Artists

KATE WINSLET • CHLOÉ ZHAO

N.K. JEMISIN • MARK BRADFORD

SCARLETT JOHANSSON • STEVEN YEUN

JASON SUDEIKIS • OMAR SY

JESSICA B. HARRIS • DANIEL KALUUYA

BAD BUNNY • BARBARA KRUGER

TRACEE ELLIS ROSS • KANE BROWN

BOWEN YANG • LIL NAS X

KATE WINSLET

MAGNIFICENT ACTOR

BY KENNETH BRANAGH

I FIRST AUDITIONED Kate Winslet when she was 17. I thought she was 25. Such was her self-possession, presence and concentration in the room. When she walked out the door, I turned to the casting director and said with certainty, “We have just met a star.”

Three years later, I cast her as Ophelia in a film of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I did not ask her to audition. She brought a detective’s energy to rehearsals. She listened with superhuman acuity, and expressed character with effortless depth. She connected with Shakespeare entirely naturally.

In HBO’s Mare of Easttown, those same qualities are radiant, having now evolved into a truly awesome acting technique. Only now, hers is the art that entirely hides the artist. Kate Winslet disappears, and Mare emerges complete, without vanity or artifice. It’s magnificent to watch.

I still see her as 25, but now as a master of her art.

Branagh is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker and an Emmy-winning actor

PHOTOGRAPH BY AUSTIN HARGRAVE

CHLOÉ ZHAO

Groundbreaking director

BY ANG LEE

Chloé Zhao seized the world’s attention with her 2017 film The Rider, a sparse and stunning portrait of a struggling Native American family in South Dakota. And she did so again with Nomadland, for which she became the first Asian woman to win an Oscar for Best Director. With a compassionate eye, she deftly weaves together narrative and documentary in a way that captures the spirit of the characters’ inner selves, allowing us to see into their lives and truly understand them. Even her heartbreakingly beautiful objective shots are a reflection of the mind—deeply sad, yet incredibly kind.

Chloé seems to be a nomad in