Act two of Vanity Fair’s Cocktail Hour, Live!, a virtual awards-season charity event, debuted on Wednesday, April 14, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. Like a well-crafted beverage, the evening mixed all the right ingredients—from a rapid-fire Proust Questionnaire with Charlize Theron to a cocktail class and experience with Vanity Fair’s Britt Hennemuth and GREY GOOSE® ambassador Selena Donovan.
As with Tuesday’s act one, narrator Maya Rudolph and Vanity Fair editor in chief Radhika Jones ushered remote audiences into the party, which is presented by GREY GOOSE Essences and Lancôme, and supported by Cointreau and Tequila Don Julio. Cocktail Hour, Live! will support the Hollywood community and Los Angeles, with a portion of ticket-sale proceeds donated to the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) to help support COVID-19 relief efforts. For more information and to purchase tickets for act three of Cocktail Hour, Live! as well as on-demand viewing through April 22, visit vf.com/live.
Ahead, a few highlights from act two, which featured a shaken (not stirred) lineup of Laura Dern, Ziwe, Shaka King, Glenn Close, Emma Corrin, Jessica Alba, Cecily Strong, and more.
A month after winning nearly every award for her performance in Marriage Story and ringing in her birthday later on Oscars night, the world as Laura Dern (and everyone else) knew it abruptly stopped in its tracks. But quarantine couldn’t slow her down for long. In 2020, Dern executive produced the Oscar-nominated animated short If Anything Happens I Love You, an emotional film about grief and gun violence. She also finished filming the upcoming Jurassic World: Dominion and even learned a TikTok dance or two from her daughter, Jaya.
But despite Dern’s full dance card, she said that easing back into production amid a pandemic had its challenges. “It was a very complicated and daunting consideration to go back to work at such a crucial and scary moment,” Dern explained to Vanity Fair’s Radhika Jones. Still, filming for the movie, which reunites Dern with OG cast members Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill, was completed safely for a summer 2022 release date. “It’s beautiful to all be together and we had an amazing time,” Dern said, before joking, “And there are creatures that I only wanna see again in the movies. I never wanna see them in person. I was scared every day at work.”
Dern and Jones also spoke about the Oscar winner’s involvement in the upcoming AMPAS museum, her possible portrayal of Senator Wendy Davis in a film project, and the resonance of an infamous Big Little Lies line: “I will not not be rich.”
For Shaka King, the Oscar-nominated director, writer, and producer of Judas and the Black Messiah, immersing himself in Hollywood felt a little like growing up in predominantly white spaces. “I knew I’d been one of the few Black people in the room, because I’d been one of the few Black people in the room since seventh grade or so,” he explained to Ziwe, another industry figure well versed in the art of disruption. “That had been my experience. I knew what it felt like. I knew how it’d affect me. I knew when to get out. I just knew a lot.”
King’s experiences served him in making a challenging film about the Black Panthers, centered around its leader Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) and FBI informant William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield), in a studio system. “It’s a tricky balancing act,” King said, later adding, “There’s that term ‘using the master’s tools to burn down the master’s house,’ which I don’t think is possible, but I do think you have to use those tools.” Ultimately, the filmmaker decided, “We didn’t burn down the master’s house, but we did, like, spray-paint a dick on his door.” Ziwe slyly replied, “And that is revolution. I think that’s what Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey were talking about.”
During their conversation, King and Ziwe reflected on learning about Fred Hampton for the first time and the difference between building a revolution—and discarding those who would get in the way of its prosperity.
When one thinks of Glenn Close’s career, they may conjure images of her most iconic costumes—from the snow leopard prints of 101 Dalmatians to the nurse’s costume in The World According to Garp. Viewers can thank costume designer Ann Roth and Close’s personal costumer, James Nadeaux, for her sartorial dominance. After decades of working together, the trio reconvened to share Hollywood costuming war stories.
From navigating tough corsets to crafting the perfect Cleopatra getup, it’s clear that Close, Nadeaux, and Roth have formed a tight bond. Their collaboration began on 2004’s The Stepford Wives remake, in which Close played the evil model of a perfect suburban woman. Due to the characters’ superhuman attributes, Roth got the “whimsical idea” to insert fake nipples under all of the movie’s costumes. “I remember I had the fake nipples put in all of their bras so that they would show through, from their dresses out,” Roth remembered. “And it horrified (producer) Scott [Rudin] and [director] Frank Oz. Anyway, they all had to be removed. And they had been stitched in by, like, nuns.”
During the group’s wide-ranging conversation, they also discussed Close’s first entrance as Cruella de Vil and an upcoming exhibit of the actor’s costume collection at Indiana University, which will be on display from May 6–November 14.
Innovative Swedish designer Yves Béhar, the mastermind behind products for companies including Samsung, SodaStream, and Puma, believes that “design accelerates the adoption of new ideas.” But despite futuristic plans at his studio, Fuseproject, the entrepreneur’s motto comes from a very nostalgic source.
“I loved Pippi Longstocking as a kid because she was this rebel child who was solving problems and getting her way,” Béhar told Vanity Fair’s Mark Rozzo. “I was a very big admirer of all of her funny ways to go about life and to challenge the adult world, which is obviously exciting to see other kids do that when you’re a kid yourself.” “I could definitely relate to her pushing those boundaries where children are supposed to stay,” he remembered. “What she said is, ‘I’ve never tried that before. So I think I should definitely be able to do that,’ which is very much the mentality that I used when I started my studio, Fuseproject.”
Béhar got candid about his approach to 21st-century design during a conversation with Rozzo—talking robot dystopia, his new book Designing Ideas: Twenty Years of Fuseproject, and the irony of an old-fashioned as his preferred cocktail.
At its core, Never Have I Ever is best played with people who aren’t afraid of airing a little dirt. Luckily, Jessica Alba, Emma Corrin, Kelly Rowland, Kelly Sawyer, and Cecily Strong are unafraid to put a face to their best blind items. In a rousing round of the game presented by GREY GOOSE Essences, the participants were asked to disclose all-important information about their history of breaking the five-second rule, joining the mile-high club, and sending a “successful” DM.
It was Corrin, breakout star of The Crown’s latest season as Princess Diana, that asked whether her fellow players had ever crushed on a costar. “I crush very easily,” she admitted. “We all wanna know—was it Prince Charles?” Sawyer asked with a smile. “Actually, no,” Corrin replied. “You know what, it wasn’t Prince Charles, which was probably for the best because that was a long shoot. So that could’ve been excruciating.”
While Corrin wouldn’t unmask the identity of her crush, she did divulge her view on ghosting. “I’ve never not turned up for the date,” she said. “I don’t think I’m asked on enough dates. So when I’m asked on a date, I’m like, ‘Obviously, I’m gonna go.’” Strong also said she’d never ghosted anybody, “but I’ve not turned up emotionally after that”—drawing laughs from the group.
Vanity Fair will donate* 20% of the actual purchase price of tickets (less taxes and fees) from vf.com/live. to support Motion Picture Television Fund from March 25, 2021, through April 15, 2021. All donations shall be made payable to the Motion Picture Television Fund, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Learn more at https://mptf.com/. Purchases are not tax-deductible as a charitable contribution by customers. Donations will not be made in connection with sales to residents of Georgia, New Hampshire, and New Jersey.
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— Serena Williams, Michael B. Jordan, Gal Gadot, and more are coming to your favorite screen April 13–15. Get your tickets to Vanity Fair’s Cocktail Hour, Live! here.