Aubrey Plaza Is Not Brad Pitt
It’s this talent she has for making even the mundane feel electric that’s made her, and her career, so fascinating to watch. We first saw it with her bone-dry portrayal of bored intern April Ludgate on Parks and Recreation, but she transforms the day-to-day every chance she gets, be it during a talk show appearance or while hosting an awards ceremony. Run-of-the-mill Hollywood stuff, somehow made thrilling.
Not that it’s all mundanity for Aubrey—in just the past three years, she’s directed for the first time (an episode of the experimental Showtime series Cinema Toast); married her longtime partner, director Jeff Baena; and shot a bunch of great films, including 2020’s Black Bear and student-debt thriller (yes, that’s a thing, as it kinda should be?)/Sundance favorite Emily the Criminal. She’s also casually starring opposite Jason Statham and Hugh Grant in the upcoming glitzy action movie Operation Fortune, and she’s written a truly delightful children’s book, The Legend of the Christmas Witch. Oh, yes, and she’s been cast in the second season of arguably the most talked-about show on television, The White Lotus.
And yet! She’s still hungry for the next thing that will lead her to some kind of creative transcendence. Like…theme parks? We’ll get there.