There were also the practically inescapable body-image pressures of the strict ballet world. “I was the first one there and the last one to leave, but I don’t think it was because I really loved it at that point,” she says. But just when she was offered a prestigious apprenticeship, she decided to quit dance altogether.įor Qualley, ballet had become about being perfect.
At 14, she left for boarding school at the North Carolina School of the Arts, and by 16, she’d landed a coveted spot in the American Ballet Theatre’s summer program in New York. “I think people often don’t want to do what their parents did.” Instead, Qualley spent her childhood in ballet classes. “I didn’t want to act because my mom does that and …” she trails off, searching for the right words to articulate what’s often a sensitive subject for actors with famous parents. Qualley was initially reluctant to have a career in Hollywood. (“Who wants to watch their mom kissing other dudes? It’s weird.”) Born in Montana and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, there wasn’t anything particularly “Hollywood” about her upbringing, except for when she tried to get her mom and dad to watch The Parent Trap after their divorce in hopes of a reunion - only to instead come home to mom’s new boyfriend, Dennis Quaid, the movie’s star. ” ‘Get me a foot double, please.’ “ĭespite growing up with a famous mom, Qualley says she doesn’t talk shop with MacDowell very often and only recently watched Four Weddings and a Funeral. “I was like, ‘Guys, look, these are awful,’ ” she recalls telling the pair ahead of the scene. She cringes when she thinks about the time on set when she whipped out her “embarrassing” feet in front of Tarantino and Pitt, desperately pleading with them to keep them out of the film.
Of course, she got a master class in secrecy on Once Upon a Time, unable to tell a soul she was in the Sony movie until the news came out. “I’ve got to be so mysterious now,” she says, rolling her eyes. “I’m a walking zombie at the moment.” In fact, she just arrived in town late the night before following a whirlwind one-day trip to Paris for a fashion collaboration she’s forbidden to talk about. “I’ve been to Europe five times in the past two months, most of which were 24-hour in-and-outs,” she explains. With Qualley more in demand than ever, it’s no surprise when, after scouring the menu and settling on an iced tea, she cops to being exhausted - though she doesn’t look it. As a sign of Qualley’s rising profile, Wilde reached out to her directly for the part. And then there’s the top-secret short film directed by Booksmart‘s Olivia Wilde that she was spotted shooting in Times Square in early October.
She’s playing in plenty of other sandboxes, too, appearing as a character in Hideo Kojima’s video game Death Stranding and becoming the new face of a fashion campaign from French luxury brand Celine.
Salinger’s literary agent (portrayed by Sigourney Weaver). 13), thriller The Chain opposite Jamie Bell and Sebastian Stan and My Salinger Year in a starring role as the assistant to J.D. Qualley plans to keep that momentum going with a flurry of high-profile films, including political drama Seberg with Kristen Stewart (opening Dec.
After a half-decade of solid, steady work in film and television - not to mention one viral perfume commercial - the daughter of actress Andie MacDowell and former Gap model Paul Qualley has notched “It” girl status, even earning her first Emmy nomination this fall for her portrayal of Broadway legend Ann Reinking in the FX limited series Fosse/Verdon. Yet all 10 of those mangled toes were prominently on display this summer, perched on Brad Pitt’s dashboard in a much-discussed barefooted scene in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a film that turned out to be just one highlight in a breakthrough year for the 25-year-old actress. “I hate my feet more than anything on the fucking planet,” she says, tucked into a back table at the Chateau Marmont on a warm October afternoon. In ballet classes from age 2, she spent most of her life stuffing them into pointe shoes that left her with what she considers mangled toes.
Margaret Qualley has always been self-conscious about her feet.