Ella Hunt
Has Arrived

The rise of Ella Hunt’s star: from rural England
to international red carpets.

Photographed by: Mark Lim
Styled by: Anatolli Smith
Written by: Maggie Morris

Musician and actress Ella Hunt is having the most brilliant year, dazzling the red carpets at Cannes and Toronto International Film Festivals in natural diamonds, promoting two of this year’s major ensemble films: Kevin Costner’s epic Western saga Horizon, in which she plays Juliette Chesney, a teacher on the Oregon Trail, and Jason Reitman’s biopic comedy Saturday Night, which recreates the nail-biting 90 minutes prior to the first episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975, where she embodies the iconic comedian Gilda Radner, literally leaping and pirouetting like a fairy dusting the stage with magic.

Only Natural Diamonds sat down with Hunt and got real about experiencing diamonds for the first time, expressing the multifaceted layers of herself, and capturing disparate characters from vastly different eras in her latest work. She imitates no one and is truly in a class of her own, reflected in photographer Mark Lim’s take on the powerful woman, heightened by exciting cuts of natural diamonds in the bold jewelry of Reza, Nikos Koulis, and mirrored in the sharp lines of vintage Italian sports cars. 

Only Natural Diamonds: First: Let’s talk about jewelry! You wore some incredible pieces in this shoot. Those David Webb earrings look made for you. Do you have a first memory of a diamond?

Ella Hunt: I didn’t grow up around diamonds. I remember my mom had a beautiful Tuareg (Saharan nomadic tribe) necklace that she wore on special occasions. Jewelry is a world that until recently, I’ve had very little understanding of. My stylist Sarah Tooley has a very emotional relationship with jewels. She has an amazing eye for pairing jewelry with a piece of clothing, to bring out the shine in a belt or a pair of shoes. I see her face change when she opens something that feels right with an outfit or lays it on my chest or passes me some rings to stack on.

This year, Chopard sponsored me for the Cannes Film Festival. They threw a dinner for Kevin [Costner] and the cast, and I wore a yellow diamond necklace and ring. Before I put them on, I thought, “Diamonds? Whatever. I don’t care. It’s not my world; I’m not moved.” But when I put them on, I actually gasped. I couldn’t believe the power of the pieces, and I felt so struck by their beauty. 

I couldn’t believe the power of the pieces, and I felt so struck by their beauty.

OND: Just the fact that diamonds take millions of years to form under Earth’s pressure is a lot to fathom. Feeling the weight of the gems and seeing their brilliance on your body is surprisingly powerful. 

EH: I don’t want to sound too woo-woo about this, but there is a spirit in those pieces. Just looking at them was exciting. 

OND: Tell me a little about your style. Do you have any jewelry you wear regularly?

EH: I sort of have two personas: One is very pared back and kind of uniform, the other is opposite in an extreme way. I love going out in a wig. I have a collection of wigs – a purple wig, a platinum wig, a long blonde one. It’s not just a disguise; it’s a means to access elements of myself that I don’t give myself permission to enter without a little push. I like going out wearing a little safety pin in my ear and I love androgyny. I really enjoy going out in a men’s suit or a tie. I like being a shapeshifter in both my life and my work.

I love emotional material, but I’m a playful goofball in my real life. I am a relentlessly, maybe obnoxiously, optimistic person.

OND: It’s interesting that you say shapeshifter—I see that as your keen ability to access different parts of yourself, exhibited in the vastly different roles you’ve played lately. What was it like playing a 1970s comedian after playing roles in long-gone eras?

EH: It was such a departure for me. Before Saturday Night, I was playing very stoic, quiet, sad people. I love emotional material, but I’m a playful goofball in my real life. I am a relentlessly, maybe obnoxiously, optimistic person. Still, when this audition came through, I messaged my agent: “There’s no world where I get cast in this, right? They’re looking for comedians, they’re looking for funny people, they’re looking for Americans.” He dared me to go for it. I was really intimidated but once I started watching videos of Gilda and thinking about incorporating her characters and comedy into who she is behind the scenes, I got excited. I taped my audition wearing this orange top with a picture of my cat on the front that my mother made for me for Christmas. I thought it was very Gilda. Still, I was embarrassed. I told my team something along the lines of, “If this is bad, we don’t have to send it.” Within an hour of sending the tape, I got a call from John Papsidera, the casting director. The rest is history. 

OND: That’s amazing. I want to see that top.

EH: I might wear it for something during this press tour although I don’t think orange is my color. 

OND: Tell me about how you got into the character of Gilda.

EH: When I got the role, Jason [Reitman] sent me one of the loveliest emails I think I’ve ever received. He wrote that his goal with the film was to capture the essence of these people and the spirit of that night, and that he saw some of Gilda in me. This film is about the dynamic of this collective before they were beloved by the world. It’s about how they each dealt with the anticipation of this moment in their lives. He said that with a film like this, there’s often a desire to understand and learn every minute of the person’s life you’re portraying. He begged me not to do that and told me to do whatever I needed to get into character, but to remain truthful to her at that moment in time. 

I come from a music background, so voices are the first thing I think about. Gilda’s voice was so specific; she had this amazing s-lisp. The minute you do the s-lisp, so much just changes about your face–your cheeks come up. Learning her voice then impacted the way that I moved as well. Playing her, I felt a buoyancy in my body. 

I like being a shapeshifter in both my life and my work.

OND: I love that insight about how altering the way one speaks can be transformative. Changing how one sounds—like altering one’s appearance through fashion and jewelry—can totally transform the way one feels and moves through a day. 

EH: It’s a great feeling to be transported by a piece of clothing or jewelry. Especially as women, our appearance speaks for us before we’re even heard in a conversation. Sometimes that’s frustrating, but other times I feel really excited to wield that power, that magic. Especially as a queer person, clothes and fashion are such important parts of feeling safe and in control in the world, being able to access different parts of oneself, allowing fantasy, and enjoying it. 

OND: You mentioned how important that is for queer people. In the past, you spoke candidly about how difficult it can be to articulate one’s sexuality. 

EH: That time was funny, we were coming out of the pandemic and going into the second season of Dickinson. In my private life, I felt so fierce, but in the public sphere, I felt so intimidated and uncertain. During that press tour, I was reminded of how safe and loving the LGBTQ+ community is, both online and in person. Once I leaned into the safety of that space, I felt much more comfortable. Now, I’m less anxious, I feel at ease. It also helps that I’m a bit older–I’m 26. I’ve lived away from home in New York and in my body for five or six years now, and I feel a whole lot clearer. But I do think we have to give a lot of grace and space to young people who are working it out and who may not know how to speak about it. Everyone’s lives are online now. I’m very grateful that people were as kind to me as they were and for the honesty of those online. The conversation has broadened massively over the last few years. I think it’s an amazing time to be alive in that way.

OND: How do you stay grounded with all the forward movement and excitement surrounding you these days? 

EH: I feel fortunate that I grew up on a rural farm in England. I spent a lot of time alone in a field or up a tree, taking things in – whether it was a butterfly or the way the river changed from one day to the next in that kind of magical way it does. Last night, when I got back from Toronto, I realized I’d been in junket land and hadn’t been outside for four days. I went for a walk around Morningside Park. Usually, when I’m walking through the city, I have my headphones on, but this time I walked without them and just noticed my home, the trees, and the season, and I felt connected. It’s important for me to slow down and remember my relative smallness within them. 

OND: Have you ever imagined yourself in a moment like that? Coming home to your own apartment in New York City after promoting a film you starred in?  

EH: This is pretty high up in the dream sphere for me; I’m excited. This past weekend, Horizon played in Venice and Saturday Night played in Toronto. I keep happy crying; I’m so grateful. I don’t really know how it happened—a lot of hard work and luck, too.