Teyana Taylor is already drawing early Oscar buzz for her powerful performance in One Battle After Another.
One of the film’s most talked-about scenes features Taylor’s character, Perfidia Beverly Hills, heavily pregnant and holding a semiautomatic weapon — a moment both striking and provocative. However, some viewers have criticized the scene, claiming it sexualizes Perfidia in the presence of Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn’s characters.
When The Hollywood Reporter asked Taylor about the backlash, she didn’t hold back.
“Is that not what Black women go through?” she said. “We are fetishized, especially by creepy motherfuckers. And we are, unfortunately, the least protected people. Showing what Black women go through, that’s a hard reality to accept. And this movie should spark debate, I always knew it would, because sometimes you just got to shake the table.”
Taylor’s momentum in Hollywood shows no signs of slowing down. Along with One Battle After Another, the 34-year-old star appears in Hulu’s All’s Fair alongside Kim Kardashian and is preparing for her feature directorial debut with Paramount’s Get Lite. She’s also been personally chosen by Dionne Warwick to portray her in an upcoming biopic, and has a Kevin Hart comedy in the works.
Before all that, Taylor will be seen in The Rip, a Netflix crime thriller reuniting Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as both actors and producers. The film, which also stars Steven Yeun and Catalina Sandino Moreno, premieres January 16.
