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.
Angelina Jolie
On her pet peeves: “So many things. But my pet peeve is somebody who is a liar. Somebody who feels a need to not say the truth or what they want, what they feel. There’s a big version of that—and I’m not trying to be heavy about it—but people who say one thing and mean another, who aren’t completely who they are. I think a lot of people don’t say what they mean.”
On whether she always wanted to be an actor: “I did it in the beginning because it was my mother’s dream. My mom was my manager, and we were a team. I always wanted to buy her a house, and I started to pay the bills. When my mom passed, it was harder for me to be an actress because I realized how much of it was for her.”
Colman Domingo
On his love of fashion: “The capes! The colors! The drama! I’ve always loved dressing. I have an Easter Sunday picture of me as a kid: I’m wearing a red, white, and blue jacket with brown trousers and a tie that’s really big. My mom said, ‘Oh, baby, that doesn’t match, and I said, ‘But I like it! It makes me feel good! Which is why I’m not afraid of a little fringe or a ruffle. I need to feel like I’m a warrior in some way. After all, warriors and kings wear capes.”
His favorite reality show: “I recently started watching The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. Everybody there is being fabulous. I like it when they fight. I think that’s the appeal: It’s, you know what? I guess I’m pretty okay if I don’t have this kind of drama with anybody.”
Cynthia Erivo
Talking about her favorite reality show: “The Real Housewives of Atlanta. I also love Potomac. It’s fantastic. They’re very honest, which I like. Also, there’s no fighting or fisticuffs, but they will read each other crazily. Atlanta definitely gets a little rowdy, though.”
The first song she ever sang that impressed people: “There’s a song called ‘Almost Doesn’t Count,’ by Brandy, from her album Never Say Never. I would sing that all the time on the playground. The first time I sang onstage was during a nativity play. I was a shepherd, and they asked me to do ‘Silent Night.’ I don’t know why a shepherd was going to be singing, but I guess I was the only kid brave enough at that point to sing by themselves.”
Daniel Craig
On his pet peeve: “Social media—what it’s doing to our kids. It’s smoking, as far as I’m concerned. It’s killing them.”
Whether he gets starstruck: “Anybody who’s slightly famous, I get starstruck and lose the ability to speak, or go verbless. Meeting Steven Spielberg for the first time was quite something. I told him a really, really, really dirty joke. He had already cast me in Munich, so it was fine.”
Mia Goth
Her favorite reality show: “The Great British Bake Off. It feels like a hug. I’m trying to learn how to cook. I’m a little bit late to the game, but what they make on that show are real pieces of art.”
On showing her daughter films: “She loves Jurassic Park. She loves spooky movies. She’s like, ‘Mommy, I want something really spooky.’”
Paul Mescal
On whether he’s ever lied in order to get a role: “Yeah, I said I could drive for Normal People, and I could not drive. We’d signed the paperwork, I’d gotten the part, and then I’d forgotten about doing my driver’s license. So I ended up doing Normal People on a provisional license. I could only drive the car if there was a fully licensed driver beside me.”
On his first experience at the Oscars for his nomination for Aftersun: “The Oscars was the greatest circus that I’ve ever been to. I took my parents. My mom’s great in that environment. Dad got to dance beside Cher at an afterparty. He likes to say that he was dancing with Cher, but he was dancing in her vicinity. He was the happiest man on the planet. The thing about the Oscars is you’re able to go to the bar during it. They’ve got people who come and fill your seats. Mom felt like it was too rude to leave, so she became close friends with the people who were coming to fill the seats. I’d come back and she’d be like, ‘Do you want to go back to the bar again? I’m having a better time without you.’”
Tilda Swinton
How she first met Pedro Almodóvar: “Funnily enough, we met at what can only be described as a Hollywood party. It was like a South Park dream, with Liza Minnelli over there and Angelina Jolie over here, and we were both watching the party as a performance. We were marveling that we found our way there— that we were allowed in. We caught each other’s eye for an instant, and there was such complicity. We felt so familiar to each other, and then we started working together. I hope it never ends…”
On her character defining costumes: “The most exotic task I ever took on was playing a corporate lawyer in Michael Clayton. Playing a 400-year-old immortal was easy, but a New York lawyer—that was a stretch.”
Zoe Saldaña
Her secret skill: “I’m passionate about food. I can make rice and beans like nobody’s business.
I tend to judge people by how they make rice. That’s a true confession.”
Where she had her first kiss: “It was with a girl. I must have been 13 or 14. I was that girl who said, ‘Let’s play house!’ And that’s why I wasn’t invited to play at people’s houses. So I was already kissing a whole bunch of girls by the time I was 13 or 14. Girls are better kissers!”
[Photo Credit: Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott]
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