This article is published in number 1 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until January 5, 2020
Until recently, actors exerted gravitational force, luring production assistants, make-up artists, hair stylists, cinematographers and directors into their orbit. At the time of Covid, the trend reversed. “Every time an actor makes his appearance on the set, someone on the loudspeaker says:“ Put on the protective gear! Put on your protective gear! ”» Says Gemma Chan during our interview on Zoom.
“Which makes you think, ‘Being here, I’m making everything more complicated.'”
The difference is clear, especially for Chan, whose career exploded after her success in the role of Astrid, a glamorous cousin in the 2018 edition of Crazy&Rich. Covid hasn’t slowed down projects, but it has revolutionized the way people work in Hollywood. In Steven Soderbergh’s comedy-drama Let Them All Talk, based on a short story by Deborah Eisenberg and set to be released on HBO Max, Meryl Streep plays a great writer with the terror of the plane. Gemma Chan is the enthusiastic agent who convinces her to take an ocean liner to England with two of her best friends (Dianne Wiest and Candice Bergen) and her nephew (Lucas Hedges) to pick up an award, then embarking herself.
Immediately after filming concluded, Chan moved on to Marvel’s colossal, The Eternals. In 2019, the actress played an evil alien warrior in Captain Marvel; now, on her second experience with Marvel, she becomes Sersi, an alien with all the best superpowers: telepathy, telekinesis, superhuman strength. The film, directed by Chloé Zhao, follows the adventures of a group of immortal galactic heroes (Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek and Kumail Nanjiani, to name a few) through a time frame of 7,000 years, but Gemma cannot reveal much more. “She loves humans more than all the other Eternals, and I liked her a lot,” says Chan, speaking very carefully about her character, careful not to spoil anything. “She’s incredibly empathetic.”
Gemma was recently nominated as L’Oréal Paris testimonial and has started filming Don’t Worry Darling, a psychological thriller directed by Olivia Wilde, which also stars Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, longtime friend of the actress. When she and the super pop star met, they were “both very young,” she says amused with her elegant English accent.
On Zoom, Gemma is kind and polite. She is also interested in politics, so much so that she is the one who comes up with issues like the presidential elections, the climate crisis and the pandemic before me. The actress nearly embarked on an entirely different career, after leaving Oxford with a law degree. For two years she continued to hold a job offer at a law firm on hold, then enrolled in the Drama Centre London to study acting. He said communicating his decision to his mother, of Chinese and Scottish descent, and his father, a native of Hong Kong, was difficult because education had pulled his father out of poverty and allowed him to emigrate to the UK. Fortunately, his career took off quickly and his parents recovered from their sorrow. He started with a few roles for television (Doctor Who, Diary of a respectable caller) and cinema (Fantastic beasts and where to find them), then with Crazy & Rich there was the turning point.
Let Them All Talk was filmed largely over the span of a single week of 2019, aboard the RMS Queen Mary 2, a ship large enough to have its own planetarium. The cast and crew worked by day, while the super-efficient Soderbergh, who also served as director of photography and editing, edited the footage by night. Hundreds of the ship’s passengers were happy to make extras. In perfect guerrilla filmmaking style, the dialogues were almost entirely improvised and this made Gemma’s first scene even more stressful: a tense lunch in which she and Streep tackle the issue of transoceanic travel. “She was lovely,” says Gemma of her three-time Academy Award-winning colleague. “But I can’t deny that I was a little upset.” Soderbergh’s directing notes helped to increase his agitation. “I think at one point Steven said to Meryl, ‘Look at her like you’re looking at a bug,'” Gemma confides, bursting out laughing.
Seen retrospectively, Let Them All Talk it was an idyllic experience. Queen Mary 2 was a 148,530-ton artistic cocoon. Gemma loved it. “When you are at sea and you don’t see land, the night sky is incredible, and every sunset is extraordinary.” It’s hard not to regret those days in the new universe of “Wear your gear! Put on the protections! ». “The rest of the world didn’t exist there,” says the actress. “It was just us on the ship and the sea around it.”
SLIDING DOORS – Gemma Chan, 38. After a law degree from Oxford and a job
as a model, she decided to pursue her talent and study acting.
SUL SET – Gemma Chan as Karen, agent of writer Alice Hughes (Meryl Streep) in Soderbergh’s Let Them All Talk.
PHOTO DJENEBA ADUAYOM
Abito, Prada. Cappello, Stephen Jones for Marc Jacobs. Fashion editor Rebecca Ramsey. Make-up Monika Blunder; hair Clariss Rubenstein, entrambi per L’Oréal Paris. Set Design Lizzie Lang and Peter Gueracague. Producer on set Crawford & Co Productions.
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