Brie Larson Covers HARPER’S BAZAAR’s April 2023 Reinvention Issue

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Brie Larson covers HARPER’S BAZAAR’s April 2023 Reinvention issue styled by Samira Nasr and photographed by Collier Schorr.  
Hollywood has a well-worn path for “serious” actors. But since winning the Oscar, Brie Larson has become one of the industry’s stealthiest superstars by refusing to stick to the script.

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On how she thrives in true anonymity and aims to remain firmly in reality:
“I want to be in reality. I love reality. It’s all I want. My biggest fear is to not be in reality. It matters so much to me. I don’t wear super-flashy clothes when I’m out in the world because I want to stay in reality. I’m very good at confrontation in my relationships because I want to be in reality. I want to be in what’s as close to what’s true as possible.”

On pursuing an unpredictable string of action movies after winning the Best Actress Oscar at age 26 for her raw portrayal in the 2016 film, Room, and not following expectations that she would continue taking on similarly weighty roles: “I’m like, ‘Well, if I said, “What would you like for breakfast a year from now?” you would be like, “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”’” She understands why people like consistency. “It makes them feel like everything is going to be okay.”

On starting her own YouTube channel, Brie Is Online! in addition to the podcast, Learning Lots (with Jessie Ennis), to simply exist in the world as herself rather than to capitalize on her fame or “extend her brand”:
“I wanted to prove that I could put stuff out and it wasn’t going to be like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe she said that’ or ‘I can’t believe she did that.’ ” The past three years have given her perspective. She was grappling with big questions rooted in deep feelings, like “Am I allowed to exist? Am I allowed to just be lovable as I am? Am I worthy of just being here?”

On how she has to make an effort to keep her life and her characters’ lives separate: On Lessons in Chemistry, the set was connected and walkable. Everyone was dressed like it was the 1950s, and the cars were from the 1950s. She would wake before sunrise and drive to work and go into this building to live this other life, and by the time she left, it was dark again. “The only time I was myself was in the car and asleep. And after two weeks, I really had to sit there and go, ‘My name is Brie. It is 2022. Right outside that door it is downtown Los Angeles and no one knows about what’s happening in here. No one cares.’ ”

On why the idea of doing Captain Marvel frightened her at first: “I was scared of what would happen to me,” she says. She worried that it would cost her the ability to be a person in the world for the rest of her life, that it would prevent her from doing the things she loves, like going to museums, which nourish her ability to play other people on screen. The choice felt surreal. “I was like, ‘What world is this, where these are the choices I have to make as an artist?’ ”

On how she learned to contain expectations when participating in a billion-dollar franchise: “Anytime I feel like I’m being put too much on a pedestal, it’s my job to figure out how to remove that within myself.”

On feeling like she can’t bring value to a character when she goes too long without taking the time to experience life: “It’s like you’re just being a copy of a copy of a copy. You can’t play a character that’s based off of—I don’t know—watching documentaries and secondhand information.”

On being offered roles that seemed to be variations of her character in Room, and her desire to recalibrate what she wanted at 30: “I had all the same normal fears as everybody else about being single and being 30,” she says. Aside from everything that was happening in the public eye, she felt she would soon be called to make big life choices. “What do I want? How does a family and a future fit in with my weird life?” In October, she turned 33. “That’s such a big place to be in,” she says. “Certain existential questions come up.”

On owning her choices: “What I always come back to is, I have to live with myself in a way that nobody else has to. The choices I make, I have to live with, whether I regret them or not,” she explains. “Artistically, I always understood that. But for some reason, as me, it’s been totally different. You can follow me around on set and be like, ‘Wow, she really knows what she’s doing.’ And then I go home and I’m like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing.’ I get insecure, and I think I’m not enough, or I have a hard time asking for help or speaking up for myself in relationships.”

On her openness to the future, hope for having children and pure enjoyment of the everyday adventures: “I don’t have a next job. I don’t have a home. I don’t have a partner. I don’t have a plan. I’m just completely open,” she says. She’d like to have kids, though “how that happens, when that happens, in what capacity— I don’t know,” she says. She’s enjoying losing track of time (“I start to get back into ‘What do I like to eat? What time do I wake up? What time do I go to sleep?’ ”), exploring the world, going to art museums, and replenishing her creativity. Without this, she couldn’t take another job. “I have nothing left to give unless I go through this period of adventure.”

The Marvels director, Nia DaCosta on how Brie seamlessly taps into her emotions when needed: “We were doing a scene that was more emotional and Larson turns to me, take three or four, and goes, ‘So, I’m holding the tears in, but if you want them to fall, let me know.’ The kind of control she has over her instrument is really impressive.”

[Photo Credit: Collier Schorr for Harper’s Bazaar Magazine]

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