Class Act

With roles in two of this summer’s most anticipated films, 16-year-old angourie rice is on her way to stardom. but first, she has some homework to finish.

- Phoebe Reilly

If Angourie Rice is any indication, there may now exist a generation for whom Ryan Gosling is less of a total babe and more of a “cool uncle.” The 16-year-old Australian actress, who memorably portrayed Gosling’s sassy, kindhearted daughter in 2016’s neo-noir comedy The Nice Guys, believes she landed her breakout role because she didn’t see Gosling as a heartthrob. “I never had a pillowcase with his face on it, and that worked in my favor,” she says. Rice is Skyping from her home in Melbourne, curled up on the sofa in her pajamas next to her dog, a whippet named Lola. It’s tomorrow morning there, and she’s only just woken up. “The future is pretty good so far,” she assures me.

The rare rising star who attends a regular high school, Rice is zealous about her academic pursuits, even with two huge summer movies on the horizon—Spider-Man: Homecoming and Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled. She’s currently busy preparing a speech for English class on the absence of career diversity for women in film. In fact, when Rice was offered the role of Betty Brant, who predates Mary Jane as Spidey’s love interest, she needed a few weeks to consider what it would mean for her schoolwork. Also, she was nervous. “Once you’re in the universe,” she says, referring to Marvel’s ever-expanding cinematic world, “you can’t play another character. That’s it. You are that person forever. So, you know, it’s a bit of responsibility.”