To kickstart the year, excited to share the covers of W MAGAZINE’s first issue of 2025, Volume 1, Best Performances. The highly anticipated Best Performances portfolio is an annual feature curated by W’s editor-at-large Lynn Hirschberg and highlights stars at the forefront of cinema, from industry legends and icons to those whose phenomenal talent is ushering in a new wave of stardom.
Celebrating 34 actors who were thrilling, mesmerizing, and, ultimately, unforgettable, this year’s Best Performance issue features Adrien Brody, Angelina Jolie, Ariana Grande, Colman Domingo, Cynthia Erivo, Daniel Craig, Demi Moore, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Mia Goth, Nicole Kidman, Paul Mescal, Saoirse Ronan, Selena Gomez, Tilda Swinton, Zendaya, and Zoe Saldaña across sixteen unique covers photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott and styled by W MAGAZINE’s Editor-in-Chief, Sara Moonves.
Volume 1, Best Performances hits stands February 11, 2025.
Adrien Brody
On his favorite Halloween Costume: “I love Halloween—maybe because, as a boy, I could be a character. The first costume I loved was Gene Simmons from Kiss. I could still play Gene Simmons. That would be a good part—he’s had some life.”
The movie that makes him cry: “I can’t watch The Pianist . It was traumatic to embody that character [a victim of the Holocaust during World War II]. I lost 30-something pounds—I’m six feet one, and I weighed 129 pounds. The experience of understanding that deep sense of hunger has never left me. To understand what that opened up inside me is still terribly upsetting.”
Ariana Grande
On her love of The Wizard of Oz: “I used to sit in front of the TV in my little gingham dress and study Judy Garland’s body movements, how she held herself and Toto. My first vocal impersonation may have been Judy Garland. I’ve always had a fascination with sounds and tones and different accents. My first memory is singing with my mom in the car to Barbra Streisand or *NSYNC or ‘Over the Rainbow.’ Music was always at the forefront of my life. The odd thing is that I remember watching The Wizard of Oz in the gingham dress, but I paired it with a Scream mask. I thought, I need to put a spin on this! That was my creative vision.”
The film that makes her cry: “The Waterboy, with Adam Sandler. When they’re mean to Bobby Boucher, I cry. I don’t like it. He says, ‘Would you please still be my friend?’ and I lose it.”
Demi Moore
Whether she’s more like a cat or a dog: “I am a balanced mix. I’m friendlier than a cat. I would say I am a phoenix that has risen from the ashes multiple times in this one lifetime. In that way, I’m more catlike. In Chinese astrology, I am the tiger. That may be my true identity.”
On her doll collection: “I do have a contemporary art doll collection. They’re not like dolly dolls. They’re not even porcelain. They’re one-of-a-kind, hand-sculpted. I think of them more like sculptures that capture a moment of emotion, but it’s in a miniaturized human being. The very first one that started this was from my then husband, Bruce Willis. I had just had a baby, and he had to leave to do press on a movie. Our daughter was maybe a week old, so he brought this doll by the French artist Anne Mitrani back as a gift. For me, it was something that captured a sense of play or maybe gave me permission to explore a different type of emotion, but I don’t continue to collect.”
Kingsley Ben-Adir
On whether he had to audition for Barbie: “Yes. I met Greta Gerwig and she said, ‘We’ll make something for your Ken.’ I think he was on the sweeter side—he didn’t want to go to war with the other Kens. It was life and death!”
The movie or TV show that makes him cry: “There’s an episode of The Sopranos that makes me cry every time. It’s called ‘Whitecaps.’ It’s Edie Falco, and she’s had enough of Tony’s shit. There’s this moment where she’s like, ‘I’m going crazy.’ You can rewind that moment and feel it every time. And there’s a movie called Fresh Kills. It didn’t get much attention, but I got the T-shirt. I was stunned at the lead actress’s performance. It was mind-blowing. She had me on the edge of my seat.”
Nicole Kidman
Whether she sings in the shower: “I do. I also hear Keith [Urban, her husband] singing in the shower, and I’ll hear his new songs forming. We have a double shower. The double-headed shower: key to a successful marriage. Separate commodes and a double- headed shower!”
Whether she’s ever crashed a party: “Who hasn’t? But it’s not really my style, because I don’t have the guts to walk into a party by myself. When I was younger, I would drive up to a party and I’d be all dressed up, but if I was alone I couldn’t go in. Isn’t that crazy?”
Saoirse Ronan
Her favorite reality show: “Married at First Sight: Australia. The Aussies are extra! They are so hectic— they take it somewhere else. I skipped the American version and the one in the U.K. I’ve gone straight to Australia.”
Whether she ever gets starstruck: “Only with musicians or people from TV. I saw Amy Poehler recently, and I died. When I met Stevie Nicks, I died and went to heaven. If I met someone from Married at First Sight, I would freak out. But we’re not hectic enough for them.”
Selena Gomez
On where she had her first kiss: “On TV! I was 11 or 12 years old, and I guest-starred on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, with Dylan and Cole Sprouse. I was very nervous. It was with Dylan, and both of us were so young. We were figuring out how to kiss. I was so scared.”
Whether she likes Halloween: “I love it. Until this year, I hadn’t dressed up for Halloween since I was a kid. We were invited to a party, so I had a reason to dress up. I was Alice from Alice in Wonderland, and my boyfriend [now her fiancé] was the Mad Hatter. He used prosthetics! I think it’s safe to say we won best costume at the party.”
Zendaya
Whether she’s superstitious: “I have this joke that if my nail breaks, I break. If my nail chips or if I’m on the verge of losing it, I’m thinking, I can’t have my nail break because then I know I’m about to have a meltdown. It usually lines up with me being exhausted.”
Whether she played tennis before filming Challengers: “I never really played tennis before, and tennis is not a sport that you can just pick up and be great at. I didn’t know how to hold the racket, didn’t know the form, didn’t know a thing. And plus, at the time, I wore glasses, so I could barely see the ball coming at my face. But every bit of the tennis in the film was thought through and choreographed, so I said, well, maybe I should learn the choreography. That’s something my body has experienced.”
[Photo Credit: Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott]
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