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PHOTOS BY ANDREW DE FRANCESCO
WORDS BY TAMARA RAPPA
Tamara Rappa: A subject we tackle all the time at Story + Rain, is creativity, and the artist origin story. You've long been immersed in a family of creatives, and have also chosen a life partner who is creative, your filmmaker wife, Bonnie. Have you ever seen yourself doing life with someone who isn't an artist or creative professional?
Beanie Feldstein: That's such an interesting question because if you asked me that question at 24, I would have been like, 'I'm not going to do life with anyone. I'm going to do life by myself'. I never thought I would get married or be in a relationship. It just wasn't really who I was. And it turns out, I'd obviously not met the right person yet. It's an impossible question to answer because she's just my person. I could never envision a world where it's not fun because she's the most creative person I know, so brilliant and imaginative.
TR: I went down the rabbit hole looking at your wedding photos for Vogue. Within our Story + Rain Talks podcast we have a capsule collection of episodes called Creative Together. And for that, I'm sitting down with all manner of creative duos. A question that I ask: When you think back to when you and Bonnie first met, was there something about the way that she approached her work that you fell in love with? She was some hell of a wedding co-producer, I know that!
BF: That's a particularly strong question in terms of us, because we met within a work setting. She produced a movie that I was in, called How to Build a Girl. She was 27 when she produced it. She's so capable and so strong and steady. She is like a lighthouse for everyone, and not just for me. She's a strong, steady point of light for people---that was something that was very clear to me from the beginning. But she also has this real silly side, too. She's strength, and she's silliness. I think that combination is so winning. Sometimes I can take things too seriously and get lost. She's a creative powerhouse and she's also brilliant with scripts. She can take a piece of writing and crack inside of it in an amazing way.
TR: I was also going to ask you if there is something so inspiring in her, that you've adopted it for yourself. I guess that would be that you are embracing your silly side.
BF: Yeah, definitely, but there are nine million things. Everything from the most emotional, deep soul things to....shopping at Marks + Spencer in England. Everything under the sun. She's enlightened me in so many ways. The biggest would be me tapping into imagination more. She's endlessly imaginative and I can be a little more literal, so she inspires me to be more imaginative and play.
TR: You have fashion and music and acting and filmmaking in your family. When you think about what you were surrounded by early on, what moments or stories of creativity do you recall being affected by?
BF: My parents are like night and day. My dad is all logic and sense and tangibility and numbers, and my mom is a force of nature; creative, visual, brilliant. Nothing is tangible, nothing is written down. She's so smart but can't read a book. She's full of grand ideas, and my dad is holding the string of the balloon. That combination really lives inside of me and I feel lucky to have both. I'm not one hundred percent my dad, and I'm not one hundred percent my mom. I'm a combination of the two. I have grounded sensibility from my dad. I loved school and was bookish. I also have the performer in me. My mom doesn't perform, but life is a performance to her. I have her big energy, I'm very social, I'm always wanting to make something, and always wanting to help people. My mom is a renaissance woman. She's had so many jobs in her life.
TR: I love when I meet renaissance people. It's so interesting to get into the mind of a renaissance person...
BF: You know, in The Magic School Bus, when they all get little and go inside a person? I wish I could do that with my mom's brain; spend one day tucked up in there. She trained at FIT and was a costume designer for sitcoms. Then she became a personal stylist. By the time I was born and because I'm the youngest in my family by quite a bit, she wasn't a costume designer anymore. I did grow up around our industry and I grew up in LA, and of course that's been a very privileged position to be in. Around 1999, 2000, 2001, my mother invented the sparkle watch---the Swarovski crystal watch, and the Swarovski crystal cellphone covers for Nokia phones. She just never stops creating, and she's so her own champion. I admire that so much. That energy lived in our house, and there was always room to be creative, always room to try something.
ABOVE: Michael Kors jacket, dress. Alexandre Birman shoes. THIS PHOTO: Marc Jacobs coat, skirt, shoes, Kimberly McDonald ring; Clara Chehab earrings and ring; Commando tights.
TR: In looking at the photos of your glorious wedding, it struck me that you're the kind of person who has friends of all ages, and from all walks of life. What is it about you and the way that you live your life, that has brought to you this beautifully woven quilt of cohorts?
BF: That's such a lovely observation. This is really a love letter to my mom, this conversation, and I think that's a beautiful thing. I keep thinking about that. She'd be like, 'Oh my God, Beanie, it was divine'. She's an icon, my mom is from Long Island, and every morning of my childhood in LA when I woke up, my mom would be on the phone in the kitchen. At like six in the morning she would be on the phone with her Long Island friends. It was early enough that at that time, she could catch them. I woke up to the sound of her connecting with her friends, every single day of my life. The soundtrack of my childhood was my mom with her coffee and the landline to one ear, talking. Her friends were our family, too. The guy who officiated our wedding is my mom's best friend from childhood. These people are really are our aunts and uncles, and so deeply important to us. All this to say, friendship was seen as something that was very important. My mom modeled that for us, friends really matter. That's something I'm so grateful for in my life. When I have kids, want to do that for them. Both my mom and my wife's mom grew up that way. Sadly, I never got to meet my mother-in-law, but from what I've heard it was this very similar thing, her connecting with her friends. It's been such a gift that friendship was seen as so important. I would say it's the cornerstone of my whole life---both personal and professional. Friendship stories are at the core of who I am and what matters to me the most. I think that friends come in all shapes, sizes, ages. The great thing about what I do for a living, working with people on a set or in a play, is that you're meeting people from all walks of life and you're having a very deep and meaningful time with them. There's been June Squibb and Richard Jenkins; actors who are much younger than me, kids, babies. I treasure people. I'm a real people person at my core. I'm super extroverted and so I feel my most grounded and happy and myself when I'm surrounded by people whom I adore. I feel like there's an endless basket for collecting people. I think it makes life so much more interesting, being surrounded by people who have had experiences you have not.
TR: You seem to really know who you are, and that seems to pierce through the characters that you play in the best way possible. Are there times though, when it's tough to be yourself in the entertainment industry, where things are often about what's trending or what's selling? Do you ever feel pressure or that you're looking over your shoulder to see what others are doing?
BF: That's a really good question... I'm sitting back in my chair....So when I was 16 or 17, and I wish I could remember the exact moment, I started saying this phrase that has remained in my life all the way into adulthood, now in my thirties. They either want The Bean, or they don't want The Bean. This has been my motto. I look back and I'm like, fuck yeah, 17 year old me! I don't know where she got the gumption, but thank God she did. I knew really early on in my life, outside of being an actor and also if I was going to become an actor, that you're the only person who can do what you do. There may be fewer opportunities, because you're not interchangeable, you're not a chameleon, you are you---and you are very specific. Instead of being upset by it or bucking up against it or fighting it my whole life, I decided to put an arm around myself and say, 'Girl, they either want The Bean or they don't want The Bean. Also, if it's not meant for you, it's meant for someone else, and that's the best day of their life. It wasn't meant to be yours. I've known my whole life that I'm not like anyone else, and it's something I chose to be excited about and to embrace.
TR: Somewhere inside of you, the message was received early on. Have the perspective of, if they don't want this---that's okay.
BF: I have this this theory, not that you asked, but I'll tell you, and not to get all math and numbers on the situation. In my senior year of high school, I took AP Statistics and we learned about standard deviation. Think of a line, and then you draw another perpendicular line right down the center, fifty percent on one side, fifty percent on the other. The line is the average, the goal, the middle, the most wanted thing. If you are close to that line but not on it, you want to get there so badly, because it's so close. So you strive very hard to close the tiny gap. But, if you're all the way on the other end, you're like, 'Girl, I can't even see that line!' That line has nothing to do with me. That's how I've always looked at, specifically, body image, because I've always been chubby, I've always been my size. My best friends who are really thin actually struggle so much more because, my theory is they're just so close to societal ideal, and the middle line.
TR: Or they're always bouncing around it. It was just summer, they weren't working, and maybe they weigh about five pounds more...
BF: Right. This is gibberish to me. I'm living my gorgeous life on the other side of the line. I'm not interested in the line. The line, from this vantage point, doesn't mean anything. This doesn't just apply to body image. It can apply to so many other things, like taste in music. It's an interesting way of looking at something. The closer you are to it, the more you want it; the farther away, the less close it feels.
BF: When did you start singing, and when did you know that you had a beautiful singing voice?
BF: I started singing at 3 or 4. My mom took me to a ballet class. It was called Creative Kids. They had a dance class and a theater class. I was in the dance class, and they'd told the parents that they could bring the kids to see the theater class to see if they wanted to do it. I sat in the audience and put my little hand up and was like, 'I want to do that!' The reason that I'm talking in this voice while explaining this, is because when I was a child I had nodules on my vocal cords. I sounded like I smoked a pack of cigarettes every morning. Obviously I didn't, I was a child. I've still never smoked a cigarette in my 32 years. I sounded really gravely, it was just a thing. My body taught itself to speak incorrectly, and created nodules on my vocal cords, from the time I began talking. When I started singing and doing musicals, I had the gravely voice but I could get through. You could hear that I could sing, but it was a different type of sound. Then one day when I was 9, I just couldn't talk. I literally couldn't talk, let alone sing. The nodules had gotten much more significant because I'd been singing for five or six years at that point, doing musicals, and also by being a kid, screaming and doing all the kid things. We were told to sort it out with speech therapy and singing therapy or I was going to have to have surgery to remove them. Luckily kids are really malleable and heal quickly. I was able to sing my way out of it. I found the most incredible singing teacher and speech therapist, and they saved me. I know that that was the moment when I thought, this is who I am. By 9, it was such a huge part of who I was and I had to fight to get it back.
Markarian gown; NDG Paris handbag; Lowercase NYC sunglasses; Clara Chehab earrings and ring; Christian Louboutin shoes.
TR: How has acting and singing taken up space in your life to date, and how do you see the two working for you together in the future? You have a very long term project in Richard Linklater's Merrily We Roll Along alongside your forever best friend, Ben Platt.
BF: I'm giggling because I have this joke with myself. In almost every project I've ever done, I have to dance. I'm laughing about the fact that dancing wasn't included in your question. I always end up dancing and I love to dance. I would never consider myself a dancer. Obviously when I do Broadway...then there was Booksmart...I guess I didn't dance in Impeachment...I had to dance a tiny bit in Only Murders.. It always ends up with, 'Beanie, we're bringing in a choreographer'. There always ends up being a dance sequence. Dancing is a big part of who I am too, and it kind of seems to be a thing that won't get away from me. I'm so glad, because I find it so fun and so challenging. I will always love musical theater. I think it was my first love. My only love before Bon was musical theater; because it was so core to my identity. I don't think that it was something that could last forever in that way, because you grow up and you fall in love with people, you fall in love with friends, you fall in love with other parts of who you are---but it was kind of the first thing that I claimed as just mine. No one else in my family did it, and it was my special little safe place. I'll always sing, I'm so lucky to be a part of this incredible project, playing Mary in Merrily We Roll Along. Much like dancing, it's something that always pulls me back. I will never not sing, but I do find it to be much more anxiety-inducing than acting. Acting is really freeing to me. I am my most spontaneous. I'm very type-A in life. I'm a planner and I want to be in control as much as I can. When I'm on set, I feel loose and free, and it's where I can express myself differently.
TR: How you and Ben [Platt] share and talk about music? Talk about having somebody to discuss music with...
BF: He's the pop star, he's the rock star. I'm such a true fan of his music. I will bop around our neighborhood just listening to his his new album. It's a great walking album. It's so good! Ben is very at ease when he's singing, it's so incredible to watch. As far as music goes, we have very similar taste. We grew up together so we listened to the same stuff in the car on the way to school. As we've gone into adulthood, we still have the same taste. It's fun to learn about new bands from him. Honestly, the person that we do music with the most, is our best friend Anna who works as a music supervisor. Anna is the beacon of music in our friend group, introducing us to new artists. Ben has great taste and it's so special that we get to work together. I've also worked with his husband Noah Galvin many times too. It's so special, and I don't take a minute of my life for granted. I feel so grateful to have found the love that I have, to have such an incredible, supportive family, and also get to do what I love for a living. My friends get to do what they love for a living, and sometimes we do it together. That's not normal! So I don't take anything for granted. I feel genuinely, from my soul, grateful. I mean, we would sing Merrily in the car together. It's pretty crazy...
TR: Well we can't wait to see it. We'll have to wait a really long time, but we're all going to be waiting!
Markarian gown; NDG Paris handbag; Lowercase NYC sunglasses; Clara Chehab earrings and ring;
Christian Louboutin shoes.
TR: What is your creative process like, prior to or during a project?
BF: I wish my wife was here because as I mentioned earlier, we worked together on How to Build a Girl and she likes to describe me as whatever the opposite of method acting is. I'm at my best, and this goes for life too, when I am distracted. I can't overthink if I'm distracted. If I'm engaged in a conversation with you, I can't overthink or over-question my own choices or instincts. This is also probably why I also gather so many people from work situations, because I just love talking to people. Being comfortable on set and knowing people very deeply, I would argue, is my only process. It comes from my love of people, but I think it also comes from knowing that when I'm distracted, I'm my most free. When I'm my most free, I'm my most human and natural and I'm in touch. So I don't do things like stay in accents. There were a few times on Impeachment when I did keep my game face on more than usual, because the level of devastation I was portraying was weighing quite heavily on me, and because it's Monica's real life. I know her and I cherish her, and I felt the stakes of what I was doing incredibly deeply. In the sixth episode of the series, when Monica is trapped with the FBI---we shot that scene for like 23 days. It was so long and so, so intense for me.
TR: That was some scene.
BF: Thank you. ...So there were days when I just needed to laugh. I needed to be get my wiggles out. I needed to engage myself outside of this thing. Then there were other days when I couldn't shake it, so I just kept myself in it. It's project-dependent but overall, I think that connecting with people is my main joy and therefore my main strategy. Keeping myself distracted is very helpful, because if my over-thinker gets in the way, if I'm doing the same thing over and over and over, that's not helpful. I'm going to mess my own instincts up.
TR: In the Interview Magazine article that your brother, Jonah Hill, photographed and interviewed you for, he said to you, 'One of the things that you and I share is that we both are good at forming true and honest bonds with the people that we work with'. I can certainly see that about you. What does forming true and honest bonds with the people that you work with mean to you?
BF: I go back to the modeling of friendship through our mom. It permeated all of us. People and connection matter, and that looks different on everyone. And it depends on the job itself. Some jobs lend themselves to it so uniquely. Kaitlyn Dever and Sarah Paulson are probably two of the deepest connections I've made whilst working. They actually walked down the aisle together at my wedding. And it's so funny because with one, we were playing inseparable best friends and with the other, we were playing the saddest friendship story. The single-most fucked up horrific friendship story of all time. The thing about Impeachment, was that we filmed during Covid so Sarah and were each other's lifeline in 2020. We could basically only see one another. I was living alone in LA and so was she. We had so much dialogue, so many scenes together, and were on this epic journey of building these women who exist, who lived these actual moments. We spent so much time together. Anyone that's met Sarah Paulson I think just falls in love with her immediately. She's unbelievably effervescent and so warm and kooky and delicious. It was a very intense, beautiful thing we did. And Kaitlyn is my sister. I love her so much. I feel so protective of her, though she doesn't need my protecting. I am a slightly older than her. We've lived so much life together. We lived together when we were filming Booksmart. It was very rare what we were able to build together, and I'm so proud of the movie. I'm so proud of, specifically, how true our on-screen friendship feels to young women when they see it. It is the greatest joy of my life, portraying it honestly, all of its nooks and crannies exposed and delighted in. Kaitlyn is Meryl Streep. She is baby Meryl. She is the most talented human being of all time. I can't even take how talented she is. Bon is really close to her; same with Paulson. It's so nice when your people love your people, and it all becomes one. I'd be remiss not to mention my friends who I did Hello Dolly with as well, including the late great Gavin Creel, one of the great loves of my life. When you're doing it right, you're doing it intimately and cozy, and you're in the thick of it with people.
TR: In that same article from 2019, Jonah says, 'Right now in my estimation, you have the perfect amount of fame. Pretty much every smart person saw Lady Bird. You're not everywhere, but there are a lot of people going, 'I fucking love you'.' That was right before Booksmart, for which you received a Golden Globe nomination. You've built an incredible body of work from small roles on Grey's Anatomy, Will and Grace, Life + Beth, to films How to Build a Girl, Lady Bird, Booksmart , and The Humans, which I loved; Ryan Murphy's Impeachment, and key roles on stage. When you take yourself back to the time just after you wrapped Booksmart and before all the press and the awards circuit, is there anything that stands out to you about the feeling you had towards yourself at the time, and about the material? How did you walk away feeling after Booksmart? What do you think you took away with you, ultimately?
BF: That's such a good question, it kind of gave me chills, actually. 2018 was the most difficult and magical year of my life. We don't need to get into it too much, but we lost our brother at the end of 2017. I was doing Hello Dolly and then finished my run of Hello Dolly so that I could do Booksmart. Two days after I wrapped Booksmart, I went to England to do How to Build a Girl, then ended up falling in love with my wife. Then I wrapped How to Build a Girl, and did the first season of What We Do in the Shadows. That was one year! It was a year of exponential opportunities for me, life-changing work, life-changing moments, all while navigating such deep grief. What happened had been the most important thing to ever happen to me in my life. If I'm being truthful, I can't really think about that time, without losing my brother, being underneath it all. When I met Kaitlyn, it was two months after everything happened, so it's a huge part of the story. Now it's been years, I'm in my thirties, and I can look back on that time and and think, that's life. Life is always is always going to give you both at the same time. It also gave me the love and the connections that I found, in my wife, but also in Kaitlyn and Olivia [Wilde], and Katie Silberman who wrote Booksmart; and my friends from Hello Dolly...Those are all the best parts of life, right?And the best projects are the ones when you don't know what something's going to be, and then it becomes so much more than you could have expected---versus the expectation game, the other way around. Booksmart was this tiny little engine that could. We filmed the movie in 26 days in the dark. I think 20 of the 26 days, were pure nighttime.
TR: Right. When I think of Booksmart, that's exactly what I think of. Scenes at night.
BF: And I am not a night person. am not. I knew Olivia was something special. You could feel it. All the elements were in place. The cast was incredible, the DP was incredible, Jason [Sudeikis], the costumes by April [Napier]. Everything felt so good and we all loved it, but we didn't know what it would become. We certainly didn't know that we would still be holding each other's hands, a year later, promoting it and talking about it. It's the gift that keeps on giving, mostly because of the friendships that I've made from it. But it also kind of just kept going. Kind of like the two girls themselves, who didn't ever didn't give up.
Markarian gown; NDG Paris handbag; Lowercase NYC sunglasses; Clara Chehab earrings and ring; Christian Louboutin shoes.
TR: Your nomination for Booksmart that year makes me think about your fashion and your style. You were stunning in navy blue that night. Who were your earrings again, Irene Neuwirth?
BF: My earrings were by Irene Neuwirth, the dress was by Oscar de la Renta, and the headband was from Bauble Bar.
TR: Yes, girl! Bauble Bar. It matched perfectly.
BF: I know, and I was styled by Erin Walsh, who's just the greatest, the greatest, forever. I styled myself for a while during Lady Bird and then we met through a mutual friend. It was this crazy last minute situation where I had kind of been left high and dry with someone I thought I was going to start working with.
TR: You've been with Erin Walsh for a while. How did you meet?
BF: Well, to Erin's credit, she answered the call. We had fitting with her on a Wednesday night, and I was on a plane to South by Southwest on Friday at 5am with six looks. She pulled out six looks in literally thirty hours, never having met me before.
TR: That's how do do it! What is your personal approach to style? Style seems like something you and your family really understand. Do you love fashion and love to shop?
BF: I do, I do. I am my mother's daughter in that way, who is trained in fashion and styling. And Jonah is the coolest, he has the best…
TR: On set, you and I talked about the fact that he lived across the street from me for a while. I've seen Jonah's day-to-day looks. He's got great stuff.
BF: Jordy, my other brother, was also always beautifully put together. Cashmere sweater, great jeans, good shoes…simple, but always really immaculate. The only one who doesn't care about clothes is my dad. I think I love fashion more and more as I get older. I would say my approach is very comfortable and practical, but feminine. Those are the three biggest things. I love a very feminine silhouette. I think it suits my body. I love a puffy sleeve and a cinched waist. I still love a headband. Headbands have been my thing since I was a teenager. I love a bow.
TR: It's funny that you got to rock headbands as Monica Lewinsky, how serendipitous? You’re going to have a headband line one day.
TR: You have and are working with some of the world's most interesting and most talented people, so that qualifies you for our rapid fire. What comes to mind when I mention each of these artists?
TR: Greta Gerwig.
BF: Angel of my heart.
TR: Olivia Wilde.
BF: The coolest ever.
TR: Kaitlyn Dever.
BF: Baby Meryl Streep.
TR: Ethan Cohen.
BF: Mensch, genius, brilliant.
TR: Amy Schumer.
BF: Hysterical, delicious, and unpredictable.
TR: I love unpredictable. Richard Linklater.
BF: Peaceful and quiet confidence.
Lafayette 148 jacket; Alexandre Birman shoes.
TR: This might be a cliche question, but to do you and your brother Jonah talk about working together?
BF: I thought you were going say do you and Jonah talk? And I was thinking, really we do, every day! Jonah and I are each other's biggest fans. I'll speak for myself and say, to have that level of genius be your brother is such a gift. Because of our age gap and not being the same gender we just have the joy of being each other's champions. It's so incredible to watch him flourish, particularly as the writer-director that he is, and as an incredible actor. He's an incredible writer, director, producer, and creative. He never stops creating. That's so impressive. We always talk to each other and pick each other's brains about work, but we've never actually spoken about working together. So, TBD.
TR: I'm obsessed with and loved, The Humans. What a story. What was it like working on the film adaptation of the play?
BF: The craziest thing was that I saw the play and I loved it, so I saw it twice. I was rapt by it. I thought it was endlessly fascinating and deep. When my wife and I were dating long distance I told her I was going to take her on a “date”, aka, I'm just going to buy you a ticket to see this play that I want you to see. I was in New York and couldn’t go with her but I wanted her to see it so we could talk about it. So she went to see The Humans with the original Broadway cast in London. Two weeks later, I got the call about doing the movie and thought, this is so crazy! I was freaking out. Then they told me who the cast would be, and I lost my mind. The greatest gift of that film was working with actors who are so talented and storied. Working with Richard Jenkins, specifically, really pushed me as an actor. I was 25, and Richard can be quite intimidating. He’s like an uncle to me now. He was at my wedding. I live and breathe Richard Jenkins. I would say this to his face, but I found him so intimidating at the beginning; I just couldn't get in there with him. Amy [Schumer] was making him laugh and I just thought, I don't know how he feels about me.
TR: Amy has such a heartbreaking role in The Humans. It's funny to think of her making him laugh when she's got this really intense story line.
BF: I know. And the thing about Richard, if you look at his body work, he's also very funny. Eventually I worked my way in, I kind of wiggled my way in. Working with Richard definitely raised the bar for me as an actor. It made me push myself harder and deeper, and to be more truthful. June Squibb is the light of my life. On that project, we would talk about when she did Gypsy on Broadway with Ethel Merman and singing, ‘You Gotta Get A Gimmick’ together. She was also at my wedding. It had felt like a family. We still have a group text that's alive and well to this day. It was magical. I love that movie.
TR: What a one-of-a-kind role to have played in Impeachment, such a slice of American history involving President Bill Clinton. What were your conversations about the project with Monica Lewinsky and Ryan Murphy like?
BF: How much time do you have? I could talk for an hour on this topic alone. Ryan gave me, and I am so grateful to him, the opportunity of a lifetime. Not only did he want me to play Monica Lewinsky, but he also wanted me to produce it. At age 26 this is not something you get all that often. Because of Covid, we began when I was 26 and by the time we wrapped I was almost 29. It took so long. I got engaged while doing it; so much life happened to me---and to everyone---during that time period. I hold it in the highest regard, getting to play Monica. I love her and really care for her. I felt like her bodyguard. I felt like my job was to put my body in front of her body and take the hit. Ryan directed two of the episodes, one of them being the one where Monica's caught with the FBI. We had endless conversations about the show and the character. Monica was also a producer, so she was involved in a lot of conversations as well. The things I wanted to know from Monica were all of the things that I couldn't get from the research. Sadly, there are the tapes, and they are on the internet for anyone to listen to. It's sickening but as the actor who is playing her, it would be completely wrong of me to not listen. I's a must, right? But as the person who’s playing her, it felt so, so wrong to listen to this thing that’s so unfair and invasive. I wanted to know all of the things about her before all of it, before the White House, and after. I wanted to know who she was in the ways that the books and the videos and the historical footage---which of course I looked through all day, every day--- couldn't tell me. I loved getting to do those scenes with Sarah Catherine [Hook], who's since been on The White Lotus and has become such a huge star. It was so important to have those scenes. Who is she with her friends? She's such a good friend. Who is she with her parents? There are all these things that the public didn't see. I asked [Monica] about her most mundane things and also about the deepest parts of her soul, all at the same time.
TR: What can you share about being in the upcoming Focker's film?
BF: I don't think I'm allowed to say anything, and I can't wait until I can. It will be Thanksgiving of next year.
TR: I really enjoyed learning more about your involvement with Experience Camps, which are camps for children who are grieving. It honestly made me want to volunteer myself. What has being a part of it given you?
BF: Well, first of all, please come volunteer. We are always looking for volunteers. I began as a volunteer and now I'm on the board. Our motto at Experience Camps is ‘FTK', which means 'for the kids'. Everything we do is for the kids. We put on week long no-cost camps for children who have lost a parent or caregiver or sibling. We have thirteen programs around the country, and we're opening Texas next year. We opened Connecticut this summer. If anyone reading knows of a family in need, please go to the Experience Camps website to get more information. If anyone reading has experienced grief or is just called to participate in any way, I highly recommend looking into volunteering or donating. It’s changed my life on every cellular level. I call it my first job, and then acting is my second job. I find that working with this organization and the people who run it, the board, and most importantly volunteering and being with the kids---has truly altered my person and my heart, in all of the best ways. The greatest takeaway when we're at camp, is that it's all FTK. We're building them a community, and it’s important that they know that this community can exist. Naturally, the runoff is that we create a community for adults. We've been talking so much about friendship here. I couldn't have expected to make a best friend in my thirties, let alone at a summer camp in Maine about grief, you know? I’m getting emotional, but it’s just that life is at its best when it's the most unexpected. Experience Camps literally fell into my lap via TikTok, which I don't even use anymore. I’d found a video of them on TikTok and it changed my life, just like that. Getting served that video on TikTok changed my life. It’s also the most beautiful look at life. You see the saddest, most horrific, painful sides of life. You feel them, and you live them all together. Then, five minutes later, you're singing to Taylor Swift while your friendship bracelets are rattling, and then jumping into a lake. It’s all of that, all the time.
Christian Siriano top; Etiq earrings; Harkness Fine Jewellery ring; Andrea Gomez shoes; Commando tights.
TR: You're current role on Only Murders in the Building, streaming now, is really fun. People including myself are loving getting to hear you sing---and sing pop music---on season five.
BF: That's so sweet and so kind. Playing Althea, AKA 'THĒ' on Only Murders has been, I'm not exaggerating, one of the most joyful things I've ever been a part of.
TR: I remember you saying that during our cover shoot: it's been just a dream.
BF: It's like, do you want to play in the most special, easy, delicious sandbox, all day? Then you step into the sandbox, and Steve Martin's in the sandbox. What are you talking about?! The thing that I have to say about it, is that each of the three of them are angels, and together they are such a brilliant unit. That's the best way to describe it. And hardworking and kind. They are titans. In every industry, some people, if they get that high, somehow lose their brains and their hearts. I don't know what happens, I don't get it. They are three of the best examples of remaining utterly human and kind and grateful and gracious and generous and funny as hell. The crew is truly a team. They are family. They are mishpocha. To get to step into their family felt like... you know when you go with your friend to Thanksgiving or Christmas or Hanukkah, you're entering a family situation, and you feel so lucky to be sitting at the table? That's how I felt on Only Murders. I get to play in their sandbox. Steve Martin's one of my heroes. Marty's one of my heroes. ...And then Da'Vine and of course, Selena, whom I've known for years and just adore...to get to do all those scenes with her was so special. I just went on a ramble...
TR: Where do these 'THĒ' full length songs live? We need a full-length Althea album, or the THĒ holiday album. We want to hear more of it.
BF: To watch Steve sing along to the Althea's song was like an out-of-body experience for me. John [Hoffman], the show runner of Only Murders, is very good friends with David Archuleta. And David Archuleta and his co-writers wrote Wish That You Were Me, which is THĒ's single.
TR: No wonder the music is really good. The sound is very TikTok. We need a holiday album, with ten songs. Imagine Althea's outfits and sunglasses...
BF: The outfits would be insane. I grew up singing musical theater. I did not grow up singing pop music. There are people who are generally athletic and can pick up a tennis racket, they can play a pickup game of basketball, or play golf. Then there are the the people who are swimmers, and they don't or won't ever play golf. I am a swimmer. I don't run track. I am a Broadway singer, I am not a pop singer. I was so nervous doing it. This is actually the first time I've ever told this story publicly... We were set to record the song on the weekend, and I arrive at this big, beautiful studio. The studio I was singing in could have fit an entire orchestra. I felt like this tiny little Bean in this huge gigantic room. I was feeling really nervous, because this is not my rodeo. I just wanted to do it well. I wanted to get it right. This is Only Murders in the Building...
TR: ...I have to embody this person, and through this song.
BF: Exactly. It ended up being in almost every scene that I'm in. The song is its own character, and the song is so good. I thought, I can't mess this up. I was really in my head and a little bit self-critical. At one point they told me, 'Beanie, we're going to mix a few things. You can take a little break'. So I went to go to the bathroom. There was only one other studio on the floor we were on, and I'm walking all the way past the other studio. I didn't actually have my head in my hands, but I had all these notes running through my head as I was walking, then I look up, and all of the Jonas Brothers are in the hallway. Joe Jonas turns around, he's looking at me, looking at my face as if to say, 'Do I know you?' Or, 'Why are you here?' I was so in my zone of do not mess up Only Murders in the Building. Do not mess up 'The', that I couldn't function. So I just said hello and ran. Computer does not compute! I can't talk to the Jonas Brothers! I'm too stressed out! I'm too nervous! I was just trying to quiet my mind. You know when words just don't come out? I thought, I can't function right now. I have to leave this situation. So I abandoned Joe Jonas in the hallway, and then went back to singing THĒ's song.
TR: That's the best story, and we can't wait to see more from Althea this season.
BF: You're in for a fun finale, I'll say that much.
Batsheva top and skirt; Kimberly McDonald earrings and ring.; Roger Vivier shoes.
ON THE COVER: Ulla Johnson gown; Vaincourt Paris belt, Alice Pierre earrings.
tamara rappa
andrew de francesco
jared depriest
peter butler
tracey mattingley
matin
tracey mattingley
assistant | photo
alexandra smallwood
WITH MATIN
"I met Beanie a decade ago, and the first thing we talked about was how sensitive she was to certain products in a way that was completely different to typical sensitivities. Beanie is, for example, sensitive to lavender essential oil, which is typically considered a calming agent for most skin. And on the contrary, Beanie tolerates products that usually cause sensitivity, like 'longwear' products. She was so amazing in her preparation, on the table before us, she had an entire set of what could be uses on her skin. She didn't expect me to have items in my kit that were focused on her needs, but luckily I keep a huge archive. I stock most products in a beauty closet, which has now become an entire room. I'd had variations in color, in texture for the products she was able to use. Prior to my working with her, Beanie had done a deep-dive with an allergy specialist, and was able to then pinpoint not only what she’s allergic to, but she was able to nail down actual products that she can use. The list was fairly limited when we started to work together but it's since expanded. Now, and over the last decade I’ve been able to put together a great kit of products that I can use to create virtually any look I need to on her. I keep a kit exclusively for Beanie, washing my brushes with Vanicream soap which is at the top of her product list, and that you can shop here."
Watch Beanie Feldstein as Althea in
Only Murders In The Building on Hulu. The season five finale airs on 10.28.25.
For more information on Experience Camps, click here.
