ELLE’s 2024 Women in Hollywood Issue – Part One

Danielle Deadwyler
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History Is Speaking Through Danielle Deadwyler

The Piano Lesson star is highlighting Black stories through her films.

On her upcoming role in The Piano Lesson, which will hit Netflix on November 22, Deadwyler plays Berniece, a mother trying to stay afloat after the death of her husband and warring with her brother over what to do with a treasured family piano: “August’s work has been a part of my life since I was young,” says Deadwyler, who began her career in Atlanta’s theater scene. “It has defined my understanding of Black culture, Black family, and Black community. It’s in my theater DNA.” Deadwyler has stayed close to her Southern roots, living in Georgia with her teenage son instead of moving to Hollywood. “My family is most important,” she says. “The art will spring from me whether I’m in a certain place or not. I’ve got homework to check and chicken to cook. Ain’t nobody got time for that other stuff.”

On the highs and lows of being a woman in Hollywood: “Being a woman in the industry is the same as being a woman in the world. You have all kinds of hoops and navigations to move through, and inequities. Black women are not as present onscreen as people would presume; the numbers and the data reveal that over time. We’re constantly striving for access and support. We have a crisis of leadership these days. But I think that we’re incessantly making ourselves stand firmly in the spaces that we’re occupying and learning how to advocate for ourselves in a real way.”

On holding her own in a cast full of men while filming The Piano Lesson: It was the greatest challenge of my life. [Laughs] It was beautiful. They were so loving, and the love was expressed in the deep, serious work that we were all endeavoring in. Malcolm [Washington] enabled everybody to do what they do. There was so much confidence instilled in us by just allowing us to be, and we all have a reverence for August’s work.

On staying engaged: “If you’re not fresh and if you don’t have new eyes every time, then what are you doing? Sam Jackson is 75 and still doing it. He knew everybody’s lines [on set]. If that ain’t my energy, then I need to go back home. I feel anew every time I get the chance to do anything.”

On her most challenging role, on or offscreen: “Motherhood. I’m always trying to figure it out. We’re thinking or overthinking and wanting to do things right. That’s what’s happening to Berniece in The Piano Lesson. How do I be a full self when I’m still weighted by things that are unaddressed? What will become of my legacy and my child? What will life be like in all of this chaos? So that’s the richest role, my biggest and most beautiful responsibility.”

Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón
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Emilia Pérez Stars Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña, and Karla Sofía Gascón Got Each Other Through It

Three very different actresses found sisterhood—and career-transforming roles—in the Spanish-language movie musical.

 Zoe Saldaña on if she had wanted to do Spanish-speaking roles before Emilia Pérez: “The opportunity never really came. Either the project just wasn’t the right fit for me or an Afro-Caribbean Latina wasn’t the right fit for the project. It’s a combination of a director’s vision, which you want to be respectful of and honor, and the other side, colonialism and colorism, which is rampant in Latin America. I was very much like, ‘Well, that’s okay, I’m going to dance to the beat of my own drum and I’ll go to space and I’ll be green and I’ll be blue [in the Avengers and Avatar films] and I’ll do all those things.’ Then 15 years go by, and I’m yearning for that reconnection.”

 Karla Sofía Gascón on Emilia Pérez having three female leads: “I don’t understand why we can’t have female leads who are really powerful. Honestly, I’m a little bit tired of women in movies always being shown as weak or suffering or having a ton of problems they’re unable to overcome. Movies have these male leads like Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt and people want to be like them. And why not women? Why can’t women have this type of work and portray these types of characters that people see themselves in?”

 Selena Gomez on what she wishes she knew before getting into show business: “I have no regrets and I have a fantastic family and there were rules laid down by my parents and I’m appreciative of that. However, I don’t think I would’ve done it very young if I was thinking of myself now. There were a lot of things that I felt stunted by. Then adding a lot of pressure from a lot of people didn’t help me develop a sense of self in my twenties. It was a very difficult time. I live with it every day. I try my hardest to stay positive about everything and focus on things like this [movie] that really make me happy. But I would just say maybe wait and have a little bit of a life.”

Selena Gomez on how Meryl Streep supported her on the set of Only Murders in the Building: “I remember being on set with Meryl Streep [for Only Murders in the Building], trying to shoot her side so that she could go home and have the next day off. Toward the end of the day, she said, “Wait, no, why aren’t we turning around?” And they said, “Oh, we’ll do that tomorrow.” And she goes, “No, no, I must come in, I should be here for them.” It was so classy and showed that she really still loved the craft and that she wanted to be there for us too. I’ll never forget her being barefoot, singing on set, just loving what she’s doing. I want that spirit, I want to always love what I do and be there for people.”

Selena Gomez on her most challenging role: “The most challenging one, because I was only 18 or 19, was Spring Breakers. It was the first thing I did right after my Disney show and it was such a crazy detour. That’s when I knew I was going to fall in love with filmmakers and really gritty, fun stuff that was a little too graphic.”

 Zoe Saldaña on a moment in her career that still amazes her: “I’m a girl from Queens. I really love being from Jackson Heights, but it’s such a world in its own. The day that Steven Spielberg gave me my first opportunity or James Cameron or J.J. Abrams or James Gunn, and then Jacques Audiard, my heart skipped a beat. Those are those moments where through that struggle that I have with loving myself, I’m repurposed. I’m compelled to see myself as others are seeing me, and the sacrifices that I’m putting in every day are being rewarded. It’s a shot of oxygen into my lungs, and it reshapes me and raises me; it reconnects me to my higher self.”

Karla Sofía Gascón on what she learned from working with Zoe and Selena: “It was a little complicated for me, at first. I really had to shed that fandom that anyone would have when working with two Hollywood stars. It took some effort for me. And I think sometimes it could have put our relationship at risk, but I wanted to make sure that they felt like family, that there was nothing that was going to interfere with our work.”

Mikey Madison
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After Anora, Mikey Madison Will Never Be the Same

In portraying a spirited sex worker with power and grace, the breakout actress learned much more than how to dance.

Madison on how everything is different after Anora and why she’s committed to destigmatizing sex work: Before Anora, Madison’s knowledge of that world was “minimal”; today, she counts a number of sex workers as friends. “Everything has changed,” she says. “I have a completely different perspective on it. In a club, women are almost in a position of power, but then outside of it, people view them in such a different way.” Ani is “a sex worker, but that’s just her job,” she continues. “She’s a person, and I hope she’s viewed as such.”

On the challenge of portraying a character so different from herself: “I found myself exerting a lot of energy every day to be at the place Ani was at, where she was always ready to get in a fight. She’s very quick, verbally and physically. I don’t feel I’m like that in any way. I wanted her to be very guarded on the outside, but completely torn up and emotional and ragged on the inside. I needed to be in both places, and for you to see, in her eyes, that she’s not just this totally tough girl. I wanted you to see all those layers of who she is, and so for me, getting to those places was important. But also exhausting.”

On whether the state of women in Hollywood has changed: “There’s a lot of room for improvement, obviously. Just being asked this question means something is not quite right. I would like to see more men in power being outspoken about women’s issues in Hollywood. I remember during #MeToo, when that was blowing up, I was like, “Where are all the men that were around during this time? Why is nobody saying anything? They must have known what was happening.” Obviously women are looking out for one another, but shouldn’t men be looking after women as well? I would like for that to change, because the kind of world we live in, men are in a position of power—actors, producers, directors. They should be uplifting women. I think that should be a man’s role.”

The 2024 honorees grace the December 2024/January 2025 covers of ELLE, on newsstands December 3, 2024 and on ELLE.com.

Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña photographed by Cass Bird
Danielle Deadwyler and Mikey Madison photographed by Micaiah Carter

[Photo Credit: Cass Bird/ELLE Magazine, Micaiah Carter/ELLE Magazine]

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• Karla Sofía Gascón
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• Micaiah Carter
• Mikey Madison
• Selena Gomez
• Zoe Saldana