Esquire picked 23 women and men who are going against the grain in Hollywood. These people are “beating the odds, taking creative risks, and making bold, innovative work,” Esquire writes. In picking this roster of trailblazers, editor-in-chief Jay Fielden explained, “(I was) looking for the next generation of great talent who is going to do stuff that doesn’t follow any rule.” Check out a few stars from the list:
1. Christopher Plummer, Actor: Plummer’s newest performance in All the Money in the World lingers in the mind long after the film is finished.
2. Caleb Landry Jones, Actor: He has played a variety of parts in 2017’s most prestigious films, including a demonic lacrosse player in Get Out; a cheerful salesman in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; a frustrated assistant motel manager (and Willem Dafoe’s son) in The Florida Project.
3. Hoyte Van Hoytema, Director of Photography: He has captured the impossible on film.
4. Timothée Chalamet, Actor: Hollywood’s new “It Boy” has had quite the year. You can find him in both Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird, two films that have rocked that awards season.
5.Ryan Coogler: Presale tickets for Black Panther, directed by Coogler, sold out in fifteen minutes. The movie is led by both a black cast and a black director.
6. Dacre Montgomery, Actor: The Stranger Things star filled out his character with perfect improvisation and stole the show.
7. Dan Fogelman, Producer, Writer, Director: He has riveted millions with zero gimmicks, including on the worldwide phenomenon, This is Us.
8. Oneohtrix Point Never, Composer: He will “mess with your ears and quicken your pulse.”
9. Mike White, Writer, Director: He writes stories about how we oppress one another simply by living our own disparate lives.
10. Russo Bros., Directors: The brothers used their Hollywood leverage to start their own production company.
11. Greta Gerwig, Director: It honestly seems like there is nothing she can’t do. Her directorial debut, Lady Bird, is a big win for women. But Gerwig herself is a “writer and director of the first rank.”
12. Sterling K. Brown, Actor: He was relatively unknown before getting cast in The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story. But he stole the show. He does the same in This Is Us. He is the first-ever black man to win an Emmy for best actor in a TV series. He also won at the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards.
13. Ronan Farrow, Journalist: He spent nearly a year investigating Harvey Weinstein, patiently gathering evidence and eventually bringing the abuser down.
14. Amy Pascal, Kristie Macosko Krieger & Liz Hannah: The women behind the 2017’s most urgent movie, The Post. “You make a movie about 1971, and you realize you’re making a movie about 2017 very quickly,” Hannah says. “We hope people question why there is still only one woman in the boardroom, and why we still have to argue for the press to be in the room that they’re allowed to be in.”
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