I'm a hustler, a grinder': Teyana Taylor on music, motherhood and One Battle After Another

"Teyana Taylor is as she often says to interviewers the entertainment equivalent of a Glade plug-in air freshener: put her in any socket and she will make every room smell good. And, at 34, she has the CV to prove it. After kicking off her career at 15 as a choreographer for Beyonce (she later showcased her own moves to millions in the headline-grabbing video for Kanye West's 2016 single Fade), the New York native began making her own critically acclaimed, cutting-edge R&B."

"But Taylor also likens herself to another household item. I am a sponge, she says. I'm never above being a student. This was especially true on the set of her latest project, Paul Thomas Anderson's vigilante group caper One Battle After Another. Observing castmates including Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro plus the director himself (to many, the greatest of his generation) turned her into SpongeBob SquarePants."

"On screen, she is absolutely cocksure, whether demanding fellow vigilante Ghetto Pat (DiCaprio) have sex with her on a car bonnet in the two minutes before the bomb they've just planted explodes, instructing Penn's Colonel Lockjaw at gunpoint to get an erection, or firing off rounds with a machine gun resting on her heavily pregnant stomach before proclaiming: Bitch! I felt like Tony Montana!"

Teyana Taylor began her career at 15 as a choreographer for Beyoncé and later showcased her dancing in Kanye West's 2016 video Fade. She developed critically acclaimed, cutting-edge R&B and expanded into acting in films and television, including an award-winning role in 2023's A Thousand and One as a mother who kidnaps her son from the care system. She has worked as a creative director for brands and other musicians. On Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another she observed veteran actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro, taking notes and learning on set. In the film she plays Perfidia Beverly Hills, a swaggering revolutionary known for audacious, improvised moments.

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