Loved by cinephiles and hipsters alike, independent entertainment company A24 has achieved cult status as one of the best movie studios operating today. Behind hits such asEx-Machina,Moonlight, andLady Bird, the company has earned many Academy Award nominations and even won a few. With its ethos being passion over profit, A24 isn’t interested in reboots, prequels, or sequels. Instead, they value authenticity and stories that can (and need) only be told by one individual. Whilst these stories tend to be highly personal, their common themes of love, family, and identity are universal. And it is this, combined with their effortlessly cool aesthetic, that makes them so successful.
Over the years, A24 has worked with many actresses: indie darlings and A-listers included. From Saoirse Ronan, the misfit teenager inLady Bird, to Toni Collette, the tortured mother inHereditary, these women embody their painfully-human characters and make their idiosyncrasies their own. Equally, here are five actresses who could do just as good a job in an A24 movie.
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5Zoë Kravitz
Actress and modelZoë Kravitzcertainly looks the part of an A24 actress. A fashion icon, it’s not hard to imagine her amongst the trendy cast of A24’s hit showEuphoria. Or as one of Mills' cool and punky20th Century Women. Indeed, her role inHigh Fidelityproves she’s cut out for something similar.
Here, Kravitz plays protagonist Robyn Brooks, a record-store owner living in Brooklyn who recounts her past relationships through music. With her edgy fashion sense and detached coolness, Robyn is an A24 character through and through. And her music taste — which forms the show’s soundtrack — is also resolutely A24 (read: hipster). With praise flooding in for her performance inTheBatman, A24 would be wise to snap Kravitz up fast.
4Eliza Scanlen
Given her close relation toA24’s beloved Greta Gerwig, Eliza Scanlen is an obvious pick. In 2019, Scanlen played kind and feeble Beth March in Gerwig’s second coming-of-age movie,Little Women. Though A24 didn’t produce this Louisa May Alcott adaptation, its artful cinematography, themes of family and feminism, and the reusing ofLady Birdactors Saoirse Ronan and Timothee Chalamet place it within close proximity to other A24 movies.
Released the same year,Babyteethis another A24-esque movie starring Scanlen. Here, she plays the lead role of Milla Finlay, a teenager recently diagnosed with cancer. Very different in tone toLittle Women— which is generally upbeat —Babyteethbears a closer resemblance to A24’sThe Florida ProjectorThe Farewell: two bittersweet, character-driven dramas about dismal subjects (poverty and death, respectively). Light or dark, Scanlen is great at both.
3Bel Powley
Bel Powley, known for her lead roles inTheDiary of a Teenage GirlandCarrie Pilby, is another actress perfectly suited to an A24 coming-of-age movie. Again, it’s a surprise the formerwasn’tproduced by A24, being that it shares much in common with A24 dramasEighth GradeandLady Bird; namely, an awkward, fumbling protagonist, a focus on character over (unconventional) plot, and an indie soundtrack.
LikeLady Bird,The Diary of a Teenage Girlis also written and directed by a woman, Marielle Heller, and takes a refreshingly candidlook at female adolescence. In particular, the movie explores female sexuality and blurred lines from the perspective of a young woman dating her stepfather: themes Powley masters and A24 is adept at addressing.
2Lupita Nyong’o
Academy Award-winning actressLupita Nyong’oneeds to star in an Ari Aster horror. Having already worked with Jordan Peele onUs, it only makes sense that she works with modern horror’s other critically-acclaimed director: the director ofHereditaryandMidsommar. Both A24 movies,HereditaryandMidsommar, are disturbing, psychological horrors bursting with carnal emotion.
Incidentally, Nyong’o’s career has prepared her for this exact kind of role. InUs,she terrified audiences with her portrayal of blade-wielding Red, and in12 Years a Slave, she moved viewers to tears with her performance as the tortured, enslaved Patsey. An incredibly emotive, versatile actress, she deserves to join the ranks of scream queensToni Collette and Florence Pugh.
1Thomasin McKenzie
Thomasin McKenzie would also do well in an A24 horror or thriller. A star in the making, McKenzie was nominated for a Critics' Choice Award for her work in Edgar Wright’s psychological horrorLast Night in Soho. Starring alongside Anya Taylor Joy — who appears in A24’s horrorThe Witch— she plays whimsical Eloise, a young fashion student who has murderous visions of the past after moving to London.
A trippy, stylistic movie with retro music,Last Night in Sohois characteristically A24, and McKenzie’s performance in it rivals that of Scarlett Johansson (Under the Skin) andMorfydd Clark(Saint Maud). Her work inOldis also impressive, even if the movie itself isn’t. And she’s incredibly quirky, which helps as far as A24 is concerned.
