Interview: Teyana Taylor on Cooking Up the Complex and Lingering Presence of Perfidia Beverly Hills in ‘One Battle After Another’ [VIDEO]
When you see One Battle After Another, the latest epic from writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, the first thing you can’t help but gravitate towards is the magnetic performance of actress Teyana Taylor as Perfidia Beverly Hills. In the first shot of the film, we see Perfidia scouting a detention center containing immigrants that she and the revolutionary group, the French 75, plan on breaking into and releasing those being held captive. It takes this one moment to realize that you are watching a performer command the screen with a confident presence that we’ve not seen on the big screen this year.
But as the first act of One Battle After Another unfolds, Perfidia’s world starts to change, and we see the multiple layers of a revolutionary leader unfold into someone who is not only unprepared to face the consequences for her actions, but is unaware that the choices she makes to protect herself leave an emotional, psychological effect on the herself and the people she loves for decades to come. In short, she’s the most complex character of the year and Taylor’s work in the role is sublime.
Born and raised in Harlem, New York City, the One Battle actress got her start in the business at a young age, becoming a choreographer at 15 years old on Beyoncé’s music video for “Ring the Alarm.” From that point, she signed a record deal with Pharrell Williams’ label and had her commercial debut single, “Google Me,” released in the spring of 2008. From that moment, she worked with various artists that include Kanye West, John Legend, Wale, Travis Scott, DJ Mustard, as well as making her own albums over the last two decades, most recently her record titled Escape Room, which saw her receive her first Grammy nomination last week for Best R&B Album.
But it’s within the last five years that Taylor has grown from just a musician to a star on the big screen with her celebrated work in A Thousand and One, the Sundance award-winning film that saw the actress delivering one of the most celebrated performances of 2023, landing her nominations at the Gotham Awards, Independent Spirit Awards and winning the National Board of Review’s prize for Best Breakthrough Performance. But within One Battle After Another, she’s taken her craft to a whole other level, going face to face with her veteran co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Regina Hall and delivering a monumental, special performance. In her review from earlier this fall, our own Sophia Ciminello said it best about Taylor’s work, there’s a “lingering electricity” to everything she does on screen, making all of her choices profound and unpredictable at the same time. Simply put, it’s remarkable work.
In my recent conversation with the One Battle After Another actress, we spoke about her getting the call from Paul Thomas Anderson to play Perfidia, their early conversations of molding her into who we see on screen, and the subtle expressions she showcases that distinguish her relationships between characters, specifically DiCaprio’s Pat and Penn’s Lockjaw. We also talked about Perfidia’s journey through postpartum depression, leaving her family to continue the revolution, becoming a rat on the French 75, and the letter she writes Willa that can hopefully start the process of peace and forgiveness between her and her daughter. As exhilarating as her work in the film is, she’s even better within this conversation, clued in to every detail about the character she created, but then switching on a dime and talking about how she knows she got to not only work with one of the best directors of our time, but, to put in her words about PTA, “he’s the GOAT (greatest of all-time).” She’s used a phrase for PTA all season long in promoting the film, “let him cook,” which we talked about towards the end of our time together. But after you see One Battle After Another, there’s no doubt you’ll be wanting to see what other work Teyana Taylor will be cooking, and concocting next, as she’s become one of the most exciting new voices in cinema.
One Battle After Another is currently in theaters from Warner Bros and will hit VOD on November 14, Digital HD from Amazon Video and iTunes on November 25, and DVD/Blu-ray January 20, 2026.
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