James Nachtwey, an eminent photojournalist known for his intimate depictions of the front lines in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine, had never photographed a movie star before. So for this year’s Great Performers issue, we asked him to capture a dozen of the world’s best actors away from the red carpets and awards ceremonies that often define how we see them. “My work has focused almost exclusively on conflicts and critical social issues, the polar opposite of what might be thought of as celebrity photography,” Nachtwey says. But he was intrigued by the challenge: “Art takes talent, but it’s also hard work, and exploring what actors practice in their daily lives to strengthen their art would be fascinating.” Inviting actors to select their own activities, he joined Bradley Cooper for a cold plunge in an ice-crusted stream; Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor at a church; Mark Ruffalo training his own camera on street pigeons. Nachtwey’s disciplined eye and ability to capture startling intensity are what make these images so arresting. And by turning a veteran photographer toward an unusual subject or unfamiliar setting, “something magical can happen because you get freshness of vision,” says Kathy Ryan, the magazine’s photography editor. Nachtwey “went with no preconceived notions of what a celebrity portrait is.” (The interviews that follow have been condensed and edited.)
Bradley Cooper
Cooper (“Maestro”) meditates in freezing temperatures. “James Nachtwey asked me if there are any rituals I do to prepare for a role. I said not really but mentioned that I do cold plunge [opening image] every morning when I get up. We were outside next to a creek, and we looked at each other and thought: OK? Let’s give it a shot. It was much colder than the cold plunge I’m used to — and unfortunately, I didn’t have a towel or a change of clothes. But we had a good laugh.”
Da’Vine Joy Randolph
Randolph (“The Holdovers”) shops for fabric in Los Angeles. “I’ve always loved clothes; my amazing mother and her friends would buy something from a high-end consignment shop and customize it to make it really special. I don’t let what the limited market is define me. I’ve gotten very well acquainted with fabric stores all over. I’ve had to get creative. Whenever I’m in a new city, I’ve got to know the go-to tailors. I’m not a good drawer, so what I’ll do is ‘Frankenstein’ it, cut and paste pictures together and create a presentation — a neckline of this dress, the flower embellishment off that blazer — and that helps me explain to a designer how I want something to look.”
Jeffrey Wright
Wright (“American Fiction”) is recommitting to an exercise routine now that his children are away at school. “Of late, I’ve tried to get in at least a couple of sessions of activities a day — surfing, if the waves are right, or a combination of Pilates and Gyrotonics and a regular workout. In New York I ride my bike everywhere. In Los Angeles, I go to a center that focuses on flexibility and strength, which is where the real health benefits come from. I was an athlete at one point in my life, and I was always aware that my flexibility was an advantage. It gave me disproportionate power when I played lacrosse. In my acting as well, it allows my body to be more fluid, more malleable as an instrument.”
Paul Giamatti
Giamatti (“The Holdovers”) in a used bookstore he has frequented for more than 20 years. “I like used bookstores more than new ones, because there’s just something about all the old books that feels more comforting and peaceful to me. I do have a big collection of books at home, and I actually had to get help from somebody a few years ago to organize it. I got rid of hundreds if not thousands of books about three or four years ago. And in the space of time since, I’ve almost reacquired everything I got rid of.”
Emma Stone
Stone (“Poor Things”) traverses the Big Apple on foot. “There’s something very special about the streets of New York City. For such a giant place, it somehow still feels very small and homey. It has since I first visited as a little kid. And maybe if you’re lucky, you might come across a street with steam coming out of it like the one pictured above. In which case, you have to stop and take a photo in front of it. I don’t make the rules. That’s actual legislation.”
Charles Melton
Melton (“May December”) driving his custom-painted 1970 Chevelle. “The car is 20 years older than I am. I feel like I’m hopping into a little time machine. I grew up with my dad and uncles talking about vintage cars — they did their own oil changes, put their own engines back together. There’s just something simple and nostalgic about having a car that I have to constantly work on. You have to have this delicate softness, because you are always doing maintenance on a vintage car. There’s something comforting knowing that the work is never quite done.”
Teyana Taylor
Taylor (“A Thousand and One”) converted her dining room into an in-home salon. “Salons are really therapeutic for me, but I don’t really like to leave my house a lot; I want everything to come to me! I love that ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ Victorian, Renaissance vibe, and I was like, ‘OK, this room is so pretty, I don’t want the kids eating in here!’ Now it’s like my woman cave, for me and the girls to just talk and have wine and have a great time.”
Franz Rogowski
Rogowski (“Passages”) goes climbing to stay sane. “I am trying to approach nature as a stranger. Climbing is one of the few things that really never disappoints me. I can have the worst day of my life. If I meet a friend and we go out in the mountains, I’m 100 percent sure that I will come back home happier than when I left. Climbing is pure excitement and a love for movement. Climbing and acting are both very self-centered and at the same time social. I think most climbers somehow have a mixture of self-centeredness and longing for a relationship that actors have. When I sit on a tree or walk in a park, I feel humble but in a very nice way.”
Carey Mulligan
Mulligan’s character, Felicia, (“Maestro”) inspired her to take painting classes. “There was a painting — one of the first that I did when I started lessons — that I loved, and I was so proud of it. I took photos of it and sent it to my mom. And then as part of this workshop that Bradley and I did before we shot ‘Maestro’ — sort of a performance-art thing — I destroyed that painting, and it really gutted me to do it. But it kind of captured the self-destructive nature of my character as an artist. But I massively regretted it because I tried to remake the painting, and it was just rubbish.”
Annette Bening
Bening (“Nyad”) hikes for 45 minutes every morning. “One of the things that makes living in Los Angeles wonderful, frankly, is the fact that you can go out your door and be in nature among the trees and the bugs and the coyotes and the groundhogs and the deer. Hiking puts you in a meditative state. It becomes addictive when you get into it, and then you really miss it if you can’t get out and have a walk and put the phone away and just have a moment of being.”
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo
Ruffalo (“Poor Things”) ducks to get the shot. “I’ve been doing street photography on and off for about 10 years. I just like how it captures people naturally; when people know a camera’s on them, they immediately change their behavior. I was in Athens, Greece, and there was a tour guide who was a really interesting character. I snapped a picture of him, and he caught me and he totally lost his [expletive] on me, yelling: ‘How dare you! Who do you think you are?’ I felt so bad. The irony wasn’t wasted on me at all. But that was the time I got busted. Usually I don’t get busted.”
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
Ellis-Taylor (“Origin”) wrestles with the idea of faith. “If there’s anything good about my work as an actor or a writer, it’s because of Black churches in the South. I had no choice, as a child, but to go to church several times a week. In college, when I knew something was different about me, that’s when it became a place of conflict for me. I was not celebrated in that space, not just as a queer woman, but as a woman, period. I had to run so I wouldn’t be destroyed by it. I’ve rejected the Bible wholesale. And then I found my way back, rediscovering what it was that made me, held me, kept me.”