When Robert Pattinson first appears onscreen in the Safdie brothers’ new noir, Good Time, he’s almost unrecognisable.
Portraying a drug dealing bank robber who has to bust his brother out of jail, we follow Pattinson down a rabbit hole of sex, acid and suburban psychedelia. Gone are his days as the perfect blemish free teen pin-up playing Twilight’s undead protagonist. Off-screen, Pattinson is just as unconventional: free from the grind of an Instagram account, press shy and left of centre, he is fast becoming a sharp antithesis to Hollywood iconoclasticism.
In light of his revelatory new role, Wonderland tasked the cover star with curating a special portfolio of the talent and thinkers shaping his unique universe today. From pop culture icons like Pamela Anderson and next-gen meme creator Sebastian Tribbie (@youvegotnomale), to his creative collaborator Daniel Lopatin of Oneohtrix Point Never, who soundtracked his latest cinematic offering, it’s an eclectic mix of artists and influencers. Partnered by his cover shoot exploring a similar anarchic energy to that of his new role, it was his opportunity to tell his own story away from the glare of media rhetoric. Under his influence, our Autumn Issue showcases the visionaries shaping an addictively unpredictable 2017.
A similar Hollywood outlier, our accompanying Autumn cover star, Margot Robbie has had her own, perhaps quieter, transformation. Photographed by enigmatic filmmaker Gia Coppola, Robbie describes her own struggles with being misrepresented by the media. Appearing as an American sweetheart gone bad in the forthcoming biopic I, Tonya, she reveals what it’s like to fall from grace at the centre of an international scandal. Or at least, what it’s like to pretend to.
We sit down with designers-cum-auters, Rodarte’s Mulleavy sisters and their longtime muse Kirsten Dunst, ahead of the release of Woodshock, the pair’s debut feature that sees Dunst fall deep through drug-induced layers of reality and insanity.
Then there’s grime king Skepta and his pal Playboi Carti who together talk fashion, music and collaboration, as well as the power of your own greatness and the truth in self-ful lling prophecies.
It’s a full throttle ride with the people setting the pop culture agenda on their own terms. But no one can sum up the transformative power of art better than our cover star himself. “Despite humans having this death grip on what they think is identity, really you could just wake up one day and decide to be someone else and do it as many times as you want.” – Robert Pattinson.
Join us in our double fantasy as we take a ride through the frenzy of 2017. Thank you to our wonderful advertisers and contributors, and of course, you, our readers. We hope you love it as much as we loved making it.
You can pre-order the new issue by clicking here.