Hunger

HUNGER - Issue 34

RITA ORA

"I think people always want to put you in a box. 'You're a singer' or 'you're an actor.' But I've never felt comfortable with that. My life in Portobello was about mixing everything — cultures, styles, ideas. Why would I stop now just because I'm in the spotlight?"

Rita Ora isn't playing by anyone's rules. Back at Rankin Studios – where she shot one of her first covers – the Kosovo-born Londoner is balancing her new Primark collection, supporting Kylie Minogue on tour, and filming with Henry Cavill without missing a beat. The Notting Hill market kid who learned to hustle among the stalls hasn't gone anywhere, even as her sound has evolved with her latest album "You & I," which documents her relationship with Taika Waititi. Between film sets and fashion lines, Ora maintains that same electric presence that first caught attention on "Hot Right Now" — just with more confidence in her multi-hyphenate path. "This is who I am," she states plainly, with all the assurance of someone who's done explaining herself.

BETH DITTO

"Looking 'fancy' just isn't my thing. Being a fat kid, I was always told to hide my body. When I met all these ‘riot grrrls’ and queer people, I realized — what the fuck is beauty anyway?"

With humour and punk spirit in her arsenal, Beth Ditto fights on the side of the people. When our video call connects, the Gossip frontwoman appears in her Portland spare room, orange hair glowing against pajamas, Juul in hand. Twenty-four years after their debut and nearly thirteen since their last album, Ditto's band has returned with "Real Power" — dropping into a music industry the 43-year-old barely recognizes. In Trump's America, with LGBTQ+ rights under renewed threat, she represents something increasingly rare: authentic resistance that hasn't forgotten how to laugh. "How can you make people feel they're going to be OK," she asks, "if you can't feel like you're going to be OK?"

NEON NIGHTS

The season's boldest pieces from the likes of Tom Ford, Roberto Cavalli, and Louis Vuitton face off against the neon chaos of the Las Vegas strip.

OLIVIA NEILL

"I have friends that'll be like, 'Do you not get embarrassed by the amount of stuff you say on the internet?' And I'm like, no — should I be? I've never wanted to be this perfect, polished thing.”

The YouTuber-turned-model might look a picture, but it's her videos that reveal her true depths. Fresh from Paris Fashion Week, Olivia Neill sits in our Kentish Town studio, chatting with the same disarming openness that catapulted her from a Belfast bedroom to the front row at couture shows. But six years later, Neill is still dedicated to documenting both the glamour and the tears. "The night before a couture show I was crying in my hotel room over things every 23-year-old goes through," she admits without hesitation. In an industry built on perfection, Neill's determination to show the reality behind the photos is what keeps her audience coming back. That, and the occasional campaign where they let her pilot a plane — turns out flying aircraft isn't just a metaphor for her soaring career.

POM KLEMENTIEFF

"A good elbow to the jaw is great. You can hurt someone so bad with that. If everything goes to shit, just remember that. I think that's why I'm drawn to action — in movies you can do things that would land you in jail in real life."

If there's one rule the French actor lives by (and there aren't many) it's that taking a risk is always worth it. When our call connects, Pom Klementieff is in Paris, jet-lagged after a delayed New York flight and still wearing the "chastity belt" jeans from her HUNGER shoot. Between 218 skydives, motorcycle training, and horseback riding, the Mission: Impossible star brings the same intensity to her downtime as she does to her stunt work. "After shooting, I can do the dangerous stuff again," she explains with unmistakable excitement. For someone who was once scared of watching people take risks, Klementieff's evolution into Hollywood's most fearless French export is both surprising and somehow inevitable. "It's crazy," she reflects, "how you can have different lives in the same life."

COSMO JARVIS

"Whether or not award recognition is important to me is irrelevant — it seems to be important to the industry.”

He's fresh from the success of Shōgun and between takes of a Guy Ritchie flick. Still, #CosmoJarvis remains unmoved by the trappings of fame. The 35-year-old actor responds to questions via email, his answers stripped of showbiz platitudes but full of thoughtful reverence for his craft. Whether discussing his role in Alex Garland's upcoming war film or his work alongside De Niro, Jarvis speaks with the precision of someone who prefers to let his performances do the talking. "I don't really want to play the same person twice," he explains when asked about his pattern of intense characters. It's this grounded approach that makes Jarvis stand out in an industry built on charm offensives — an actor, emphasis on that last syllable, more concerned with the excavation of character than the accumulation of accolades.

FLOWEROVLOVE

"My Spotify Wrapped was embarrassing — I was my third most-listened-to artist and one of my songs was in the top five.”

The 20-year-old singer sits somewhere between lover girl and nonchalant queen — the perfect spot for a glitter pop princess to grow. From the moment south Londoner Joyce Cisse (aka flowerovlove) arrives, she's overflowing with the same girly-pop energy that defines her music and style. Fresh off her headline tour across the UK and US, the self-described "mini skirt warrior" discusses her debut EP with the confidence of someone who's found her calling. Not too much of a surprise given her music has already seen her walk for Chanel and play Glasto. Still there's a refreshing genuineness to flowerovlove, who admits to crying from homesickness on tour. "I'm not really playing a character," she insists, though her journey from south London to fashion week suggests she might just be writing her own fairy tale.

FELICITY JONES

"Context is character. What are the forces upon you that are making you who you are?”

In Brady Corbet's The Brutalist, Felicity Jones's character doesn't appear until after the intermission — and yet she's still the beating heart of the film. The Oscar-nominated epic is what she'd call a golden nugget, and they're worth the wait. Sitting on Zoom with slightly awry hair and an unaffected presence, the 41-year-old actor discusses her role as Erzsébet, a Holocaust survivor she describes as the film's "vine" who "wraps around the story through to the end." Despite being physically absent from the first half (we only hear her voice), Jones anchors the lengthy postwar epic with a quiet intensity that earned her a second Academy Award nomination. The accolade isn’t a huge surprise, though. From early roles in The Archers (and Albatross) to starring opposite Adrien Brody, Jones has developed a remarkable talent for selecting projects that transcend their apparent limitations. "When anyone's looking for a job," she observes with characteristic pragmatism, "you're balancing a desire for intellectual fulfillment with necessity."

JASON ISAACS

“I never get beyond the notion that I pull faces and make voices for a living. I shouldn't have people standing back and making room for me."

Wherever Jason Isaacs lays his hat, from Lucius Malfoy's manor to a luxury resort in Bangkok, there's always a lesson to be learned. The 61-year-old actor maintains a surprisingly grounded perspective despite decades playing iconic villains. While filming The White Lotus in Thailand, he ventured far beyond the five-star bubble. "If you only stayed inside a resort, you would think you were getting some sense of what it's like to be Thai by interacting with the staff. But that's not what the real world is like." For a man who's played everything from Death Eaters to wealthy businessmen, Isaacs has mastered the art of seeing beyond the facade — though he does pack one constant reminder of home: "I take teabags with me all over the world. Builder's tea with oat milk because I'm an incredibly annoying and occasionally lapsing vegan." Fair enough.

DAVID JONSSON

“I'm an introvert by nature, and I kind of can't get away from that. I think the assumption that what we do is always glamorous is the wrong one.”

The east Londoner meets me on a bleak January morning, fresh from Italy — or was it Japan? He can't quite remember after months of back-to-back shoots. From his breakout in Industry to rom-com Rye Lane and sci-fi Alien: Romulus, Jonsson has tackled more genres in a few years than many veteran actors. Now he's set to play Sammy Davis Jr. opposite Sydney Sweeney and star in Frank Ocean's directorial debut, though he remains tight-lipped about the latter: "Frank is Frank, and we love him because he's made so many amazing moments in musical history." Despite his rapid ascent, there's a humility to Jonsson that feels genuine. "I've just done what I've done and, so far, I think it's worked out relatively OK," he says with characteristic understatement. "I just hope none of this comes crashing down."

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