Lifestyle

At Disneyland's Pixar Place Hotel, hang out with Bing Bong and fall in love with animation

Published

2 years ago

February 3, 2024

At Disneyland's Pixar Place Hotel, hang out with Bing Bong and fall in love with animation

They say you shouldn’t sleep where you work, but Pixar chief Pete Docter means it at as a compliment when he says that Disneyland’s reimagined Paradise Pier Hotel — now branded to the Emeryville-based animation powerhouse — is like “walking into Pixar.”

An exaggeration, sure, but the Pixar Place Hotel entryway that greets guests echoes some of the branding seen on the company’s official campus, thanks to a large desk lamp — a nod to Pixar’s “Luxo Jr.” short and the “i” in Pixar’s logo — atop a ball with a red star. Likewise the mix of character designs and encased maquettes that dot the check-in area.

But the chilled-out takes on Pixar soundtracks, splashes of color and a couch that nods to Heimlich the caterpillar from the film “A Bug’s Life” ever-so-slightly shift the tone. There’s still an underlying corporate campus feel, but the aim is something warm, inviting and slightly whimsical — check the back of the lobby couch that acts as a jumping-off point for wall sketches of Remy from “Ratatouille.”

The feel — part art gallery, part lounge — is a drastic improvement from the hotel’s Paradise Pier days, when its entry corridors felt more like commuter spaces than comforting ones. The revamp of the Paradise Pier Hotel into the Pixar Place Hotel is the latest reinvention for the place of lodging at 1717 Disneyland Drive. Walt Disney Co. acquired the Anaheim property in 1995, when the 15-story building was known as the Pan Pacific Hotel, but its Paradise Pier Hotel days were likely numbered when the Paradise Pier section of Disney California Adventure became Pixar Pier in 2018.

“For those of you who are into the creative process, I think you’ll be really happy,” said Docter at the hotel’s opening ceremony this week. “This hotel really celebrates that. You get to see rough drawings, color studies, animation sketches.”

There’s more to know if you’re considering a stay at the Pixar Place Hotel. Here’s what stood out from a tour of the property.

Achieving the Pixar tone

Disney likes to say that the Pixar Place Hotel is “Pixar-themed.” That’s not fully accurate, as the hotel is more Pixar-branded than it is themed, as a theme is an idea or a recurring art motif. Think of the California Craftsman look of the Disneyland Resort’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa or the Midcentury Modern feel of the Disneyland Hotel next door.

The Pixar Place Hotel is striving for a contemporary theme that splits the difference between playfulness and elegance. This is evident in the cleaner look of the hotel from the outside, as it has been repainted white with subtle strips of color. Inside, there are cool, museum-like grays and whites that are broken up with intentional touches that celebrate the art of animation.

The floor, for instance, is accentuated with not-so-hidden stainless steel caricatures of Pixar characters. The maquettes, from films such as “Monsters Inc.” and “Finding Nemo,” are framed in glass cases with illuminated color panels. And near the rear of the lobby, wall sketches, which Disney said were painted by Pixar artists, evolve into lit CGI-like wire-frame portraits, attempting to show the evolution from hand-drawn to computer animation.

The art of the Pixar Place Hotel aims to show the evolution of computer animation.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

There’s a mix of styles, as much of the artwork was created specifically for the hotel. Across from the check-in desks, for instance, sits a “Finding Nemo” wall, where characters are seen in a more painterly presentation. The showcase piece of the lobby is a large mobile, situated above the Pixar lamp and ball, with abstracted, stained glass-like figures from “The Incredibles,” “Wall-E,” “Finding Nemo” and more. They are flanked by colored panels, which react to the music played in the area, an effect that is of course better seen in the evening.

“Pixar is a balance of sophistication and whimsy that really is core to their values,” said Kirstin Makela, an art director at Walt Disney Imagineering, the company’s secretive arm devoted to theme park experiences. “They’re a studio that’s been at the cutting edge of what they do. They take it very seriously that their characters are represented in that high esteem that they deserve because they are works of art.

“So it really is about creating a space that feels like a living art gallery that allows for the work to be elevated and feel celebrated, and allows for the work to get that dynamic pop of color and energy,” Makela continued.

Inside the rooms

The revamped Pixar Place Hotel rooms have significantly more color than in prior incarnations.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles)

Gone are the carpeted tan-and-beige-heavy rooms that marked the Paradise Pier Hotel, which seemed to be going for a sandy beach-type feel.

The remodeled Pixar Place rooms have wood panels for flooring, and are significantly brighter, thanks to a large Pixar mural above the bedding. The latter is a shift in hues, as the piece transitions from key scenes from Pixar films including “Up,” “Ratatouille,” “Toy Story,” “Finding Nemo,” “Soul,” “Coco”and “Inside Out.” The work is lit from the bottom, and has a brushed rather than CGI feel. It’s present in standard rooms and suites, and Disney said the goal was for it to look and feel something like a rainbow.

There’s other Pixar art in the room, as above a red couch is a framed piece showing different characters — Bo Peep from “Toy Story,” Joe Gardner from “Soul,” Sadness from “Inside Out” — in varying states of movement. Disney credited the latter to Tasha Sounart, a creative director at the animation studio. Also included in the rooms is the hardbound “The Art of Pixar” book, and various depictions of the Pixar lamp and ball, from an actual lamp on the desk to traces of the ball and the lamp in the bedding, carpeting and decorative pillows.

Each room features the Pixar lamp that serves as the company’s logo.

(Richard Harbaugh / Disneyland Resort )

In describing the aesthetic, Imaginering’s interior design manager Tami Empero said, “The trend in hotels today are really neutral colors, like beiges and grays. We really focused on red, yellow and blue to drive home the Pixar theme.”

A hotel with character(s)

At select times, a jazz musician acting as Joe Gardner from Pixar’s “Soul” will perform in the hotel lobby.

(Christian Thompson / Disneyland Resort)

The Pixar Place Hotel is unique in that it has exclusive character interactions to help give the space a sense of life and playfulness. On a third-floor pool deck, for instance, guests will find the pink, elephant-like creature Bing Bong from “Inside Out.”

And in the lobby, a piano will feature a jazz musician given a slight Joe Gardner makeover. Entertainment offerings will vary by day, but expect to find Bing Bong most mornings and afternoons near the pool, and jazz music is currently scheduled to be played five days per week, mostly in the evenings.

Bing Bong from “Inside Out” will meet guests on the pool deck of Disneyland’s Pixar Place Hotel.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

Imagineering also found some places for clever injections of Pixar personalities. Take, for instance, the pool deck’s fire pit, where flames sprout from fixtures designed to look like Anger from “Inside Out” or Ember from the more recent “Elemental.”

The pool deck is home, too, to a water slide for little ones featuring “Finding Nemo’s” turtle character of Crush and a splash pad that boasts a number of characters from the underwater film, including Hank and Dory. Notable design elements include lighting designed to mimic seaweed and some choral reef rockwork.

A fire pit in the look of the character Anger from “Inside Out.”

(Christian Thompson / Disneyland Resort)

Some lesser known Pixar works are also highlighted outdoors near the pool, home to a walk-up window featuring salads, burgers, chicken fingers and the like, as well as frozen alcoholic floats. The outpost, dubbed Small Bytes, opens in March.

A gaming area features chess tables, a nod to the short “Geri’s Game,” as well as shuffleboard that references “La Luna” via star-affixed discs and a cornhole-inspired game that nods to the animation studio’s “Bao,” in which players will toss adorable dumplings into steamer baskets.

Perks, dining, pricing and a piece of fine print

Southern California chain Great Maple operates the three dining areas of Pixar Place Hotel.

(Christian Thompson / Disneyland Resort)

While all Disneyland Resort hotels offer slightly earlier access to the parks (30 minutes before opening) — and Pixar Place is no different — the animation-focused hotel also has its own, relatively convenient entry to Disney California Adventure park. The gate is across the street from the hotel and tucked away next to the Grand Californian. Pixar Place Hotel guests can use it to enter and exit the park.

There are three dining options at the hotel, including the poolside walk-up window. The core restaurant is the latest outpost of Southern California chain Great Maple, which features a diner aesthetic and mostly comfort food options. Pixar Place is the first hotel at the Disneyland Resort to outsource its food offerings, meaning all three dining facilities are handled by Great Maple. I’ve only dined at Great Maple once, and opted for the $28 burger, a hearty offering albeit a bit on the pricier side for a family-focused theme park hotel. Near Great Maple in the lobby is the more casual Sketch Pad Cafe, a grab-and-go coffee shop. The hotel currently does not offer in-room dining.

Great Maple does feature stoic, black-and-white portraits of Pixar characters, but its look slightly clashes with the rest of the hotel, as green-tinted bar seats and booths deviate from the Pixar colors featured so prominently elsewhere. A better fit would have been something more akin to the Lamplight Lounge, the Pixar-focused restaurant at Disney California Adventure that features music and artwork from the films, as well as menus and drinks that nod to the studio’s history.

While it’s worth noting that the Pixar Place aesthetic, from the lobby to the rooms, is a drastic improvement from the dated Paradise Pier Hotel, it can certainly no longer be considered a budget — or even low-priced —offering at the Disneyland Resort. In a sampling of room rates throughout the year, I found nothing lower than $405 per night for a standard room, and about $100 more for high-traffic holiday months.

Back in 2018, for instance, I stayed at Paradise Pier at a rate of $327.60 per night. I did stop staying at the hotel because it’s not the quietest of places to sleep, meaning you will hear the alarm clocks of neighboring rooms, as well as any loud guests, some coughs and sneezes included. Since this is a family-focused hotel, expect that it will be on the noisier side.

So if you opt for this locale, maybe just use those Bluetooth-enabled alarm clocks to play the “Soul” soundtrack on repeat as a bit of low-level white noise.

Lifestyle

For filmmaker Chloé Zhao, creative life was never linear

Published

44 minutes ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

For filmmaker Chloé Zhao, creative life was never linear

In 2021, Zhao made history as the first woman of color to win the best director Oscar for her film Nomadland. Her Oscar-nominated drama Hamnet has made $70 million worldwide.

Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

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Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

It took a very special kind of spirit to make Hamnet, which is nominated for best picture at this year’s Academy Awards. Chloé Zhao brought her uniquely sensitive, mind-body approach to directing the fictionalized story about how William Shakespeare was inspired to write his masterpiece Hamlet.

Zhao adapted the screenplay from a novel by Maggie O’Farrell, and for directing the film, she’s now nominated for an Oscar. She could make history by becoming the first woman to win the best director award more than once.

Zhao says she believes in ceremonies and rituals, in setting an intention, a mood, a vibration for any event. Before Hamnet premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, she led the audience in a guided meditation and a breathing exercise.

Jessie Buckley stars as Agnes in Hamnet.

Zhao also likes to loosen up, like she did at a screening of Hamnet in Los Angeles last month, when she got the audience to get up and dance with her to a Rihanna song.

She, her cast and crew had regular dance parties during the production of Hamnet. So for our NPR photo shoot and interview at a Beverly Hills hotel, I invited her to share some music from her playlist. She chose a track she described as “drones and tones.”

Our photographer captured her in her filmy white gown, peeking contemplatively from behind the filmy white curtains of a balcony at the Waldorf Astoria.

Director Chloé Zhao at the Waldorf-Astoria in Beverly Hills.

Zhao says she believes in ceremonies and rituals, and makes them a part of her filmmaking process.

Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

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Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

Then Zhao and I sat down to talk.

“I had a dream that we were doing this interview,” I told her. “And it started with a photo shoot, and there was a glass globe –”

“No way!” she gasped.

It so happens that on the desk next to us, was a small glass globe — perhaps a paperweight.

I told her that in my dream, she was looking through the globe at some projected images. “We were having fun and it was like we didn’t want it to stop,” I said.

“Oh, well, me and the globe and the lights on the wall: they’re all part of you,” Zhao said. “They’re your inner crystal ball, your inner Chloé.”

“Inner Chloé?” I asked. “What is the inner Chloé like?”

“I don’t know, you tell me,” she said. “Humbly, from my lineage and what I studied is that everything in a dream is a part of our own psyche.”

Dreams and symbols are very much a part of Zhao’s approach to filmmaking, which she describes as a magical and communal experience. She said it’s all part of her directing style.

Chloé Zhao used painting and dance to connect with actors on the set of her latest film Hamnet.

Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

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Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

“If you’re captain of any ship, you are not just giving instructions; people are also looking to you energetically as well,” she explained. “Whether it’s calmness, it’s groundedness, it’s feeling safe: then everyone else is going to tune to you.” Zhao says it has taken many years to get to this awareness. Her own journey began 43 years ago in Beijing, where she was born. She moved to the U.S. as a teen, and studied film at New York University where Spike Lee was one of her teachers. She continued honing her craft at the Sundance Institute labs — along with her friend Ryan Coogler and other indie filmmakers.

Over the years, Zhao’s film catalogue has been eclectic — from her indie debut Songs My Brothers Taught Me, set on a Lakota Sioux reservation, to the big-budget Marvel superhero movie Eternals. She got her first best director Oscar in 2021 for the best picture winner Nomadland. Next up is a reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

“A creative life,” she notes, “is not a linear experience for me.”

The Real 'Hamnet' Died Centuries Ago, But This Novel Is Timeless

Zhao still lingers over the making of Hamnet, a very emotional story about the death of a child. During the production, Zhao says she used somatic and tantric exercises and rituals to open and close shooting days.

She also invited her lead actors Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley to help her set the mood on set. They danced, they painted, they meditated together.

“She created an atmosphere where everybody who chose to step in to tell this story was there for a reason that was deeply within them,” actress Jessie Buckley told me.

Jessie Buckley has been nominated for an Academy Award for best actress for her portrayal of William Shakespeare's wife in Hamnet.

Buckley is a leading contender for this year’s best actress Oscar. She said that to prepare for her very intense role as William Shakespeare’s wife, Zhao asked her to write down her dreams “as a kind of access point, to gently stir the waters of where I was feeling.”

Buckley sent Zhao her writings, and also music she felt was “a tone and texture of that essence.”

That kind of became the ritual of how they worked together, Buckley said. “And not just the cast were moving together, but the crew were and the camera was really creating dynamics and a collective unconscious.”

Filmmaker and Hamnet producer Steven Spielberg calls Zhao’s empathy her superpower.

Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

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Bethany Mollenkof for NPR

That was incredibly useful for creating Hamnet — a story about communal grief. Steven Spielberg, who co-produced the film, called Zhao’s empathy her superpower.

“In every glance, in every pause and every touch, in every tear, in every single moment of this film, every choice that Chloé made is evidence of her fearlessness,” Spielberg said when awarding Zhao a Directors Guild of America award. “In Hamnet, Chloé also shows us that there can be life after grief.”

Zhao says it took five years and a midlife crisis for her to develop the emotional tools she used to make Hamnet.

“I hope it could give people a two-hour little ceremony,” she told me. “And in the end, I hope that a point of contact can be made. That means that there’s a heart opening. But it will be painful, right? Because when your heart opens, you feel all the things you usually don’t feel. And then a catharsis can emerge.”

As our interview time came to a close, I told Zhao I have my own little ritual at the end of every interview; I record a few minutes of room tone, the ambient sound of the space we’re in. It’s for production purposes, to smooth out the audio.

In 'Nomadland,' Discover The Joy And Sorrow Of The Road Less Traveled

Zhao knew just what I meant. She told me a story about her late friend Michael “Wolf” Snyder who was her sound recordist for Nomadland. “He said to me, ‘I don’t always need it, but just so you know, I am going to watch you. And when I tell that you are a little frazzled, I’m going to ask for a room tone … just to give you space.’” she recalled. “‘And if you feel like you need the silence space, you just look at me, nod. I’ll come ask for a room tone.’”

I closed our interview ceremony with that moment of silence, a moment of peace, for director Chloé Zhao.

Lifestyle

This spring, have a tea ceremony inside of an art installation and shop the latest Givenchy

Published

2 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

This spring, have a tea ceremony inside of an art installation and shop the latest Givenchy

Givenchy by Sarah Burton introduces the Snatch

Givenchy’s “The Snatch” handbag.

(Marc Piasecki / Getty Images)

Echoing the designer’s ready-to-wear sculptural designs, the Snatch from Givenchy by Sarah Burton is sensually shaped by the contours of the person who carries it. Its supple leather, fluid silhouette and three sizes allow it to slip effortlessly and intimately into the hand, over the shoulder or across the body. Now available. givenchy.com

Guess Jeans opens new L.A. store

In a move familiar to many millennials these days, Guess Jeans has returned home in its 45th year. The new flagship store in West Hollywood is both a return to its California roots and an envisioning of its future still ahead. While the brand may be an established icon, the store boldly reimagines the retail space as a living laboratory for design, craftsmanship and collaboration, with dedicated workshop and customization spaces. 8700 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. guess.com

Louis Vuitton’s new Color Blossom collection

Taylor Swift’s sky may be opalite, but the starry blue hues in the new jewels of Louis Vuitton’s Color Blossom collection belong to sodalite. Rarely used in jewelry, the dark navy of sodalite adds an unexpected layer of depth to Color Blossom’s existing luminous gemstone lineup. Sun and star motifs rendered in gold enhance the gem’s night sky coloring, while the classic flower designs celebrate the 130th anniversary of the Louis Vuitton Monogram. Sodalite pieces available March 6, entire collection available April 4. louisvuitton.com

Loro Piana debuts Library of Knits

L.A.’s (many) winter showers bring spring wildflowers, and a bouquet of Loro Piana’s new Library of Knits fits right into the vibrant spectacle. The exquisitely soft cashmere pieces in classic styles now come in over 20 shades inspired by Sergio Loro Piana’s personal wardrobe. With a spectrum ranging from blues and greens to corals and creams, it’s hard to choose just one for a frolic in the fields. Now available. loropiana.com

Margesherwood X Peanuts

Love is famously in the air this time of year, apparently even for cartoon characters. This enduring love is illustrated (literally) in the Margesherwood X Peanuts collaboration. Inspired by the heart-fluttering love letters Sally writes to Linus, the designs feature instantly recognizable motifs that marry the Peanuts’ charm with Margesherwood’s refined silhouettes. The zig-zag of that famous yellow shirt winkingly graces a crescent baguette, while the black stripes of Linus’s red red shirt wrap around a slouchy shoulder bag. For the true heads and lovers, there’s even a petite hobo emblazoned with Sally’s pet name for Linus: “FOR MY SWEET BABBOO.” Now available. margesherwood.com

Ryan Preciado at Hollyhock House

Ryan Preciado's site-responsive "Diary of a Fly" at Hollyhock House features Oaxacan-woven textiles.

Ryan Preciado’s new site-responsive installation at Hollyhock House, “Diary of a Fly,” is titled after a late-1930s musical composition by Béla Bartók that imitates the frenzied pace of a fly — a fitting name since his show reconceptualizes the experience of the springtime pest flitting around a house. Instead of hovering around overripe fruit or stalking a trash can long neglected, however, viewers are invited to take in Preciado’s Oaxacan-woven textiles and brightly colored sculptures situated throughout the city’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site. Open through April 25. 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles. hollyhockhouse.org

Veronica Fernandez at Anat Ebgi

Veronica Fernanadez's "Prey" filters childhood memories through experience and emotion.

In the figurative paintings of Veronica Fernandez’s first solo exhibition, “Prey,” the artist’s childhood is recalled through dreamlike and fantastical scenes, with memories filtered through experience and emotion. Many of her works place a child at the center of the scene among family, friends and caretakers, who usually appear shadow-like at the edges of the paintings. As a kid, Fernandez endured periods of homelessness. But rather than depict a childhood of adversity, her paintings empower the kids within them to claim their own space, imbuing her memories with strength and light. Open through April 4. 6150 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. anatebgi.com

Dior launches J’Adore Intense

Florals for spring can be groundbreaking, especially when they’re created with none other than Rihanna as their muse. Dior’s J’Adore Intense captures the scent of solar flowers — jasmine, ylang-ylang, rose, violet — right before they burst into fruit. The result is a warm, bold, addictive fragrance that drips with sensuality and femininity, down to the curves of its signature gold and glass figure-eight amphora. In other words, it’s Rihanna in a bottle. Available now. dior.com

Rocky’s Matcha X Oscar Tuazon at Morán Morán

Rocky's Matcha hosts Japanese tea ceremonies in an ensō-inspired tea house from Oscar Tuazon at Morán Morán.

The single, uninhibited brushstroke of the ensō, the circular form in Zen art, serves as a record of a moment. Commissioned by Rocky’s Matcha, Oscar Tuazon’s “Circle House” at Morán Morán shares both the ensō’s form and its call to mindfulness. In the artist’s tea house, constructed from cardboard, wood and tatami mats, architecture is inseparable from ritual: visitors will soon be able to partake in a Japanese tea ceremony inside the installation, thereby participating in a choreography of attention not unlike the act of gliding an ink brush across a sheet of washi. Open through December 31. 641 N. Western Ave. Los Angeles. Subscribe to rocky’s newsletter for tea ceremony information. rockysmatcha.com and moranmorangallery.com

Celebrate Mr. Wash’s new book, “Artists in Space”

Celebrate the launch of Mr. Wash's new book of studio visits and interviews with other L.A. artists.

Make your first BBQ of the season a meaningful one at the Art By Wash Studio & Community Center, where Compton artist and criminal justice advocate, Mr. Wash, will celebrate the release of his book “Artists in Space.” Proceeds from the book, which features interviews and studio visits with 20 Angeleno residents, go toward establishing the new community center where individuals returning home from incarceration will have access to art classes, creative residencies and housing. Mr. Wash will be in conversation with Patrisse Culllors and Evan Pricco (co-publisher and founder of the Unibrow) as well as displaying new works. The event is on March 7 from 2-6 p.m. 15 W. Rosecrans Ave., Compton. artbywash.com

Lifestyle

‘Hamnet’ star Jessie Buckley looks for the ‘shadowy bits’ of her characters

Published

13 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

‘Hamnet’ star Jessie Buckley looks for the ‘shadowy bits’ of her characters

Jessie Buckley has been nominated for an Academy Award for best actress for her portrayal of William Shakespeare’s wife in Hamnet.

Kate Green/Getty Images

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Kate Green/Getty Images

Actor Jessie Buckley says she’s always been drawn to the “shadowy bits” of her characters — aspects that are disobedient, or “too much.” Perhaps that’s what led her to play Agnes, the wife of William Shakespeare, in Hamnet.

Buckley says the film, which is based on Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, offered a chance to counter a common narrative about the playwright’s wife: that she “had kept him back from his genius,” Buckley says.

But, she adds, “What Maggie O’Farrell so brilliantly did, not just with Agnes and Shakespeare’s wife, but also with Hamnet, their son, was to bring these people … and give them status beside this great man. … [And] give the full landscape of what it is to be a woman.”

The film is nominated for eight Academy Awards, including best actress for Buckley. In it, she plays a woman deeply connected to nature, who faces conflicts in her marriage, as well as the death of their son Hamnet.

Buckley found out she was pregnant a week after the film wrapped. She’s since given birth to her first child, a daughter.

Lewis Pullman and Danielle Brooks announced the 2026 Oscar nominees early Thursday morning in Beverly Hills, Calif. The 98th Academy Awards ceremony will be held on March 15.

“The thing that this story offered me, that brought me into this next chapter of my life as a mother was tenderness,” she says. “A mother’s tenderness is ferocious. To love, to birth is no joke. To be born is no joke. And the minute something’s born into the world, you’re always in the precipice of life and death. That’s our path. … I wanted to be a mother so much that that overrode the thought of being afraid of it.”

Jessie Buckley stars as Agnes and Joe Alwyn plays her brother Bartholomew in Hamnet.

Courtesy of Focus Features/Courtesy of Focus Features

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Courtesy of Focus Features/Courtesy of Focus Features

Interview highlights

On filming the scene where she howls in grief when her son dies

I didn’t know that that was going to happen or come out, it wasn’t in the script. I think really [director] Chloé [Zhao] asked all of us to dare to be as present as possible. Of course, leading up to it, you’re aware this scene is coming, but that scene doesn’t stand on its own. By the time I’d met that scene, I had developed such a deep bond with Jacobi Jupe, who plays Hamnet, and [co-stars] Paul [Mescal] and Emily Watson, and all the children and we really were a family. And Jacobi Jupe who plays Hamnet is such an incredible little actor and an incredible soul, and we really were a team. …

The death of a child is unfathomable. I don’t know where it begins and ends. Out of utter respect, I tried to touch an imaginary truth of it in our story as best I could, but there’s no way to define that kind of grief. I’m sure it’s different for so many people. And in that moment, all I had was my imagination but also this relationship that was right in front of me with this little boy and that’s what came out of that.

On what inspired her to pursue singing growing up

I grew up around a lot of music. My mom is a harpist and a singer and my dad has always been passionate about music, so it was always something in our house and always something that was encouraged. … Early on, I have very strong memories of seeing and hearing my mom sing in church and this quite intense mercurial conversation that would happen between her, the story and the people that would listen to her. And at the end of it, something had been cracked between them and these strangers would come up with tears in their eyes. And I guess I saw the power of storytelling through my mom’s singing at a very young age, and that was definitely something that made me think I want to do that.

On her first big break performing as a teen on the BBC singing competition I’d Do Anything — and being criticized by judges about her physical appearance

I was raw. I hadn’t trained. I had a lot to learn and to grow in. I was only 17. I think there was part of their criticism which I think was destructive and unfair when it became about my awkwardness, or they would say I was masculine and send me to kind of a femininity school. … They sent me to [the musical production of] Chicago to put heels on and a leotard and learn how to walk in high heels, which was pretty humiliating, to be honest, and I’m sad about that because I think I was discovering myself as a young woman in the world and wasn’t fully formed. … I was different. I was wild, I had a lot of feeling inside me. I could hardly keep my hands beside myself and I think to kind of criticize a body of a young woman at that time and to make her feel conscious of that was lazy and, I think, boring.

On filming parts of the 2026 film The Bride! while pregnant

I really loved working when I was pregnant. I thought it was a pretty wild experience, especially because I was playing Mary Shelley and I was talking about [this] monstrosity, and here I was with two heartbeats inside me. Becoming a mom and being pregnant did something, I think, for me. My experience of it, it’s so real that it really focuses [me to be] allergic to fake or to disconnection.

Since my daughter has come and I know what that connection is and the real feeling of being in a relationship with somebody … as an actress, it’s very exciting to recognize that in yourself and really take ownership of yourself.

I’m excited to go back and work on this other side of becoming a mother in so many ways, because I’ve shed 10 layers of skin by loving more and experiencing life in such a new way with my daughter. I’m also scared to work again because it’s hard to be a mother and to work. That’s like a constant tug because I love what I do and I’m passionate and I want to continue to grow and learn and fill those spaces that are yet to be filled — and also be a mother. And I think every mother can recognize that tug.

On the possibility of bringing her daughter to travel with her as she works

I haven’t filmed for nearly a year and I cannot wait. I’m hungry to create again. And my daughter will come with me. She’s seven months, so at the moment she can travel with us and it’s a beautiful life. And she meets all these amazing people and I have a feeling that she loves life and that’s a great thing to see in a child. And I hope that’s something that I’ve imparted to her in the short time that she’s been on this earth is that life is beautiful and great and complex and alive and there’s no part of you that needs to be less in your life. You might have to work it out, but it’s worth it.

Lauren Krenzel and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.