Since People We Meet on Vacation debuted on Netflix in early 2026—marking the first adaptation of one of Emily Henry's beloved romance novels—EmHen fans have been clamoring for more. And we’re in luck: All but one of her other adult romances are currently being adapted for the screen, and even the one holdout, 2025’s Great Big Beautiful Life, technically has a Henry-penned screenplay already completed.

Beach Read, Funny Story, Book Lovers, and Happy Place are in development. Happy Place was announced in 2024 and initially slated as a Netflix series, with Jennifer Lopez’s Nuyorican Productions on board as producers. At the start of 2026, however, the streamer confirmed the switch to a feature film format for Happy Place, with J.Lo and her partners still on board. Even more exciting? Henry herself is writing the screenplay.

Here’s everything else we know so far about the page-to-screen adaptation of Emily Henry’s Happy Place.

Everything We Know About the 'Happy Place' Adaptation

What is 'Happy Place' by Emily Henry about?

The 2023 novel, Henry’s fourth adult romance, is a second-chance love story with a hint of fake dating. It centers on Harriet and Wyn, who recently broke up after nearly a decade together but decide to keep their split a secret as they join their friends for an annual group trip to a cottage in Maine.

The story shifts back and forth in time, tracing back to the start of Harriet and Wyn’s relationship and their ups and downs over the years. As they reflect on their shared history and individual wants and needs, they find they can be more honest than ever about what's most important to each of them separately and together. Inevitably, being in a much healthier place leads them to figure out what their futures hold—whether that means going their separate ways or giving their love story another try.

When will the 'Happy Place' Netflix film adaptation be released?

Neither Netflix nor Henry has revealed a release date for the Happy Place film yet. The first page-to-screen take on an EmHen book, People We Meet on Vacation, was announced in late 2022 and premiered in January 2026. Applying that same timeline to Happy Place, which was announced as in development in mid-2024—albeit as a series rather than a feature film—could put a release date around the end of 2027 or early 2028 at the earliest. Of course, that will depend on casting and the shoot, but rom-coms tend to be relatively low lift.

Fortunately, to tide us over, we’ve got another adaptation to look forward to: The movie version of Beach Read, starring Phoebe Dynevor and Patrick Schwarzenegger, is set for a theatrical release in May 2027.

Who is involved behind-the-scenes of the 'Happy Place' Netflix film adaptation?

A director isn't publicly attached to Happy Place yet, but the producers include J.Lo and her frequent collaborators, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Benny Medina, through their Nuyorican imprint. The film should be in good hands: Jenny from the Block is a rom-com queen, and Nuyorican has helmed several popular romance films, from Marry Me and Shotgun Wedding to Office Romance.

Henry will write the script. A team of screenwriters penned People We Meet on Vacation, while director Yulin Kuang wrote Beach Read, so Happy Place will be among the first times Henry is involved beyond a producing credit.

When the Happy Place and Funny Story films were confirmed, the author shared a statement. “I genuinely couldn’t be more excited to work on the adaptations of Happy Place and Funny Story with Netflix,” she said. “The entire team there has been so passionate about, dedicated to, and supportive of People We Meet on Vacation from the jump, and getting to do it all over again—this time writing the scripts myself—has been a thrill. I feel so lucky to have found this home for these films, among people who believe deeply in the necessity and power of this kind of story.”

Who is in the cast of the 'Happy Place' Netflix film adaptation cast?

That’s another thing we don’t yet know. But the rom-com’s fans, of course, have plenty of ideas. Back in 2024, when Happy Place was first announced as a Netflix series, Henry posted the news on her Instagram account, noting in the caption that while no cast members were attached yet, they’d all be “actors in their late 20s to early 30s,” and inviting fans to comment their dream casting decisions.

Fans' requests for the headstrong, perfectionist Harriet include The Pitt’s Supriya Ganesh, Margaret Qualley, Hailee Steinfeld, Isabela Merced, and Simone Ashley. For the charming but self-doubting Wyn, meanwhile, they’ve dream-cast Lewis Pullman, Drew Starkey, Leo Woodall, and The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Christopher Briney, to name just a few.

Henry herself has actually joined in on the casting suggestions. In a 2025 interview with PEOPLE, she noted that while she typically stays out of chiming in about specific fancastings, she does "take those names that come up a lot into conversations with these teams."

She also admitted she had one suggestion for one character across all her books—and it just so happens to be for Happy Place. “For Harriet in Happy Place, I think Eve Hewson would be wonderful,” the writer revealed. “And usually, when I am thinking of casting, I’m not actually thinking of someone who looks like that person. I’m just thinking of someone who has that same vibe. But she actually does look more or less how Harriet is in my head.”

Only time will tell if the rest of the world gets to see the Disclosure Day and The Perfect Couple star in the role, too!

Alana Mayo knows better than anyone that championing diverse, genre-defying filmmaking can be an uphill battle. Six years ago, when Mayo was named president of Orion Pictures, at a time when many American industries were making promises of inclusion that they ultimately wouldn’t keep, she saw it as her purpose. Two Oscar wins and several acclaimed films later—from Women Talking and Bottoms to Is God Is and Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother—the 42-year-old is seeing the fruits of her labor.

Mayo, a lifelong cinephile, came of age when Orion was known as a Hollywood heavyweight, making blockbusters that ranged from awards powerhouses to box-office phenomena. She grew up surrounded by entertainment as both a fan and an insider, voraciously consuming movies with her brothers while watching her parents work as radio and legal nonprofit executives. “I was watching my dad [Barry Mayo] found and sell a company by the time I was a teenager,” she says. “My first internships were at the age of 10 for my mother.” Her family instilled in her a work ethic and the importance of supporting Black culture and creating business opportunities for Black people. “It was early preparation for what, ultimately, we’re trying to do with Orion.”

Sitting in a meeting room at Orion’s NYC headquarters, Mayo speaks about her decades of industry experience with earnest reverence: She ascended from interning with Lee Daniels and Warrington Hudlin to climbing the ranks at Paramount to becoming the head of production and development at Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society. Mayo took over Orion, then a subset of MGM, at a time of great transition; 18 months after she joined, Amazon acquired the mid-sized studio. Still, she made the bold move to steer a directive that hit close to home: Continue to support original projects and first-time filmmakers, with an emphasis on bringing underrepresented audiences stories that reflect their culture.

Mayo has already made good on her word. At the 2023 Academy Awards, Sarah Polley’s Women Talking became Orion’s first Best Picture nominee since The Silence of the Lambs in 1992, and Polley took home the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The studio has continued to release awards frontrunners, like American Fiction, which garnered five Oscar nominations and saw writer-director Cord Jefferson win Best Adapted Screenplay. Mayo is not just an awards whisperer but also a talent incubator: The female filmmakers who’ve worked with Orion, from Chinonye Chukwu to Rachel Sennott to Tessa Thompson, have only continued to flourish.

None of this has been easy. In early 2020, chief-level positions at mainstream studios skewed 91 percent white and 82 percent male, while senior executives were 93 percent white and 80 percent male. Despite the boom in diversity hiring later that year, several Black female industry veterans have since left their roles. This is despite a decade of studies— and the success of movies like Sinners and KPop Demon Hunters—showing that films that reflect the diversity of moviegoers perform better at the box office. In this fraught landscape, Mayo stands out in a cohort of visionaries who are ensuring that inclusion isn’t just a buzzword but a successful policy.

On falling in love with storytelling

I was consuming a lot of things at the height of the home-media era. My dad had a huge LaserDisc collection of movies like All About Eve and Apocalypse Now but also new movies. My brothers and I are of that generation where we would watch movies for fun. But I loved reading books more than anything. I would read in the shower, on road trips. Story was the thing that was both entertainment and escape. That was the way I engaged with the world that felt safe and exciting.

On the women who inspired her career path

I was working for Lee Daniels [in college], and he had two brilliant women working for him at the time, Lisa Cortés and Doreen Oliver. One of them ran production, and the other one ran development. You’re supposed to connect to really good material, connect filmmakers with material, and have a point of view on what should get made and why, and then produce it. Those women were just so amazing at all of those things. It was truly a stroke of luck that I had that internship, because I could then leave college and say, “I want to be a production and development executive.” This language that would’ve taken me years to find, had I not worked for that company for a summer.

On the most fulfilling part of her job

That first conversation with a filmmaker who is interested in us being the studio on their film is all speculation. It’s all dreaming and imagining what a movie could be, months, if not years, down the line. That journey of collaborating with filmmakers across the life cycle of a film is incredibly fulfilling. A lot of my job is business stuff, which I love—but ultimately, my job is to be a part of making movies that people hopefully see to a large extent and love. It’s unbelievable to see something tangible exist, where now other people are watching and texting and saying, “We love that scene,” knowing that it all started from a conversation or a read of a script or hearing a pitch.

On her commitment to telling underrepresented stories

Executives are not supposed to be the story; it’s the movies and the people that make the movies. The reason why I’m a little bit more outward facing is that I and all of the people that work at Orion are trying to create a space for something that doesn’t really exist. It’s very important to me, not so much that people attach my face to that but that I am somebody who is loudly and proudly talking about this thing that we are trying to build. We’ve got to [connect] audiences who want to see films that are more representative of them to filmmakers who are interested in their story, their identity, their culture, their background. I want them to connect these movies to a larger effort that’s not just me. It’s very important to me that people know that we are thinking about these movies in a super-intentional way of trying to meet an unmet appetite for more types of storytelling coming out of Hollywood.

On Oscars recognition

Looking for any sign of external validation can always put you in a trap, but striving for making movies that will be excellent creatively and commercially is a much easier goal to meet. I don’t think anything is perfectly fair or a meritocracy, but it was really rewarding to know that these movies that we made, because we thought that the scripts were excellent and the filmmakers were excellent, that they were validated in that way by the Oscars voting body too. I am a book nerd, so the more exciting thing for me was to be nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay three times and to win it twice [for Women Talking and American Fiction]. I felt very proud of that because we love writers here, and those movies all started with literary material that blew you away, adapted into scripts that blew you away on the page. So that was, for me, selfishly, a real boon, a lot of wind in my sails.

On her personal role model

My mom is as smart of a person as I’ve ever met in my life. She’s equal parts good and kind and lives the values that she preaches.

On how she hopes to impact Hollywood’s legacy

That we scaled Orion in a way where two things happen: One, the filmmakers we’ve worked with are consistently creating work in the world, in part because that first film was made possible by Orion; and two, we shine a light on a business model that every other studio could and should be doing, which is investing in original films by great filmmakers that feature people of color, queer folks, and women.

This piece originally appeared in Marie Claire's 2026 Legends issue.

Haemanthus is a peculiar name for a peculiar flower. One of its southern African species, commonly known as the blood lily, blooms in a dense shock of scarlet that erupts from a single stalk, like an open wound trying to look beautiful. The name comes from the Greek words haima, blood, and anthos, flower.

As of 2024, it’s also the name of a diagnostics startup founded by Billy Evans, a hotel heir, father of two, and the romantic partner of Elizabeth Holmes. Holmes is currently serving an 11-year federal prison sentence for defrauding investors in Theranos, the blood-testing company she promised would revolutionize medicine. While Holmes sits in a facility in Bryan, Texas, Evans has been building his own venture. His company says it’s developing light-based technology to analyze blood, saliva, and urine. According to NPR, Holmes has been advising him from her cell, though Haemanthus has publicly denied any formal involvement.

Nathan Fielder, the comedian behind The Rehearsal, and Lance Oppenheim, the filmmaker behind Primetime, try to make sense of all this in their new documentary You Can See Everything, which opened in theaters October 16. The three-hour A24 film is the latest installment in the Elizabeth Holmes Extended Universe, a franchise that already includes a bestselling book, an HBO documentary, and a Hulu series. But this film is only nominally about the disgraced tech founder. Its real subject, it turns out, is the man whose devotion to her has begun to look a lot like an ambition of his own.

At first, it’s largely Holmes’s show. In fact, the documentary was her idea. She approached A24 about filming her life, and Oppenheim, who heard about the proposal, brought Fielder on board. Thirty-four days before reporting to a federal prison in Texas, she invites their crew into the beachside rental she shares with Evans and their two young children. She wants, she says, to show the public who she really is, that she’s “being real.” Fielder and Oppenheim frame Holmes in long close-ups—rocking her baby in the final days, her parents arriving to say goodbye, and Evans consoling her through it all. For the first half, you’re essentially watching a family trying to hold it together, even if this particular family makes it an uncanny thing to watch. But then, about 90 minutes in, Holmes walks into prison, and the film you thought you were watching is over. The portrait of a woman becomes a study of the man she left behind, and what he does with her absence.

Evans is fiercely devoted to her on the surface. After all, he was a fixture in her nearly four-month trial, moved to Texas to be near her facility, and now raises their two children alone. He tells Fielder he fell in love with her during their very first conversation. For a while, you might even file him under “wife guy,” the man whose identity is organized entirely around his partner. The internet has a whole taxonomy for this species. Its usual scandal, when it comes, is hypocrisy: He performs devotion, then cheats. But as the film goes on, Evans’s loyalty begins to mutate into something altogether stranger.

It starts with the little things. While Holmes whisks eggs and answers Fielder’s questions, Evans takes the bowl out of her hands and finishes the job himself. He describes her—to her face—as “weird,” someone who doesn’t process things the way other people do, and offers this as part of the reason he loves her. When Fielder questions Holmes’s father about her past, Evans steps in and shuts down the conversation.

Eventually, Evans goes beyond playing the devoted fiancé and, in her absence, begins performing her. He takes over her social media, holds power of attorney over her public image, and—most bizarrely—controls an AI model trained on her image and voice. When Fielder asks about his authority over her likeness, he says, “I can literally do anything.” He berates Amanda Seyfried, who played Holmes in Hulu's The Dropout, when she visits the house. At one point, he tells the camera he has “vengeance in my heart.” The whole thing begins to feel like Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo: a man so consumed by his idea of a woman that he begins reconstructing her, right down to the voice.

Psychologists Peter Glick and Susan Fiske might recognize the pattern. Their theory of “benevolent sexism” describes how admiration and protectiveness toward a woman can function, often invisibly, as authority over her. It doesn’t really require malice, just a man who sincerely believes that he’s helping. Take the French novelist Colette, who published her first books under her first husband's pen name, Willy. He recognized her talent, promoted it, monetized it, and signed it as his. The arrangement made perfect sense in their world: a man channeling a woman’s gifts through his authority. In a way, he was her greatest champion, but he also made rather good business out of being her. What Evans is doing recalls a similar gesture stripped of its period costume. Holmes’s gift, if you can call it that, was the ability to make people believe in a technology that didn’t work.

We have spent a decade turning Holmes into a cultural obsession: the turtleneck, the fake baritone, the girlboss rise, and the fraud conviction. She’s been dramatized, dissected, memed. But the men beside her tend to become supporting characters in her mythology. First, it was Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, her former romantic and business partner, who served as Theranos’s COO and is now serving a nearly 13-year federal sentence. Now Evans—who arrived after the fall, watched her conviction, and told Fielder on camera that he knew she might be scamming him when they met—is building a venture of his own from the wreckage. He even negotiated a share of this very documentary’s profits with A24 while Holmes was out of the room, a deal he later relinquished. One of the film’s most revealing turns is how it brings the man at the edge of Holmes’s story into the center of its own.

None of this exonerates Holmes. She built the lie, and a jury said so. But You Can See Everything is after something more unsettling than another verdict on her. The film watches Evans the way Evans watches Holmes, and lets the portrait accumulate. By the end, you’re left with the queasy recognition that male ambition can operate most freely when it’s dressed as belief in a woman. That a man’s faith in his partner can function as a vehicle for his own reinvention, and that even a woman who catastrophically abused her own power can become raw material for someone else’s.

Haemanthus insists that it is not Theranos 2.0. They say it’s something new: a different technology, different approach, and different leadership. Its CEO just happens to be the partner of the most famous blood-testing fraudster in history, and its name just happens to be Greek for blood flower.

The blood lily blooms before its leaves appear. The stalk comes first, bare. Then the flower, with no foliage around it, nothing to obscure the view. You can see everything, and still not know what you’re looking at.

When I was around 5, my mother met a man from America who would become my father—Soo Lim Yee. They met at a dinner party while he was visiting Hong Kong on a business trip. He was smitten. They began a long-distance relationship, writing flowery love letters to each other. They would meet up for dinners whenever he flew to Hong Kong. After a couple of years of courtship, he helped sponsor our move to the United States.

One morning, when I was about 7, my mother woke Jun and me up early and said we were going out. That was it. No details on where we were headed. Next thing I know, we were getting onto an airplane. Never having been on a plane or visited the airport before, I thought, Ohh, this is fun! Soon after takeoff, my mother told me we were moving to America. “What? What’s America?” I asked her.

Once we were there, life opened up in surprising ways. When we first arrived, we stayed in Brooklyn with my stepfather’s friends. There were so many new sights and sounds that I was overwhelmed, but I adapted as quickly as I could. What helped to ease me into America’s way of life? Pizza. One of my favorite new foods was New York pizza. We’d never had cheese before, and, in fact, my mom still doesn’t like cheese, with the exception of having it on a slice of New York pizza. Go figure. What is it about the magic of a good New York slice? It’s a universal comfort food!

We stayed in Astoria for about three years before moving to Pittsburgh to be with my stepfather and join him in running his restaurant, the Chinatown Inn. At first, we lived above the restaurant, and then my parents bought a small house in Mount Lebanon where I enrolled at Jefferson Junior High School for sixth grade. I went from a big city where I had friends, an urban lifestyle, and the diversity of New York City to . . . well, white suburbia. I imported all my New York attitude and energy in my 4'11" body. Being one of, if not the only, Asian people at that school with a very Chinese name, I attracted some unfriendly sorts who made fun of me for how I looked or what my name sounded like. I was bullied. But I was a tough New Yorker, so I responded with a threat: “You want to settle this? I’ll meet you after school!” Those innocent, sheltered suburban kids would give me a confused look and ask, “What do you mean? Meet you where?” I’m sure I wasn’t very intimidating with my baby face and small self, but no one met me after school, either. (Perhaps that was my first inspiration for Mulan, Agent May, and all the other tough warrior women roles I would go on to portray in my acting career!) But we eventually settled into our life in Pittsburgh—my mother started to work in the restaurant, and the Chinatown Inn became a second home to me, as well as my part-time job. That place shaped my youth.

Even now, I can close my eyes and return to the bustle of that kitchen—the controlled chaos, the clatter of dishes, the constant hum of diners. The red-and-green pagoda entrance. The blinking neon sign. The clang of the cash register. The bustling bar. The pristine white tablecloths, which were always stained with a bit of soy sauce or stray grains of rice before they were swapped out for fresh ones. And always, at the end of the meal: a fortune cookie. The quintessential symbol of the Chinese American restaurant experience. American diners mostly ordered the classics: chow mein, fried rice, General Tso’s chicken, shrimp with lobster sauce, our massive (not skimpy!) egg rolls. And our famous wonton soup. We made the stock fresh every morning using high-quality chicken and neck bones, simmering everything into a rich, clear, amber broth. My dad always said: Good ingredients make good food. Good food keeps the customers coming back, which is why I believe the Chinatown Inn is the only remaining business from the original Chinatown in downtown Pittsburgh. Our success story and longevity started with the basics. I’ve found that to be true in life, too—what you put in is what you get out.

The first time that I became interested in acting was in an Easter play in the third grade while we were still in New York. I was one of the bunny rabbits. My English was still a work in progress, and being a bunny rabbit (I played “Stumpy”) meant I probably had the fewest lines. I remember coming on stage and tripping because I had big bunny feet, and people laughed. Instead of being embarrassed, I loved the reaction that I got, and I thought, I want to do this forever! The acting bug bit me.

Growing up in Pittsburgh, the theater was a safe haven for me—I got to be with people of like minds, who were just the funniest, most intelligent, creative, and passionate people. We had a great training program at Mount Lebanon High School, and to this day, it's still incredible.

During my senior year of high school, I applied to Carnegie Mellon University because it had a great drama program and was in Pittsburgh, which made things easier. I knew I would go to New York City for the theater scene after college, so I figured this was a way I could spend four more years near my parents before pursuing my dreams to make it on Broadway. I didn’t know I actually had to audition to be accepted into the drama program. I went into the audition thinking they just wanted to see where my skill levels were. I did my monologues. I did improv scenes. I was having a great time! I found out later that all my classmates were terribly nervous during the audition process. It wasn’t until I got an acceptance letter saying “Congratulations. We loved your audition. We've accepted you into the freshman program” that it hit me. I didn’t apply to any other colleges, so it was a good thing that I did well enough to be accepted!

Excerpted from HAVE YOU EATEN YET? Copyright © 2026, Ming-Na, Wen. Reproduced by permission of Simon Element, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved.

Before we start shooting, a Disney exec calls Shia and me over for a huddle.

“Okay, everyone, we have the upfronts coming up. If you haven’t been, it’s a yearly media event in New York where journalists can ask questions, and we’ll show clips and teasers of the show. Since it’s our first season, I need you guys on your A game, got it? We’ll be setting up press training ASAP.”

I know this is our chance to get the media excited about the show before it airs to the public so that we get coverage and hopefully enough of an audience to get us to a second season. I can’t make decisions like executives, but I can just enjoy the ride and hit my marks and memorize my lines. I just want to do exactly what Disney says, and if I do that, I’m sure they will take care of me.

“What happens during press training?” I ask.

“You’ll get a rundown of Disney rules and codes of conduct, things you can and cannot say. Things like that,” the executive says.

Oh, great. What if I say the wrong thing? Will I be fired? I don’t ask this; I just keep my mouth shut and listen.

“It’s such an exciting time for the channel,” the Disney executive says. He looks right at me and Shia. “You kids are our big, new stars. So get out there and wow ’em, okay?”

“Sure thing!” I say, as peppy as Ren would have said it. I can feel Shia rolling his eyes as the words come out of my mouth.

We can’t say anything “racy.” No cussing. No talking negatively about other Disney shows or people, even though the executives sometimes seem to pit the actors against one another by mentioning how well someone else’s show is doing. Because of this, Mom is always telling me that Hilary Duff is my competition. Mom gets so focused on how popular Lizzie McGuire is getting and how much the Disney star machine is pushing Hilary to be the next big thing. Now she thinks it’ll be good for my career to get to know Hilary.

We’ve been instructed to be upbeat and happy. To “keep it positive.” Disney is big on “synergy,” playing up how things are happening as they’re supposed to and how one good show leads to another. Even Stevens—and the network more generally—is for tweens, kids between 9 and 12, but Disney is still owned by the Disney family and shareholders, and they want all-American values, wholesome dress codes, and no funny business. Now Mom is always talking about synergy too and how we will say yes to anything Disney asks me to do to promote the show. “Say yes to everything, and they’ll love you for it. Be easy to work with, and they’ll put you in more shows and even movies,” she always says.

The first day of upfronts is a blur. Shia and I put on our best “we love each other” act for the press, since we have to “keep it positive.” I answer every single question with a smile and talk about how much I love Ren and how great it is working with the whole cast, Shia especially. I talk about how wonderful it is to be part of the Disney family, but all I’m thinking about is hanging out with my friends later. Don’t get me wrong. I am grateful to be on the show, thrilled to be on TV, to be on the Disney Channel. But I still just want to be a normal high school kid sometimes.

Four hours straight of answering questions about playing Ren, working with Shia, and being a perfect girl, and I’m exhausted. Everyone was telling us we’re the “next big Disney stars” and that the show will just keep getting more popular, especially because of the Ren-Louis dynamic. I listened and put on my best “America’s sweetheart” smile, acted polite and upbeat, and did all the things they advised us to do in the media training. Shia was funny but off the walls like he always is. Almost all the reporters asked us how we get along and if we fight like Ren and Louis do on-screen, and we did our best to convince them that it’s one happy family on camera and off, blah blah blah. It’s not that I hate Shia. I just don’t really know the guy.

After the interviews, I meet my friends Carrie and Sybil in the lobby, and Carrie immediately zeroes in on Peter, another actor who’s here to promote his own Disney show. I promise I’ll introduce her to him later, and we head up to the room to change.

Carrie and Sybil start mixing vodka and cranberry juice from the minifridge. Carrie hands me a glass, and I take a small sip.

“Cheers!”

“Let’s hit the hotel lounge,” Carrie says. “I want to find that Peter guy.”

I’m half hoping Peter isn’t there because I just want to hang out with my friends and not have any drama, but there he is, sitting with Shia and some people from his show. Peter looks at us and waves us over.

“Hey, Christy,” he says. “Who’re your friends?”

“I’m Carrie, and this is Sybil. We went to school with Christy before Disney stole her away.”

Carrie is buzzed, so she’s flirting with Peter like crazy. Sybil and I are a little buzzed too, and hanging out with them makes me realize how much I’ve missed them, how much I loved just being a normal high school kid.

“Where’s Carrie?” Sybil asks.

I look around and can’t find her—or Peter—anywhere. “She worked fast,” Sybil says. “I bet she’s with Peter somewhere. Should we look for her?”

“Nah, let’s go back to the room,” I say.

Carrie and Sybil only took two mini bottles, and the drinks had so much ice. Hopefully Disney doesn’t notice those on my checkout tab.

I’m so tired, I feel like I’m sleepwalking, and I have a whole new round of interviews in the morning. I pass out immediately but wake up later when the door opens. I glance at the hotel clock. It’s past three in the morning.

“Carrie?”

“Sorry,” she says, shutting the door and tiptoeing in. “I’ve been with Peter. Don’t get mad!”

“I’m not mad,” I say. I mean, it wasn’t me who went to his room. “How was it? Did you have sex with him?!”

“Almost, but no. It was awesome, though. He’s an amazing kisser. It’s too bad he lives in L.A.”

“Well, maybe that’s a good reason for you to visit me,” I say. “I miss you guys.”

Carrie and Sybil leave early in the morning, so I get ready and meet Mom for breakfast before the interviews start again. The first two go well, but when we’re about to start our third, our press executive walks in, looking serious.

“Christy, can I speak to you alone?”

Crap. Did I say the wrong thing? Did I not look or act “Disney” enough?

I follow her into the hall. It’s never good when an executive pulls you aside like this.

“So, it seems a friend of yours went into the hotel room of one of the actors last night. How old is she?”

My throat feels like it’s about to close up, and my stomach churns. I can’t lie, but I don’t want to get Carrie or Peter in trouble.

“Um, she’s 16. Like me.”

“You know he’s 22-years-old?”

Shit. I am about to lose my job, be kicked off the show, and get sent home forever.

“I, um, thought he was a little younger than that.” It’s true, but I don’t think that will save me. “She went home this morning. She seems fine and isn’t mad at him or anything.”

“You need to watch it, Christy,” she says. “Disney is very specific about how you kids behave. You know this.”

“I’m so, so sorry. It’ll never happen again, ever. I promise.”

“Just think about your reputation, okay? I know it wasn’t you, but still. Guilty by association, right?”

“Right,” I say, even though inside I want to scream, WRONG! Why is this always the girl’s fault? It’s bullshit.

“I totally understand. I’m so, so sorry.”

As soon as the words come out of my mouth, I feel like a fake, but I don’t want to lose this job. Plus I’m used to this. Ever since I was little, I’ve been under a microscope, judged by adults in a way that most normal kids don’t have to deal with, but that’s part of being a kid actor. You have to just suck it up and be professional. And I’m not a kid anymore anyway, even though they are treating me like one.

“Thanks, Christy,” she says before I head back to the day’s interviews. “Oh, one more thing.”

“Yes?”

She glances down at my stomach and squinches up her forehead in a disapproving way. “I can see your belly button. You gotta make sure we can’t see your belly button.”

For the last month, all the Disney executives keep talking about is how Hilary Duff is the “next big thing.”

They want me and Hilary to make a movie together during my Even Stevens hiatus. It’s called Cadet Kelly, and I would play Hilary’s rival at a military school. The executives keep saying we’ll be “perfect rivals” because we’re so opposite. Of course the blond girl is the sweet, fun one, and the brunette (me) is the bad, unlikable one.

I must be getting bolder with age, because I decide to tell the Cadet Kelly director that I don’t want my character to just be some villainous person. It’ll be more interesting if she changes in the end and if she and Kelly become friends. I don’t want to play just a one-dimensional mean girl. I’ve been in this business long enough; I can’t be afraid to speak up anymore.

At breakfast with the director, I explain my idea and tell him why it would appeal to girls more to see me and Hilary coming together in the end, like a form of female empowerment. I’m shocked when he says he’ll talk to the writers and change the script a bit. I want to give her a backstory and make her feel real. I want to play a strong person, someone girls can maybe be inspired by. If I’m being honest, I also just don’t want to be disliked. I know Cadet Kelly isn’t like Shakespeare, and Shia probably thinks it’s a dumb movie, but whatever. By the end of our first Even Stevens season, he’s gone from annoying me to filling me with anger. When we’re in the same room, the tension is palpable. I need this break.

Having the director and writers rework the script is a huge win for me. I don’t have to be just the good little Disney girl. I get to have an opinion. Finally.

Excerpted from ONCE UPON A TRAINWRECK. Copyright © 2026, Christy Carlson Romano. Reproduced by permission of Simon Element, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved.

Following her 2022 death, Queen Elizabeth II has remained a beloved figure worldwide. However, according to royal sources, a new film about the late Queen threatens to potentially tarnish her legacy.

Royal expert and journalist Richard Eden has written a new column for the Daily Mail, in which he discusses a forthcoming "drama in the style of Netflix hit The Crown."

It was previously thought the project would be a documentary involving Queen Elizabeth's longtime dresser, Angela Kelly. Per Eden, a movie will "give the creators much more freedom to tell the extraordinary life story of Liverpool-born Kelly, 68, who wielded almost unparalleled influence in the royal household."

The working title of the movie is Trouble, which sources believe is a worrisome prediction of its content.

"The film's title tells you all you need to know," one source told Eden.

Screenwriter Jeremy Brock's agent told the outlet, "He has just been commissioned to write an original screenplay entitled Trouble for Fox-Searchlight about the friendship between Elizabeth II and Angela Kelly."

Notably, this isn't the first time Brock has written about the Royal Family. He previously worked on the miniseries A Royal Scandal, which followed the fallout from Prince Andrew's BBC Newsnight interview.

According to Eden, "filmmakers may have found a way around the confidentiality agreement that the crane driver's daughter had to sign as part of her royal service."

As for how Queen Elizabeth's relatives are likely taking the news, one source previously told the publication, "The royals will be worried, and they are right to be worried."

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Tomi Adeyemi is in her defiant era. While her fans have sent each release of her Orisha trilogy to the top of bestseller lists, the author went viral like never before when she posted a TikTok in July, publicly severing ties with the forthcoming Children of Blood and Bone adaptation. Months earlier, she also challenged book industry conventions when she revealed the divisive cover for her new novel, The Siren, featuring a photo of her face. Adeyemi sees the choice as a way of looking directly at the reader with a message: "I dare you not to see me this time."

"It’s fitting,” Adeyemi tells Marie Claire over Zoom, ahead of The Siren’s September 29th release. “My first work started with me wanting to see myself in the story. Now I’m literally right there. We're not even illustrated at this point.”

The author sees the choice less as main-character energy and more as an act of reclamation. Since 2018, Adeyemi’s Orisha trilogy has sold over 3 million copies worldwide and created a cultural phenomenon that opened the door for other Black female writers to find success in YA fantasy. But the author explains that becoming a near-overnight literary success at 23 also left her wrestling with fame, public scrutiny, and how depersonalizing it can be to feel like little more than a symbol after breaking the concrete ceiling.

It’s not just the cover of The Siren that makes a statement. The campus-set thriller—Adeyemi’s first contemporary novel and first standalone—puts a feral woman of color in the typically white genre of dark academia. It centers on Emery, a Black girl from Detroit hoping to reinvent herself during her freshman year at Dartmouth. Emery struggles to see herself thriving in a world of keggers and bids until she encounters the Sirens, a magnetic self-made sorority that promises true transformation, if you can survive the sacrifice.

“I put almost everything I used to be in this work,” says Adeyemi, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs before graduating from Harvard. While the book’s moonlit, psychedelic rituals are pure fiction, she likens crafting Emery's journey to her own—rejecting the box she’s been placed in and embracing her boundless self.

“You cannot erase me this time,” she declares. “ You cannot expand this to represent the plight of all people. If [Orisha] was for all, this was for one.”

Below, Adeyemi chats with Marie Claire about taking inspiration from the “rich teen” subgenre, the importance of autonomy, and whether we can expect to see The Siren on the big screen.

Marie Claire: What inspired you to pivot to dark academia? Are there any books from that genre that you thought of while writing The Siren?

Tomi Adeyemi: It's funny because if I think of dark academia, I don't really think of anything that's come out in the last 10 to 15 years. I think about more of that Gossip Girl, Private era of books: A new girl goes to a boarding school, and suddenly she's brought into this new world. I do like to go back to the stories that I loved when I was younger. I find there's something untouched about it [that’s lost] once you become a part of the world. When you go from reading 19 Minutes borrowed from your seventh-grade best friend's bookshelf to sitting with Jodi Picoult at BookCon and being like, Whoa, how did this happen? So it's really freeing for me to go back to those works, and I find they still really hit. I love joining someone as they step into a new world and decide that they might want a part in it. Because they come from a different grit, there's something underestimated and raw, and quite beautiful.

MC: Do you hope that this book will maybe help bring back that vein of dark academia YA, versus what it has become?

TA: Jean Feiwel is the head publisher at my imprint. She worked on The Babysitters Club and Goosebumps. She is a titan in this industry. Something she helped me understand is, when I did my first work, I actually changed things. When I go into a Barnes & Noble, the dream used to be to see someone like me. Now there's a whole shelf.

If I was going to hope for anything [with The Siren], it would be for us to no longer be asking for seats at tables or asking to be on screens, but just asking for authentic, raw, full, complex individuation. To me, true progress would be the next time someone's called “the next Tomi Adeyemi,” she doesn't feel the need to carry the weight of her people. She just carries the weight of who she is. It's meaningful to me that both my fiction and my reality can allow us and those who look like us to be free to be us in a world that taught us we weren't allowed to.

MC: The Siren touches on serious topics regarding mental health and abuse. How did you prepare yourself to write about those issues?

TA: I don't think it was about preparation as something external. It was more about how deeply I feel. [My preparation] was about taking a screenshot of the pain, and how it’s carved in the crevices. It's almost like it becomes a geological formation, and then that's what you bring to the page. I think I have evolved as a creator and evolved in my craft. The compass with which I navigate a new story has always been what I'm feeling. So—as opposed to painting while I'm in the midst of feeling all these things—it's like a snapshot, and now we're going to bring that up.

I know it's very simple for people to be like, ‘Yes, this is a book that touches on mental health.’ I think it touches on pain. We all know pain so intrinsically, and so specifically. Anyone who was going to paint a picture of their pain, it would not look like anything else, because none of us process the same way. It was more like an excavation of what it feels like to be in that deep of sorrow. That's traveled across all the characters, when we learn the backstories of even the ones we thought were just glamorous and perfect, and you're like, Oh, you've been through that? Because that's always what it is when you learn what someone's been through. You're always like, ‘What? But you seem so fine.’ And they're like, ‘Well, am I supposed to seem something different? I still have to get up the next day.’ I think there's something beautiful about rediscovering who you can be after pain.

MC: How would you describe Emory’s journey throughout the book?

TA: We're all born into a really rigid sense of who we're meant to be, and it almost doesn't leave room for you to actually [explore]. What does it feel like when my lungs actually expand and contract? Who am I? Those big questions. I think the story is about taking an active role, because we all know what it is to go through something internally or externally and then change because you're forced to. I think it's something else to be like, Actually, I want to start spinning some of this thread. I want to be a part of my own fate, and what's possible if I start touching the loom?

If you think about what someone can take away from that story, it’s the idea that, Okay, I might not want to be a siren, but do I want to be a mystic? Do I want to make room for my intuition? Do I want to embrace my ambition? Do I want to create who I am, not just be who I thought I was supposed to be?

MC: Are you open to The Siren, or any other of your future works, being adapted into a show or movie?

TA: No. I think it's really valuable to do things. Something I am routinely brought to is the fact that, Whoa, you made it. You're 33-years-old. You had 2,012 dreams, and you actually achieved all of them. I am so grateful to have experienced everything I have ever dreamed of. My childhood energy was like the Tasmanian Devil of Dreams, and I followed it. Once you have those experiences, whether they're the best things ever or you're like, Wow, this was awful, you still have yourself at the end of it, but you also don't have these dreams and what-ifs. I don't think I would've felt okay to not see what I embarked on to its conclusion. That would've made it difficult to carry forth and feel like every new day has exciting, infinite possibilities. So I'm proud of it—but in terms of doing it again, I don't really care. That's not where the joy is for me. The joy is in that beautiful internal space where only you know about this world. It's not all the logistics and the coordination. When you bring it all to fruition, and suddenly you're on sets with 400 people, I find that overwhelming. So I asked myself, If you're not doing this for you, why would you do it? And if you don't enjoy the process, what would be the point?

When I started writing years ago, I was so obsessed with the fantastical. Now that I'm at some form of a conclusion, I don't understand what happens next, but I don't need to understand. I can feel peace that has come from going through the journey with all four of my books, from having this insane vision and seeing it through to the end. I'm in awe of myself. It doesn't really matter if I loved it, if it went well, if it didn't. I did what I dreamed of doing. The most mystical thing to me now isn't that you could have a big celebrity embody a character. It's more that I can ask life for what I want, and I can undergo the trials, hardship, and triumph to actually manifest it into the three-dimensional reality.

MC: The book does seem like a declaration of agency in a way.

TA: I don't know why anyone would work this hard if not to leave the journey with agency. I think the process of becoming who you actually are is something that you need years to grow into. Some of us are blessed to know that really early. Shout out to my Capricorn suns. I meet 16-year-olds who are like, 'Well, here's my book, and yes, I accept Venmo, PayPal.' And I'm like, 'Girl, you got it. I love that.' For others of us, if we're given the time and space, and if we're courageous enough to consistently be like, What do you need? What do you want? What do you desire? What do you want a morning to look like and feel like?

I think after you’ve done all the things, you've also earned the right to be who you want to be and live how you want to live. As someone who has worked insanely hard for 14 years on everything, I'm enjoying the stillness. It's really satisfying to finally feel like you can chill and you're not carrying a huge mission or a goal. There's a gentleness that I'm finally being able to experience, and I'm obsessed with it, and I'm excited that it will grow exponentially. If I do decide, Hey, maybe you do want to write a series like Private, that's beautiful, but it can come from a really still, gentle place. It doesn't have to come from the Tasmanian Devil of Dreams. She did a lot. I'm proud of her, but I'm more excited to be who I am after all of that.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Bassam Tariq's action-drama Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is led by a cast of legends, including Mahershala Ali, John Cho, and Giancarlo Esposito. But its true scene-stealer—and the heart of the film—is newcomer Adia. In between scenes of brutal violence and conflict, she grounds the film with her tender examination of a girlhood interrupted by grief.

You’d never know that Adia stumbled into acting. The 25-year-old turned to the craft when she found herself at a crossroads and depressed after a hip injury derailed her plans to become a professional dancer. Eager to continue performing, she took a community-college theater class during her senior year of high school and felt it filled a void.

Adia decided to swing big and moved to L.A. with one thought on her mind: “Let me full send it for shits and giggles. I’m going to see what happens.”

She landed her first roles working for bona fide auteurs Mike Flanagan (The Midnight Club) and Steven Soderbergh (Full Circle). But her biggest gig to date is in the acclaimed Mahershala Ali action vehicle.

In Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, Adia plays Fatiha, a 15-year-old going through her own personal crisis. The Orion Pictures film follows Latif (Ali), a devout Muslim hitman and recent widow who’s now a single father to three kids. As the eldest daughter, Fatiha has to step up to fill the family’s maternal hole, watching over her siblings as her father runs across Houston in search of breast milk. Adia gives a captivating performance as a teenager balancing faith, grief, burgeoning independence, and probing rebellion. Latif’s daughter is both his caustic critic and emotional anchor, forcing him to evaluate what he’s fighting for.

While Adia's character wrestles with different pathways, the star herself is a role model for going off the beaten path. In fact, the rising actress is balancing her breakout moment with a second passion entirely: birth work. Speaking to Marie Claire ahead of Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the now-certified birth and postpartum doula recalls attending an intense training course amid filming.

“There would be days where I had class online, so I would have my phone with me. I would be on set in rehearsal and have one headphone on my ear, one off,” she says. “I'm listening to the class; I'm listening to Bassam. I was like, This is insane. But I passed the class; we finished the film, no one died.”

Adia’s unapologetic about having more than one calling, and she’s determined to stay connected to life outside of Hollywood. She still lives in Washington, D.C., where she grew up, and she has no public social media. Right after she graced the third red carpet of her career at TIFF, she went right back to her birth work.

“While I want to keep working in Hollywood—it's been really cool to see how my career has blossomed in a way I never imagined—I also always want to make sure that I'm staying close to the community and the crux of life,” she says. “That's what I keep trying to instill in myself. It's okay if you don't get every job. Find the things that make you happy…I do the things that bring me joy, and that's it.”

Below, Adia chats with Marie Claire about the personal experiences she drew on to play Fatiha, bonding with Ali, and her dreams of being a midwife.

Marie Claire: Did you relate to Fatiha when you first read the Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother screenplay?

A: The first thing that I related to was Fatiha’s strong force of spirit. I feel like I've always been a very intense and forward person, and I've had to learn how to manage it. She's also learning how to manage it in her teenhood, and it's tough. I’m also the oldest of my siblings. A lot of independence was given to me, and I had to take that on and take things into my own hands in the way that Fatiha had to as well. And we were both homeschooled. I was only homeschooled in middle school and high school, but still I understand.

MC: What was your process in preparing to play Fathia?

A: I broke down every single scene. Bassam probably thought I was insane because I would be coming into our rehearsals for scenes with my little notebook and being like, Okay, so this and this has happened, and this is what she's feeling, and this is what's going on, and these are the things that are happening around them. I wrote down this flow of every scene that I was in so I could understand her story. I also journal in [my characters’] voice for certain scenes or pivotal moments to tap into their feelings a little bit more. And then I let it go. I have almost like a one-liner of what's happening each day and scene, so that I can jog my memory, but then I try to be super present. I'm allowing things to flow in that improvisational way to inform my work. We get the rehearsal to practice the scene, try it out, and then I'm like, Okay, cool. Got it.

I didn't have a lot of time to work on it [on set], because I was also in class. I was doing a whole other course outside of shooting, so I was kind of split-brained, but I would try to take as much time to focus on, Okay, this is what she's feeling, do my warm-up, and then just be present—just be present to hold the energy of the work, and whatever comes is what comes.

MC: You were simultaneously balancing this huge role with a doula program. How did you balance the two?

A: It was wild. I asked to take time off [for the shoot], and they were like, 'If you take more than three days, you're getting booted from this class.' And they only do this course every few years or so. It was ridiculous, but I made it work. I honestly don't really have much FOMO at all, but people would be going to the wrap party, and I was like, 'I can't come. I have to go back home to DC and do my skills class.' There would be some times where I would miss out on hanging out with everybody because I would be like, 'No, I have this five-page paper I have to turn in, and I also have to do peer review.' I'm really happy the film is reaching people, because I had a lot of faith that the work I did in preparation prior to filming was going to carry me through. I couldn’t dwell on whether or not I did a good job or bad job. I was just like, Trust that you did it. Trust that Bassam got what he wanted. Let it go, because you have class.

MC: What was it like working with Mahershala Ali as a scene partner, and depicting that complicated father-daughter relationship?

A: I had a wonderful time working with Mahershala. He really took on the role of almost a quasi-uncle to me, in the sense that he was so down-to-earth and genuinely wanted me to succeed. He gave me so many tips and words of encouragement, and would check in on me on a human level, like, 'How are you doing?' He was present, and I really appreciated that.

We were joning on each other, cracking up. There was one scene where we're both outside crying, and we shot that quite a few times. I remember every time in between our resets, we were kiki-ing it up and laughing. It was just like hanging out with a family member.

I felt like I had a comrade-in-arms with me while we were working on this, and I had no intentions of that happening. I was very much like, I'm just going to go in, do my work, go home. But it just organically happened, and I had such a wonderful time.

MC: Even though this is your breakout moment in film, you've already worked with celebrated actors and auteur filmmakers. What is the biggest lesson about building a career in Hollywood that you've taken from the people you've worked with?

A: Do you. Stay true to yourself. Because the minute you start trying to embellish, change, modify, or redefine yourself to fit what you think they want of you, then you’re no longer the reason why people really wanted you to begin with. We all have this as actors. We audition, and we get rejected, and we audition, and we get rejected. We think, Oh, well, if I just do this and that, maybe it'll be better. And it might be, but are you better off as a person? That's where I have this sit-down conversation with myself, always, because you always have these pulls where you're like, Oh, if I could do this a little bit different, or I could change this about my look or my hair or how I present myself, maybe I'll get more roles. But it's like, Is that what you really want? Will you be happy? Will you be content and satisfied? Never be content with mediocrity. Always strive for the best of yourself—not of somebody else's idea of yourself, but of yourself. How you wish yourself to be viewed.

MC: It’s really impressive to hear you speak about your passion for birth work, and having another calling in addition to acting. What is your ideal life of balancing your Hollywood career and your doula career?

A: I always said I would give myself a good 10 years dedicated to acting. I'm about six years in, so I have four more years to see how it goes. But I've always had this dream that I really want to be a midwife. That's something that I feel like I must do in this lifetime. I mean, we'll see how it unfolds.

I do know that as we're doing this press tour for this film, I'm on call. I literally have a client who is due the first week of October. As soon as I get back from TIFF, I'm back into my postpartum work. My work as a doula is just as important, if not more important than my work as an actor. [Awards] campaigning and going to these red carpets are an added bonus and flourish to the world of performing, and it’s great, but that's not how I got into this. I want to act. I want to do birth work. I'm still figuring it out as I go, and constantly reminding myself to be close to real life. Whether that's through my birth work, going solo camping a lot with my dog, or going diving and swimming—doing things in life outside of this Hollywood world, because it can be a bubble.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

During The Love Hypothesis press tour, Lili Reinhart's red carpet and street style looks paid tribute to some of the most iconic fashion moments from '90s and 2000s rom-coms. But the Prime Video film, based on Ali Hazelwood's popular romance book, features a swoon-worthy wardrobe of its own.

In the movie adaptation, Reinhart plays Olive Smith, a biology PhD candidate at Stanford University. While lab coats are a fixture of her character's fashion (she wears one for almost half of the film's duration), outfits with splashes of personality emerge from beneath the coat's crisp white collar. "Science plays a role [in Olive's closet], but she's still a young student," costume designer Myriam Hanahem tells Marie Claire.

Whether Olive is working in the biology lab or faking her relationship with Professor Adam Carlsen, crop tops, feminine florals, romantic color trends, Adidas Samba sneakers, and linen-looking blouses are part of her regular rotation.

According to Hanahem, effortless French-girl fashion became the blueprint. "The mood board was a mix of vintage inspiration, like Jane Birkin on a bike, vintage dresses, the jeans and a T-shirt [uniform], just comfortable," she says.

Hanahem and Reinhart created "an organic collaboration" inside the film's fitting room: "She's been doing this for a while, so she knows her body, she knows what she wants, which is great," Hanahem adds. "She would try something on and then it [brought] us to something else, and then we mixed and matched things that we didn't think of at the beginning."

While the costume designer was, of course, inspired by the book, Hazelwood kept her characters' outfit descriptions to a minimum. Chapter 16's unicorn socks (IYKYK) scored a starring role in the film's sauciest scene, but beyond that, Hanahem trusted the actors to choose costumes that they felt their characters would wear in real life. "[It was important to] honor the people who play [the parts] so they're the most comfortable they can be," she says.

Receiving Reinhart's input led Hanahem to Olive's signature shade: red. The film's romance genre didn't inspire the 26-year-old character's go-to color, though. "It all started with the Isabel Marant cardigan," she says, remembering the strawberry-dyed sweater that Olive wears the first time we see her in the lab. (By the way, the Newton Cardigan is still available in a slightly darker shade.) "Then it became a red world," Hanahem adds. "In the fitting, we just kept going towards the red pieces."

On her first (faux) coffee date with Dr. Carlsen, Reinhart's Olive layers a ruby raglan tee beneath an identical crocheted cardigan. Later, at the faculty cocktail party, she makes quite an impression in a crimson-colored midi dress, courtesy of Reformation (Hanahem's preferred retailer for Olive's dresses).

"We would buy from [Reformation] and then just make [the look] our own, [either by] shortening it or changing a strap," she says. "We had more expensive pieces and then pieces that people could relate to because she's also a student with basically no money."

Speaking of Hanahem's favorite outfit from the film, during a picturesque post-party stroll with Dr. Carlsen, Olive layers a dark denim jacket over the spaghetti-strap, floral-print slip. "We tried a bunch of different jackets, [including] blazers, and yet we ended up with denim, because it's relatable and you can put higher-end pieces underneath and it looks like it's still something that people can afford," she says.

Olive wears red for some of the love story's most pivotal scenes, but the color wasn't right for a major moment in her career. So, Hanahem went with black. "At first, she wasn't supposed to be in black," she says. "We tried green and red [before deciding] that she should be in black, I think two or three days before the scene."

But because they were filming in Montreal, which "doesn't have that many stores," Hanahem flew to New York City for 24 hours to buy 15 black dresses. In the end, Reformation came to the rescue again, as the foundation of the look: "We changed it a lot—the length, the straps—we changed almost everything."

While presenting her research, Olive wears a "classic" black blazer by Theory over the LBD's V-neck. But why—after wearing bold blues, greens, and reds on repeat—did she switch to all-black attire? "Adam is always wearing black, so it's kind of like she meets him in his world," Hanahem says, reflecting on their (accidentally) romantic dinner scene.

Just like in any rom-com, all of these looks led up to the grand finale. "Everyone has the ending in their mind," Hanahem says. So, she asked herself, "How would most people picture Olive [during] the final kiss?" Once again, Hanahem went with a red Reformation dress, "but with a sleeve and something more casual compared to the other dresses she wore, because she knows her place now." And her wardrobe reflects that.

The central couple in The Love Hypothesis may be biologists, but chemistry was the most important factor in adapting Ali Hazelwood's beloved romance novel. Thankfully for #BookTok fans, Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman's joint charm is off the charts.

Reinhart and Bateman play Olive, a third-year Ph.D. candidate seeking funding for her personal study, and Adam, an exacting professor the department has collectively dubbed "Dr. Evil." How the pair end up in a fake-dating relationship is less important than the swoon-worthy love story that follows, and the film from Amazon MGM Studios brings every sweet and steamy minute off the page and onto the screen.

So, how's the chemistry between the real-life Olive and Adam? Based on our time with the faux couple, the Riverdale and Behind Her Eyes alums are lovers onscreen and besties off-screen.

To celebrate the film's release on Prime Video, Bateman and Reinhart sat down with Marie Claire to test their friendship with a game of How Well Do You Know Your Co-Star?. They breezed through questions about their on-set rituals, hyper-fixations, favorite romance tropes, and biggest relationship green flags, and even surprised each other a bit along the way. Though they were in the middle of a whirlwind press tour, the pair were buoyed by Bateman's surprisingly animated real-life personality. Hollywood, feel free to cast these two again in a rom-com that lets them get silly.

Watch the challenge above to get the scoop on Reinhart's love of a good slow burn and Bateman's epic book recommendation. Then, head to Prime Video to catch The Love Hypothesis.

Dreams in Nightmares—a road movie about a trio of queer besties venturing cross-country to find their friend who seems to have disappeared—is one of the year's most acclaimed word-of-mouth successes. The dramedy from auteur Shatara Michelle Ford hit the festival circuit in 2024 before releasing in theaters this August, and has since won over cinephiles with its visionary direction and heartfelt story about found family and freedom.

It stars Denée Benton, Dezi Bing, and Sasha Compère—whose character, Tasha, has a path that parallels one she nearly took herself. The resident no-nonsense member of the central group, Tasha decided to forgo her acting aspirations to pursue a more stable, corporate career. Compère considered doing the same—but felt in her heart that she needed to pursue the arts, especially innovative projects like Dreams in Nightmares.

As Dreams in Nightmares continues to expand to theaters nationwide, Compère shared an exclusive essay with Marie Claire about how her life as a creative has affected her mental health, and vice versa.

I recently found an old journal entry I wrote in 2009. I had just seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and journaled about the moments that resonated with my loneliness and feeling like a misfit. In my tattered journal, I wrote: “I cried almost every five to 10 minutes, because every scene exerted a new form of beauty and thought that I’ve either never considered or never vocally expressed for fear that no one would understand or handle my thoughts…[A] movie quote: ‘Our lives are defined by our opportunities, even the ones we miss.’ The story of my life—and all of our lives. Love lost, scars, ups and downs; [they] all bring us to where we are. Sometimes I wish I could change one event from the past…but who knows where it would have left me.”

I’m not sure the movie would hold up, or that I’d see it the same way today—but I still think about my life journey, and how my creative path has affected my mental health. I often wonder what effects a different career might’ve had. Much like my character Tasha in Dreams in Nightmares, I have actually tried other paths.

I grew up in Detroit. Around age 6, we moved to Oak Park, a small suburb in Michigan about a mile north of Eight Mile. As a kid, I’d film short skits on a camcorder with my sister and whoever was around to take direction. My parents once drove me all the way to Buffalo, New York for a modeling/acting competition—one of those “agent search” things (that I’m still not sure wasn’t a pyramid scheme). I was selected to move on after the first round, elated. But in the next round, as I walked the “catwalk,” a sharp pain struck my stomach, and I ended up doubled over, walking hobbit-like down the runway.

Heartbreakingly, I was let go. As it turns out, I had a gas bubble the size of a fist in my stomach. However, I—ever the drama queen—thought my appendix was bursting, and sobbed uncontrollably until a huge fart of relief stopped my tears on the car ride back to Michigan.

After that experience, and recognizing the financial toll it took on my family to drive cross-state for a dream I couldn’t actualize, I vowed not to waste their time and to focus on my education. As a child of two Haitian immigrants who endured so much strife, and who each worked overtime at multiple jobs for my sister and me to attend private school, following the arts felt selfish. Despite having a treasure trove of emotions fit for an actor’s toolbox, I ended up attending the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business while taking drama classes for a theatre minor. My imposter syndrome and intense fear of disappointing my hardworking parents kept me from fully expressing my true wants and desires.

After college, I hustled for two years doing “real jobs” in New York, first at a magazine, then at various music television companies (VH1, MTV, Fuse Networks), all while working weekends at restaurants in order to pay my share of our insane Brooklyn rent (basically a shoebox, split with roommates). Working in the music business felt like a solid compromise, satisfying my passion for art and my desire to please my parents. I figured stable work over time would equal success and, eventually, happiness. It was a stable paycheck…but the happiness never came. I was overworked and still taking weekend jobs at restaurants to pay rent. While I still pursued acting, dance, and underground theatre at night, I didn’t feel creatively fulfilled; I knew that acting was where I fully wanted to be.

I flew out to L.A. on a one-way ticket and never looked back. But this path hasn’t been easy, and I spent years suppressing a constant feeling of unhappiness that I couldn’t quite describe. I was always smiling, and on the outside, I seemed to have a positive attitude & strong work ethic. I hustled, working multiple jobs, performing theatre, and wrote myself a SAG-eligible new-media short so I could get an agent and auditions. My friends were impressed, but I burned out fast.

After four years of waitressing and booking bit parts on various TV shows, I craved stability again. I had left my agents and gone back to corporate work, this time for companies like NBC and OWN. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure if I’d return to acting until a casting director reached out on C-mail (thank goodness I hadn’t canceled Actors Access!) and asked me to audition for a new gig. I booked it, and that hit of creativity reignited my hustle. I would go to work every day, looking towards the future, preemptively excited for that “one day” when I wouldn’t be at the office anymore and could finally be “happy.”

I remember subtle signs that something was wrong during the peak of a good year. After booking my second series regular on an HBO show, I noticed I was struggling with depth perception while driving, feeling as though the car would slam into a wall while parking, or that I might topple over when riding my bike. But I was moving to New York with only a few weeks' notice, and figured it would all work itself out.

It was an amazing blessing, but I didn’t feel like myself. One wintry morning on a jog across a bridge in Harlem, I found myself sobbing while experiencing intense vertigo, shaking to the point of having to crawl to cross the bridge. I found a therapist and learned I had high-functioning depression and had been having panic attacks. I was in shock: My entire life had changed just how I wanted, yet I was going through the motions, constantly scared about how long it would last. That fear was prohibiting me from being present enough to appreciate what would soon be a great period in my career.

My therapist warned me that healing from clinical depression is a lifelong journey; my understanding is that you learn to “cope” more than to “heal.” In my third year of diagnosis, I opted to start Zoloft. Ultimately, I decided medication wasn’t my favorite way to cope, yet I acknowledge it works so well for many. Instead, therapy became my lifeline. I’ve since learned tricks and tips to notice when the depression is taking over and how to self-regulate.

Let me just say: Writing about depression is hard, and the depression frequently gives me writer’s block. You overanalyze, thinking what you want to say will be too much, too personal, or at risk of being misunderstood. Those of us dealing with depression, especially when things look good, often sit in silence because we’re just too afraid to speak or bother anyone with our thoughts. That’s why I became an actor. Not because I’m some extroverted, “look-at-me” entertainer, but because digging into my character and exploring another's language is so much fun and liberating, especially when it can be too hard to explore my own. But after being in entertainment for 15 years, I’ve learned that being an actor and having depression go pretty hand-in-hand. To repeatedly volunteer to explore all the plausible highs and lows of emotions? And couple that vulnerability with the hundreds of rejections I get every year? It can take a toll on even the strongest minds. Yet, acting is my favorite thing to do.

To be clear, there is no meritocracy; no “work your way up the ladder” sense of stability. One can work consistently for a year (or several) and be completely jobless the next. The biggest challenge has been managing the toll of an unstable business and ensuring that stress doesn’t negatively impact my mental health or my chosen community.

My career has been filled with ups and downs: thousands of rejections, losing talent representation due to agency shutdowns, struggling with an eating disorder from the pressure to be thin or “pretty” enough to work, six blessed years working on amazing projects like Uncorked, Miracle Workers, Love Life, Single Drunk Female, Genius, a strike and two-year work drought, a second painful breakup with someone I thought I’d marry, selling a home, losing multiple loved ones to illness, returning to corporate America yet again while rebuilding my artist life…the toll on my mental health has been massive, and when you’re clinically depressed, it’s hard to be a good friend. But I’ve learned that having friends and a community, one that accepts you at every stage of depression, is not only a blessing but necessary for survival. And friendship isn’t perfect. My friends still get mad at me, especially when I pull away, disappointed by the way life is going (a perfectionist hates being vulnerable about their faults). But my community is often there when I find my way back to the present and remember that I can only take life one day at a time.

Like Tasha, I’m often scared of what the future holds. As a Black female in entertainment, precedent hasn’t painted a hopeful picture for us. Being a successful artist is often prohibited by not being enough of a “commodity.” Even as I start to produce my own projects, I’ve been told that no one would put up the money for an actor/director who they don’t deem as “bankable.” Sadly, dark-skinned Black women aren’t often cast in lead roles in American cinema and television. The catch-22 is that if you give more Black women an opportunity, they might become a commodity.

When Dreams in Nightmares came along, I was starved for a project that featured people who looked like me. Being able to play an anxious, depressed femme unhappy with neglecting an acting career was both kismet and by design; the script was a Mike Leigh-style outline, and with limited time to rehearse due to the WGA and SAG strikes, we had to infuse our characters’ improvisations with pieces of our lives.

The truth is, I don’t know the secret to dealing with depression as an artist, but I do know that I’m at my happiest when I find others who can understand and handle my thoughts. My community, my therapist, and my accepting family have been my saving grace when navigating the ups and downs of life. They guide me to stay present and to worry less about what tomorrow will bring. And when life gets a little too hard to handle, they give me the grace and space to take time alone, only rejoining them when I’ve had the time to heal.

Monster, Netflix's anthology series that retells and dramatizes headline-grabbing murders, returns for a fourth season on September 18, 2026, and will center on a female killer for the first time. The tale of Lizzie Borden, who was accused—and acquitted—of killing her father and stepmother in 1892 in Massachusetts, has been referenced and recreated many times in history, from folk rhymes to radio shows and now television.

Relative newcomer Ella Beatty will step into Borden’s shoes in her second-ever TV role, after appearing in a supporting capacity on another Ryan Murphy-helmed series, Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. Beatty told The TODAY Show that she had “been a fan of the show before." She added, "I knew that Ryan [Murphy] and Ian Brennan were interested in exploring female rage and repression, so I just felt really excited to take on the part.” Ahead, get to know Beatty as you tune into Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story.

Everything to Know About 'Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story' Star Ella Beatty

Beatty grew up surrounded by Hollywood as the daughter of actors Annette Bening and Warren Beatty.

Ella Beatty was born in 2000, the youngest of the four children of iconic Hollywood couple Annette Bening and Warren Beatty, and the niece of actress Shirley MacLaine. She told The TODAY Show that her famous parents have given her a lot of acting advice over the years, but “listen” is the best tidbit yet. “What the other person is doing is always more interesting than what you could create,” she recounted to the daytime talk show hosts.

In an Interview Magazine interview, Beatty said she never considered changing her name, though she understands why others feel the pressure to do so. “I do feel a kind of responsibility towards an artistic legacy that I don’t feel ashamed of. I would hope that my work would be powerful enough to offer something specific. I’d hope that my work would be enough to make me separate, but I also understand why people do that,” she said.

She always wanted to be an actor.

Beatty reveals in Interview Magazine that she never acted professionally until after she graduated from school, but playing make-believe “was who I was before I knew it was going to be my profession.” She added, “Playing pretend, make-believe, that was the way that I contextualized the world. I think there was a part of me that thought everybody did that. When your friends come over, doesn’t everybody want to play make-believe?”

Beatty is best friends with her 'Monster' co-star Sarah Paulson.

Beatty attended The Juilliard School for drama and began her career on Broadway in 2024 in the play Appropriate. The star-studded ensemble also featured actors like Corey Stoll and Sarah Paulson—Beatty's future Monster co-star.

Beatty calls Paulson “one of my very best friends in the world” and says they “kind of fell in love immediately” after their experience together on Broadway. Paulson has reiterated that fact, mentioning in their Interview Magazine conversation that they fell in love “in a way that was incredibly real and powerful and magical.”

In that same interview, Paulson admitted that Beatty’s "nepo baby status" was not common knowledge when they met. “I had no idea who your parents were,” Paulson said to Beatty during their Zoom call. “My interest in you, my estimation of you as a performer, had nothing to do with that.” On The TODAY Show, Beatty also revealed that they call each other every 15 minutes and that she often goes to Paulson for advice.

She also starred opposite Hugh Jackman in a theater two-hander.

After wrapping her role on Appropriate, Beatty appeared in the play Ghosts before joining Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, which starred Hugh Jackman and ran twice in 2025 and 2026. She told Interview Magazine in 2025, “The closer we get to each other and the more familiar we become, I have thought about how important it is to maintain a certain amount of that awe that I have for him as a performer, because it’s in the play.”

Next, she’ll co-star in the film adaptation of 'The Bell Jar.'

Helmed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Sarah Polley, Beatty will star as Joan in the adaptation of Sylvia Plath's seminal novel The Bell Jar opposite Billie Eilish, Carey Mulligan, and Connor Storrie. She told The TODAY Show hosts that she “loved the book growing up” and that being part of the cast is “a dream come true.”

Production wrapped on the film in September 2026, but it does not yet have a release date.

Following the stunning press tour for Forbidden Fruits, Lili Reinhart is back promoting romantic comedy The Love Hypothesis. As she's starring as a rom-com heroine, it's only appropriate that Reinhart is paying tribute to the iconic characters that have inspired her, starting with How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days's Andie Anderson, portrayed by Kate Hudson.

The Riverdale star shared an Instagram post with the caption, "you probably think this song is about you...paying homage to Kate Hudson in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." In the accompanying photos, Reinhart can be seen wearing a perfect dupe for Hudson's unforgettable How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days butter yellow or lemon silk gown.

Reinhart's stylist, Ib Abdel Nasser, discussed the incredible tribute in an interview with ELLE magazine. Nasser shared that the actress is wearing a '00s Caché replica of the original Carolina Herrera gown, which was created specifically for the film in partnership with costume designer Karen Patch.

Reinhart's dress was accessorized with ZYDO Italy diamond earrings.

Nasser further told the outlet, "Lili will be paying homage to the leading ladies of the Golden Age of rom-coms and romance films throughout the press tour, and we wanted to start off with something super iconic for Brazil since they're some of the most passionate and dedicated fans!"

Fans of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days will likely be envious of Reinhart's ability to recreate a low-key historical moment from rom-com history.

Shop Outfits Inspired by Lili Reinhart

Nothing's better than a restorative weekend with your besties, especially when the friend group's made of comedy icons. In the new friendship movie Spa Weekend, Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, Michelle Buteau, and Anna Faris play lifelong besties who escape to a luxury spa for a weekend away from demanding bosses, fussy kids, and annoying ex-husbands. Hijinks, flirtations, and soul-searching ensue in the latest film from the team behind The Hangover and Bad Moms.

In honor of the movie's streaming release, Mann, Fisher, Buteau, and Faris sat down with Marie Claire to test their friendship with a game of How Well Do You Know Your Co-Star?. The actresses flew through questions about each other's hidden talents, secret jobs, holiday pranks, and all-time favorite brunch drinks. It was clear that the stars were fans of each other's hilarious, decades-spanning careers. (Feel free to guess which star won the crown.)

Watch the full challenge above, then head to your local theater to catch Spa Weekend.

Anna Sawai is on the cusp of playing a role she's dreamed about for years: Yoko Ono, legendary artist and widow of John Lennon.

In a new cover story for Marie Claire, the Shōgun actress explains what it's like preparing for this role—including the insider she's recruited to help her feel ready: Ono and Lennon's son Sean.

Speaking to writer Anna Peele, Sawai shares that she has connected with Sean since being cast, explaining that, per Peele, she regularly texts the 50-year-old musician "fact-checking questions about Ono’s real feelings about things."

The role is for Sam Mendes' upcoming quartet of biopics about each member of The Beatles. Sawai will portray Ono opposite Harris Dickinson's John Lennon (Paul Mescal is Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn is George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan is Ringo Starr). Interestingly, all four movies will be released at the same time, in April 2028, as reported by Variety.

The actress' desire to portray Ono began when she was in high school and had to undergo a mock interview. She was asked about a real person she'd love to play. Sawai told her mother, "I don’t know who to mention. Every story that I know in Hollywood is so white." It was her mom's idea that her daughter answer Yoko Ono, which prompted those around Sawai to ask why she wanted to play a woman people "hate."

Before she was even cast in the role, the up-and-coming star had been looking into optioning a book about the icon. Then Mendes reached out and asked her to read the script for the films before she accepted the role, specifically because "he knew how particular I was about her story." Per Peele, it's like Sawai "manifested" the role of Ono.

This essay contains spoilers about Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. Half an hour into Jane Schoenbrun’s viscous new film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, I saw my own psyche on screen. While rising filmmaker Kris Williams (Hannah Einbinder) sits across from Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson), the final girl from the ‘80s slasher B-movie she hopes to reboot, she unpacks her tendency to intellectualize art that evokes deep feeling within her. Billy implies that Kris’ rumination is a means of avoiding said feeling—something I’ve been known to do, too, and I think a fair share of people my age would agree.

Kris and Billy’s exchange over fried chicken and dipping sauces isn’t just an astute table topic; it becomes essential to understanding Schoenbrun’s film—and offers more nuance to Gen Z's oft-discussed attitude toward sex and intimacy than any pundit to date. Like Schoenbrun’s previous works (I Saw the TV Glow and We’re All Going to the World’s Fair), Teenage Sex and Death hides a human story under metatextual commentary on genre media. I went in as blind as possible, only knowing that the film was a send-up of franchises like Sleepaway Camp, and followed Kris as she attempted to recruit Billy for her remake of a property deemed “zombie IP” due to its failed sequels and transphobic roots. Teenage Sex and Death’s true plot reveals itself to be a journey of reawakening, as both women grapple with how the in-universe killer, Little Death (Jack Haven), shaped their early views on sex. As reality and fiction dissolve in hilarious ways involving “flesh and fluids,” Kris goes from repressed prude to the star of her secret fantasy.

In one scene, while Kris and Billy lay on a fireside bed of gummy candies, Kris admits, “Sex seems so easy for so many people, but I’ve never been able to get there unless I’m really far away in my head.” That line gave voice to a part of me that I’ve never had the language for. Sex, like dating, was something that felt at a distance while I was growing up, even though I came of age amid peak hookup culture. Like many queer teenage outsiders, any curiosity I felt was eclipsed by a subconscious fear of what would happen if I stepped outside societal norms. That survival-mode mindset continued into my 20s, living through career insecurity, major depressive disorder co-mingled with undiagnosed ADHD, the first Trump presidency, and the COVID-19 epidemic. It wasn’t until 31 that a deep craving for intimacy came rushing to the surface, with enough force that it was physically painful. As I now set out to explore my sexuality, I realize that even if my first adolescence had gone the typical route, I’d never been set up for success. The only high school sex-ed I’d retained was a female guest speaker who described every time she had sex as giving away a piece of herself, until she was empty.

Kris is heavily coded as Gen Z, from her cynical-idealist views on modern Hollywood to the casting of the actress behind Hacks’ woke young writer Ava Daniels. (Like me, Einbinder actually falls on the millennial side of the cusp). Though I typically hold on to my millennial bona fides with an iron grip, I’ve always related to Gen Z as the so-called “sexless generation.” The practice of telling younger generations that they’re doing sex wrong without actually talking to them about their choices is nothing new. As Carter Sherman reported in her book The Second Coming, the falling stats around Gen Z’s sexual activity can be linked to trepidation and insecurity, but also to a growing discernment towards the sex they want and deserve. The sensationalized moral-panic takes on “puriteens” refuse to acknowledge that today’s teens and 20-somethings are responding to a surplus of information about a rapidly-changing world (the fall of Roe, the rise in abstinence-only sex-ed, the COVID-19 lockdowns, the internet, etc.).

While Kris amplifies my and a number of my peers’ complicated feelings about sex, Billy shows their possible evolution. Part of the film is dedicated to scenes from the original Camp Miasma, with Amanda Fix playing Billy as the final girl. In a pivotal scene that mystified a young Kris, Billy loses her virginity to another camp counselor. She’s clearly uncomfortable and starts to dissociate, just as Little Death enters the cabin and adds the teens to their body count. Schoenbrun themself has described the scene as “a sexual assault,” and a “litmus test” for the gentle coercion that’s become a staple of dating culture. Their film ties together Billy’s harrowing first sexual experience and Kris’ struggles with dissociation to not only give voice to a generation’s reluctance—but also to show them a path forward.

Teenage Sex and Death ends by dropping Kris into her own remake. Braless in a baby tee and underwear, she flees Little Death across the campgrounds and finds refuge in Billy’s cabin. As the women have sex, Billy encourages Kris to split her consciousness and see through both her own and Little Death’s eyes as the slasher rams his spear into their cores. On my first watch, I left the theater wondering if the third act was Kris’ dream, her vivid imagination staging taboo roleplay as her and Billy’s corporeal forms were still by the fire. On the second watch, I let go of my constant need to break down stories into intellectual patterns and concepts. I quieted my brain and let my soul feel it.

Kris and Billy's journey through sexual trauma and repression towards ecstasy made me contend with something I've never admitted: I’m not sure if I’ve ever had an orgasm. I’ve tried. I have watched the Beducated videos and listened to the Dipsea tutorials and read fanfiction and purchased LELO’s finest, but something in me gets overwhelmed before I can approach anything close to a “little death.” Only when I’m in a fantasy, imagining a body like mine—stomach a little smaller, tits a little perkier—moving with all self-consciousness evaporated, do I get close. In a sense, if I really think through these fantasies, they would probably all have a throughline—my version of Kris’ third-act Miasma. Maybe if I’m lucky enough to find a Billy, someone safe to explore my deepest self without shame, I can find a similar bliss.

This euphoric, blood-soaked epiphany of a movie has left me with a Catch-22. It’s the kind of film that makes me excited to go out and live life, but I know those same vicarious feelings aren’t always easy to come by. It takes a certain amount of optimism, openness, and faith in human connection to be truly vulnerable. All it takes is a few minutes of watching the news, scrolling through a toxic social feed, or even watching a popular dating show to be reminded of the infinite ways that the search for connection can lead to pain. These are the types of thorny societal dilemmas that movies were made to explore; with Teenage Sex and Death, Schoenbrun has presented their answer to a sexual anxiety affecting an entire demographic. And, for me at least, they’ve given hope that we’ll find people willing to help us out of our brains and into the fleshy, messy world.

Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock are set to return as the Owens sisters in the long-awaited sequel, Practical Magic 2, which will hit theaters in September. To promote the movie, Kidman and Bullock, along with their new costars, Joey King and Maisie Williams, paid a surprise visit to a screening on August 1. For the witchy occasion, Kidman chose the ideal black cut-out gown.

Sharing footage of the night on Instagram, Kidman captioned her post, "Our kind of family reunion 🖤 Loved spending a magical night at @cinespia with all of you, our fellow witches."

Taking to the stage, Kidman wore a slinky long black dress, featuring spaghetti straps and subtle cut-outs throughout the gown. The Oscar winner forwent accessories and let her dress do the talking.

This isn't the first time Kidman has worn a slinky black dress to promote Practical Magic 2. In April, Kidman wore a partially sheer black gown to reunite with Bullock at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. She completed the look with a pair of pointed-toe patent black pumps.

With more than a month to go before Practical Magic 2 is released, Kidman will hopefully showcase several more witchy-adjacent gowns to give fans all the inspiration they need for the premiere.

Shop Outfits Inspired by Nicole Kidman

Cult-loved filmmaker Gregg Araki makes his long-awaited return to theaters this summer with I Want Your Sex, a comedy that tackles one of today’s hottest debates: Is Gen Z having sex? Inevitably, the New Queer Cinema pioneer's first feature in 12 years is like an instruction manual from the chief provocateur himself.

The film stars Cooper Hoffman as Elliot, a lost 20-something who lands a gig as an assistant to renowned artist Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde). When she proposes they enter a sexual relationship in which she dominates him in the bedroom, he gains experiences he didn’t even know he was seeking…and then some as the film warps into a thriller.

Like many of Araki’s other films (Nowhere, The Doom Generation), I Want Your Sex is a campy, erotic romp, but as a departure from his many '90s indies, this is his first feature to employ intimacy coordinators. For it, he tapped Yehuda Duenyas, whom he met on the set of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and first worked with on American Gigolo.

Duenyas tells Marie Claire over Zoom that the screenplay (co-written by Araki and Karley Sciortino) read like “a firehose of sex scenes one after the other.” He worked to facilitate trust within the cast and crew, so those moments of kink and comedy could best come alive off the page. “[Araki] has a very exacting vision, but how that comes to life, he really relies on the people around him to be the artists that they are to make it all come together under his direction.”

Duenyas worked with Jaclyn Chantel on the project. The two, along with trauma and sexuality educator Jimanekia Eborn, are the founders of CINTIMA, the leading intimacy coordinator training program. Founded in 2023, the L.A.-based organization works with the Screen Actors Guild to develop guidelines, teaches best practices to trainees and filmmakers, aims to create more diversity in the field, and even launched its own film festival, FLICKER. “I started working in this practice in 2007,” Duenyas says. “The word consent was in the dictionary, but it wasn't something that we talked about all the time. It's an amazing cultural shift that we've been through.”

As I Want Your Sex arrives in theaters, Duenyas reflects on collaborating with Araki, filming the pivotal threesome-gone-wrong scene, and what audiences may still not realize about his job.

Marie Claire: Gregg Araki is known for exploring sex in his work. You worked together briefly before I Want Your Sex, but can you remember initial conversations you had with him and how he adjusted to using an intimacy coordinator?

Yehuda Duenyas: He was curious about what it is to work with an intimacy coordinator, and, from my end, deference to what he’s already been able to make so beautifully and the type of stories that he’s been able to tell. He seemed really thankful, like, “This makes it so much less awkward and easier.” We live in a different world than we did when he was making films in the '90s, and he’s really aware of that.

MC: Araki’s been very vocal about how this movie is his love letter to Gen Z and his way of weighing in on the ‘Gen Z isn’t having sex’ discourse. What conversations did you have with him about those themes as you were trying to understand his vision?

YD: He has a really particular take. The world is different than it was when he was coming up, and there is a different relationship to intimacy and sexuality. I personally don't believe that Gen Z doesn't want to have sex. We're still human beings. It's not that they don't want to have sex. I think that culturally we've been divided from one another in certain ways, and I think that social media has a big role in that. I feel more of a loneliness epidemic, where people want to connect with one another and want to know how. If anything, this is an instructional movie. We chatted about that with Greg a lot.

MC: Cooper Hoffman said that there were a few days on set that he described as “Oh, Fuck Days” because of the more bonkers scenes he had to film. How do you put an actor at ease in those scenarios?

YD: We had a bunch of those. Number one, just acknowledging that anyone's consent is revocable at any time—that puts people at ease. Cooper is one of those people who's like, “If there's a waterfall to jump off of…” and there's an acting challenge, he's going to take that challenge. I know that he really approached this with such a sense of openness and very candidly [admitted], “I've never done anything like this before.” So we were both like, “We got you,” and, “You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. If you're not feeling it in the moment, there's a million ways that we can shoot something, so let us know what could make this more comfortable for you.”

We have a lot of tips and tricks to put the heat on the screen and take the heat off of the personal moment, so that's kind of the art of what we do. The field of intimacy coordination has a lot of, What does it look like on screen, but also the interpersonal value of, How do we make this an agreeable thing for everyone to be participating in and make it fun?

MC: Do you work with the costuming and props department? Especially in a film like this, where BDSM elements and lingerie are so integral to the storytelling, what does that look like?

YD: We work with costumes because we need to put modesty garments and padding in between actors. There is a lot of coordination with sets. Like, Is the bed hard enough, or does it sink down? All these things are going to affect performance.

There are a lot of BDSM props and restraints and a St. Andrew's cross in this film. Anything that could interact with an actor in an intimate scene, we have some conversation around, or at least make sure that everything is in place for it to work well. Choreography is the tip of the iceberg. There are 100,000 other things behind the scenes that we take care of.

MC: From your perspective, how do you find the right balance of being mindful on set but crafting a scene that’s risque and sexy and also has a sense of humor? So many moments straddle that in I Want Your Sex.

YD: Sex is awkward sometimes, and it is funny sometimes. All of those things make these moments so much more human. And that's what was so delightfully exciting about it.

Also, working with a cast that is already so funny—Olivia, Cooper, and Mason [Gooding], hysterical people. Some of the things that you see in that threesome-gone-wrong scene—like Chase [Sui Wonders] wearing the strap-on—were just Chase being fucking funny. We're there to uplift and help support this stuff. Performers bring so much to the dynamic on set. That was what was so beautiful about that production: Greg brought together all of these collaborators who created such a great environment.

MC: Did you have a favorite day on set?

YD: We did all the intimacy in the first five days. It was really right off the bat. We were able to get together the day before and have an in-person check-in. It was really helpful. We created a good vibe together, so that it could become playful.

I loved the pool scenes—Erika Tracy drunk, dressing Elliot up. The threesome scene was incredible. Those playful montages of Erika and Elliot together in the house with Elliot trying these new things were all so fun to do.

MC: You’ve spoken before about how intimacy coordinators help facilitate talent and the filmmaker to take bigger risks. What do you mean by that, and can you think of an instance where you really saw that in action?

YD: It's like if there's a bar fight, and people don't exactly know how to be in a bar fight, you have a fight choreographer or stunt coordinator. There are a lot of safety protocols in place in order to make that safe, so the actors can just go full tilt. A similar thing happens with intimate scenes when the actors know that we're handling the barriers. When all those boundaries are in place, it really allows people to play to the edges of what they can do and forget about all of those functional things.

There was some rough stuff in [I Want Your Sex], so we were able to do simple exercises around, How hard can you press on my arm? We found that both Chase and Olivia could press on Cooper's arm as hard as they could, and it didn't hurt him at all, so they know in these rough scenes they can go hard on him. Once we have that feeling of comfort and trust among everyone, that trust allows the opportunity to really go far in performance.

MC: It sounds like you’re almost there to facilitate trust or even empowerment.

YD: We're not the safety police. We're not here because of some woke fragility. We're really there to empower people to be able to do their best performances around a sensitive topic, which is intimacy. And intimacy is so important to humans, yet culturally, around the world, there's always some friction, tension, strange feelings about intimacy. So, when we can bring a level of boundaries, safety, comfort, consent to the conversation, it really empowers people to go to play to their edges.

MC: You’ve been doing this since 2007, but your field has become more common in the past decade. What changes have you seen, or what feedback have you gotten on sets?

YD: I hear a lot, "I don't know how we did this without you,” or, “Where were you when I was 19?" from some actors. Before, it was dispersed among five different departments. I hear a lot from costumers or [the beauty department] that, in hair and makeup, an actor would say, "I don't want to do this thing that's coming up." So, the hair and makeup person would have to figure out a very polite way to make an excuse for the person or to stand up for them, or costumes would have to do it. There's a better cultural understanding and cultural conversations around this. And in turn, I feel like we've seen much deeper and better portrayals of intimacy.

MC: In that time, you also launched CINTIMA. How has interest in it evolved?

YD: We are really excited about the people whom we have trained who are working in the field. Not everyone off the street wants to be an intimacy coordinator, but the people who do come to it for really specific reasons. We have trainees from psychotherapy practices to somatic practices to people already in the film industry who feel a calling to this, to sex workers and adult film stars. There are a lot of different places that people feel like, "Oh, this field is like the Venn diagram of my life." And it's very meaningful to them.

It's a very rigorous program because it's a rigorous job. There’s a lot to know and a lot to have to hold. There are dream jobs like I Want Your Sex, and there are jobs where it’s a bit more difficult. We handle stories of sexual assault; those aren’t easy days on set. Storytelling is sacred. It's challenging and fun, but it's not always easy, so if we can help alleviate some of those nerves or even just handle the technical stuff, actors and filmmakers can tell the stories they want to tell.

What we're trying to do is expand what intimacy is on screen, how it can expand our definition of humanity, how we can see ourselves as people on this earth in a different light. We're living in a really challenging moment right now. I think our take, here, in our studio is more intimacy is more good for the world.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

This story contains minor spoilers about The Invite. The Invite, this summer's buzzy comedy that takes a casual dinner party and spins it into a swinging, relationship nightmare, is stacked with A-listers (Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton). But one of its best and most memorable characters isn't human at all: it's the San Francisco apartment that serves as the backdrop to the chaos.

The anti-rom-com—inspired by the Spanish film The People Upstairs—centers on married couple Angela (Wilde, who also serves as director) and Joe (Rogen) as they unveil their renovated prewar abode to their neighbors, Hawk (Norton) and Piña (Cruz). Production designer Jade Healy (The Green Knight, The Killing of a Sacred Deer) was tasked with building the set, which helps entrap the cast in a labyrinth of hallways, corridors, and nooks. She came onto the project after reading the screenplay by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack; the entire building process took just five weeks.

It’s as if the space Healy constructed is a nod to rom-coms of yesteryear with their picturesque dream homes—but her set has bite, as its charm is more of a commentary on how we’re perceived inside and outside of our relationships. As she explains to Marie Claire, it was central to her vision that nearly every detail in the apartment attempts to mask the drama and disastrous nonmonogamous revelry within its walls.

“It wants to be so beautiful on the surface because that's how [Angela, Wilde’s character] can repair her life: Just make everything beautiful, make it perfect, make the charcuterie board perfect,” Healy says. “But underneath, she's floundering.”

Here, Healy breaks down what was on her mood board for the film (in theaters now), where she sourced Angela’s antiques, and all of the space's symbolism.

Marie Claire: When you know the space you’re designing is going to almost function like a character, where do you begin?

Jade Healy: Even though there are descriptors of what the apartment looks like [in the script], I try to not let too much of that interfere with my initial emotional reaction to what I'm starting to see. I read [the script] on a Thursday, and over the weekend I spent every waking hour on Zillow and Trulia. I start digging into old movies, trying to find great references. We all immediately were looking at Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Woody Allen movies. (I have one little nod to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: The entry light is the same—not the exact same—but they have that Moroccan star.) I was also looking at Rosemary's Baby, old French films, Rear Window because I wanted to find the voyeuristic quality of how we're all looking into other people's lives.

There was such a fear of, We're going to be in one location. That was the greatest pressure: I have to build a set that we have to exist in for pretty much the entire movie, and it has to remain exciting and help push the narrative forward.

MC: What were some of those initial elements that felt essential to include?

JH: Olivia really wanted an old, prewar apartment—that was always part of the design and the script. I wanted a labyrinthian feel to it. The script initially had an open kitchen-living room-dining room floor plan. I wanted prewar frames within frames, hallways, and to create space between the characters—being able to move from the kitchen and find a moment of separation so that they can get away.

I also wanted the characters [to] feel entrapment. I was like, “Olivia, I want to have these doorways so you can almost feel the walls always closing in.”

MC: Mirrors become really integral to the cinematography. Was that in the script, or was that driven by your design?

JH: That wasn't in the script. In my lookbook, I had a page called “Reflections and Mirrors” and a page, “Doors within Doorways,” so that was part of the visual language we were channeling.

It's also so telling of their character development and where they are at this moment of seeing themselves and trying to figure out who they are and getting trapped in these mirrors. I wanted this sense of reflection. At the end of the movie, there's this heavy weight that's lifted, but also this moment of, Who are we anymore? I don't even know who I am. The mirrors were so integral to the story that we were trying to tell, about how we move ourselves in our relationships, and then you want to blame somebody else, but so much of it is just trying to figure out who we are anymore as we grow.

MC: Beyond the mirrors, there are many other pieces—particularly the rug and lamps—that become touchstones throughout the movie. Where did you source the individual pieces?

JH: Facebook Marketplace, thrift stores, vintage stores, and the prop house, because they do have some great finds. The rug was a search, and we ended up finding it at one of the old prop houses that had it buried. We went through several iterations of what the rug could be, and in the end, we were like, “It needs to feel like one she got at a flea market.”

The lamps, I wanted to find some that looked handmade. We had an arts and crafts session with Olivia and the set dec team where we were painting lanterns and paper mâchéing and making art.

I was channeling Angela as much as I could to get into the DIY. I remember sitting in the dining room with art supplies and making paintings to put on the wall, of her daughter or herself, because she was supposed to be a painter. We were really wanting to feel like her handprints were everywhere in that apartment, from the art to the selected pillows to the curtains.

MC: How did you land on the signature blues and greens that are a throughline throughout the apartment?

JH: I wanted to feel like Angela was almost drowning under the stagnant weight of her life—and every piece of decor she brings in is adding to the weight. I wanted to find this color that wasn't too heavy, not too bright, but had this beautiful feeling, and then give you the sense that she's stuck.

MC: Aside from looking at Zillow, did you take inspiration from visiting any San Francisco apartments? The movie briefly shows the exterior of what’s supposed to be Joe and Angela’s building.

JH: I was worried [the apartment was] too big. But, oh my God, San Francisco apartments are massive. I had found the building exterior on Zillow, sent it over to [the locations team], and we actually got to go into some of the apartments. I was like, “Are you kidding me?” It was much bigger than our apartment, which was a relief.

It was too late [for inside] because we had already been building, but for scenic references, we were still painting the exterior. I would take pictures of any details whenever I saw something interesting. I definitely put a window into the corridor after visiting. I get inspiration more from the real layers—the weird signs in the hallway, a weird wire, or a weird light.

MC: Did you conceive what Hawk and Piña’s apartment might look like?

JH: I didn’t have time to mood board it, but we would definitely talk about who they were. There is so much interaction with Hawk and Angela in regards to the decor and their love for it. And we were imagining the layout above to understand: Angela and Joe took two apartments and made it bigger. Where's their bedroom in accordance to their room?

MC: Did you or the cast steal anything from set?

JH: The couch—which is a designer couch, it doesn’t look like it, but it is—ended up going into the costume designer, Arianne Phillips’s house. The coffee table went to the line producer. I ended up with a bar cart. We didn’t really see Angela’s workshop—the door was sort of ajar, so you see into it—but that whole room had these beautiful nudes and sketches that came from her, and I took one of those home. A jar of buttons, little figurines on the mantlepiece that I loved—I took those.

MC: It feels like The Invite is part of a microtrend of unconventional romantic comedies—along with The Drama and its chic Boston condo—that have these amazing homes but tell a more pragmatic story about love. As a production designer, what do you make of this?

JH: This is definitely an anti-rom-com movie. You think of the Nancy Meyers and the beautiful homes [in her films]—and we didn't want to do a Nancy Meyers [set]. We really wanted to find something that had the layers of imperfection, of finding the little moments that weren't perfect in there. We are so obsessed with how things look: our faces; can we de-age ourselves?; GLP-1s. I think this trend is exploring what is actually underneath. With Instagram now, everything is about, "Look at this beautiful apartment, look at these perfect lives." And you're like, Wow, they have all these things I don't have. But everybody has problems. This movie's so relatable because we've all lived it to some degree, whether it's our family, our parents, our own marriages, our own relationships, our best friend's marriage.

When you see what's underneath and you get to take a step in, you're like, "Oh, it's human." It's just layers of humanity. That's what works so well in this film. That's what works well in The Drama. It seems this is going to be a funny movie. It's set up like a rom-com, but it's not. It's not meant to be. And that's what pulls you in, and then suddenly you're crying, you're laughing.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.

It's wild to think Legally Blonde was released 25 years ago—an anniversary that star Reese Witherspoon has been more than happy to commemorate. On Saturday, June 20, the actress attended "Elle World," a celebration of all things Elle Woods, wearing an outfit the iconic lawyer would most definitely approve of.

The Oscar-winning actress was photographed arriving at the "Elle World" event at Hall des Lumières in New York City wearing a bright pink satin dress from Prada's Fall/Winter 2026 Ready-to-Wear collection. Cinched in at the waist and featuring an off-the-shoulder neckline, the Prada outfit is extremely appropriate for any event involving the pink princess Elle Woods.

Witherspoon—whose stylist is Petra Flannery—accessorized her dress with a pale pink satin clutch bag and a pair of Christian Louboutin's Miss Z 100mm Laminated Calf Leather Pumps in Vintage Rose. Sadly, the actress's footwear is no longer available in this particular metallic shade, though the style itself remains very popular.

Witherspoons's successor, Lexi Minetree, who is portraying the role of Elle Woods in Prime Video's forthcoming prequel series, also opted for a pink dress. The dark pink fuchsia sequin midi dress features a square neckline and skinny black straps, and is accessorized with a very '90s-coded skinny diamanté belt.

Notably, Minetree's dress is the pink version of a blue Dolce and Gabbana dress worn by Elle Woods in the first Legally Blonde movie, via @nostalgiachick. The young actress has most definitely been taking notes when it comes to Witherspoon's Elle Woods styling.

In her eye-catching pink outfit, Witherspoon made her love for Legally Blonde completely clear, and she's obviously excited for the release of Prime Video's Elle.

Shop Outfits Inspired by 'Legally Blonde'

The documentary filmmaker Ivy Meeropol had never heard the name "E. Jean Carroll" when she read the writer's now-famous essay accusing Donald Trump of assault. Meeropol remembers where she was when she saw the piece had been published in New York Magazine. That feature was an excerpt from Carroll's book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, and it described an incident in the mid-1990s in which she said Trump attacked her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman.

I remember the essay's publication, too. Except I knew just who E. Jean was. I grew up reading her and had worked with her at ELLE magazine. She was its advice columnist. I was fresh out of college and dumbfounded to be in her orbit. She was, and remains, one of the most iconic advice columnists of all time. Plus, a towering wit and a hilarious interlocutor. I was walking out of an appointment when I saw a barrage of texts. Had I seen the article? I devoured it in one sour gulp, awed that E. Jean had found the words to describe something so violating without compromising even one iota of her usual flair and humor.

After the article—and her book—came out in 2019, Trump would claim the assault she described could not have happened because E. Jean was not his type. She took him to court over that comment and several others, claiming that his disparagement of her amounted to defamation. Juries agreed. In 2025, a federal appeals court later upheld the $83.3 million judgment against him. It was and remains one of the few times the legal system has managed to impose a real and personal penalty on Donald Trump.

Back in 2019, Meeropol was astounded and impressed. She reached out to E. Jean long before the trial started, hoping to convince her to participate in a film. She succeeded, and the result is the documentary Ask E. Jean, so named after her brilliant and longstanding ELLE column. It's now playing in select theaters nationwide, premiering in May 2026—the same month that news broke that the Justice Department would open a criminal investigation into its subject, exploring whether E. Jean had lied under oath about how she was financing her case against the president. The film has continued to expand to new theaters in the weeks since.

The timing is "suspicious," Meeropol tells Marie Claire. And also frightening and shocking and, in a sense, validating. This film—and its message—matters.

At the beginning of their collaboration, Meeropol remembers E. Jean telling her that one of the things that most hurt her was that Trump had reduced her entire life to three minutes in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room. So Meeropol made sure the film is more expansive. It's a recounting of her singular life and career. Her trailblazing work. And of course, her ultimate triumph.

Below, Meeropol tells Marie Claire how she convinced E. Jean to agree to a documentary, the challenge of getting the project off the ground, and how she nailed its tone.

Marie Claire: Let’s start with the obvious: How did this story end up on your radar and why did you decide to make a documentary about it?

Ivy Meeropol: I read the excerpt in New York Magazine from [E. Jean’s book,] What Do We Need Men For? And somehow, I didn't really know who E. Jean was, but I was really struck by how she told that story. It wasn't just about the assault in Bergdorf Goodman. It was about her voice and her writing. I just found it so galvanizing. She has the most distinct voice, and she's hilarious and a vivid storyteller. I was horrified and kind of entertained at the same time. I felt like, God, I really needed that, and who is this person? So that was the hook.

It took a little while to persuade her to even speak with me. A mutual friend actually said to her, “Ivy Meeropol is trying to get to you. You should consider her. You should look at her work.” So E. Jean watched the film I made about Roy Cohn, because that had really just come out the same year. And then she watched my first film, Heir to an Execution, which is so personal [about the execution of my grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg]. So it's almost like she got to know me a little bit through that, and then she decided she would speak with me. After that, in true E. Jean fashion, she jumped into it.

MC: You mention the style of her writing, which is so funny and so enraging. Early in the film, there is that moment where E. Jean remembers telling her friend what happened. She says she thought her friend would laugh. You see it almost dawning on her how other people are going to see this story.

IM: Yes, and that's such an important point, because you almost can't say you're laughing without having people say, "Oh, well then you must've been having a good time." It’s a dangerous thing to admit that you were laughing and only to admit it, but to say, "This is totally normal. This is how a lot of women cope."

MC: Totally, but also I think there’s now a pressure on women to tell the worst stories in the worst possible way to make it clear how bad things have gotten. It's almost like we lose a certain kind of right of authorship because the only thing that breaks through is total despair and heartbreak. You obviously decided that you wanted to keep humor in this story, and E. Jean made that same decision. How much did you grapple with the tone of the film?

IM: You're putting your finger on what made the edit and the actual construction of this film so challenging. It was like, Okay, how are we laughing now and then we're crying here or horrified here or enraged? But we had to do that because that's the truth. She's just a brilliant writer. When I started to spend time with her, we were just laughing all the time. She makes me laugh. I sometimes make her laugh. I felt like we needed to see the whole picture.

And why not? I mean, it's not like we've stopped laughing because we've had horror in our lives. That's E. Jean's bigger message in a lot of ways too. She's like, "I'm never supposed to have had fun again?" There isn't one right way to be a victim.

MC: At the same time, the film really makes clear that E. Jean had to put a lot of thought into how she presented herself. She has a hairdresser. She needs to wear the right clothes. Why did you want to include those scenes of her preparing for the trial?

IM: We're not supposed to care about our looks, but everyone cares. And not only that, it was essential for her. The team had to make sure that the jury saw who she was because they were getting all this input from Trump saying, "She's not my type, and she's older." And how do we imagine that she was attractive to him? So she kept showing pictures of her looking incredibly gorgeous. Her clothes became armor.

I could never have predicted, of course, what exactly she would say about it or that it would be so powerful to hear her say, "I had to look fuckable." It's just so E. Jean. When the film screens, you can hear the gasps in the audience. There's uneasy laughter; sometimes cheering. It's real, and it's powerful.

MC: You could have made the film only focused on the trial, but you really told this full story of E. Jean's life and career. I grew up reading her writing, but I had no idea she had a talk show. I didn't know she was on Oprah. How did you decide how to frame her in the documentary and how much to include of her life before the trial?

IM: I really wanted to show that she was ahead of her time and that she really was a self-made woman. She had all these very traditional female roles: cheerleader, sorority sister, beauty queen. She married young, moved to Montana. But the minute she had an opportunity, she was working. She had this dream. She leaves her marriage. She goes to New York. She becomes one of the first female editors at these male-dominated magazines and a gonzo journalist.

I wanted to show that she was someone who was pushing the boundaries for women in that time period and still was subject to this incredible degree of sexism. To me, she was representative. Through her whole experience, we're able to understand this trajectory of feminism. How far we've come, but also where it stops and where it's almost worse than ever, from the exploitation of women and children's bodies to rape culture becoming normalized.

MC: In a way, this story is ongoing. You couldn't have anticipated that the Department of Justice would be opening an investigation into E. Jean. How did you respond to that news?

IM: When I first heard it, I was shocked. I mean, I shouldn't be, but I was. I was worried. I was worried about her. But I do feel like it's even more important that we're releasing this, because he's calling her a liar again—again. This film is the antidote to those accusations. I would like to find one person who comes out of watching this film and doesn't believe her. We use the actual depositions; he's under oath, and she is honest. So yes, I am glad the film is here to meet this moment.

MC: It's expensive to make and release a documentary. We know that so many companies are afraid of running afoul of this administration. Did you find that people were afraid of the story that you were telling?

IM: Well, those dynamics definitely affected how long it took to come together. Look, I had really hoped that I would be able to go to a streamer and get a budget and really just focus on the creative and the hard work of making a film like this. That didn't happen. I don't know if it was fear at that point, because I don't know if he'd fully established himself as this vengeful, erratic, dangerous person. But I do think there was a feeling that people were kind of burnt out on Trump and burnt out on MeToo. I heard a lot, "Its moment is over. It had its moment." But to me this wasn't even a MeToo story. This was a singular story about E. Jean. There was hesitation. I was confronted with it over and over while we were making the film, as we tried to find people who would support us. And when we were locking the picture, there were people who wanted their names off for various reasons—personal, political, a partner or a husband or a wife telling them, "I don't like this. I'm nervous about it."

It had an effect on those of us who stayed put. But it also made us feel even more like, "This is even more important." It just becomes more and more important.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

This story contains major spoilers about I Love Boosters. When you think of your favorite fashion movies, who’s the hero? More often than not, it’s a member of the industry’s top echelon—the designers, the supermodels, the elite who can afford the clothes as daily wear. Boots Riley’s latest film, I Love Boosters, is truly fashion-forward, chock-full of style inspiration and reverence for personal style. But it flips the fashion world’s hierarchy on its head—making Miranda Priestly’s worst nightmare into the best fashion movie in years.

Corvette (Keke Palmer), the heroine of this genre-bending comedy, is a booster—a fly vigilante who robs ‘fits from the rich, er, their boutiques, and sells them at a much lower price. Her Oakland-based crew, known as the Velvet Gang, includes Sade (Naomi Ackie), a single mom looking for a come-up, and Mariah (Taylour Paige), who’s trying to make fetch happen with her slogan “Fashion. Forward. Filanthropy.” Their favorite mark is Metro Designer, the chain founded by visionary Christie Smith (Demi Moore), a former child genius turned creative director who’s like a haughty mix of Phoebe Philo, Andy Warhol, and Steve Jobs. Corvette, an aspiring designer, reveres Christie—at least until the icon steals one of her designs, turning the Velvet Gang’s underground enterprise into a revenge mission.

This fuels the film’s examination of who the Christie Smiths of the world exploit to stay on top. The Velvet Gang’s boosting may affect Metro’s bottom line, but “those urban bitches,” as Christie calls them, represent both her loyal customer base and a well of inspiration. In a telling moment, for example, a Metro customer picks the look Christie copied from Corvette off a rack while claiming “Christie Smith knows what the streets want.”

Eventually, the trio finds allies in others oppressed by the supply chain: Violeta (Eiza González), a Metro retail employee demanding fairer pay and working conditions, and Jianhu (Poppy Liu), a Chinese factory worker who spends her days sand-blasting denim alongside her family, much to the detriment of their health, due to the hazardous materials involved. Outside of documentaries like The True Cost and The Machinists, real-life workers like Jianhu are rarely seen as Hollywood heroes.

But I Love Boosters isn’t necessarily a screed against the fashion industry. Rather, Riley, who’s known for making surrealist films that point to the absurdities of capitalism, wants you to think twice about what goes into the garment you’re wearing. And underneath its commentary on the industry’s inequality, the core of I Love Boosters is a celebration of what fashion truly is, and what it can become.

Throughout the film, Christie conflates her products with wearable art, defining her clothing as her way of touching the world, or “changing humanity’s perception through color and fabric.” The people who wear her clothes are “reflecting the light they want to reflect.” Her speeches are presented as the type of self-mythologizing speech we’re used to seeing from tycoons, the real-life people who would claim that the working conditions of people like Violeta and Jianhu aren’t as important as their greater vision. But if you consider the words separate from her exploitative actions, don’t they speak to the basis of what fashion’s all about? Self-representation. Dressing for the you you want to be. The you you are, undiluted by your ordained role in the machine.

A movie like I Love Boosters doesn’t succeed unless it takes fashion seriously, both its essence and its flaws. In addition to their Robin Hood philanthropy, each Velvet Gang heist is also a celebration of inventive styling. Corvette doesn’t have the resources to fuel her couture dreams; she’s squatting in a closed fried-chicken joint, with her debt symbolized by a giant boulder pursuing her through the streets of Oakland. Thanks to the work of costume designer Shirley Kurata, it’s clear that Corvette built both her own wardrobe and the intricate disguises that the Velvet Gang wears on their runs by thrifting, scrounging, and upcycling whatever she can get her hands on. Kurata crafts maximalist, fantastical looks with innovative silhouettes and unexpected textiles; in a mid-film montage meant to get Christie’s attention, the looks range from Harajuku-inspired Acid Trip to Midsommar Flower Gown but Cunt.

Before the class war begins, Corvette sneaks into Christie's slanted apartment to get a look at Metro’s next collection ahead of its debut. As Corvette hides her affiliation with the Velvet Gang, her obvious adoration briefly wins Christie over, and the icon even admires her fan’s outfit. As Corvette explains the dress, she recalls its inspiration: her childhood memories of her parents’ car, its turquoise-blue interior. As an adult, Corvette feels safe when she’s enveloped in turquoise; Christie’s insistence that the dress is actually aquamarine is casually cruel, which foreshadows later intentional cruelty when Christie steals the anecdote for her own backstory, as a fuck you to the booster. The turquoise beef gets to the emotional heart of the characters’ feud; Corvette’s fashion is an expression of identity, and Christie wants to cannibalize her style and throw the actual, inconvenient person in the trash. It’s a visceral, personal depiction of a tale as old as time.

I Love Boosters ends at the start of a radical-progressive utopia, as the Velvet Gang and their allies inspire a grassroots labor movement that stretches across the world. Christie faces a unionization effort that will affect her pocket, in a clear argument that community and collective action are effective ways to bring change. The ending leaves the audience to imagine a better world. We may not know the specifics of how the labor movement will bring change, or whether the fashion industry can truly be equitable—but everyone Christie exploited has made a better life for themselves. The Velvet Gang, for instance, runs a community center funded by their boosting profits.

Fashion girlies aren’t immune to the general bleakness of living in America in 2026. After years of following “cores” and microtrends fueled by fast fashion’s constant output, young people are getting more vocal about seeking slower, greener alternatives to overconsumption. I Love Boosters invites viewers to look beyond surviving within the systems we have now and imagine a better one. What could the fashion industry, or the world, look like if the Corvettes and Violetas and Jianhus could rival the Christies? Maybe I Love Boosters’ stylish tale of collectivist power is the fashion movie we need.

This story contains light spoilers for Is God Is. Aleshea Harris wrote Is God Is for herself. Over a decade ago, the playwright wove together inspiration from Greek tragedies, spaghetti westerns, revenge thrillers, and her own Southern upbringing to craft the story she wanted to read about Black female rage. She didn't know whether it would ever be performed—but after a buzzy 2018 Off-Broadway premiere that won her an Obie Award and drew attention from Hollywood executives, she’s now the screenwriter, producer, and director of a feature-film adaptation.

“Is God Is was a turning point for me,” Harris tells Marie Claire over Zoom. “This was the first time I was like, No, I'm just going to do what I want to do, what I think is delicious.

She says it was “soul work” to write. The result is a timeless yet contemporary folktale following discarded twins, Anaia and Racine, as their mother tasks them to find and kill their father, who burned and left them for dead 18 years ago. Every step of bringing Anaia (played by Mallori Johnson in the film) and Racine’s (Kara Young) bloodthirsty odyssey to the screen was painstakingly intentional; from casting legends like Vivica A. Fox and Sterling K. Brown to play to (and against) their celebrity personas, to recruiting collaborators, like producers Janicza Bravo and Tessa Thompson, who nurtured and built upon the first-time filmmaker’s vision. Harris’s film doesn’t pause to explain the intricacies that it explores, or diminish itself to make its audience comfortable; it’s just brash, explosive, and unapologetic as it reads on the page.

Though its themes of vengeance, trauma, and lookism are universal, Is God Is is first and foremost a story about Black womanhood. The twins don box braids and waist beads, they utilize humor in the face of pain, and rap girlie bops make up the soundtrack. Beyond that, Anaia and Racine's voyage is an allegory for the many ways Black women stay resilient, even when their community fails them. That's what Harris says she hopes audiences recognize as the film's base truth: "The inherent value and power of Black women."

Below, Harris chats with Marie Claire about crafting the style of her film’s world, depicting Black violence onscreen, and exploring her own girlhood through Anaia.

MC: The dialogue in the play and film is very true to Southern Black vernacular, but it also feels haunting. What were some of your inspirations?

AH: It often takes me a long time to start a play because I have to find its mother tongue. I need to know how the people speak in this universe, and then I'm trying to be inventive. This is in many ways Black Southern speech, but even that's quite general. It's really me recalling from memory and the ways that I speak—but then there's also a poetic gesture inside of it. That's the inventive part, where I'm creating a word that I know people will understand what it means, but it's not in the dictionary.

The playwright Suzan-Lori Parks says, "Words are spells in our mouths," and I think of a story as a very immense and complicated spell. Each of those ingredients has to be just right. If someone's going to say, "gonna," that's different from "gon’." "What you gon’ do" is different from "what you gonna do." The rhythm is different and can shift the sensibility of it. That's exactly what Is God Is is to me. It's got one foot in the familiar and then one foot in something else that's imaginative.

MC: The sequence introducing Vivica A. Fox’s character God/Ruby is a great example of the movie skewing reality toward the mythic. How did you approach adapting that scene visually and keeping it rooted without fully leaning into magical realism?

AH: Keeping the balance with all these genres—when I'm playing with a bit of a Greek chorus, but also there’s nods to the culture with the braiding and the nails—it's a gut thing. I feel like nothing should be there that's just ornamental. It should be supportive of the story.

When we get into the mother's space, it gives her a size and a texture to have the suggestion of a halo, to have her hair look like a veil, and to have these women [with her]. On one hand, they're attendants, which we see in the real world, but they also move in unison. They're extensions of her body, so that's the magic of it. It's like riding that line for me: We've got one foot here, one foot there, and that's the creation of a new world.

MC: How did you land on Racine and Anaia’s look, which feels very contemporary, but also fits within the film’s gothic style?

AH: I have to shout out our incredible costume designer, Angelina Vitto. Her lookbook made me more excited to tell this story. I remember saying to Angelina that I felt like Racine and Anaia's silhouette is like the punk band Bad Brains. There's something that feels a little tomboy, but there's a feminine flair. And she brought back Aaliyah and Gwen Stefani back in the day. The dresses that they wear when they meet their mother, I was [initially] like, “I don't know.” But you see what it does as part of this greater tapestry. She nailed it.

MC: There are some changes from the play to the film, including the introduction of Divine (played by Erica Alexander). Why did you decide to add her?

AH: I had gotten the note that we needed a little more of an obstacle for the twins as they went on their journey. So I wondered who else organically exists in this world? Who else has their father left behind? It made sense that there could have been another woman and another son.

A lot of people comment on what I'm trying to say about the Black church with this scene. When I wrote that, I was thinking that she's got a kind of cult. I was also thinking about institutions, so not only the church, in the way that she protects this man. Despite the terrible thing that he had done, he can come into the fold and be welcomed into her arms; the lack of wanting to hold him accountable, the lack of empathy for these women and their mother. We see versions of that in the culture, unfortunately, and that's what I'm trying to call out, because I think accountability is good for the entire community. I am coming for a certain reaction to harm that I think is problematic, and Divine was a great way to do that.

MC: There’s an ongoing conversation about the depiction of Black pain and trauma in film. What considerations did you have about how much violence to actually show on-screen?

AH: I'm very conscious of pain that exists because we are Black and pathologized, but I hope that this movie is about so many other things. I was sitting with that, where I know that my people experienced certain things, but I want to tell this story. Inevitably, because of the nature of anti-Blackness, there's overlap between the awful things that happen in the world and some stereotypes somebody has about us. To me, it goes without saying that not all Black men are like this man. If you're making a revenge story, which I am, and you like writing about Black people, which I do, your revenge story is going to have Black people, and somebody is going to be the bad guy. Unfortunately, gender violence exists in our world, and there's something to be said about it, but I think the way that one says it is important.

I knew that I did not want to show [God/Ruby] being tortured. It's also true to ancient Greek tragedy that the violence happens inside the home, and then you see or hear about the results of the violence. So we shot it in such a way that we wouldn't be directly on the violence. We would help the audience to engage other senses through sound or obscure the act. We'd have the camera on the person who was casually standing there while the violent, horrible thing happened, which tells us a lot.

MC: The film's themes of who is perceived as "ugly" and Anaia being dehumanized based on her appearance are so potent and really resonated with me. What conversations might you have had about that aspect of the film?

AH: People have said that it meant something to them that I had a Black woman calling herself ugly onscreen. We know the ways that beauty standards work; they're harmful to all women, and especially non-white women. That's something that I had sort of forgotten about or wasn't conscious of [at the time], but I absolutely wrote this from the inside, so I wrote from feeling ugly.

Growing up, I knew that I was [considered] ugly. I remember being about 4-years-old and talking to my mother. I named someone, and I was like, "That person is ugly." And then I was naming every Black person I knew, and saying, "She's ugly, she's ugly, I'm ugly." Because I had already processed at 4-years-old that Black people were not [seen as] pretty. The Barbie doll that they showed in the commercial was the white one. Beauty and how one is perceived in the world is a huge part of this story, to state the obvious, but I think what had kind of slipped under was that I wrote that because I spent a lot of time walking around thinking a thing about myself that I had been taught about myself.

MC: In this new Black myth that you’ve created, how do you hope audiences will react to Anaia and Racine, who seem to represent two different manifestations of Black female rage?

AH: I’ve described them before as opposites, as different reactions to harm, and to trauma. I've also thought to myself that they're aspects of the psyche. One part of the self who's like, No, no, no, I'm going to go scorched earth, and the part that's like, Let me just take a step back. There's an inherent drama having these two people who have different reactions, and I think that’s an important part of the movie.

I hope that people can sit with those questions for themselves, if they're a Racine or an Anaia, and when, and under what circumstances. Even though Is God Is isn't a literal proposition, I do hope that it affirms both kinds of being and anything in between, for everyone, and of course for Black women. To continually suffer because of your identity is a horrible thing. I think the question of my life is, What do I do with that? How do I maintain a sense of joy and peace and stay good and keep making my art when I know it's going to happen? It's all in there.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Spoilers ahead for The Devil Wears Prada 2.

The Devil Wears Prada, when it came out in 2006, balanced an all-too-real look of working for a nightmarish boss with a fashion fantasy, where the heroine could suddenly get her hands on a pair of thigh-high Chanel boots. The Devil Wears Prada 2 pulls off a similar trick. It still offers a delicious peek inside the world of high fashion—with a trip to Milan and a performance by Lady Gaga—but it also presents an honest portrait of an industry trying to cling to relevance.

In the opening moments of the film, Anne Hathaway's Andy Sachs, now a newspaper reporter, is laid off via text. Meanwhile, her old boss Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep, is weathering budget cuts and digital-first prioritizations at her magazine, Runway.

Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna recognizes the plot may be triggering to journalists, but she also sees this as a universal story. "I mean, we're all going through it," she says. "All businesses are very aware of the downward pressure of who owns you and who controls you."

Andy lands back at Runway as features after Miranda finds herself in the middle of a PR-crisis after she runs an ill-advised story. And while Miranda remains as icy as ever, they eventually find common ground when they try to save what's left of Runway from the corporate vultures who want to decimate it even further. In an interview with Marie Claire ahead of the movie’s May 1 debut, McKenna speaks about returning to these characters after decades, her favorite cameos, and the sequel's already viral moments.

Marie Claire: When did you start honing in on what this story would be?

Aline Brosh McKenna: I think I started pestering [director] David [Frankel] in the pandemic. It seemed like Miranda would inevitably have gotten herself in some kind of trouble in that era—there's been a real decline in the power of cultural icons and public intellectuals; It felt like there were sort of towering institutions that you thought were never going to change. I really was aware that Miranda's fiefdom would have really fundamentally changed, and that her power would be checked by corporate forces, social forces, cultural forces, changing interpersonal dynamics, office dynamics…anytime you just think about Miranda having to interact with HR—I wish we had outtakes of her calls with HR where things have to be explained to her.

MC: Did you have those scenes?

ABK: No, but I could just sit here and write: somebody calls her and says, "You cannot say that about someone's pants." I don't think she would do well with the policing of behavior and utterances.

MC: How did that fit in with where you wanted Andy to be?

ABK: There's a real chastened purity to the end of the first movie where she thinks she's above it all and then she goes back to her roots. I think she's more mature. But I love the idea that she's been really pursuing the thing that she loves, it's just the thing that she loves is maybe not a thing anymore.

MC: How did you think about balancing the realities of what it's like to be in a crumbling industry with the glamorous escapism that people want out of a Devil Wears Prada movie?

ABM: These are still very privileged people. It's like going to a fancy restaurant with someone's rich parents and then they complain about how the bread basket used to be better. There is something inherently pretty funny about these people, who have been bathed in enormous privilege, having it slowly, slowly pulled away from them in some big ways and some in small ways. And there just was this thing where wealthy executives had their travel cut enormously, but the tippy top-top people are still on the private plane.

But also we're not really worried that Miranda's shoe budget will be significantly slashed. All of her stuff is still high retail. But the assistants certainly are digging through Buffalo Exchange. We all used to dress like little business people when we were coming up, and I think things have become more casual also because the high-end stuff has become so expensive. A Chanel bag now is wildly out of step with people's income; doesn't stop certain people from buying it but those discrepancies are enormous now.

MC: What did you think of the role the assistants would play?

ABM: I've had a number of really great Gen Z assistants who maybe people felt like their manner was maybe unserious, but they were actually really smart and really resourceful. That was the inspiration for Jin's character: somebody who's maybe not the most intimidating when you meet her and maybe has a cadence that older people like to make fun of. But then she's actually one of the heroes of the movie; she's actually the only assistant who does anything plot-wise.

And then, Caleb [Hearon]'s character to me was somebody who just loves that place and wants to be part of that world, and understands the layout and is trying to get his bearings. I just love the idea of an enthusiastic kid who's just excited to be there and loved it when he got that call. I think his parents probably help him out a little bit here and there because he just loves what he does so much, and he's always loved fashion, and he dressed up for picture day.

Then Amari [played by Simone Ashley], I wanted to write someone who commands respect. There's certain people who command respect no matter what their position is, and you find yourself wanting them to think you're cool even though they're 22 and you're like, "I just really need this person to think that I'm smart and interesting." Those were the three aspects of it.

MC: Speaking of assistants, there was backlash to a clip of Helen J. Shen's character, Jin Chao, who is Andy's assistant, with critics saying she was an Asian stereotype. Did you have any reaction to that?

ABM: She's a hero. That was one of the things Helen and I spoke about a lot was that people underestimate her. She's very fashionable. All the young people are fashionable in a very different way. And Jin's fashion is very vintage-y. She has the clips in her hair. The other person in the movie who has clips in his hair is Marc Jacobs. That's like a big trend. So she's kind of trendy in this, again, Gen Z way where she's thrifted stuff. She's a certain kind of hipster. I don't even think she lives in Brooklyn, I think she lives in Queens.

MC: Was it easy to slide back into the voices of Miranda, Andy, and Emily?

ABM: I just love those characters, they've never left me. Miranda is high status, always, so that's always fun to write. Emily's a nervous wreck, so that's really fun to write. I think Andy is a classic open-hearted heroine in many ways—and Annie is so funny. In working together on her, we found part of what's funny and fun about her is she's so enthusiastic and she gets excited. And there's just a tiny little line in the movie where she calls somebody and she says, "Just call me back. I'll be clutching my phone, clutching my phone." I feel like I'm so that person, that in a work context I should be a lot more unreachable than I am.

MC: In the years since the original there has been so much talk about how Andy's boyfriend Nate is the villain of that movie. How did you think about her love life in this one?

ABM: She's had a lot of relationships since then, but it's not her focus. She's stored her eggs, and she's footless and fancy-free. I wanted her to meet somebody awesome who appreciates her, takes the time to be a fan. But I wanted to show: What does it look like when Andy first meets somebody that she likes? Because she comes into the first movie with that relationship already established. I think just showing a woman in her 40s who's independent and has a lot going on, and when she meets a guy, what she cares about and what's attractive to her was very interesting to me.

MC: Anna Wintour, real-life parallel of Miranda, has now embraced her, appearing on the cover of Vogue with Streep. But initially, there was fear around the first movie.

ABM: Both of those reactions are odd to me because I was handed a book. I didn't know who Anna Wintour was. And then, the character that I wrote was not that. And then, as Meryl plays her is not that. So in my mind, they're not the same. But one of the things I was excited about in the first movie is that I love fashion and I wanted to bring it to people with a reality to it and some gravitas to it, and I think that worked and it showed people the artistry. So, I think the goals of the first movie align with what Anna's always done, which is to champion fashion as an art form. I think she's embraced that more than anything else. I think the main thing that Miranda and Anna have in common is a lack of personal vanity. I think there's things that they care about that are greater than themselves, and it just so happens that Anna's aligned with the movie.

MC: There's a moment in the film where Miranda and Andy talk about loving their job. What did including that mean for you?

ABM: I mean, really, my dad loved work and my dad always said to me, "You got to find something you love." A lot of women love what they do, just love it. I think it's very, very hard to be good at something if you don't love it. I think it's almost impossible, because you won't put in the hours doing the shitty stuff if you don't love it.

MC: Did you have any say in the cameos?

ABM: I wrote Law Roach into the script because I feel like he's such an important figure. There were two people who worked on [getting the cameos] full-time because all those people who are famous are really busy. There was a wishlist and we got some of those folks and some of them we didn't. I personally wanted to make sure everybody was having a good time when they were there.

MC: It took 20 years to make a sequel, but could you ever see yourself following these characters into the future?

ABM: I would follow them anywhere. The movie opens in two days, so let's not get ahead of ourselves, but let's see how it goes. They're fascinating people. We all owe a great debt to Lauren [Weisberger] for creating the characters. And she's a real sport. This movie doesn't use her sequel book, but she's been really great about it. She found a nerve, the title, this configuration of folks, there's a lot to mine there. I'm very grateful.

MC: Do you think Miranda really doesn't recognize Andy in that early scene?

ABM: She does not recognize her. I think what happens is as she's interacting with her, bells start to ring. And she's like, Oh, oh, that's that person. So that's why when she says, "I always knew," she does remember thinking, God, this girl was smart, but she's had probably 30 assistants since then since she has two at a time. It doesn't surprise me at all. That was a funny internet moment where people were like, "Is this movie about her having dementia?" Come on, guys. I am now the age that Miranda was in the first movie. With all due respect to people that I worked with 20 years ago, there are people I worked with in writer's rooms 20 years ago who would come up to me and…nothing. And I'm in my 50s and she's in her 70s, so I think she could be forgiven. But I do think you can see in the performance that she's slowly recognizing her. So I think people who are not tracking that are young.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

This story contains extensive spoilers about The Drama and Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, including their endings.

It's a really strange sensation to watch The Drama when you're planning your own wedding.

In the movie, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson play Emma Harwood and Charlie Thompson, a couple in the midst of prepping for their own nuptials. While doing a (way-too-late) tasting at their venue to finalize the menu just a few days before the wedding, a conversation with their friends turns into a party game of sorts: What is the worst thing you've ever done? Charlie can't think of anything all that significant. Emma's is a doozy.

Here's where spoilers kick in: When she was a teenager, she planned, but didn't execute, a school shooting. It's a horrifying revelation that acts as a comment on the pervasiveness of gun violence in American society. But more than that, it's a jumping-off point to explore the anxieties associated with commitment. The anti-rom-com, written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli, asks, if you found out your partner contemplated something genuinely monstrous, would you still tie the knot?

Now let's make this clear: I myself am remarkably chill about my upcoming event. Movies and TV shows are trying to make me less so.

In addition to The Drama, this spring has seen the arrival of the Netflix limited horror series Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. The show follows Rachel Harkin (Camila Morrone), who travels with her fiancé, Nicky Cunningham (Adam DiMarco), to his brood's remote vacation house for what she thinks will be their intimate wedding. Immediately, she is struck by a strong sense of foreboding. At first, she suspects her partner's weird family is going to murder her in some satanic ritual, but her plight ends up being a lot more existential. She is cursed, and if the man she marries is not her one, true soulmate, she will die on her wedding day. If they don't walk down the aisle, the curse will spread to his bloodline. That means she's forced to question whether the guy she loves is truly the only person for her because both of their lives are at stake.

Tonally, The Drama and Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen are vastly different. The Drama is ultimately a relationship saga that's almost too real. Meanwhile, the longer you watch Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, the more it leans into its supernatural flourishes before its Grand Guignol ending, where faces start oozing rivers of red liquid. But both, at their core, are about how choosing to say "I do" can be a recipe for disaster.

These days, marriage is looking less and less appealing. A recent report in The New York Times found that the U.S. marriage rate hit a 140-year low in 2019. It has risen a little since then, but not in a truly significant way. At the same time, the marriage industrial complex is still going strong—especially in the age of oversharing on social media, when bridal showers and bachelorette parties are more curated (and friendship-testing) than ever, and fashionable brides are desperate to get their ceremonies into Vogue. The Drama and Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen speak to those twin trends: As more people ask, "Why even get married?" the business of getting married can feel overwhelming.

Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen leans into this by centering the episodes on different traditions, such as the bachelorette party or the ceremony. Rachel only wants to deal with the whole curse thing, while her nattering to-be-sister-in-law Portia (Gus Birney) demands she have fun with the girls. Similarly, in The Drama, Charlie and Emma are overwhelmed by an instructor (Celia Rowlson-Hall) coaching them on their wedding dance, who takes everything way too seriously. Also, the very conversation that yields Emma's confession starts because Emma and Charlie think they walk by their wedding DJ doing heroin on the street and wonder whether it’s a momentary lapse in judgment or the kind of thing that could ruin their celebration. After Charlie learns what Emma nearly did, they still go around meeting with their vendors, like the cheery photographer (Zoë Winters) who can't understand why they suddenly look so uncomfortable around each other. In each piece of entertainment, the show must go on. After all, there's time and money invested in making sure everything is just right.

Through these sequences, we see how the pomp and circumstance of marriage is the enemy of honest discussion. That's especially evident in Something Very Bad's rehearsal dinner episode, where Rachel placates her nerves by repeating the cute story of how she and Nicky met until she learns that something about her telling doesn't add up. Charlie spirals in The Drama without truly listening to what Emma has to say or realizing the pain these memories have brought up for her. He makes her drama all about him.

The ultimate question in both cases, as it is in any wedding, is whether these two people are meant to be together. And this, again, is where they diverge. At the outset of the finale of Something Very Bad, Rachel decides she's committed to believing she and Nicky are soulmates, but after her heartfelt vows, he is the one who has trouble sealing the deal. He thinks the best solution is to call the whole thing off. Given the curse, that is not an option, and she realizes he never truly believed her very justified fears. In the end, through a magic twist of fate, she gets to leave him behind, and thank goodness for that. She just has to serve as witness to every Cunningham marriage, as the human manifestation of the curse they now have.

The Drama, on the other hand, ends with Charlie and Emma together. They get married, but the reception is a hot mess with an angry, drunken bridesmaid (Alana Haim, genius in the role) and an admission of infidelity on Charlie's part. But after blood has been spilled and her dress has been ruined, they both land at the same diner, where they tentatively start over. Maybe they are choosing to ignore each other's flaws. Or maybe they are just recognizing that nobody's perfect.

I think I weirdly find The Drama's version of romance more comforting. Yes, Something Very Bad has a you-go-girl ending where Rachel drives off, grinning, smoking, and looking like a badass. But she's also condemned to a life of bearing witness to other people's misery.

It's The Drama that has a bizarre optimism for its central pair. Sure, they may be deeply messed up, but they are now married, and they are going to try to make it work. They always thought they'd conclude their night at the diner. Now they are doing just that, a little worse for wear, but together nonetheless.

At this point, I think I know my partner pretty well. We've been together for over 10 years. He's my best friend. But you can never truly know another person. There will be thoughts that will always be mysterious. Moods that you can't interpret. You just have to hope that you can meet at your version of a diner, willing to forgive.

The documentary BTS: The Return had a high bar to reach from the outset: How do you show a new side of the world’s biggest musical group? While their Netflix pop-doc debut may be the first time passive listeners become more familiar with the group, for many members of BTS’s dedicated (at times overprotective) fan base, ARMY, it follows their 11 HYBE-produced docs, long-running variety shows, and countless livestreams on the fan platform Weverse. It's no easy feat to present fans of the most-documented band of all time with something unique.

Still, the seven-piece is at an unprecedented moment in their career. The group has been on hiatus for four years; after all the members completed their mandatory military service last year, they moved to L.A. for two months to work on what would become their comeback album, ARIRANG. The matured boy group faced a crossroads at a moment when they were also at their most visible: Where does “a global emotional support system, a cultural juggernaut…[and] a multibillion-dollar economic ecosystem” go from here?

BTS: The Return follows that journey, while introducing both new fans and old to the K-pop phenomenon at their most personal and experimental. Produced by Martha and Marc and Sofia producer Jane Cha Cutler and helmed by The Greatest Night in Pop director Bao Nguyen, the film captures RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook in both domestic settings in L.A. and the studio, continuing through to their comeback preparations upon their return to Seoul. Throughout, viewers are placed in the band's POV, as they get candid about the pressures of the album's fast-tracked release schedule and debate with their label on making their music relatable and accessible to a global audience.

Though BTS has already filmed over 100 hours of content since their debut in 2013, Nguyen and Cha Cutler’s documentary marks the first time the group has worked with a production team outside their label/management HYBE. Nguyen tells Marie Claire how essential it was to establish a vulnerable trust with the members, in a private interview at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul, hours before the band’s highly anticipated performance at BTS THE COMEBACK LIVE | ARIRANG. “It's important: that relationship that we have to build together, and the trust that they instill in me and our team to tell the story…I always say I'm not trying to make films about people. I'm trying to make films with people.”

With BTS: The Return out on Netflix now, Nguyen and Cha Cutler chat with Marie Claire about being a fly-on-the-wall in the band’s recording sessions, bringing their relationship with fans to the screen, and how they’ve reacted to the film.

Marie Claire: What was your first reaction when you heard about the opportunity to make this documentary?

Bao Nguyen: I had originally talked to some people at the label previously during their SoFi [shows in 2021] and had this idea of it being this sort of Homeric myth, like The Odyssey. That didn't work out, but when they came back, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is the craziest opportunity. I was surprised and honored that they had reached out about it. To be honest, I was super busy with other projects, but I was like, We’ve got to find a way to make this work. It worked out perfectly because it's such a specific moment in their next chapter.

Jane Cha Cutler: I had actually talked to HYBE America soon after [the members] went into military service, and tried to stake my flag in the ground, like, "I really want to do the documentary when they come back." So I would just check in every so often. And then it turned out great because Bao and I knew each other from working together and developing together.

MC: How long did it take for you to establish that comfort with the group where they were able to be super vulnerable on camera?

BN: I think because they are used to being on camera and have had many documentary crews with them, they were easier than a lot of other film participants and previous projects I've worked on. But at the same time, you're letting these strangers into your world that's really intimate, that's really personal. So it was over time that they opened up, in terms of what they were going to talk about.

At the beginning, I like to have a process where I'm not intervening at all. I'm just a fly on the wall and observing, not trying to interrupt the creative process in any way. But as they're getting used to our faces and our presence there, then I'm possibly asking questions that are slightly deeper.

We didn't [want to do] sit-down interviews because we wanted to be in the present moment of the story. But [one day] we were driving to the beach with Jin. I was hoping to capture him being driven to the beach and looking out at the Westside [of L.A.], but then he started talking to us. [The members] had so much on their minds that they wanted to get off their chests, and these car rides became confessionals for them. I knew when they started opening up voluntarily, then we had gained their trust, and they would let us into the room. That scene with Jungkook and Jin [saying goodbye before Jin returned to Korea] was really interesting too because it's the youngest member and the oldest member. I thought that was really special to see how they interacted with each other at that moment.

MC: You mention being a fly on the wall, but the film includes a lot of very close, intimate shots. How did you capture that while also staying inconspicuous?

BN: We shot mostly on zoom lenses because, especially in the recording studio, they're very small spaces, and I didn't want to move the camera around to get the shot too much. With moments like on the beach, we would use these zoom lenses as well to be there and capture these close-ups without intruding on this beautiful moment that they were sharing together as a band.

JCC: I also think it helped that half of the movie was shot in L.A., where things are a bit more relaxed generally, but also for them in particular. I feel like they could kick back a little. Even though there was this stress of having to finish the album, it's not their home. There was a little bit of an ah, okay [feeling], not as much chaos around.

MC: Media coverage about K-pop groups tends to focus on how passionate the fans are—there’s that cliche image of a bunch of screaming girls—but this film only includes brief nods to BTS’s ARMY. How did you decide when to mention the fans and when to leave them out?

BN: For me, it's always looking at POV and whose perspective each scene is from. In the moment where [the members are] doing a Weverse live, they're very front-facing, so you can see how the fans interact with them. Starting the film at that moment was really important for me, because it's this anchor that most people, and obviously ARMY, recognize. We show the interaction with the fans, and then we cut to Jungkook's hand holding the camera, seen through our own lens. It shows that this film is about something intimate and behind the scenes of what the fans are interacting with publicly. And I know that the livestream was recorded and dissected by the fans. ARMY freeze-framed it and showed our boom operator's foot, and I was like, 'Oh, no.'

For me, that's when the group's personal lives and the story of the film collide with the fan reaction. And another moment was when V was at Dodger Stadium. But for the most part, they were there recording the album with themselves, with each other. So it was important for me to keep that perspective on our story. They talk about how much they owe to the fans and how much they're inspired to create something great because they don't want to let the fans down. I thought having their intimate conversations about what they were doing in relation to the fans was different than necessarily cutting back to fan reaction all the time.

JCC: For that question of, like, ‘Why didn't you show K-pop fans as like the screaming group of girls?’ I think that's because the members don't look at their fan base that way. They don't think of ARMY that way. There are moments like during the Weverse live, when the comment, "Miss you husband," comes up and RM replies, "Miss you wife." That's the playful interaction. But then it's more serious or a touching emotional moment when they're watching the old videos of themselves, and they see the Busan concert, and it's like, "Oh, I miss them." I think that's a beautiful thing. That's a genuine reaction to their fans, whom they love.

MC: I found it interesting that, after the documentary focuses on the behind-the-scenes, day-to-day lives of the members, it ends with just a preview of this massive, global cultural event comeback performance for Netflix. Was that a decision from the beginning to save those big rockstar moments for the film’s conclusion?

BN: I wanted the film to ramp up. The L.A. chapter and them recording is very unique and different from their image in Korea, right? You recognize these images of them in photo shoots and being huge celebrities coming back to Korea at the airport, but these quieter moments where they're interacting with each other at the dinner table or riffing on the direction of the songs and albums. I think that progression was really important. For audiences that don't understand the scale of BTS, we had to show that, but we knew we weren't going to have this big concert scene. How do you negotiate showing the scale, but it has to be in relation to what the story of the film is? That's why the [Yet to Come] screening scene where they could reminisce was really important, because you're seeing them react in real time to the fans and what they miss.

MC: How has the band reacted to the film?

BN: I haven't seen them since they've seen it, but we've gotten messages where everyone's like, "They love it. It's so different. They're really grateful for us." That warms our hearts. I mentioned earlier that I like making films not about people, but with people, and this felt like they were part of this journey with us. It's hard seeing yourself onscreen even if you're used to it. So them being generous with their time and them showing us gratitude for making this film means a lot to me.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Fans of Brandon Sanderson’s sweeping Cosmere universe kicked off 2026 on a high note, as it was confirmed that Apple TV has acquired the rights to bring the fantasy universe to the screen. Loyal fans will be thrilled (and relieved) to hear that Sanderson will retain creative control over the adaptations, including serving as a writer, producer, and consultant, with approval over casting, according to a January report from The Hollywood Reporter. That nearly unprecedented level of control is no doubt thanks to the massive influence he’s proven to have through the success of his many crowdfunded self-publishing ventures and the annual fan convention he hosts—on top of his massive book sales, having sold over 50 million copies, of course.

First up on the adaptation slate are the Mistborn and Stormlight Archive sagas, with the first taking the form of a film series and the latter arriving as a TV show. Though details are scarce, the Mistborn movie seems to be first in Sanderson's docket. Here’s everything we know so far about the Mistborn film adaptation.

Everything We Know About the 'Mistborn' Movie Adaptation

What are the 'Mistborn' books by Brandon Sanderson about?

The Mistborn series is slated to span four “eras,” with two completed so far. The first three books in Era One—Mistborn: The Final Empire (2006), Mistborn: The Well of Ascension (2007), and Mistborn: The Hero of Ages (2008)—follow a group of powerful magicians known as Allomancers as they attempt to overthrow an empire in their dystopian, ash-covered world.

Next up are the four books of Era Two, also known as “Wax and Wayne:" Mistborn: The Alloy of Law (2011), Mistborn: Shadows of Self (2015), Mistborn: The Bands of Mourning (2016), and Mistborn: The Lost Metal (2022). They take place 300 years after the original trilogy and feature characters capable of both Allomancy and another magic system, Feruchemy, as they investigate crimes in a gritty city.

Sanderson is now creating the third era of Mistborn, dubbed “Ghostbloods.” That trilogy will be set about 50 years after “Wax and Wayne,” in a world that looks a lot like the early computer age of the 1980s. Finally, the fourth era is expected to be a space opera with even more advanced technology.

When is the 'Mistborn' film adaptation coming out?

Unfortunately, as with the screen adaptations of several other beloved fantasy series—looking at you, Fourth Wing and ACOTAR—it may be a while. But fear not: Sanderson shared his first major update in months in August 2026, revealing on Instagram that he had finished a first draft of the screenplay.

"After many months of work, I'm thrilled to announce the first draft of the Mistborn screenplay is DONE! Just in time to celebrate the book's original publication, twenty years ago this month," he wrote in the caption of a photo of the paper script, titled Mistborn. "Do please remember that this is just an early step in a very long process, but I'm terribly excited by how it turned out!"

For what it's worth, it seems the writer is on track with the early pre-production schedule. In an early February YouTube video answering fan questions, Sanderson previously said that the screenplay would be his main priority of 2026 and that he planned to turn it in sometime in summer 2026. While he'll likely receive notes and the script will undergo revisions, this is a major step toward gearing up for casting and eventually heading into production.

To get you even more excited, he added a progress bar to his website homepage, which is now firmly at 100 percent for the script. (For the record, another progress bar on the site shows that he’s 100 percent done writing the next Mistborn book, which will kick off the third era of the series, though it's not due to be published until 2028.)

However, that’s about it on the production updates front. Sanderson noted in the February video that nobody else was attached to the project yet, saying, “We’re still not very far along. These aren’t coming next year.” Considering how long casting, filming, and post-production can take, we suspect it may not be until late 2028 at the absolute earliest that Mistborn could be released.

What else has Brandon Sanderson said about the 'Mistborn' adaptation?

Elsewhere in that February 2026 YouTube video, the Mistborn author expressed his excitement over working with Apple TV to adapt his Cosmere universe. He chose the streaming service after meetings with “all the major streamers and studios,” he said, not only because of the creative control Apple granted him, but also because “the partnership felt right.” As he explained it, “I’ve long been looking for a partner, not somebody just to sell things off to.”

And though the writer warned viewers that there’s “no guarantee” that any of the projects will definitely make it to the screen, he noted, “This feels really different this time. I think this one is really going to happen.”

Fans may recall that Sanderson previously made it pretty far in the production process of a film version of Mistborn—even getting (never-disclosed) cast members and a studio attached, as he wrote in a 2024 blog post—before it fell through. Here’s hoping this one does indeed happen.

Who is in the cast of the 'Mistborn' movie adaptation?

There may not be any stars attached to the Mistborn adaptation just yet, but that’s never stopped devoted fans from brainstorming their dream casts. One longtime favorite for any of several characters in the series is former Superman and The Witcher star Henry Cavill. Sanderson even seems to be aware of the popular theory. He seemed to refer to it in a 2024 blog post, confirming that a previous adaptation attempt had fallen through and writing that while casting decisions had been made, “No, Henry C. was not one of them.” Maybe the second time’s the charm?

Many across the internet agree that Dafne Keen, who’s appeared in Deadpool & Wolverine, His Dark Materials, and more, would make the perfect Vin, a young Allomancer at the center of the first Mistborn trilogy. There’s also widespread agreement that What We Do in the Shadows star Matt Berry should be the well-spoken nobleman Breeze.

Fans are more split on casting other key characters. Kelsier, the leader of the crew that recruits Vin, could be embodied by Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, The Boys actor Antony Starr, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, or a long-haired Chris Evans, to name just a few casting suggestions. Meanwhile, the role of Sazed, another member of Kelsier’s crew, could go to Babs Olusanmokun, Mahershala Ali, or Djimon Hounsou. And particularly interesting picks for the Lord Ruler include Mads Mikkelsen, Cillian Murphy, Lee Pace, and Nicolas Cage. Your move, Apple TV!

If you've been on the lookout for a new action flick led by fierce female leads, then Pretty Lethal should be your next watch. Prime Video's new thriller from the minds behind Atomic Blonde and Bullet Train stars five American ballerinas—Bones (Maddie Ziegler), Princess (Lana Condor), Grace (Avantika), Zoe (Iris Apatow), and Chloe (Millicent Simmonds)—who get stranded on the way to a life-changing competition in Budapest. When they check into a menacing inn run by Devora (Uma Thurman), the rivals have to use their high kicks and fierce dedication to fight their way out alive.

In honor of the movie's streaming release, Ziegler, Condor, Avantika, Apatow, and Simmonds sat down with Marie Claire to test their friendship with a game of How Well Do You Know Your Co-Star?. With the help of an offscreen interpreter for Simmonds, the young stars got competitive as they guessed each other's first jobs, first concerts, hobbies, favorite childhood books, and food pet peeves. It soon became clear that weeks of filming (and a month of "ballet-fu" trending) helped the quintet get extremely close.

Watch the full challenge above, then head to Prime Video to watch Pretty Lethal, streaming now.

Considering its number of record-breaking moments and long-awaited wins, the 2026 Oscars will go down in film history.

Last night, the 98th annual Academy Awards arrived to cap off a long and exciting awards season. (You can thank the Winter Olympics for the slight extension.) The nominees marked a year of wins for representation, with diverse films like Sinners and KPop Demon Hunters as frontrunners; triumphal returns for auteurs like Paul Thomas Anderson and Chloé Zhao; and huge strides for international films, as Hollywood's most-coveted awards became truly global.

As the best movies of 2025 were honored, we at Marie Claire kept track of the ceremony's highlights, from host Conan O'Brien's best segments to the moving speeches that brought tears of joy to the upsets we could not have predicted. Read on for the most memorable moments of the 2026 Oscars.

Conan O'Brien ran through this year's nominees as Aunt Gladys—and got really political—to open the awards show

Conan O’Brien returned to host for the second year in a row and delivered a stellar opening monologue, both for its biting sense of humor and thoughtful political bent. The comedian opened the ceremony with a fun journey through many of this year’s nominated films, courtesy of a nod to the final scene of Weapons. In Aunt Gladys drag, O’Brien was chased by an angry mob of children—just like Amy Madigan’s character in the horror blockbuster—traveling through memorable scenes of F1, Marty Supreme, Hamnet, One Battle After Another, KPop Demon Hunters, Sentimental Value, and Sinners, until eventually bursting through the crowd of the Dolby Theatre in L.A. and onto the stage.

Throughout his monologue, the host pulled heartthrobs and Best Actor nominees Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael B. Jordan, and Timothée Chalamet into jokes. But for the most part, he used his platform to discuss the dire state of the world—and encouraged talent to speak up throughout the night. “I should warn you that tonight could get political, and if that makes you uncomfortable, there’s an alternate Oscars hosted by Kid Rock down the street,” he joked, referring to the right’s reaction to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show. And he didn’t stop there; O’Brien made digs at the country’s lack of affordable health care, the poor handling of the Epstein files, and more. However, he mostly encouraged optimism and referenced how many of the nominated films have universal messages. “We pay tribute to the ideals of global artistry, patience, collaboration, and the rarest of qualities today, optimism,” he concluded. “Let us celebrate not because all is well but because we work and hope for better.”

Of course, he couldn’t go out without one more bonkers joke: O’Brien awarded himself an Oscar, while being crowned the equivalent of the Oscars Prom King with a robe, crown, and trophy handed to him from an eagle, all the while Josh Groban serenaded him. It’s Cinema’s Biggest Night, baby!

Scream Queen Amy Madigan won Best Supporting Actress

Horror seldom gets recognition by the Academy, so it was somewhat of a surprise when Weapons star Amy Madigan received a Best Supporting Actress nomination—and an even more pleasant surprise when she took home the trophy during the awards ceremony. The actress, who plays the cult-loved wig-wearing, witchcraft-wielding Aunt Gladys, was “flummoxed” by the win and cackling with laughter as she joked about thinking about what she might say on stage while taking a shower and shaving her legs the night before.

With the win, Madigan also made history as the actress with the longest break between nominations, as she returned to the Academy’s stage for the first time in 40 years. Having last been nominated in 1986 for Twice in a Lifetime, as she stepped on stage, she shared her feelings about the record-breaking moment: “This is great! Everybody's asking me in the press and all this, ‘Well, it's been 40 years, and, you know, what's different about this time?’ What’s different is that I’ve got this little gold guy.”

While it was exciting to see Madigan return to the stage and receive recognition from her peers—as well as shout out her fellow nominees (Wunmi Mosaku, Elle Fanning, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Teyana Taylor)—her win also marked the first time in quite some time that the Academy honored a performance in a genre film. (Demi Moore was nominated last year for The Substance, and Natalie Portman won in 2011 for Black Swan, although others, like Lupita Nyong’o for Us and Toni Collette for Hereditary, have been snubbed in the years since. Let’s go, scream queens!)

'Sinners' brought its most iconic scene to the stage

To celebrate the most-nominated film in Oscars history, the ceremony brought Sinners’s mystifying juke-joint scene to life. In a performance of the film’s Best Original Song-nominated “I Lied to You,” the track’s producer Raphael Saadiq gave a quick intro before Sammie himself, Miles Caton, serenaded his co-stars Jayme Lawson and Li Jun Li, as well as the dancers swaying in the juke. Lawson and Li weren’t the only co-stars who appeared; fictional vampires Jack O’Connell, Peter Dreimanis, and Lola Kirke were briefly shown trying to join the fun, but they were turned away.

As the performance summoned musical storytellers from the past and present, an array of stars joined the performance. Buddy Guy and Bobby Rush represented blues legends. Alice Smith joined Caton on backup vocals, along with rising country star Shaboozey. Eric Gales, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, and Brittany Howard shredded on rock guitar as a DJ brought in the beat. Meanwhile, African, hip hop, and traditional Chinese dancers filled the stage, and the grand finale was trailblazing ballerina Misty Copeland. As the crowd broke into a standing ovation, it was clear that Sinners’s astonishing display of the legacy of the blues had translated from screen to stage.

The first-ever nominees for Achievement in Casting got their time to shine

This year’s Oscars introduced an all-new category: Achievement in Casting, honoring the casting directors who help assemble the A-listers and fresh faces that make up a film’s ensemble. While the Academy airs every award during the live show, it has a bad rap for not always giving below-the-line nominees their moment. But Achievement in Casting got an extra-special nod (that was more than well-deserved, considering the department was previously overlooked in the award show’s 98-year history). Each casting director who received a nod—Nina Gold (Hamnet), Jennifer Venditti (Marty Supreme), Cassandra Kulukundis (One Battle After Another), Gabriel Domingues (The Secret Agent), and Francine Maisler (Sinners)—got a shout-out from one of the stars of the film they worked on, including Paul Mescal, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chase Infiniti, Wagner Moura, and Delroy Lindo. It felt personal and sincere, and like a peek behind the curtain at their essential yet often thankless cast. The moment ended with Kulukundis ultimately taking home the award and making history as the first-ever winner in the category.

The Best Animated Feature win for 'KPop Demon Hunters' was one for the dreamers

It wasn’t a big surprise when KPop Demon Hunters won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature; the global sensation spent awards season sweeping every awards body and guild. When co-directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, and producer Michelle Wong took the stage, they made sure to highlight how much the film has meant to the Korean diaspora.

“For those of you who look like me, I'm so sorry that it took us so long to see us in a movie like this,” Kang, who’s Korean-Canadian, said. “But it is here—and that means that the next generations don't have to go longing. This is for Korea and for Koreans everywhere.”

Appelhans also honored the film’s global impact with a message to other young artists with a story that’s never been told before. “Music and stories have this power to connect us as humans across cultures and borders,” he said. “So I just wanna take a moment to say to all the young filmmakers, artists, musicians in all corners of the globe: Tell your story, sing in your voice, I promise you the world is waiting.”

Rob Reiner, Diane Keaton, and Robert Redford’s In-Memoriam tributes made us ugly-cry

We lost many Hollywood legends in 2025, and the Academy honored them with one of the best In Memoriam sequences in recent memory. While the tribute included the typical montage of artists and creatives, including actors like Isiah Whitlock Jr., Graham Greene, Val Kilmer, and Robert Duvall, several stars also came to the stage to honor some of the film industry’s most famous icons.

The extended segment began with Billy Crystal, who shared fond memories of the late director Rob Reiner and a nod to “the millions who have enjoyed his films.” He was then joined by some of the actors who have appeared in Rob Reiner movies through the years, from Crystal’s When Harry Met Sally co-star Meg Ryan, to Misery’s Kathy Bates, to A Few Good Men’s Demi Moore, to The American President’s Annette Bening.

Rachel McAdams also highlighted the incredible actresses we lost last year, like Claudia Cardinale, Diane Ladd, Catherine O’Hara, and Diane Keaton. McAdams became emotional as she honored Keaton, her co-star from The Family Stone and Morning Glory. “She wore so many hats...literally and figuratively. But no hat more important to her than being mother to her two children,” McAdams said. “To our friend, Diane Keaton, celebrating a life in silver and gold, a legend with no end."

Finally, Barbra Streisand graced the stage to honor her The Way We Were co-star Robert Redford, fondly recalling how he used to call her “Babs.” She concluded by singing a snippet of her Oscar-winning ballad from the film, ensuring that there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

The 'Bridesmaids' cast reunited and had us in stitches

There’s only one comedy ensemble that became instantly iconic and can still say they are more beautiful than Cinderella, smell like pine needles, and have a face like sunshine. Obviously, it’s the women of Bridesmaids—and we were overjoyed that Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, and Ellie Kemper reunited on stage in honor of the blockbuster’s 15th anniversary. The legends presented the awards for Best Score and Best Sound, and made us audibly crack up in the process.

In a hysterical bit, they read “notes” sent up from the audience that just so happened to dish out backhanded compliments. Stellan Skarsgård, for example, thought they were “aging well,” and “the kid from Hamnet” was bored, wanted to go home, and was disappointed there was no pizza. They each got to highlight their individual comedic strides, like when Rudolph dropped the quick-witted, “earlier today when I was counting my money,” and Kemper explained she learned what sound was from “a woman [she] met on a rollercoaster.” It also looked like they got a kick out of each other’s deliveries and broke a little. All in all, it was a delight to see them all together again—and we’re still holding out for Bridesmaids 2.

Autumn Durald Arkapaw made history as the first woman to win Best Cinematography

After 98 years, the Oscar honored its first woman for Best Cinematography. Sinners cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw took home the historic honor for the male-dominated craft, to the explosive applause of her film’s cast and crew. Arkapaw began her speech by thanking the people who supported her throughout her career, including Sinners director Ryan Coogler (who she called ”a very, very honorable person”), cinematography pioneer Ellen Kuras, and Black Panther cinematographer and Oscar nominee Rachel Morrison. She then asked every woman in the room to stand, saying, “I feel like I don't get here without you guys…and I want to thank you for that.”

Arkapaw went on to thank the Sinners cast and crew, naming each actor in the ensemble. “These people are so beautiful, and I’m honored to be there photographing them,” she said. Finally, she highlighted her family in the room, including her young son Aiden, whom Coogler had collected from the back of the theater and ran up to join the cast. She concluded, “Thank you so much. This is an honor. Thank you.”

EJAE, Rei Ami, and Audrey Nuna of HUNTR/X get their “Golden” moment

After spending the past several months on the Billboard charts, the titular KPop Demon Hunters brought their record-breaking hit “Golden” to the stage. The performance began with a short history lesson on the Korean folk tale that inspired the film; as traditional Korean instrumentalists performed the “Hunter’s Mantra,” demon hunters of the past fought an ancient version of the film’s demon boy band. When EJAE, Rei Ami, and Audrey Nuna began singing, the Dolby Theater turned into the Golden Honmoon, thanks to a sea of flag dancers onstage and the lightsticks swaying among the audience.

Soon after, “Golden” was announced as this year’s Best Original Song, becoming the first K-pop song to win the Oscar. Though the songwriting and producing team’s acceptance speech was cut short, EJAE gave an emotional speech thanking her family, her fiancé, and the film’s cast and crew. “Growing up, people made fun of me for liking K-pop, but now everyone's singing our song and all the Korean lyrics,” she said. “I'm so proud. And I realized, like this song, this award is not about success, it's about resilience.”

Michael B. Jordan became part of Black Oscars history with his Best Actor win

In a year when none of the actor races had a clear frontrunner, Michael B. Jordan’s win for Best Lead Actor was the biggest surprise of the night. The Sinners actor, who gave a transformative performance as twin gangsters Smoke and Stack, is only the sixth Black actor to win the category. He honored those who came before him, past winners Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, and Will Smith, as well as Halle Berry, the only Black woman to win Best Lead Actress.

After taking the stage to rapturous applause, Jordan shouted out his family in the room before thanking Warner Brothers for “betting on the culture, original ideas, and original artistry.” He went on to thank Ryan Coogler, who has directed him in four films so far. “You’re an amazing, amazing person. I’m so honored to call you a collaborator and a friend. You gave me the opportunity and space for me to be seen,” he said. As the camera showed Coogler sending Jordan love through sign language, Jordan said back, “I love you, too, bro. I love you to death.”

Jordan went on to thank his Sinners co-stars, highlighting his love interests Wunmi Mosaku and Hailee Steinfeld. As he became emotional, he called the Black actors who paved the way for him “giants” and “greats.” And, to conclude, he thanked the fans who made Sinners a cultural phenomenon and all of his supporters. “I know you guys want me to do well, and I want to do that because you guys bet on me. I’m going to keep being the best version of myself I could be.”

Jessie Buckley dedicated her Best Lead Actress win to "the beautiful chaos of a mother's heart"

Oscars night took place on Mother’s Day in the U.K., so it was a lovely bit of kismet when Jessie Buckley was announced as Best Lead Actress. Though it was a competitive field, the Irish actress’s portrayal of an Elizabethan mother’s mourning received the title. Still, Buckley began her speech by thanking her “incredible” fellow nominees, saying, “I am inspired by your art and your heart, and I want to work with every single one of you.”

The Irish performer went on to seek out her family in attendance, thanking her parents “for teaching us to dream and to never be defined by expectation, but to carve from your own passion.” In her usual candid style, she told her husband, Fred, “You’re my best friend and I want to have 20,000 more babies with you.” As for her 8-month-old daughter, Buckley admitted that the infant “has absolutely no idea what's going on and is probably dreaming of milk,” before sharing her love. “This is kind of a big deal, and I love you, and I love being your mom, and I can't wait to discover life beside you,” she added.

Finally, Buckley thanked Hamnet author Maggie O’Farrell and director Chloé Zhao, before expressing her gratitude for the film. “To get to know this incandescent woman and journey to understand the capacity of a mother's love is the greatest collision of my life,” she said. “I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother's heart. We all come from a lineage of women who continue to create against all odds. Thank you for recognizing me in this role,” she concluded, before honoring her Irish roots by repeating her thanks in Gaelic. (She's now the first Irish woman to win in the category.)

'One Battle After Another' won best prize—and took a moment to honor the women at the film's center

At the end of the night, One Battle After Another took home the coveted prize for Best Picture. Earlier during the evening, the writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson also scored Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, as the film adapts Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, and Sean Penn won Best Supporting Actor. As the team accepted the award for Best Picture, they were overjoyed—so much so that star and Best Supporting Actress nominee Teyana Taylor couldn’t stop giving Anderson passionate, playful hugs as he helped lead her up the steps to the stage. Chase Infiniti, meanwhile, kept adorably jumping up and down with unadulterated joy.

After producer Sara Murphy spoke about what an honor it was to work on the political action-drama, Anderson gave another speech, noting how it was an incredible year in film. He pointed to the memorable films all nominated for Best Picture in 1975 (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, and Nashville), which have stood the test of time, likening them to this year's crop and how they all deserved to come out on top.

The filmmaker also joked that he “blew it” while accepting Best Director because he forgot to thank his cast. The auteur (who had been nominated for 11 other Oscars before winning any tonight) primarily directed his attention at the women at the film’s center whose performances kept it grounded, human, and compelling. He “especially” thanked Infiniti, calling the lead actress who portrayed Willa his “American Girl,” in reference to the heartwarming Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers needle drop in the film’s final moments. “You are the heart of this movie.”

Fans of Colleen Hoover novels know that it's best to grab a box of tissues before watching the big-screen adaptation of her 2022 book Reminders of Him. The tearjerker centers on Kenna (played by Maika Monroe), a woman newly released from prison after a car crash that killed her boyfriend, Scotty (Rudy Pankow). Unable to reunite with the daughter she had behind bars, the only person willing to give Kenna a chance is Ledger (Tyriq Withers), a local bar owner who was Scotty's best friend.

Given that devastating plot of the romantic drama, you wouldn't expect to describe the actors leading Reminders of Him as "goofy." But when Marie Claire sat down with Monroe and Withers for a game of How Well Do You Know Your Co-Star?, the two stars had a much more carefree chemistry than the emotional romance they portrayed onscreen.

In honor of the film's March 13 release, Monroe and Withers tested their friendship by guessing each other's favorite foods, guilty pleasures, most-used vocal stims, and most-iconic declarations of love. Though we provided multiple-choice options, the self-proclaimed besties didn't need them, as they had already gotten extremely close on set. After chatting with them, we wish we could hang out with the pair every day (especially if it means we'd get to hear more of Withers's impressions).

Watch the full challenge above, then head to your local theater to catch Reminders of Him.

After a long season of surprises, snubs, and red-carpet glamour, the 98th annual Academy Awards are just a few days away. This year's ceremony will cap off one of the most unpredictable awards seasons in recent years; most of the best drama movies of 2025 have picked up honors over the past three months, and there's no clear frontrunner in most of the acting races and Best Picture.

This year's nominees include a mix of record-breaking blockbusters (Sinners, KPop Demon Hunters, Marty Supreme), beloved auteur-led films (One Battle After Another, Hamnet), and strong international contenders (Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent, It Was Just an Accident). Plus, first-time nominees like Jacob Elordi, Michael B. Jordan, Renate Reinsve, Rose Byrne, Teyana Taylor, Wagner Moura, and Wunmi Mosaku hope to stamp their place in Hollywood history.

Read on to learn everything to know about the 2026 Oscars, including how to watch the ceremony and the nominated films.

When are the 2026 Oscars?

The 2026 Oscars will air live on ABC on Sunday, March 15 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. (Note: This is an hour earlier than the usual 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT start time for awards shows like the Golden Globes or the Grammys.)

As always, the ceremony will be held at L.A.'s Dolby Theatre.

How can I watch the 2026 Oscars?

Viewers with cable can tune into their local ABC channel or use their cable login to watch on a computer, phone, or tablet via ABC's app or website.

The Oscars will stream live on Hulu for all subscribers, regardless of subscription tier. (Ideally the streamer has created fixes for last year's glitches.) The full ceremony will also be available to watch on demand the following day.

If you don't have cable or a Hulu subscription, there are other ways to stream the Oscars online. Live streaming TV services like DIRECTV STREAM, Fubo, Sling TV, and YouTube TV provide access to ABC (and offer free trials).

How can I watch the 2026 Oscars red carpet?

ABC's official pre-show, On the Red Carpet at the Oscars, starts at 3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT on March 15. E! Live from the Red Carpet is also expected to start soon after at 4:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT.

Who is hosting the 2026 Oscars?

Emmy winner Conan O'Brien will host the Oscars ceremony for the second year in a row. The comedy legend signed up to return to the awards show just two weeks after his well-received hosting debut in 2025.

Who is presenting at the 2026 Oscars?

The Academy of Motion Pictures announced that the ceremony's presenters will include: Anne Hathaway, Bill Pullman, as well as his son Lewis Pullman, Channing Tatum, Chase Infiniti, Chris Evans, Delroy Lindo, Demi Moore, Ewan McGregor, Gwyneth Paltrow, Javier Bardem, Jimmy Kimmel, Kumail Nanjiani, Maya Rudolph, Nicole Kidman, Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Robert Downey Jr., Rose Byrne, Sigourney Weaver, Wagner Moura, and Will Arnett. Last year's acting winners, Adrien Brody, Kieran Culkin, Mikey Madison, and Zoe Saldaña, will also return as presenters.

Meanwhile, Matt Berry will serve as the ceremony's announcer.

Who is performing at the 2026 Oscars?

After last year's controversial decision to skip the Best Original Song performances, the Oscars are bringing them back...but just the two biggest hits.

The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that this year's ceremony will include live performances of “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters and “I Lied to You” from Sinners. Oscar producers explained their decision, citing how the two songs "have played a defining role in their global cultural impact and audience connection this year."

They should be pretty big numbers. It's been confirmed that the singing voices behind HUNTR/X—EJAE, Rei Ami, and Audrey Nuna—will take the stage to sing "Golden." Meanwhile, "I Lied to You" will be performed by Sinners star Miles Caton and R&B icon Raphael Saadiq. They'll also be joined on the stage by an exciting roster of musicians and performers, including Misty Copeland, Eric Gales, Buddy Guy (who had a cameo in Sinners), Brittany Howard, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Bobby Rush, Shaboozey, and Alice Smith.

Elsewhere during the awards show, Josh Groban and the Los Angeles Master Chorale will also perform.

According to THR, the other three tracks up for Best Original Song—"Train Dreams" by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner (Train Dreams), "Sweet Dreams of Joy" by Nicholas Pike (Viva Verdi!) and "Dear Me" by perennial nominee Diane Warren (Diane Warren: Relentless)—will be "introduced via custom-produced segments featuring film and behind-the-scenes footage."

Who is nominated at the 2026 Oscars?

As for this year's race, Sinners leads this year's Academy Award nominees with 16 nods. The vampire musical-thriller claimed a new record for the most nominations for an individual movie in one year, surpassing All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land's 14 nods.