W Magazine

We had to show love to W Magazine cover star Riz Ahmed as well because he had some really incredible quotes about learning to play the role of a drummer who loses his hearing.

On his immediate reaction to the script and what he had to do to prepare:

“Sound of Metal is one of those things that just kind of fell from the heavens. The film had proved almost impossible to get made, but when I read the script, it just blew my mind. As an actor, I like learning new skills, and about new communities and cultures. For Sound of Metal, I had to learn both to play the drums and American Sign Language. I needed to be fluent so that I could improvise with deaf actors.”

Speaking about what he learned from his preparations:

“…I was learning about multiple worlds at the same time: the punk and metal scene; the deaf community; and Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous addiction circles. It was eye-opening…I learned that there were different deaf accents: People in Harlem will sign differently than someone in Brooklyn, who will sign differently from someone in L.A. And for many people, deafness is not a disability; it’s a culture. The challenges can be the gifts.”

What an incredible issue — and the crazy part is — as much as we shared, there is so much more! W Magazine’s Best Performances Portfolio is online now — you can read the full interviews with all of the cover stars as well as features on the other actors we weren’t able to share.