YOU CAN TELL a surfer by the unreasonable things they'll do to get in the water. A few years back, when the actor Jeffrey Wright was playing one of the leading roles in HBO's Westworld, he got into the habit of bolting from set during production breaks and driving an hour to the beach-and then driving an hour back to work. "Even if I could get just 45 minutes in the water," he tells me, "I would get down here every day that I could."
Westworld ran for four seasons, and eventually Wright began renting a place way out on the far western edge of Malibu, a whitewashed surf shack so close to the ocean that he can basically paddle out from his back porch when the waves allow it.
Wright's character was often paired with one played by Luke Hemsworth, and so they spent a lot of time sitting around on set, shooting the shit. Hemsworth, it turned out, was a born-and-bred surfer, so the two started hitting the beach together. Wright was still a little new to the sport, having gotten himself fully obsessed after some lessons with his daughter on vacation in Hawaii. Watching Wright figure things out, Hemsworth recalls, was "kind of like watching a baby giraffe walk. It's cute!" Over the years, Hemsworth has been impressed by the strides Wright, now 58, has made. "I think he's actually progressed faster than anyone I've seen," he says. Hemsworth can't resist another joke: "Especially for an older gentleman."
Finding a foothold in something difficult; wowing those around him: It's the same playbook Wright employed in his day job. Today, he occupies a tier all his own in Hollywood-a character actor who ranges across blockbusters and prestige TV, and, as will become clear this awards season, is also worthy of the most interesting, complex leading roles that we put onscreen.
この記事は GQ US の February 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は GQ US の February 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
MEET THE WILDEST CHARCTER IN THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSIC SCENE
Right now, to be the most important new voice in Afrobeats means you might just be the most important new voice in global music, period. That title currently belongs to Asake, a Nigerian singer with bonkers style and a penchant for making speaker-melting hits.
MARNI'S FRANCESCO RISSO WILL NEVER GROWUP
The eccentric Italian designer is proving that the very serious business of fashion doesn't have to be very serious at all.
WELCOME TO LAUREN HALSEY'S NEIGHBORHOOD
The red-hot 36-year-old artist has achieved global success with a very local approach: applying imaginative, laserlike focus to a few square blocks of her hometown. In doing so, she renders and reflects what it's actually like to live and work in-and never, ever leave-South Central Los Angeles.
DARK KINGDOM
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross-best friends and Nine Inch Nails bandmates-found unlikely creative fulfillment (and a couple of Oscars) by reassessing what they had to offer as musicians. Now they're thinking even bigger, and imagining an artistic empire of their own making.
INSIDE BANNY MCBRIDE'S LOWCOUNTRY COMEDY COMMUNE
After taking big screens and HBO by storm with his macho-lampooning humor, comedy hero Danny McBride uprooted his life in Hollywood to build his dream production studio in Charleston, South Carolina-away from the stifling industry, and alongside his closest friends and collaborators. That's where he's been unlocking a blistering new creative gear-and plotting his best work yet.
QUEEN of the YOUTH
Hunter Schafer has built a career by saying yes: to activism, to modeling, and then to acting, where Euphoria made her a star. Now, with a budding movie career and big plans in just about every field you can imagine, the Gen Z icon is figuring out exactly what sort of creative life she'd like to lead.
LEWIS HAMILTON IS CHANGING LANES
The seven-time F1 champ says he still has a world title in him-maybe this year, his final one at Mercedes; maybe next year when he joins Ferrari, a shocking move he tells us he manifested. But it's his passionate work outside of racing-in fashion, in film, in music-that's setting him up to keep making moves after the checkered flag drops on his racing career.
The New Gold Standard in Tasteful Watches
Piaget's Polo 79 once again marks the end of the steel sports watch's reign-and the start of something much more fun.
Captain Mbappé
We met him as a teenage prodigy. Now, with his PSG teammates Messi and Neymar gone, and a new job as French national team captain, Kylian Mbappé is reckoning with the responsibilities and privileges that come with being the man.
The full Ricky
Twenty-five years after becoming one of the most staggeringly famous men on the planet, a wiser, more assured Ricky Martin is taking another run at being a star. While also being himself, this time.