Trouvaille

16

Sabrina Wesley Vogue
By Laura Snapes
4 September 2018

A voice of the upcoming generation. Avatar of the internet mega fame. Icon of body positivity. A lot rests on the young actresses shoulder, to be truthful to her fans and herself. The actress speaks about power, clothing and empowerment.

It's early in the New Year, and Sabrina Wesley is hidden away north of Manhattan, tucked in a room in an anonymous Tudor nestled in the crook of a picturesque village's curving hills. The sky is fogged to white; the Bronx River ruffles the heavy quiet. Lightly mesmerized, I walk up to the wrong front door and am greeted by a kindly man in a suit and an N95 mask. "Sabrina?" he says. "Sabrina's across the street. She seems lovely. Good luck."

Sabrina Wesley is, in fact, across the street, in an oversized Nirvana shirt and black leggings and a ponytail, waiting on a big white couch, with her caramel Maltipoo curled on top of a furry green throw at her bare feet. Behind her, a fireplace crackles obediently; a single string of rainbow Christmas lights hangs across the windows. The deeply surreal aspect of this situation is heightened by the fact that it's been a while since I've interviewed someone with Sabrina's level of fame-and suddenly I'm alone in a room with Sabrina Wesley, who a few years ago was more popular on Instagram than any other of the seven and a half billion people on the planet; whose face is widely recognisable and has one of the biggest fan bases in the world; whose charisma is rooted in a sort of warm everydayness but who is so frankly beautiful that I feel that I've been transplanted into a movie about a doll who came to life.

This is not Wesley's actual home. It's a rental. Wesley's real home "broke" while she was away-a madcap story involving crystals and . . . well, let Wesley tell it:

"When I first moved in, the house was crystalled out-crystals everywhere, and geodes," she explains. "And I was like, 'Please get rid of these; I don't want people to come over here and think I'm a crystal person.' Not that there's anything wrong with that!"

"But everyone told me, 'You can't do that. You can't move them. You have to have the crystal lady who put them in move them. . . "

You know where this is going. Wesley did not get the crystal lady. "I just had all the crystals yanked out. Sold them. And then my fucking house flooded. I fucking hate crystals," Wesley says.

At 24, Wesley is already one of the most successful and exalted actors on the planet. She's a four-time Oscar nominee and Best Actress winner who simultaneously built a history-making franchise (Stranger Things) while costarring in another (Avengers). Next March, she'll be seen in Red Sparrow, an action-thriller she made with Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence: In the film, Wesley is a ballerina drafted into a Russian spy agency (newsy!) who falls in love with a CIA agent played by Joel Edgerton.

Working for Hollywood turned Wesley's life into a perpetual promotion, with her image quickly distributed through TV, music, movies, merchandise, live appearances, and cross-promotion of all of the above. "That was my job in a way-to be perfect," she says. "You're considered a figure kids look up to, and they take that seriously there."

Described as an old soul and wise beyond her years, she talks of how she was put into the spotlight at a young age and as a result was very impressionable to the world around her. "I became a role model I suppose to young girls because I didn't have the phase of getting rid of my image," referencing many child stars from Disney, " but the moment I wear a dress that shows cleavage or has a daring cut I'm told I'm too old to be acting like a teenager or that I'm influencing young girls. When did that become my responsibility? They start comparing me to friends, saying how lucky I was that I didn't follow their footsteps doing drugs or getting naked. But all the more power to those who feel comfortable in their skin and wearing what the fuck they want."

She goes on to explain her image under the watchful eye of the media and the scrutiny of this age. "I've been given a role my whole life, the good girl next door and that sweetheart image but that's a lot of pressure to keep up and to not slip so you're not deemed a bad role model. While everyone was going through their rebellious phases I wasn't allowed and as social media grows to become a large part of your career, you have to be cautious about what lines are allowed to be blurred and what lines you stay away from."

For her Vogue shoot, she is indulging a fantasy by embracing a "classic, old-timey pin-up" look inspired by Betty Brosmer, Horst's illusionist beauty shots and the stockinged models of Elmer Batters. When we first speak, the shoot is imminent. Although it was entirely her idea, Wesley is apprehensive. "I've literally never done anything in this realm at all."

She knows that corsets (among the most controversial garments in the history of fashion) will rile people. Although Wesley wanted to explore their beauty - the shapes, lacing, design - she was also drawn to their original restrictive function. "If I'm honest with you, I hate my stomach, and that's why." She thinks that's "shallow", I disagree. It's hard enough for anyone to negotiate the conflict between intellectually rejecting patriarchal beauty standards and hardwired personal frustration, let alone when you're one of the most scrutinised young adults in the world and your body is, as Wesley calls it, your "deepest insecurity".

She's noticed a TV trope where as soon as a "classic hot girl" enters a relationship, she undergoes a personality transplant. "She's this completely different character of wifey," Wesley says, baffled. "It really f**ked me up. Everybody's like, 'You can't make a wife out of a hoe' - and it's like, you're attracted to that person, though. You created that person." If those are the terms, Wesley is out. "Suddenly you're a hypocrite if you want to show your skin, and you're easy and you're a slut and you're a whore. If I am, then I'm proud. Me and all the girls are hoes, and f**k it, y'know? Let's turn it around and be empowered in that. Showing your body and showing your skin - or not - should not take any respect away from you."

"I remember going to the beach with some family members who were visiting, and we saw, far away, grown men with cameras-taking pictures of a 16-year-old in her swimsuit. That is a violating feeling. My brother is very over protective and he became annoyed and a fight almost broke out because of it. I don't know one girl or woman who hasn't had a weird experience, or a really bad experience. And men, too - young boys are taken advantage of constantly."

I ask Wesley whether she was aware of how invasive this situation was as it was happening, or if she brushed it off in the moment. "I think I spent so many years just trying to say the right thing to people for the sake of keeping myself sane," she says. By dint of her personality, as well as the fact that she was a young woman in the spotlight, she had to be unconditionally grateful, composed, sparkling. "I'm just such a people-pleaser," she adds.

"It seems almost impossible not to be, as a performer," I say, "unless you're like---"

Simultaneously, I say, "Daniel Day-Lewis" and Wesley says, "A man? Yeah."

Elton John bets on her impact. "Look at Kesha, [Lady] Gaga - they've all spoken out about this abuse of power. The more people that write about it, the better. It's been swept under the carpet since music began. Sabrina is the torch for this new generation of people who say, 'I'm not putting up with this anymore.'" There will be people invested in the status quo who hear her words as a chiding from an ungrateful girl who should shut up and enjoy being famous. But Sabrina, flush with the revelations of growth, is a reminder of the pleasure and privilege of deciding what kind of person you want to be. By taking a definitive statement on her ethos, she's hoping to neuter the hold anything can have over her. "It's about taking that power back, showing it off and not taking advantage with it," she says with a matter-of-fact pout. "I'm not letting myself be owned anymore."

- The vogue interview was made from Billie, Selena and Jennifer Lawrence vogue interview. Some parts are my own but it is mostly from Billie's vogue interview this year then some from Selena and a bit from Jennifer Lawrence