Jim Sturgess: Seriously Sexy
Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci’s wool coat, cotton shirt, and tie.
“It’s incredibly freeing to play a hideous person,” said the 33-year-old actor, who was seen by many as the next Brit heartthrob following his performance in the 2008 hit musical Mamma Mia! In the indie thriller The Devil’s Double, Cooper upends the pretty-boy image with his portrayal of Uday Hussein, the mad, murderous son of Saddam, and his body double, Latif Yahia. “It was the first time I felt so much a part of a film,” Cooper said of playing the two leads. “In a big-budget movie, you are told how to make it look perfect in the right way. Here, even if sometimes I have gone way over the top, there are moments it just instinctively comes out right.” Fan Zhong
“There’s nothing like being given a villain and making an audience empathize with him—or having them question their love of a hero,” said the 37-year-old Aussie actor. In his breakout roles—as a gangster in 2010’s Animal Kingdom and as Stanley Kowalski in a 2009 stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire—he was seductive and morally ambiguous. “I’m interested in complexity,” explained Edgerton, who has been cast as Tom Buchanan in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, and whose new film, Warrior, pits his mixed-martial artist against his own brother (played by Tom Hardy). “Essentially, my character is a very simple and good man. But he carries a bit of darkness, and that’s what fascinates me.” Fan Zhong
“I created the body of a meth addict,” said the Swedish actor of the secretive police detective (and former user) he plays on the AMC series The Killing. “I always try to change physically for a role because it gives you a different body language.” Already a big star in Sweden, Kinnaman will bulk up to portray an ex-convict in the sequel to his hit Swedish crime thriller Easy Money, and this December he’ll play a gay art director in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, directed by the famously perfectionist David Fincher. “I like that he does so many takes,” Kinnaman said. “The thing that really bugs me is when I don’t get enough time in front of the camera. You just feel like, Shit, I had more.” Fan Zhong
“I think they were surprised that a Cuban from Miami picked this Irish play,” said Isaac of his Juilliard audition, a monologue from Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa. He has escaped categorization ever since: as the father of Jesus in The Nativity Story; the villainous King John in Robin Hood; a Russian romantic lead in the Madonna-directed W.E.; and, most recently, an ex-con in Nicolas Winding Refn’s thriller, Drive—a part that required some retooling. “He was kind of a thug, which neither Nicolas nor I found that interesting,” said the 31-year-old. “So we turned him into a desperate man who just made a mistake. Now he’s not someone you want out of the way; he’s someone who matters.” Fan Zhong
“I’m half Jewish, but no one believes me because my looks lean a little WASP-y,” said the blond, blue-eyed, six-foot-five great-grandson of oil tycoon Armand Hammer. “It’s sometimes hard for me to get the roles I’m drawn to.” However, the success of The Social Network, in which the 25-year-old actor portrayed both Winklevoss twins, has helped him win parts of greater range. In addition to being cast as the Lone Ranger opposite Johnny Depp’s Tonto, and as the Prince in a subversive retelling of Snow White, Hammer will star in J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood’s biopic of the enigmatic FBI director. In the film, he plays Clyde Tolson, second in command to and the purported lifelong lover of Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio). They even share a kiss: “That was one of the more difficult scenes,” said Hammer. “I just followed Leo’s lead—which pretty much mirrors the dynamic of their relationship.” Fan Zhong
