Louisa Jacobson Was Destined for This Moment
Louisa Jacobson is here, there, everywhere—at the movies in Celine Song's buzzy new rom-com Materialists, on your TV screens in season 3 of HBO's Emmy-nominated period drama The Gilded Age, and now onstage in the off-Broadway production of Emmanuelle Mattana's Trophy Boys. Range? Yeah, Jacobson has it, making her one of the most exciting next-gen talents coming up today.
Getting to play vastly different characters in three different projects all coming out within a few days of each other feels like a gift to Jacobson. It's not often budding actors get to flex their acting muscles in such an expansive way so early on in their careers. Though she's barely had time to soak it all in between back-to-back press runs for Materialists and The Gilded Age and previews for Trophy Boys, the rarity of this moment isn't lost on her.
The daughter of Meryl Streep and sculptor Don Gummer and the youngest of four siblings with careers in the arts, Jacobson was literally born to do this, and it shows in her electric performances, whether it's a young woman subverting 19th century societal norms, a bride-to-be questioning whether marriage is really for her, or a confident adolescent boy navigating the pressures of masculinity and gender norms.
On a Monday morning in late June, we met with Jacobson to talk about her momentous summer.
In June alone, you starred in three vastly different projects both tonally and in medium (film, TV, and theater). Can you tell me a little about your approach when taking on new projects? What really matters/speaks to you at this stage in your career?
I'm still in the stage of my career where I have to audition for every single thing, and as an actor, you don't have so much control over what you do next, and you're always like, "When's my next job gonna be?" So it feels sometimes weird to be choosy when you're like, "I'll take any opportunity that's coming at me," but I generally know that it's worth a shot at auditioning if the material jumps off the page to me and if there are sparks of creativity that are happening in my brain when I'm reading it. Usually, things like that are really honest and boundary-pushing portrayals of life and the things that we either choose not to look at or can't see, which is what I loved about Celine Song's movie [Materialists]. She's such an honest filmmaker, and her sense of humor is so grounded in the tragedy of being human. I'm also into looking out for queer stories, particularly queer women's stories. I'm into spreading the word about that and telling those stories more because I think they need to be told.
You grew up in a fine arts household. How did being the youngest sibling influence your decision to go into acting?
