Category: The Magazine
The Interview: David Beckham
Build It Like Beckham
David Beckham wears his heart on his sleeves… and his chest, back, neck, legs and hands, among other stretches of skin where the soccer superstar has documented his life’s meaning and milestones.
Among the scores of images tattooed on the model, businessman and revered athlete’s much-coveted flesh, are the names of his four children and remembrances of his athletic career — including ‘99’ commemorating the monumental year Manchester United won the treble, his marriage to wife Victoria and the birth of the couple’s first child.
Family and the love of the sport that he has helped define — and which in turn has defined his life — dominate a body that has made him a superstar both on and off the pitch.
Beckham’s style and sports acumen have brought him fame and accolades that transcend his legendary athletic performances during his 20-year career.
One of the sport’s most celebrated midfielders, Beckham was named by Pelé himself as one of soccer’s top 100 living players, played in three FIFA World Cup tournaments, was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame, and became a pop culture icon, even inspired the award-winning 2002 film, Bend It Like Beckham as well as the 2023 Netflix docuseries, Beckham.
Beckham’s Next Move
At 48, retirement has done nothing to dull his edge. Through determination and hard work, Beckham is building a lasting legacy that may well make more of a mark on the history of soccer than any of his time on the field. He is working toward a goal that would have been unthinkable a decade earlier, making soccer a major sport in the United States.
Beckham has turned his Inter Miami soccer team into the hottest ticket in American sports while pushing to transform the country’s Major League Soccer, or MLS, into an acronym he hopes will be as recognizable in the States as the NFL, NBA or MLB.
The recent signing of legendary Barcelona player Lionel Messi and plans to build a $1 billion stadium in Miami have only added to the fever pitch surrounding Inter Miami.
Fans and A-listers, including Prince Harry, Leonardo DiCaprio, Selena Gomez, Marc Anthony, LeBron James, Owen Wilson, Edward Norton, and Will Ferrell are pouring into the stadiums to catch a glimpse of the soccer superstar and the team’s iconic co-owner who traces his love of the sport back to childhood.
Beckham’s Start On The Pitch
Beckham first drew attention as a spiky-haired 11-year-old, when he won the Bobby Charlton Soccer Schools National Skills competition. This accolade led to a trip to Barcelona where the cheeky young chap caught the eye of a talent scout from Manchester United, his parents’ favorite team.
He signed with the club as a teenager and made his professional debut with Manchester United at the age of 21. Beckham would go on to join the rosters of Real Madrid, LA Galaxy and Paris St. Germain, garnering 19 trophies and scoring 127 goals before his retirement in 2013. He became one of the most recognizable athletes in the world, and not just for his on-pitch achievements.
His endorsements, appearances and provocative photo shoots in partnerships with Adidas, Tudor, Maserati, and countless other luxury brands, have made the six-foot, chiseled and brazenly handsome Londoner a global celebrity, a platform he has used to bring recognition and star power to his new endeavor in bringing soccer across the pond.
By his side for the last 24 years is his wife, fashion designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham. Together this dynamic duo has forged an empire with a strong emphasis on business and philanthropy, contributing millions to well over a dozen charities.
He is a founding member of Malaria No More, and the Victoria and David Beckham Charitable Trust provides wheelchairs and other aid to children in need. His lengthy partnership with UNICEF and the creation of his charitable 7 Fund, helps children in Indonesia, Nepal, Uganda and El Salvador reach their full potential.
Beckham’s Love of Family
But always, Beckham’s family is first and foremost. Their names and images are not just branded on his skin but embedded in his heart.
On social media, where his Instagram alone draws a staggering 83 million followers, his wife and four children, sons model Brooklyn, professional soccer player Romeo and musician Cruz, as well as daughter Harper are omnipresent.
And it’s clear that Harper, 12, has got daddy wrapped around her little finger. He’s got a stick figure she drew at the age of four tattooed on his hand, and images capturing tender daddy-daughter moments abound, to the delight of fans who have no trouble embracing the sexy soccer star’s softer side.
Beckham proudly shares photos of the two playfully posing in clown noses, Harper applying makeup to her famous father, and scrapbooks of photos dedicated to “the most amazing little girl a daddy could wish for” on her birthday.
But perhaps the most telling image splashed across the headlines worldwide is that of a beaming Harper, walking confidently out onto the field at a recent Inter Miami match holding player Lionel Messi’s hand.
The joy captured in young Harper’s eyes embodies Beckham’s devotion to family, sport and his unstoppable drive to build a lasting legacy for generations to come.
By the look of things, David Beckham is well on his way to yet another meaningful goal.
The Interview: Cate Blanchett
Captivating Cate
At 54, Cate Blanchett has achieved true icon status, commanding respect where others demand it.
Yet there’s something about Blanchett that’s very down to earth, from the twinkle in her eye to her audacious, often-gritty, screen roles to her penchant for self-deprecating humor, this mother of four has it all.
Experience Junkie
Blanchett describes herself as an ‘experience junkie,’ and a popular anecdote about her first appearance on screen sums up the appetite for adventure that has driven her career.
The daughter of a Texan advertising salesman and an Australian teacher, Blanchett was born in Melbourne, Australia, the middle of three children.
An inquisitive child from the get-go, Cate Blanchett felt drawn to a career as a museum curator, (perhaps an early hint at her penchant for storytelling) which led to a gap year when she traveled to Egypt to broaden her horizons.
Legend has it that she was down on her luck financially, marooned in Cairo and unable to pay her hotel bill, so she accepted a job as an extra in a boxing film, promised a payment of two Egyptian pounds and a falafel.
“I didn’t have enough money to pay for my room for the week. I went along, and there was an Arab guy with a megaphone, like something out of a silent movie, and it was so hot and so boring that I left,” Blanchett has said, adding that she never received her promised falafel.
Cate Blanchett’s Acting History
While the film industry didn’t initially inspire young Blanchett, the craft of acting drew her in. Upon her return to Australia Blanchett enrolled in drama school, and parts started coming her way.
She cut her teeth as an actor on the boards, playing big roles on Sydney stages, including opposite Geoffrey Rush in the 1992 production of Oleana, and a handful of silver screen turns in small films, such as 1997’s Paradise Road, before she was cast in her breakthrough rebirth in a period piece as Elizabeth in 1998’s film of the same name which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
The utter embodiment of the fiery and unconventional queen, Cate has since ascended to a throne of her own making. Careful not to be typecast as a historical figure strapped into corsets and wigs, her career is vast and varied, from small films and supporting parts to blockbuster franchises.
Whatever the role, there’s something ethereal to her performances, an intangible earnestness that exudes from her inner strength, as she wrangles her way into the audience’s hearts through subtleties, including glances that can be alternatively agate-sharp, playful, joyful and soulful, Blanchett has mastered the art of using her lithesome physical presence to create emotion and depth, adding nuances to characters through shrugged shoulders or a flip of her golden mane to convey much more than her scripts ever do.
Oscar-Winning Cate
She creates tapestries with her characters and knows just the right strings to pull to make them resonate.
Blanchett can be a diva when the role calls for it, and then slip easily to the embodiment of angst, as she did in the last scene of her Oscar-winning role in Blue Jasmine, crying into the camera makeup-free, making her character’s utter despair and brokenness a visceral experience for the viewer.
Her performance in that scene prompted film legend Sophia Loren to write in her autobiography: “I was struck by the last scene in Blue Jasmine, where Cate Blanchett has an expression on her face I’d never seen before. That expression crept inside me, and it lies there waiting to germinate a new plant, a new flower.”
Blanchett’s ability to transform acting beyond storytelling makes her, inarguably, one of the world’s greatest living actors, Blanchett’s marvelous career has garnered her more than 300 award nominations and 166 wins including two Oscars (Blue Jasmine and The Aviator where she played Katherine Hepburn, an Oscar-winner herself), four Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, four British Film Academy Awards and a Tony nomination.
It seems that since she first exploded on the scene she’s been everywhere, big and small, including memorable roles in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Thor: Ragnarok, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Babel, I’m Not There (as Bob Dylan himself) Carol, and most recently in Tár, Nightmare Alley and The New Boy, which made its world premiere at Cannes in 2023.
With more than 70 films under her belt, Blanchett and her husband, playwright Andrew Upton, share a love of the stage and carved out time to direct the Sydney Theatre Company from 2008 to 2013. In 2017, Blanchett was named a Companion of the Order of Australia for her acting as well as her impressive devotion to charitable and humanitarian causes.
“I believe that a creative career is only as good as the risks that you take with it.” — Cate Blanchett
Cate has served as an ambassador to the Australian Conservation Foundation and has long worked with the United Nations on refugee issues. She’s also been a brand ambassador for Armani and Louis Vuitton, juggling the limelight while shining a spotlight on issues that matter deeply to her.
To the delight of fans, this captivating performer shows no signs of slowing down with numerous projects in the works, carefully tending a garden of brilliant blooms.
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The Interview: Ryan Reynolds
THE HEART OF AN ICON
“I guess I finally tested positive for icon,” Ryan Reynolds joked when accepting the People’s Choice Icon Award in December 2022. It’s a status the Canadian actor fully deserves, as he has steadily built a remarkable career over the past three decades.
Add this latest award to a host of other accolades, including, GQ Man of the Year, People Magazine’s Sexiest Man (and Sexiest Dad) Alive, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, The American Cinematheque Award, a Golden Globe nomination and numerous People’s Choice wins.
Performing at the Icon ceremony honoring Reynolds was Shania Twain, who name-checked him in her song “Don’t Impress Me Much,” instead of Brad Pitt as she did in the original version, thus marking a cultural paradigm shift in Hollywood hotness.
Self-deprecating, irresistibly charming and endlessly versatile, Reynolds is one of the highest-grossing actors of all time, starring in films that have brought in more than $5 billion, and counting.
Reynolds steps into 2023 as a multi-hyphenate Renaissance man, an actor, producer, writer, comedian, entrepreneur, husband and father with multi-platform success and a blindingly bright future.
Yet Reynolds’ acting career initially was fraught with struggle and anxiety, he fully admits. Reynolds, the son of a former police officer, was the youngest of four siblings born to a middle-class family.
He first graced television screens as a teenager in a 1990 Nickelodeon series, filmed a movie in Sri Lanka, then went on to bit parts andfrustration as his career, then based in Vancouver, failed to take off.
Reynolds quit acting at 19 and briefly enrolled in a polytechnic university, but he had clearly been bitten by the acting, not academic bug. Soon after enrolling, he dropped out of school and moved to Los Angeles on a whim with a friend to try his luck in Hollywood, much to his family’s chagrin.
Even then it was not smooth sailing for Reynolds. The jeep they drove to Los Angeles was stolen and stripped of its doors, but Reynolds got the vehicle back and drove it to auditions anyway, too broke to replace the stolen parts.
He started meeting people, like close friend Jason Bateman, and persistence paid off. In 1998, Reynolds was cast in the television series Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, a run that lasted four seasons and got him noticed in tinsel town.
This led to his first major screen role in National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, cast as a seventh-year senior with a penchant for partying. Reynolds jokes that the 2002 role got him recognized, and free shots from fans at just about every bar he frequented.
Yet Reynolds would be known for even greater exploits as his career progressed, bulking up for the role of Hannibal King in 2004’s Blade: Trinity, his first entry into the superhero genre, and a role that required him to add 25 pounds of muscle to his 6’2” frame.
And from there, Reynolds’ career quickly snowballed, with turns in 2005’s Just Friends, alongside Ray Liotta in 2006’s Smokin’ Aces, as well as a variety of romantic comedies where his good looks coupled with quick wit and dry humor solidified his star power.
He ventured into the thriller genre with his role in 2010’s Buried, and dipped back into superheroes with his titular role in 2011’s Green Lantern, where he unwittingly met his future wife, Blake Lively, whom he married in 2012.
And then came Deadpool. The snarky, foulmouthed blockbuster 2016 film shattered box office records and paved the way for a sequel in 2018, with a third Deadpool film in production and set for release in 2024.
Reynolds’ interests span beyond the silver screen. He has made sizeable donations to Ukrainian refugees and clean water for indigenous people in Canada, and is an ardent supporter of the Michael J. Fox Foundation’s work on Parkinson’s disease.
His business acumen is also substantial. Reynolds created Maximum Effort marketing and production companies, and famously bought a stak in Aviation American Gin as well as the Wrexham AFC soccer club in Wales, a move he also documented in Welcome to Wrexham, which Reynolds co-produced.
He has also co-produced three daughters, and another baby on the way, with Lively over the course of their 10-year marriage, which he clearly considers his greatest achievement.
And as he accepted his Icon award, with his daughters’ handmade bracelets on his wrists, Reynolds acknowledged their importance in his every endeavor.
“Blake and my girls, you are quite literally my heart. You are my hope, you are my happiness,” he proclaimed. “I joke that my family exhausts me, but in reality, you give me more strength than any man could possibly deserve.”
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The Interview: Blake Lively
Lovely Lively
When actress, producer and director Blake Lively took to the red carpet during 2022’s Met Gala, all eyes were on her. Despite the fact that she was on the arm of her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, voted People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” in 2010, all eyes were on her.
The statuesque California beauty has had many major moments with fashion. Still, the incredible copper Versace dress, with the surprising reversible patina train, created a true “wow” moment at an event replete with them.
It was Lively’s demeanor, too, her beaming smile and elegant poise, which further endeared her to her legion of fans, cultivated across a career that spans 24 years.
Lively was born into a show business family, and as a young child with four older siblings, she began attending acting classes led by her parents. Not because of any particular interest the future actress showed, it was just easier than getting a babysitter.
“I did not want to be an actor because my whole family did it — going into the family business was the last thing I wanted to do.”
Lively was first cast by her father at the age of 10 in a bit part as Trixie the Tooth Fairy in 1998’s musical Sandman, but it took a while for the acting bug to get under her skin. She would later joke that the availability of craft services while on set had something to do with stoking her interest.
An overachiever in high school, she had her heart set on Stanford, not stardom. But then came her breakout role of Bridget, alongside Amber Tamblyn and America Ferrera, in 2005’s The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which she took on while still in high school. The film explored themes of friendship and young adulthood and earned Lively a Teen Choice Award nomination for Best Breakout Performance.
After the film, Lively returned to school for her senior year, where she was class president, involved in cheerleading and choir.
But her notoriety soared after she was cast in the Teen Drama Gossip Girl as Serena van der Woodsen, a role she played from 2007 through 2012, which New York Magazine has called “the greatest teen drama of all time.”
Her performance would earn her three Teen Choice Awards during the series’ run. It would also garner her the cover of Vogue, classically styled a la Veronica Lake, at the age of 21.
Lively has proven that her talent translated to the silver screen as well. She and husband Reynolds met when they co-starred in 2011’s The Green Lantern. Then there was 2015’s the Age of Adaline where she captivated audiences and critics alike for her subdued yet engaging portrayal. She also starred in the box office hit, A Simple Favor in 2018, and gave a brave, toned-down performance in the gritty international spy drama, 2020’s The Rhythm Section.
“All my eggs are in one basket, and that’s my family. That’s where my heart is. That’s where my everything is.”
While a much sought-after actress, Lively, 35, has also embraced domestic life since marrying Reynolds in 2012.
Two years later they started their family with the birth of daughter James, and have since welcomed two more daughters, Inez and Betty.
It’s a bright and joyous world for the family of five outside of the glitz and glamour. Lively describes herself as an unabashed foodie and cook — Martha Stewart is one of her idols — who values the peacefulness of domestic life as much as the fanfare associated with her Hollywood career. Baking cupcakes and crafting are favorite activities for the down-to-earth star with 34.4 million Instagram followers and counting.
As a nod to her love of family, while all the attention at the Met Gala was focused on her dramatic dress, Lively quietly held a reminder of family in her hand, a Judith Leiber clutch designed to resemble the Brooklyn Bridge with the letters B, R, J, I, B down the front, the first initials of her cherished family of five, demonstrating that even when the spotlight glares, Lively grounds herself with what most fills her heart.
DON’T MISS LOVELY LOVELY #ONTHECOVER OF OCEAN BLUE MAGAZINE
OCEAN BLUE’S 30TH EDITION
OCEAN BLUE’S 29TH EDITION
THE INTERVIEW: JENNIFER LOPEZ
With five film projects in the works for 2022 and a headline-grabbing romance with former flame Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, 52, is once again proving her point: It’s J.Lo’s world, and we’re all just living in it.
In a career that spans nearly 30 years, the dancer /singer/ actress / director / producer has consistently demonstrated that she is a force to be reckoned with, as year after year she redefines her celebrity.
Part of her appeal is her genuineness in interviews and public appearances. With her sweet smile, a lilting laugh which seems to channel sunlight, and down-to-earth demeanor, Lopez could be your — albeit exquisitely dressed — next-door neighbor.
Yet on stage, “Jenny from the Block,” becomes a fierce force of nature, turning from sweet to smoldering on a dime, supremely comfortable in her own skin, and showing no signs of slowing down.
Being an artist doesn’t start because you’re 21, and it doesn’t end because you’re 51. You are who you are until the day you die.
Bronx-born Lopez got her first toe-hold in show business when she was cast as a “Fly Girl” dancer on comedy show In Living Color in 1991.
She moved on to a few small film roles before landing the title role in the acclaimed film Selena, a 1997 biopic of a popular Tex-Mex singer that earned her a Golden Globe nomination and a million-dollar paycheck, making her the highest-paid Latina actress at the time.
But her growing fan base exploded in 1999 when she released her first album, On the 6, which broke new ground in Latin pop music in the United States.
Lopez followed that up with her second album, J.Lo, in 2001, coinciding with her starring role alongside Owen Wilson in The Wedding Planner, and became the first woman to have a number one film and album in the same week.
Suddenly Jennifer Lopez was everywhere — on the radio, in the club, on the silver screen — as her status as a pop culture icon began to solidify.
Several successful films and hit albums followed, as did a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a Billboard Icon award, and other accolades leading up to her 2016 to 2018 residency in Las Vegas, titled “Jennifer Lopez: All I Have” which grossed $101.9 million after 120 performances.
And while she worked her magic on stage and screen, Lopez also became a designer, launching highly successful clothing, perfume, and accessory lines which contributed to a net worth Forbes estimates to be around $400 million.
Life’s too short to live the same day twice.
As Lopez enters her 50s, she is uniquely poised, both personally and career-wise, to take her achievements to previously uncharted levels.
In 2019, Lopez embarked on a 32-show tour in celebration of her 50th birthday, performing nationally and internationally from June to mid-August.
In September, Lopez once again donned a version of the infamous, plunging green Versace dress she wore to the Grammy Awards in 2000, making a surprise appearance at Milan Fashion Week that brought down the house.
September also marked the release of Hustlers, with Lopez both producing and starring as hardened stripper Ramona, which drew her some of her best critical reviews yet and grossed $157.6 million worldwide.
In 2020, Lopez kicked off the year with her infamous Superbowl performance, appearing on stage with 12-year-old daughter Emme.
She also was part of Oprah Winfrey’s Visionary Tour, sitting down with the iconic talk-show host at the LA Forum to talk career, family and turning 50 at the end of February
While in quarantine she finished production on her next film, musical romance Marry Me, co-starring Owen Wilson, which is set for release on Valentine’s Day 2022. Lopez also performs on the accompanying soundtrack.
It is said that an object in motion stays in motion, and Lopez is no exception. Throughout her career, she has broken barriers and boundaries and taken her fame to astounding heights through her unique and versatile talent and rigid work ethic, and don’t expect her to let up any time soon. Jennifer Lopez is, quite simply, unstoppable.
THE INTERVIEW: DANIEL CRAIG
The Unbreakable Bond
With his glacial eyes, searing intensity and impressive physique, Daniel Craig has embodied the sexy, suave intrigue of James Bond for nearly a generation of fans. But he wasn’t the obvious choice when he was cast to play 007 in 2006’s Casino Royale.
Photos Courtesy of MGM Studios, EON Productions, Universal Pictures
And, frankly, he wasn’t sure he wanted the role. He showed up to an initial interview disheveled, which in Craig terms means sans cuff links.
“It’s a huge challenge, a huge responsibility. Bond is a huge, iconic figure in movie history,” Craig later said. “These opportunities don’t come along very often, so I thought, ’Why not?”
Committing to Bond meant staying true to the character but doing so on his own terms. It required going to the gym — a lot — and doing extensive research in order to make the super-spy his own.
Although some critics thought Craig was too short (he stands 5’10”) and too blond to play the iconic character, Casino Royale and the films that followed proved that the talented actor brought a new sensibility to the part, with 007 crying, falling in love, and showing vulnerability, albeit with the character’s requisite aplomb, during Craig’s portrayal of Bond in Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre, the last of which was released in 2015.
As the longest-standing Bond in history, with Sean Connery himself calling the casting of Craig a “terrific choice.” Craig’s first four Bond films alone have generated more than $3 billion worldwide.
But there’s more to come. In No Time to Die, Craig plays Bond for the fifth and final time. The much anticipated, COVID-delayed film release this October, with the retired 007 hunting a kidnapped scientist. It’s a film he wasn’t sure he could physically endure, with the strenuous shots over the years taking a brutal toll on his 53-year-old body, including a torn meniscus during the filming of Spectre.
Photos Courtesy of MGM Studios, EON Productions, Universal Pictures
There was a narrative Craig felt needed to be finished, a continuation that began in Casino Royale, and a completion of a storytelling circle begun 15 years earlier that the actor now calls “emotionally satisfying.”
These are heady heights indeed for the notoriously private actor, who first began performing for patrons as a toddler at his parents’ pub in England.
Photo Courtesy of BBC Films, FilmNation, Entertainment, Chad Bakta
Photo Courtesy of BBC Films, FilmNation, Entertainment, Chad Bakta
“If I wanted to make spy movies for the rest of my life, that would be one thing, but I don’t want to just make spy movies.” — Daniel Craig
Unpopular in school and underprivileged, Craig found his first taste of stardom when a friend convinced him to join the cast of the school play Oliver! At 14, the applause unleashed by his performance was a rush he had never before experienced, a burst of adrenaline similar to a drug, he has said.
Not long thereafter, he attended a screening of the sci-fi film Bladerunner(1982) and was transfixed, he recalls, his mind reeling as he read the credits and the realization that he could actually make a living as an actor began to form.
Craig studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 1991, taking bit parts before landing his breakout role as Geordie Peacock on the British drama series Our Friends in the North in 1996.
This led to roles in Elizabeth (1998), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Road to Perdition (2002) and Layer Cake (2004). And then it led to Bond, when he was handpicked by producer Barbara Broccoli, granddaughter of the franchise’s creator Albert Broccoli.
Between Bond films, Craig has not let the franchise define him and has continued to cultivate his career with numerous television, film and theater roles, including starring opposite his wife, multiple-award-winnning actress Rachel Weisz, in 2013’s Betrayal which took Broadway by storm.
Photo Courtesy of Getty Images
Craig’s more notable film roles include poet Ted Hughes opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in the biography Sylvia, Steve in Steven Spielberg’s Munich, and as journalist Mikael Blomkvist in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, to mention a few.
Saying goodbye to the Bond character is bittersweet, but as one mega-franchise comes to a close, another is potentially waiting in the wings. Craig was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2020, for best actor starring in the detective-mystery and comedy film, Knives Out, a smashing box office hit with two sequels already in the works.
And although rumors continue to swirl around who will be the next Bond, Craig has some advice. The summary, without the expletive, being: don’t mess up his legacy, or that of the actors who have come before him. “It’s a beautiful, amazing thing. Leave it better than when you found it.”