When Sebastian Stan greets you, there’s an earnest warmth in his voice that makes you forget, even for a moment, the intensity of the roles he’s embodied this past year. The 41-year-old actor is riding high on a wave of critical acclaim for his two vastly different but equally daring performances in “The Apprentice” and […]

Ariana Grande’s career is one of transformation. She’s mastered reinvention from her Nickelodeon beginnings to her chart-topping pop career. Now, in her most ambitious turn yet, she’s poised to dazzle the Oscars as Glinda, the Good Witch, in Universal Pictures’ blockbuster smash “Wicked.” But Grande’s venture into the emerald world of Oz is more than […]

If you think Nicole Kidman is playing the title role in “Babygirl,” the Oscar-winning actress wants a word with you. It’s just a few days before Christmas and I am talking to Kidman over Zoom for the first “Just for Variety” episode of 2025. Written and directed by Halina Reijn, the erotic thriller stars Kidman […]

RaMell Ross has something to say. With his latest film, “Nickel Boys,” the co-writer and director solidifies his reputation as one of contemporary cinema’s most daring storytellers. Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the film unearths the haunting realities of a fictionalized reform school, blending visceral storytelling with an experimental approach that has captured […]

Monica Barbaro is ready for her big spotlight. From flying high as a pilot in “Top Gun: Maverick” to embodying the iconic Joan Baez, Monica Barbaro is making her mark in Hollywood. With her latest role in the James Mangold-directed Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” Barbaro demonstrates her acting range and untethered ability to […]

Cynthia Erivo knows how to do this. Erivo has already dazzled audiences with her powerhouse performances on stage and screen. Still, her turn as Elphaba in Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked” has cemented her place as one of her generation’s most versatile and captivating artists. The first half of the two-part Wicked saga is already a […]

“The Fire Inside” has been years in the making. The Rachel Morrison-directed drama (in theaters now) tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, the Flint, Mich., native who became the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing. Ryan Destiny stars as Shields alongside Oscar nominee Brian Tyree Henry as her coach, Jason […]

The actor Joy Woods never thought much about “Gypsy” — at least not until she was cast in the show opposite Audra McDonald in one of the buzziest Broadway revivals of the season. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: “You see all the iterations of the show and you don’t see anybody that looks like you, […]

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details on the plot and ending of “Carry-On,” now streaming on Netflix. In “Carry-On,” Sofia Carson plays Nora, the pregnant girlfriend of Ethan (Taron Egerton), a TSA agent at LAX who has been blackmailed to take part in a plot to take down a plane with chemical weapons stashed in […]

When Steve McQueen was casting “Blitz,” his World War II drama about the bombings over London, actress Saoirse Ronan expressed interest. But there was a hitch. The role of a mother in search of her young son who has gone missing required some singing. So he hopped on a Zoom with Ronan, and they had a […]