Our dynamic dozen have turned in terrific performances over the past few years, running the gamut from prestige television to indie films to box office smashes, and they’re racking up award nominations and industry honors—all that goes without saying. What truly sets them apart is their willingness to take risks, surprising their audiences and maybe even themselves with their range and ambition. Julia Garner’s journey from a scene-stealing teen on The Americans to the spitfire Ruth Langmore on Ozark to the Céline-sporting con woman Anna Delvey on Inventing Anna already qualifies her as a national treasure. Jonathan Majors just wowed crowds at Sundance with his turn as an aspiring bodybuilder in the new movie Magazine Dreams (other new projects, for a change of pace, include Creed III and a Marvel Studios Ant-Man and the Wasp sequel), while Florence Pugh, who’s had a monopoly on onscreen magnetism ever since she rebranded Little Women as an Amy March vehicle, heads for the deserts of Dune, joining Austin Butler, a.k.a. Elvis. It’s all par for the course for these extraordinarily talented people.
If our cover subjects are redefining movie stardom, Gloria Swanson helped invent it in the first place. So we’re delighted to publish a deeply personal and wickedly observant piece by Vanity Fair living legend Wayne Lawson, all about his surreal and triumphant experience ghostwriting Swanson’s autobiography starting in 1979. He also sets the record straight regarding the contributions of her business partner and (much) younger lover, Brian Degas. Wayne began working at VF in 1982 when it was being relaunched by S.I. Newhouse Jr., and during his 32-year tenure at the magazine edited Dominick Dunne, Bob Colacello, Patricia Bosworth, and other prominent writers. He has been holding this story close for decades, and we’re so glad that the time was finally right to share it.
The Hollywood sign turns 100 this year, and in a dispatch from its iconic setting, Mark Seal writes about its enduring capacity to inspire cinematic dreams. From first-time Oscar nominees Ana de Armas and Austin Butler on our cover to first-time Oscar nominee Bill Nighy answering the Proust Questionnaire on our back page, we hope this year’s Hollywood Issue inspires those dreams too.
