FASHION Magazine

Acts of devotion: Michael Shannon is seriously dedicated to the art of acting.
By Jason Anderson | Photographed by Seiji Fujimori

There’s something in Michael Shannon’s eyes that puts people on edge. Klaus Kinski had it. Christopher Walken has it, too. There’s a wildness there, a quality we’re quick to associate with madness. But that association is limiting, even if it’s true that these actors excel at playing men who’ve come unhinged, like the troubled neighbour in Revolutionary Road, a role that earned Shannon his first Oscar nomination, or Nelson Van Alden, the principled but ever more compromised lawman he plays on HBO’s Prohibition-era mob drama Boardwalk Empire.

The look is suggestive of deep-seated emotion that cannot be controlled or concealed, no matter how hard we try to keep it from the surface. If the eyes are really any kind of window to the soul, this is the force that threatens to shatter the glass. Yet that force has served the 38-year-old actor well, becoming a feature as distinguishing as his six-foot-three frame, his youthful face and a voice that would’ve suited a fire-and-brimstone Southern preacher.

See our photo shoot with Hannah Simone »

“If you look at my resume or where I’ve lived, it seems like I’m all over the map, but I feel like [my life] has been completely consistent,” says Hannah Simone, whose roles on Zooey Deschanel’s sitcom New Girl and the dystopian webseries H+ have taken her in a new direction from her previous endeavours—being a MuchMusic VJ; working as, wait for it, a human rights and refugees officer for the UN. “My life is so crazy! I learned early on to really embrace change and enjoy the ride.”

She’s not exaggerating. Born in London, she moved every three or four years to a new country, sometimes in warzones (Saudi Arabia, India, Cyprus), with her Indian father, her German-Italian-Greek-Cypriot mother and her brother. After the family settled in Canada, she earned degrees in both international relations and television and radio studies, then embarked on the aforementioned UN gig before becoming a TV host and moving to L.A. to pursue acting.

What to read, see, hear and do this fall »

MUSIC »
Legends of the Fall: From Azealia Banks to the xx, we break down the next-level sounds of the season.
By Sarah Liss

MOVIES »
Chic Flicks: This season’s film forecast.
By Alexandra Breen

THE ARTS »
Beaton, Baroque & Beyond: Captivating art and performance on the horizon.
By Caitlin Agnew

THE T.V. »
Screen Grabs: Reality shows are retreating, dramas are breeding and ensemble casts are back to reclaim the prime-time throne. Here is a preview of the best in fall television.
By Siofan Davies

With two feature films and a top-rated TV series, Nina Dobrev is taking a bite out of Hollywood. Check out our interview and go behind-the-scenes with our homegrown September cover star.

Read an excerpt from our interview with Nina Dobrev »
Watch the behind-the-scenes video »
See the behind-the-scenes photos »

See our cover shoot »
Read our Girls recaps »

It’s 26 minutes and 11 seconds into the third episode of HBO’s Girls. A struggling writer named Hannah Horvath, played by the show’s 26-year-old creator/star, Lena Dunham, is in her bedroom staring at a laptop. She’s just endured the most hellish month of her adult life: Her parents have stopped paying her rent, her doctor has diagnosed her with HPV and her former college boyfriend has let her know that her “handsomeness” helped him realize his attraction to men.

Instead of having a breakdown, Hannah decides to throw down. She double clicks an MP3 of Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own,” jumps off her bed and swings her tattooed arms to the gunning beat. Her impeccably put-together roommate, Marnie, played by 24-year-old Allison Williams, catches Hannah’s impromptu dance party and joins in. Together in their tiny Brooklyn apartment they hair-flip the pain away, share a hug and make the tragic magic. The credits roll.

By Elio Iannacci. Photographed by James White. Styled by Penny Lovell.

Read our interview with Anna Paquin »
See Anna Paquin’s shopping picks »

You can learn a lot about an actress by the way she steps on set for a photo shoot. Some stars require the armour of an entourage; others need a personality-devoid space and monastic silence. Anna Paquin is unquestionably neither of the above. Upon arriving at L.A.’s Smashbox Studios on a scalding Saturday afternoon, the Winnipeg-born, New Zealand-raised actress introduces herself to the FASHION crew without hesitation. Serving up a warm, Kiwi-accented “Nice to meet you” to photographer James White—and his troop of all-guy assistants crushing on her—the 29-year-old talent does the rounds as if she were hosting a cocktail party. Of course, there is a reason for Paquin’s accelerated social skills. Having won an Oscar at the age of 11 for her performance in Jane Campion’s The Piano, Paquin has grown up with cameras and handshakes at every corner, starring in a mix of family pictures (Fly Away Home), blockbusters (X-Men), indie flicks (The Squid and the Whale) and, most recently, a ratings monster of a TV series called True Blood.

After changing into her favoured cover look—a Jackie Onassis-like Marc Jacobs dress trimmed with silver studs—Paquin dashes in front of the lens, occasionally cracking jokes and posing without any forced fabulousness. Her good humour remains intact long after the array of designer heels and baubles are put away and we are left alone to talk.

Browsing the newsstand at London’s Heathrow Airport last November, I found tabloids full of footballers’ wives, all orange of complexion and platform of shoe, and the glossier monthlies stocked with society girls. But whether their readers’ penchant was for players’ wives or the polo set, every magazine I read contained at least one story extolling the brilliance of Downton Abbey.

Meanwhile, in North America, despite winning six Emmys last September, Downton Abbey hadn’t yet broken into the mainstream. The ITV1 television series set in World War I–era England chronicles in equal measure the lives of the upper-class Crawley family and their servants. A quiet but respectable viewership had discovered the show in its first season on PBS’s Masterpiece Classic, but when season two began at the start of 2012, we fell into the grips of a collective Downton fever like a heartbroken fiancée succumbing to Spanish flu. This might be because Downton offers something for almost everyone. There is the wealth and glamour of the Crawley family, who dress every night for dinner as though they’re attending the Met Ball. Downstairs, the servants’ plays for household power mirror the tension of Glengarry Glen Ross, except here it’s “A-Always, B-Be, C-Conspiring.” And juxtaposed against the feeling that you’re watching a classic literary adaptation are elements that reflect a contemporary audience, from caught-in-the-act trysts to the characters learning how to use a telephone. Downton is no Greek drama, with the action happening offstage.

Of course, there is romance. The will-they-or-won’t-they relationships of two sets of lovers have kept viewers tuning in: more than five million watched the season two finale. In Canada, Downton is now enjoying a run on VisionTV on Wednesday evenings.

“There’s a cadre of people who are watching it because it’s an allowable soap,” says New Yorker TV critic Emily Nussbaum. “It’s dressed up in all sorts of fancy class indicators including, but not limited to, England, PBS and historical times, and rich people in large country houses.” And, as Nussbaum adds, it is very well made, costing roughly $1.6 million per episode to produce.

It’s also extremely fun to talk about. With season two came online recaps from New York magazine’s Vulture and Vanity Fair’s The Hollywood Blog (we at FASHION produced a wonderful one). Further signs of the show’s reach include character-inspired Twitter accounts and countless memes—all that’s missing is a Tumblr of Ryan Gosling Hey Girl–ing the women of Downton.

Word: Revengenda

Meaning: An agenda in which the terminal aim is… duh, revenge. Do I have to tell you guys everything?

By Jason Anderson.
Editor: Rani Sheen.

It was only recently that Shay Mitchell became someone who might get recognized by fans in public, so it’s understandable that she finds it all “a little weird.”

“Sometimes they’ll walk by you the first time and not say anything, but just stare at you,” says the star of Pretty Little Liars, a high school–set mystery series that’s swiftly become essential viewing for teens and a guilty pleasure for TV fans outside the demographic. “For a while I was thinking, ‘Do I have something on my face? Do I have toilet paper hanging off my shoe?’” she says. “It’s very flattering. I like to stop and chit-chat.”

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If you’re beauty obsessed and a fan of How I Met Your Mother, you’ve likely noticed just how well the hair and makeup team replicate the cast’s ever-changing looks during the show’s many flashbacks. It’s actually impressive that Cobie Smulders (Robin) and Alyson Hannigan (Lily) are allowed to change their hairstyles so frequently—that’s a lot of wigs!

By Dennis Hensley

On her new album, When the Sun Goes Down, Selena Gomez sings about self-acceptance (“Who Says”), infatuation (“Whiplash,” which Britney Spears co-wrote) and taming a misbehaving guy (“That’s More Like It,” co-written by Katy Perry). Yet when asked which track reveals the most about her, Gomez ditches the hearts and flowers and goes right for the jugular. “‘Bang Bang Bang’ is probably the most personal,” she says, referring to a snarky kiss-off anthem directed toward an ex, in which she coos put-downs like, “My new boy used to be a model…he looks way better than you” and “When I’m out having fun, you’re gonna be the one that’s broken.”

Let’s be clear about one thing: The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is not really about fashion. But we knew that, and anyway, it doesn’t really matter. Not to the hordes of young women that appear out of nowhere, pink shopping bags in hand, within a 500-metre radius of any of the lingerie titan’s locations. (There are eleven stores in Canada–four Victoria’s Secret and seven for their younger Pink line.) Not to the crowd that piled into the Armory on Lexington Avenue on November 10 to see the show–a group that included Gerard Butler, Adrien Grenier, Russell Simmons, Malin Akerman and Paris Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld. Not to every person who we’ve spoken to in the two weeks since who want to know how the Angels look up close (gorgeous, obviously), how much they have to exercise (Adriana Lima trains six days a week leading up to the show) and whether the wings are heavy (Candice Swanepoel‘s trainer give her extra shoulder exercises to prepare).