On a blustery winter’s day in downtown Sydney, Danielle Macdonald slips into the studio with no fanfare and no entourage, tugging on her oversized purple sweater and smiling shyly at the BAZAAR crew, who are setting up for her shoot. The 28-year-old Australian-born, LA-based actor is a breakthrough star, with lead roles in films including Patti Cake$, Dumplin’ and the Netflix thriller Bird Box. She has flown in to attend Sydney Film Festival to promote her latest film, the Academy Award-nominated drama Skin, in which she stars alongside Jamie Bell. Based on a true story, the dark and topical tale concerns white nationalism in America. Macdonald plays Julie, the wife of neo-Nazi Bryon Widner, both of whom eventually leave the violent, hate-filled cult despite the danger surrounding them.
“[Julie’s] story is interesting because her father was a Klu Klux Klan member, so she grew up in that community, but he got out,” Macdonald says. “She wasn’t ever really into it herself, but she was there physically. And she fell back on what she knew.” Given the current rise of white-power hate groups and the divisive racial politics of the Trump era, Macdonald initially had reservations about the role, but concluded that “it is unfortunately something that is happening in the world. This is a true story, which should be discussed without glorifying it,” she says. “It was hard, and Jamie and I talked about it before. We didn’t want to sympathise with [Bryon], we just wanted to understand his journey, how he got there and how he got out. The viewer will make a judgement at the end if these people can be forgiven or not. But I think if we allow people to change, then maybe a new generation won’t grow up with hate.”
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Grounded In Gotham
As she acclimatises to life under lockdown in her adopted city, model Victoria Lee reflects on fear, family and the fortitude of New Yorkers
Woman Of Influence Ingrid Weir
With a knack for elevating creative yet quotidian spaces and a love of bringing people together, the interior designer is crafting a sense of community among young artists.
CODE of HONOUR
At Chanel’s latest Métiers d’art showing, house alums Vanessa Paradis and daughter Lily-Rose Depp reflect on the red-carpet alchemy of Coco’s beloved bow, chain, camellia and ear of wheat.
Stillness in time
Acclaimed Australian fashion designer Collette Dinnigan’s new life in Italy has been a slowing down of sorts — but now, with coronavirus containment measures in play, life inside the walls of her 500-year-old farmhouse in Puglia has taken on a different cast, she writes
In the BAG
Aussie expat Vanissa Antonious from cult footwear brand Neous on going solo and stepping up her accessory offering.
uncut GEMMA
Forging her own path while paying it forward to the next generation, actor Gemma Chan is the (very worthy) recipient of the 2020 Women In Film Max Mara Face of the Future Award. She reflects on fashion, the Crazy Rich Asians phenomenon and red-carpet alter egos with Eugenie Kelly
THE TIME IS NOW
Esse Studios founder Charlotte Hicks’s slow-fashion model may just blaze a trail for the industry’s new normal. She talks less is more with Katrina Israel
COUPLES' THERAPY
Brooke Le Poer Trench ruminates on the trials and tribulations of too much time together
CALM IN A CRISIS
Caroline Welch was a busy woman who wrote a book on mindfulness for other busy women. Now, in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, she has started to take her own advice
ACCIDENTALLY RETIRED
As we settle into the new normal of lockdown, Kirstie Clements finds a silver lining in the excuse to slow down and sample the low-adrenaline lifestyle of chocolate digestives, board games and dressing down for dinner