Nicole Kidman’s Balenciaga Role, Jenna Ortega Goes Dark for The Face
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
WOMEN ON THE VERGE: Nicole Kidman’s latest role has her heading to the office.
The “Big Little Lies” star appears in the spring 2023 campaign for Balenciaga alongside French actress Isabelle Huppert, South Korean actress and model Han So-hee and models Bella Hadid and Khadim Sock. Dressed in business attire, they portray executives in moods veering from boredom to stress.
More from WWD
Featuring the brand’s new Garde-Robe line of wardrobe staples, launching in December, the ads were shot by photojournalist Joshua Bright, who works primarily for The New York Times and has also seen his images published in The Guardian, The Washington Post, Vogue and National Geographic.
The accompanying videos were made by Rosie Marks, known for her portraits of unguarded subjects. The London-based photographer has campaigns for Bottega Veneta, Martine Rose, Ganni and Marc Jacobs under her belt.
Kidman is shown perched on her desk in a belted black croc coat, black tights and black high-heeled shoes. In another shot, she wears a pleated white dress with black polka dots. In the accompanying video, she speaks on the phone while lounging on the carpet and slipping off her shoes. “I gotta go back to work. Lunch is over,” she breathily concludes the call.
In a statement, Balenciaga said further videos show Kidman calling a friend to gossip while eating cherries, and breaking equipment in a rage. Huppert reads the numbers on a check over the phone and becomes agitated, then listens to a guided meditation; So-hee does her nails; Hadid sighs while tapping her phone, while Sock scrolls through selfies.
The resort collection was first shown in May on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on masked models, in a dystopian runway display that channeled “Wall Street,” “Working Girl” and “Alien” all at the same time. Kidman, meanwhile, appeared in the brand’s fall 2022 haute couture show in Paris in a silver foil dress. – JOELLE DIDERICH
ALL ABOUT WEDNESDAY: Jenna Ortega is ready to explore the dark side, as she fronts the cover of the latest issue of The Face magazine looking pale and even a bit possessed, and declaring that “I love things that are disturbing.”
Ortega is set to reinvent her image as she stars in the coming-of-age, supernatural and horror-comedy series “Wednesday” — the TV version of the cult film series “The Addams Family” — by Tim Burton.
Coming out a day after the show lands on Netflix on Wednesday, the magazine features a series of images of Ortega bringing the Gothic and quirky qualities of Wednesday Addams to life.
The visuals are accompanied by an interview conducted by Ortega’s Disney Channel pal and pop star Olivia Rodrigo. Ortega and Rodrigo starred in two popular Disney Channel shows, “Stuck in the Middle” and “Bizaardvark,” respectively, around the same period.
The two discussed post-Disney life, dealing with fame, and meeting with Christina Ricci, who played the role of Wednesday Addams in the movies that came out in the early ’90s.
Ortega also shared that she would like to explore new genres beyond horror. This year alone she has appeared in the slasher film “X” and the remake version of the cult classic “Scream.”
“I would hope I’m doing jobs that excite me. I think I’d tend to go down the more dramatic indie route. Maybe a good slasher or two in there. I’d like my jobs to be diverse. If I reach some sort of widespread genre collection, that would be exciting for me,” she said in the interview.
Matthew Whitehouse, editor of The Face, said there is no better way to “cap off a horror show of a year for U.K. politics than an issue packed with all manner of strange and haunting things.”
Other highlights in the new issue include a series of stories exploring the resurgence of Goth; an interview with Alex Cooper, host of “Call Her Daddy,” the podcast that Spotify acquired for $60 million last year, and an editorial of the American singer-songwriter and artist Ethel Cain shot by Lotta. — TIANWEI ZHANG
