Port Magazine

26/04/2024

Ben Whishaw has shone in countless varied roles to date – as Q to Daniel Craig’s Bond, as the voice of Paddington and as the lead in This is Going To Hurt. Between his acclaimed part in Passages and appearances on London stages in Waiting for Godot and Bluets, our fifth and final cover star reflects on his career so far with Kerry Crowe.

All footwear Manolo Blahnik. All clothing Paul Smith. Excerpt below:

Born in England in 1980, into an unassuming Bedfordshire life without the early privilege enjoyed by many high-profile actors, he attributes his career, at least in part, to the influence of an amateur dramatics teacher in his home town named Rory Reynolds. “If I hadn’t met him and gone to that youth theatre, I’m not sure I’d be doing it, because I don’t think that’s a path I would have found. It’s amazing really,” Whishaw tells me. “Rory treated all of us like we were little artists, like little professionals. He would give you an end-of-term report,” he says with tangible incredulity and gratitude, “and it was just a Sunday. He opened up all sorts of things to me: theatre and literature and art and performance and acting.”

Did it feel like a leap then, to go from this world to the hallowed studios of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he would later train? He thinks. “Yes, actually. I do remember feeling, like… Woah!” He feigns shock. “Like, when somebody first mentioned something to me about the idea of going to ‘drama school’, I thought, ‘What is that?’ And I remember thinking quite distinctly at one point that if I could just get there, that would be enough. I think I must have been quite determined to…” He searches for the right word. “I think I must have been quite determined,” he resolves.

Photography Chieska Fortune Smith, Styling Naomi Miller, Production Lock Studios, Digital Operator Laura Heckford, DOP Self Shooter Mattias Pettersson, Set Designer Gemma Tickle, Hair Jody Taylor, Skin Nathalie Eleni.

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25/04/2024

Hari Nef’s glittering career has taken her onto runways, stages and screens, not to mention her writing work. She won early praise for her role in Transparent, and has followed that up with recent roles in The Idol and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. Following her awards tour for the latter as well as various fashion weeks, Hari Nef discussed her creative life with Hannah Gold over a New York lunch in our fourth cover story.

Hari Nef at IMG wears Celine
Excerpt below:

I asked Nef if she felt there was some crucial connection between the two arts – writing
and acting. She said she doesn’t think they relate much at all, that writing, for her, is more like painting, or any other creative activity one does alone. “I don’t really enjoy writing as much as I enjoy acting because it’s so solitary,” she said. “I find it easier to get things done through collaboration, and I guess I just find it easier to be accountable to other people than to be accountable to myself.” She went on to elaborate what this means to her from an artistic and industry standpoint: “A working actor has to be really skilled at unsheathing, offering, and protracting their intimacy in a way that’s probably not intuitive. You have to compartmentalise.”

Photography Bruce Gilden at Magnum Photos
Styling Ian Mcrae. Hair Blake Eric at Forward Artists using Oribe. Makeup Olivia Barad. Nails Sonya Meesh at Forward Artists using Manicurist. Special thanks to Sattelite Space. Production Production Factory. Producer Sam Grumet.

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24/04/2024

His stage and screen appearances had already made him a respected and awarded actor, but Succession brought our third cover star, Brian Cox, to new heights. While rehearsing for a return to the west end with Long Day’s Journey into Night, he caught up with Jason Diamond on his career to date and to come.

Brian Cox wears DIOR SS24 throughout.
Excerpt below:

Cox excels at playing men who supposedly have everything finally coming face to face with their limitations, but he isn’t somebody who would allow himself to be typecast. Sure, his accent is undeniable, and where he comes from geographically does carry over into his parts. He mentions doing Waiting for Godot in 2015 with Bill Paterson as Estragon (Gogo) and Cox playing Vladimir (Didi). “We played it very much in the Scottish vernacular,” he says before pointing out that coming from Scotland’s east coast helped him understand the character a bit better, despite writer Samuel Beckett being from Ireland, and the fact that the biographies of all the characters in Godot are never really hinted at. But Cox saw something familiar in his role. “Didi is so kind of… positive and he’s almost surreal sometimes. That’s very like the east coast of Scotland humour, which is all about light and everything. Whereas the west coast of Scotland is all about ‘poor me’.” So to Cox, playing the other character who waits on the country road for the man named Godot who will never come just didn’t make sense. “Gogo picking his feet and doing all that is very Glasgow…”

Read the full story on port-magazine.com or preorder your copy at https://buff.ly/3yOxjgS

Photography Tom Johnson, Styling Mitchell Belk, Grooming Laurence Walker and Hannah Maestranzi, Set Design Andrew Liam Clarke. Production Mini Title.

23/04/2024

Our second cover star is Ke Huy Quan. His early roles in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies made him instantly beloved, and after years away from acting, he made a splash once again in Everything Everywhere All at Once, winning an Oscar and a new generation of fans. Since then, he’s turned his skills to the Loki series, and he discusses his return to acting and rich career with friend and Loki costar Tom Hiddleston.

Ke Huy Quan wears ZEGNA OASI LINO SUMMER 24 throughout.
Excerpt below:

“I never see myself as a veteran, even though I’ve been in this business for a long time. I always feel like I’m a kid. I was just 11 years old when I landed the role of Short Round. I really loved going to set, and never thought of it as a job, just enjoyed every minute. It was like a playground for me. It wasn’t something that I pursued. It just came to me.

Then as I got older, when I finally decide that this is what I wanted to do, ironically, those opportunities dried up. When I was a kid, I was doing movie after movie – I didn’t know how lucky I was until I decided that this is what I wanted to do. All of a sudden, I found myself with no career, and I was just in my early 20s. I decided to go to film school, because I didn’t want to leave this industry.

In retrospect, I wouldn’t change anything, because it made me a better person, I think. It made me treasure every opportunity that comes my way. And now when I walk on a set, I am filled with a sense of gratitude. And I feel very blessed to be able to do this.”

Photography Buck Ellison, Styling Julie Velut, Grooming Anissa Salazar, Production CXA, Digital Tech Clay Rasmussen.

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22/04/2024

We’re thrilled to unveil Port’s SS24 issue – a food special guest edited by the inimitable Jeremy Lee. Our first cover features the cook himself, and his Editor’s Letter is now online to read.

Extract:

Food and cooking feed a fundamental need – not just of necessity, but also to please – and so it is unsurprising, really, to find food appearing in art, in film, theatre, in books, newspapers and of course, in a magazine. Talk over lunch continues amid laughter and wine and leads to mention of fashion, food and cooking, art, photography, the curious business of artlessness and style in what we prepare, wear, see and choose to look at, read, watch and take inspiration from. A great adventure.

‘Tis a very great joy and a very great honour to be here talking with you, and I hope you enjoy this issue of Port as much as I enjoyed wearing an editor cap for the first time.

Photography Sophie Green.

Order your copy here: https://buff.ly/3yOxjgS

Editor-in-Chief Dan Crowe
Associate Publisher Andrew Chidgey-Nakazono
Guest Editor Jeremy Lee
Creative Director Matt Curtis, Uncommon Creative Studio
Art Director Dan Shannon
Design Luke Owen, Uncommon Creative Studio

Senior Editor Kerry Crowe
Managing Editor Samir Chadha
Special Projects Manager Ethan Butler

Fashion Director Mitchell Belk
Photo director Holly Hay

08/11/2023

Jasmine Jobson’s whirlwind performance in Top Boy won her praise from critics and fans around the globe, as well as multiple award nominations. Later this year she'll be turning her talents to new thriller Platform 7. In Issue 33’s final cover feature, she spoke to PORT about her approach to acting, her route into it, and how she filters herself into her work. Photography Annie Lai Styling Georgia Thompson Hair and Makeup Kareem Jarce

Jasmine wears all eyewear by Persol. Excerpt below:

“I was always told if something’s not broken you don’t need to fix it.
So I’ve taken that with me. When it comes to my characters, I just add little bits rather than taking things away from me and completely becoming this person. I just add and add it all. Add it all. And then it’s just a completely different version of myself.”

Order your issue at https://port-magazine.newsstand.co.uk/

Read the full interview at https://www.port-magazine.com/film/jasmine-jobson/

Interview Samir Chadha
Editor-in-Chief Dan Crowe
Associate Publisher Andrew Chidgey-Nakazono
Creative Director Matt Curtis, Uncommon Creative Studios
Art Director Ellie Rose, Uncommon Creative Studios
Design Production Jodie Hurn & Aurelia Rahofe, Uncommon Creative Studios
Casting Director Tom Macklin
Special Projects Manager Ethan Butler
Managing Editor Samir Chadha
Photo Director Naoise O’Keeffe
Photo Editor Jodie Michaelides
Production Production Factory
Photo agent Jones MGMT
Talent agent SATELLITE414

07/11/2023

Our fourth Issue 33 cover launches together with Port China’s debut print edition, featuring Cai Guo-Qiang’s ‘When the Sky Blooms with Sakura’, daytime fireworks commissioned by Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent. Inside the issue, Thea Hawlin reflects on the piece, and his work to date. Excerpt below:

“Making art is not to liberate society in the first place, but to liberate oneself,” Cai asserts. Through his art he took control of the element that overwhelmed his childhood, repurposing fear into joy, private pain into public beauty. On his works on paper we see trails of gunpowder splinter out into floral motifs, everything from abstract forms to figurative scenes, the central motif that a new creation is brought forth from the act and materials of destruction. “It’s actually another type of cure for my childhood,” he once said, “it purges the violence and destruction from this society and this era into something beautiful.” In gunpowder the artist found a release, the perfect tool to break away from conventions. “It freed me from the social constructions at the time.” The force of these small eruptions set him free, energy unveiled as an essential tool.


Read the full piece online at https://www.port-magazine.com/art-photography/cai-guo-qiang/
Order your copy at https://port-magazine.newsstand.co.uk

Editor-in-Chief Dan Crowe
Associate Publisher Andrew Chidgey-Nakazono
Creative Director Matt Curtis, Uncommon Creative Studio
Port China Editorial Director Suki Tang
Art Director Ellie Rose, Uncommon Creative Studio
Design Production Jodie Hurn & Aurelia Rahofer, Uncommon Creative Studio
Managing Editor Samir Chadha

06/11/2023

After comedies about vampires, pirates, and a Superhero God, you might not have expected Taika Waititi to make a sports film. But that’s sort of why he did it. Read more in Jason Diamond’s chat with the filmmaker; our third cover feature in Issue 33. Photography Jai Odell Styling Julie Velut Grooming Melissa Dezarate

Taika wears ZEGNA Winter 2023. Excerpt below:

The big, unifying figure in his work – whether it’s vampires going about their unlives in the suburbs, Indigenous people living in a colonised world, or even the Norse God of Thunder trying to navigate the human world – is ultimately the outsider. It’s a theme he can identify with, in part just because of where he’s from. New Zealand is “an island of four-million people and we’re so far away from anything. If you want to escape, the nearest place is Australia, which is an absolute sh*thole,”

Read the full interview online at https://buff.ly/3SnhgB2
Order your copy at https://buff.ly/3yOxjgS

Editor-in-Chief Dan Crowe
Associate Publisher Andrew Chidgey-Nakazono
Creative Director Matt Curtis, Uncommon Creative Studio
Art Director Ellie Rose, Uncommon Creative Studio
Design Production Jodie Hurn & Aurelia Rahofe, Uncommon Creative Studio
Casting Director Tom Macklin
Special Projects Manager Ethan Butler
Managing Editor Samir Chadha
Photo Director Naoise O’Keeffe
Photo Editor Jodie Michaelides
Production Underhill Film
Photo agent Trouble Management
Grooming agent A-Frame Agency
Talent agent ID

03/11/2023

This summer’s critically acclaimed Past Lives saw Teo Yoo in the sort of role he’s been looking for his whole career. In Issue 33’s second cover feature, he talked to Simran Hans about finding a home for himself, and the athletic sensibility in his acting. Photography LESS Styling Kwon Soonwhan, Hair Kim Keonhyung, Make Up Uhm Ji

Teo wears Loro Piana Fall Winter 2023-2024. Excerpt below:

Produced by A24, Past Lives centres on Nora (Greta Lee), a Korean immigrant and playwright living in New York. When her childhood sweetheart Hae Sung (Yoo) stumbles into town, she begins to reflect on both her identity, and her marriage to her white American husband, Arthur (John Magaro). The role of Hae Sung called for a traditional Korean man. “Nobody would see me in Korea as an average Korean man,” says Yoo. Yoo’s parents emigrated to Germany from South Korea via a work labour agreement between the two countries. Like most German Koreans of his parents’ generation, his father worked in a coal mine. His mother was a nurse. He describes his upbringing in Cologne as “very working class” and “very physical”. Growing up, his friends were mostly the children of immigrants and refugees, whose families came from North Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. “They understood suffering in a different way,” he says of that group of friends. “Out of that struggle, we gelled.”

Order your issue via the link in bio and read the full interview online at
https://buff.ly/3QrcXCa

Editor-in-Chief Dan Crowe
Associate Publisher Andrew Chidgey-Nakazono
Creative Director Matt Curtis, Uncommon Creative Studio
Art Director Ellie Rose, Uncommon Creative Studio
Design Production Jodie Hurn & Aurelia Rahofer, Uncommon Creative Studio
Casting Director Tom Macklin
Special Projects Manager Ethan Butler
Managing Editor Samir Chadha
Photo Director Naoise O’Keeffe
Photo Editor Jodie Michaelides
Styling Kwon Soonwhan
Hair Kim Keonhyung
Make Up Uhm Ji
Production Rhiem Hyojin
Talent Agent Slate PR

02/11/2023

The first of our five cover features for Issue 33 – fresh off the back of his starring role in Passages, Lauren caught up with Franz Rogowski over breakfast in Berlin. Photography Suffo Moncloa Styling Mitchell Belk Grooming Kristen Belger

Rogowski wears Paul Smith AW23.

Excerpt below:

If we ask too much of actors – if we overstep with them, project onto them, want too badly to try our hand with them – it is because the actor can be what others cannot: someone else. He represents the fantasy that the roles we play in our public lives might not have to reflect, or affect, who we “really” are; in playing constant characters, the actor supports the comforting illusion that character is fixed, that there is a stable relationship between one’s public persona and private life. Off-screen, this responsibility is probably a burden; they are not who they play onscreen, but they also kind of are, if not before the role, then after. Rogowski mentioned a hypothetical situation in which he might direct something, and I asked if he wanted to direct. “Every actor wants to be something else,” he said. “There’s a lack of authorship and a lot of pretending. And it kind of makes sense – the emptier you are, the more somebody else can fill you with something. And you’ll just be very, you know, happily pulling the plow because you’ve been standing around screaming, ‘I’m a horse! I’m a horse! Give me work!’” (He joke-screamed this part.) “But it’s not really yours – you’re an interpreter, you’re a vase to be filled with water or whatever.”

Read the full interview online: https://www.port-magazine.com/film/franz-rogowski/

Editor-in-Chief Dan Crowe
Associate Publisher Andrew Chidgey-Nakazono
Creative Director Matt Curtis, Uncommon Creative Studio
Art Director Ellie Rose, Uncommon Creative Studio
Design Production Jodie Hurn & Aurelia Rahofer, Uncommon Creative Studio
Casting Director Tom Macklin
Special Projects Manager Ethan Butler
Managing Editor Samir Chadha
Photo Director Naoise O’Keeffe
Photo Editor Jodie Michaelides
Production Vers
Grooming Kristen Belger at Liga Nord using Susanne Kaufmann and Ghd
Talent agent Tapestry London

01/11/2023

Port has always tried to bring out new edges in our cover features: to see the incredible people we’re working with from new angles and capture a side yet to be seen. With this redesign, we took that a little further and asked all those featured on our upcoming covers to write ‘Port’ by hand.

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27/10/2023

Chatting to the chef patron of Bocca di Lupo as the iconic restaurant celebrates 15 years

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25/10/2023

Catching up with Jake Ewald of Slaughter Beach, Dog, around a new album and the reading and writing that went into it

Subscribe to Port Magazine annually and receive each issue to your door.

19/10/2023

There’s the patience of its practitioners, then the pluck of its protagonists. But horology as we know it wouldn’t be without another ‘p’: pride

Subscribe to Port Magazine annually and receive each issue to your door.

10/08/2023

The fashion designers expanding their offering for both mens- and womenswear

08/08/2023

Investigating four fashion archives and the emotional power of second-hand threads

02/08/2023

A photoessay from Tami Aftab and Simar Deol looking at the trickle-down impact mythology, Bollywood and dance has had on communication and expression in South Asian culture

31/07/2023

For issue 32, the editor and poet picks up the baton from Susan Sontag

28/07/2023

Summer is ushered in with Hermès ready-to-wear SS23

26/07/2023

Murder, mystery, fantasy – exploring the links between thrillers and holidays

24/07/2023

Obsession via the streets of Paris, courtesy Sarah Blais and Lune Kupiers

21/07/2023

In anticipation of the CNMI’s sixth Sustainable Fashion Awards ceremony, it announces its emerging designers finalists

21/07/2023

Exploring the role of creativity in psychedelics to break the network of stigma and ignorance

17/07/2023

Susan Finlay and Jack Skelley reflect on their respective new books

14/07/2023

Exploring the cinematic past, present and future of the peerless lens maker

14/07/2023

Piczo’s new photography book captures the joyful promise of models at the start of their career

12/07/2023

Grace Difford and Mitchell Belk travel to the Isle of Sheppey for their issue 32 collections story

10/07/2023

Madeline Thornalley of Hurtence explains why the most audacious, absurd hats provoke the greatest emotions

07/07/2023

Examining the radically abstract work of spirit medium and artist Hilma af Klint

05/07/2023

Akiko Hirai embraces transformation in beautifully imperfect ceramics