LOST IN TRANSLATION: Despite her face splashed across a multitude of giant screens inside the Palais d’Iéna venue, French actress and art curator Guslagie Malanda went largely incognito at Miu Miu as she moved through the crush of photographers grappling to snap pictures of guests including South Korean singer Wonyoung Jang; Thai singer, songwriter, record producer and actress Minnie; Japanese singer and rapper Momo Hirai; British actor Emma Corrin, and musician Lorde.
The “Black Mirror”-esque short film created by Cécile B. Evans for the show, which was in part a commentary on artificial intelligence, could soon be extended into a full-scale feature, Malanda said. “Miu Miu is just the beginning of the story between Cécile B. Evans and I as an actress,” she said. She drew parallels between artificial intelligence and her profession. “I’m always in that dangerous space in between reality and fiction, because I’m an actress, I’m always in between,” she said. “With Cécile, we worked on that; it was amazing.”
In the film, she played an interpreter of forgotten languages and a memory that escapes her, getting the other guests musing.
Corrin thinks about language “when I’m trying to do the New York Times crossword every day.” The actor commented, “My friends and I have started doing it recently; it’s quite a fun way to start the day. It’s a collaborative effort.”
When it comes to wordplay, Ever Anderson is a fan of journaling. “That’s where I like to keep a lot of memories,” she said after the show. “Some call that hoarding, I call that being creative.”
Anderson was escorted to her seat just as the show was starting, sharing a laugh with her front-row neighbor, Chinese singer, rapper and songwriter Lexie Liu, about their matching Church’s buckled brogues.
The subject of translation got Aja Naomi King reminiscing about her son’s first experience with language. “My son learned how to speak German before he learned to speak English, so there were a lot of times I couldn’t understand what he was saying,” she said. “He looked at me so earnestly attempting to communicate, and there was just something so beautiful about the desire to be understood.”
Hailee Steinfeld enthused about the show and concept. “The film was amazing. It’s all so incredible, it’s so amazing to come and see how much goes into a show, it goes so much further than just the clothes,” she said.
Kristine Froseth was already a fan of Evans’ approach to art, she said. “All of her work is based around human interaction and technology, and I think it’s so important that we’re talking about it and seeing how it’s affecting us psychologically,” she mused. Technology “is all around us,” she said. “We’re all going to be filming the show, it’s a part of us, it’s just going to get crazier.”
There will be no devices visible on-screen on her next project, however. Froseth starts filming season two of the period drama “The Buccaneers” in April. Like Anderson, she is also a believer in old-fashioned notebooks. To prepare for the role, “I did a lot of journaling for the first season, so I’m just going to read those and connect with the cast again.”
