• W
    • Celebrities
Sarah Gadon gucci gown

Sarah Gadon wears a Gucci black embroidered tulle gown.

On the Verge: Sarah Gadon

Canadian actress Sarah Gadon's breakthrough moment.

September 2012

Sarah Gadon is having trouble describing her first time at the Cannes Film Festival, this past May. “I only have hand gestures,” the effervescent actress says, waving her lunchtime pita and hummus wildly in the air. “It was insane,” she finally manages. Cannes turned into a bit of a coming-out party for the 25-year-old Torontonian, who starred in two films that premiered there—opposite Robert Pattinson in David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis (in theaters now) and in his son Brandon’s directorial debut, the forthcoming Antiviral. “She’s beautiful, of course,” says David Cronenberg, who first cast Gadon as Carl Jung’s wife in last year’s A Dangerous Method. “But it’s her intelligence that really comes across.” Gadon is a type he favors: She is the latest in a long line of Cronenberg muses—Naomi Watts and Maria Bello among them— known for playing whip-smart blondes. As aristocratic wife Emma Jung and as a blue-blooded poet in Cosmopolis (an adaptation of the Don DeLillo novel), Gadon has convincingly embodied society women­. The actress had a harder time playing famous. For her role as a media-hounded starlet in Antiviral, she drew from her experience being inside Pattinson’s tabloid bubble. Now she’s savvier, having learned that it’s useful to invent “some kind of public persona.” What’s hers? She smiles slyly: “I’m still figuring that out.”

Keywords
Who
Subscribe to Wmagazine.com
Give the Gift of Wmagazine.com

W Newsletter

Sign up to receive the latest on fashion, art and style delivered to your email inbox.

Features
daily w ipad app
Your daily dose of W magazine—featuring celebrity video interviews, exclusive fashion content, designer giveaways, beauty and travel advice, in-app shopping, and more.
jessica biel
Don’t let her all-American good looks fool you—Jessica Biel is bringing sexy back.
kim kardashian
Kim Kardashian can’t sing, act, or dance, but she’s found the role of a lifetime in the fine art of playing herself.
lady gaga
Lady Gaga shakes things up with catchy songs and loads of underwear.
Subscribe to Wmagazine.com

W Newsletter

Sign up to receive the latest on fashion, art and style delivered to your email inbox.

Kim Kardashian: The Art Of Reality

Kim Kardashian can’t sing, act, or dance, but she’s found the role of a lifetime in the fine art of playing herself. Behind the scenes with the Queen of Reality TV. (November 2010)

The Daily W iPad App

Your daily dose of W magazine—featuring celebrity video interviews, exclusive fashion content, designer giveaways, beauty and travel advice, in-app shopping, and more.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

Domestic Bliss

The Steven Klein shoot that started it all: Mr. and Mrs. Smith costars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play house in Palm Springs. (July 2005)