Yesterday, Sony streamed another of its upcoming PlayStation games and while there were no updates on Grand Theft Auto 6, the hour-long session provided playthroughs of hotly-anticipated video games. You have the gameplay of Wolverine by Insomniac Games, the company behind the Spider-Man series; a longer trailer of the next Silent Hill game; and two announcements of sequels that I'm excited for.

As usual, if you missed the livestream, you can still watch the archived telecast at the end of this post. Here are the highlights from the presentation.

ILL

A mysterious protagonist who was rescued and now has to break out of the hospital that is overran by patients infected with an illness. Interesting visuals, but I've a sneaking suspicion that your playable protagonist might be the cause for the outbreak.

Wolverine

Oh my God. It's really bloody; the violence stopping short of seeing decapitations and the enemies' soft insides spilling out. Combat-wise, I can't wait to get my dirty mitts on the controller, but I can't get over the way how the bloodstains on Wolverine just disappers.

Silent Hill: Townfall

This is another trailer for the next Silent Hill video game, but I'm left as confused as when the first teaser started out. Then, again the conceit of many Silent Hill games is that the less the player know, the more effective the scares. So, now I'm creeped out and also confused. Guess, we'll wait when the game comes out 24 September, 2026

Until Dawn 2

Now, this is one of two sequels that I was looking forward to. Having played the first Until Dawn game, it has always stymied me about how the other spin-offs couldn't hold a candle to the original. This Until Dawn sequel looks... interesting. Same basic premise of hormonal teens breaking into places that they have no business being at, but I'm holding off all judgement until the game come up.

Control Resonanant

Another sequel to award-winning Control, this time we get a sense of a story (although, it wasn't enough to paint a ghost of a plot), but any game developed by Remedy Entertainment gets a free pass on scepticism.

God of War Laufey

Ah, now this is the sequel I've been waiting for. After God of War Ragnarok, you'd think that the next instalment would star the original emo as he travels to another country to get in contact with the other war gods, nope. For this upcoming chapter of the God of War series, Kratos' wife, Laufey, will take the limelight.

We start at the point where Kratos and Atreus set Laufey's body on fire, as per custom. After a cutscene, we get to control Laufey, who is on the mission to return to Midgard (where Kratos and Artreus) to thwart some impending disaster. We are introduced to Begtse (the Tibetan god of war) and Sekhmet (the Egyptian goddess of war and healing), and later on, a sword with talking ribbons called Rue and a equally-talkative gelatinous cube called Phranque (we have no idea which myth the sword and cube came from).

Lufey is played by Deborah Ann Woll, who originally appeared in the first God of War, but is now getting her flowers for this instalment. Rue is played by Perlina Lau and Phranque, by Jack Quaid.

For other games, check out the whole stream of State of Play below:

As the story goes, Loewe began in 1846. It was founded by a collective of artisans in Madrid, Spain. It wasn't until 1872 that a German merchant by the name of Enrique Loewe Roessberg unified the collective of artisans under his name, and kickstarted the luxury fashion house as we know it today.

That was 180 years ago, making Loewe easily one of the oldest luxury fashion houses in the world.

Craft has been the core of the House from the very beginning. The fact that it started out as a collective of artisans is testament that the work and the hands behind them have always been at the forefront, with a singular name the secondary trait. The House was appointed a supplier to the Spanish Crown in 1905 owed to its mastery in leather craft, and later in 1988, the Loewe Foundation was set up to celebrate, honour and cement the House's commitment to craft.

The first chapter of Loewe's 180th anniversary is a campaign shot by American photographer Talia Chetrit, who also lensed the first campaign by Loewe creative directors Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez. Much like the House's start, the campaign brings together a female-lead artistic cast consisting of global brand ambassador Julia Garner, brand ambassadors Salma Abu Deif, Giselle, and Kara Wai, as well as actor Sissy Spacek and artist Kara Walker. They're featured alongside Loewe's iconic bags that have been created throughout the decades—the Flamenco clutch, the Puzzle, the Hammock Flip, and the Amazona 180. While the origins of these designs date back up to 50 years (the Amazona was introduced in 1975), they've been reimagined into more contemporary versions, including the Amazona 180 that's part of McCollough and Hernandez's debut collection for the House. Craft at Loewe, after all, is the art where imagination the tool.

The Loewe 180 campaign also features a capsule collection playing up the name "Loewe" that means "lion" in German. Hence, lion motifs done in an abstract manner, appear on a number of pieces across bags, small leather goods, and ready-to-wear. On the interior of the Amazona 180, for example, the face of the lion appears to peek out from behind the bag's supple front.

The latest issue of the Loewe Magazine will also be packaged together with a special publication, 180 Years of Craft. Both Issue 11 and the supplement will be available for free in Loewe boutiques and partner bookstores from 15 June. 180 Years of Craft will delve a bit more into the House's archives as well as provide a rare glimpse of its Madrid atelier—all to sufficiently immerse you into the history of Loewe and why its craft remains coveted.

The Loewe 180th anniversary capsule collection is now available in Loewe boutiques and online.

Uruguay’s history in the FIFA World Cup is a long and noble one. The hosts of the first ever competition in 1930, which featured 13 national teams, Uruguay were the favourites to win and trounced Argentina 4-2 in the final. The team went on to win the Cup a second time in 1950. Today, Uruguayan players figure in numerous premier club teams in Europe, South America, and the US.

For the 23rd FIFA World Cup, kicking off in the USA and Canada on 11 June, Uruguayan-born and New York-based designer Gabriela Hearst has been tapped by the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF) to create clothing for the 40-strong squad, including management and coaches, mainly in made-to-measure suits and sneakers for all their off-pitch engagements. The suits are custom versions of existing styles (Irving for the jacket and Sebastian for the pants), which are available online and from her stores in New York and London.

Gabriela Hearst grew up in western Uruguay on a vast family sheep and cattle ranch in Paysandú. It was an upbringing close to the earth, and one that has informed much of her efforts as a designer since she founded her eponymous line in 2015. A keen advocate for the environment, she speaks regularly about climate change and has garnered numerous awards both in fashion and from environmental bodies.

Sustainability and low-impact production are, naturally, core tenets of Hearst’s fashion output, so the origin of the lightweight merino wool used in the navy-blue suits made for the team was critical. The Merino is sourced from Uruguayan flocks in the north of the country and spun into yarn locally at Lanas Trinidad in the Flores region. Uruguayan merino is 100 per cent biodegradable and produced without mulesing, a somewhat gruesome surgical treatment of Merino sheep to maximise fleece production on less ecologically minded farms.]

The players’ suits are paired with ivory cotton Merino polo shirts and matching custom white leather “Ohio” sneakers, which feature a number of environment-conscious elements from leather certified by The Leather Working Group (a global standard for responsible leather manufacturing) to stitching and soles made from 30 per cent recycled materials.

The jacket lining features a jacquard silk abstraction of the Uruguayan coat of arms. And Hearst placed the team crest, something usually seen on the breast pocket of blazers, inside the jacket “to be close to the heart”, as she explains in a video shot in Uruguay and in London, when she met the team for fittings just 40 days ago.

As the core of Gabriela Hearst’s Uruguay collaboration, the suits in their mainline version—albeit without the Uruguayan team motifs—are well worth investigating for both style and content. Merino is always a good bet for a suit, offering comfort and superior performance in any temperature. Its long-staple fibres make it particularly ideal for resisting creases, and keeping clothing looking fresh and unruffled whether you’re headed to the office or the World Cup Final.

Originally published on Esquire US

The appetite for Korean fare has barely dimmed since the K-wave hit over a decade ago. New restaurants seem to open every weekend, while existing ones launch new menus in tandem. If you're looking for where to try authentic grilled meat or hearty stews, these four options take trending food to new heights.

GU:UM

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K-bbq is quintessential to the cuisine, and times when you prefer to sit back and be served like a Joseon Dynasty monarch, GU:UM (yes, sister of NAE:UM) has just the set for that. The 'Hanwoo & Namul' menu (from SGD168) celebrates the establishment's second anniversary with four-part starters, a feast of mains and a sweet finish.

Signature Yukhwae Jeon brilliantly combines two great Korean dishes: beef tartare and fried pancake; while new creation Leek & Doenjang reminds of a certain Michelin-starred restaurant's famed dish. After one-bite wonder Karae Chicken Tart, the Nokcha Guksu is a petite delight of mustard kimchi and pork jowl suyuk atop oil-tossed noodles.

As one of the few steakhouses in Singapore to offer premium Jeju Hanwoo lower loin up to grade 1++, they lavishly include it alongside Jeju Handon Pork Collar, Tiger Prawns and Dalkochi (chicken skewers). We can attest the meat quality here is upheld by a combination of freshness and grill expertise. Leafy greens and banchan are expected accompaniments, but the Namul Bap and Galbi Tang (inspired by bak kut teh, by the way) are fantastic bonuses. Finally, hwachae for dessert leaves you feeling adequately satiated.

GU:UM is located at 29 Keong Saik Road, Singapore 089136.

JIHO Hanbang Samgyetang

It's clear that this particular Korean dish is trending of late, but this franchise is no newcomer. Since 1991, it has been perfecting the art of herbal ginseng chicken soup with honest ingredients. After over 80 locations across Korea, Shanghai and Sydney, JIHO Hanbang Samgyetang is now here thanks to another recognisable brand—SBCD Korean Tofu House.

Backstory aside, if you want to try a variety of renditions, this is the place. Samgyetang here comes in Healthy, Spicy, Beauty, Mung Bean, Black Garlic and Perilla. After the classic i.e. Healthy, Perilla was easily the creamy crowd favourite.

Each come with a whole chicken where tender meat—apologies for lazy but accurate description—falls off the bone. Perhaps it was the long hours of boiling, but the complementing salt and pepper blend was necessary to season the meat. The glutinous rice encased, however, we could eat in doles. Another alternative offering on the menu you may want to try is the samgyejuk, essentially the dish in porridge form.

JIHO Hanbang Samgyetang is located at 18 Cross Street #B1-01, Singapore 048423.

GOCHU

This one's a little out the way, but it offers Korean favourites in one set. The Naengmyeon uses a different noodles for added tang, and the broth boasts 12 hours of slow simmering. With it, a side of premium beef brisket and short ribs. If it's still a warm dish you defer to, the Onmyeon serves the same cuts of meet with full-flavoured broth.

There are a slew of meat-centric bansang available; GOCHU being a barbecue diner, ultimately. Still, the interior impresses the most, featuring textured stone walls and natural curves that echo the inside of a cave. This frames the golf green that sits right outside. So if you ever happen make a trip up north, it's a nice setting to spend a longer meal.

GOCHU is located at 1 Orchid Club Road, Singapore 769162.

MODU High

The seemingly permanent queues at its first outlet might give way to its larger second branch. Or not, considering the expanded menu of 12 flavours, also slow-simmered for 12 hours (we're sensing 12 as the magic number for samgyetang). The 12 options are divided into classic, and signature premium and specialty. Unfortunately, we did not have 12 stomachs to try everything, and between the Yin Nourishing and Yang Vitality, the latter came up stronger.

New flavours include Chicken & Premium Seafood, Scorched Rice, Wild Mushroom (which we've heard some raved about), and Truffle. Similar to GOCHU, the space takes the cake with its Hanok-inspired space. Paper-latticed doors and all the wooden beams in the world. Do opt for the booth seats as the large, main table makes for somewhat awkward dining. When you're done, dessert is a no-brainer with Tofu G right next door.

MODU High is located at 96 Amoy Street Singapore, Singapore 069916.

Earlier this year, creative director Jonathan Anderson made his highly anticipated debut at Dior during Paris Fashion Week Men's. If you've been following his career closely, you'd know that Anderson's a world-builder and is meticulous about every single detail—including the invite to his debut show.

What arrived on our doorstep (or rather, delivered through the hotel's front desk) was a distinct Dior grey box tied with a ribbon. And placed securely in it was a plate with three eggs, fully ceramic and fixed in position. The eggs are symbolic—that perfect metaphor for the beginning, Anderson said—and the entire piece captures Anderson's obsession with craft. Naturally, he followed up with a plate of ceramic chestnuts and walnuts for the Autumn/Winter 2026 womenswear show a couple of months later.

The ceramic invite is essentially a piece of fashion history; the beginning of a new era at Dior where the creative direction of its women's, men's, and haute couture collections the responsibility of a single individual. And now, you're able to partake in it too.

Dior Maison has launched what's collectively known as the Trompe-l'œil collection featuring both invites and more. The collection pays homage to the 18th-century art of trompe-l'œil where nothing is really what it seems, with every piece crafted from ceramic. You may be looking at a plate of asparagus, but in actuality, they're hyper-realistic recreations. Aside from the pieces that originated as show invites, the collection expands into other motifs that include said arrangement of asparagus, a croissant, and even a single egg done sunny side up. There's also a plate that carries a reproduction of the first edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula—a motif that's also present in the Summer 2026 menswear collection.

Needless to say, the collection is purely decorative. You could probably use them as sort of a trinket tray if you have to find a use for one. Otherwise, they're bound to be whimsical additions to any space.

The Dior Maison Trompe-l'œil collection is available at the Dior boutique at ION Orchard.

Sometimes you just can’t get a song out of your head. You hear it everywhere you go, like a haunt. For Stephen Root, it’s the sea-hag song from episode 3 of Widow’s Bay. The 74-year-old actor stars on the Apple TV horror-comedy series about a cursed New England town as the island’s crazed believer, a fisherman named Wyck. Opposite him is the sceptic town mayor (played by Matthew Rhys), who tries his best to ignore Wyck’s warnings until he comes face-to-face with one of the island’s wacky monsters: a sea hag. She’s one of Root’s favourites.

“The first scene Matthew and I did was that scene in episode 3, me telling him about the hag,” Root tells me. The gag was always that she kills you by crawling onto your bed and sitting on your face (“I laughed so hard when I read that,” the actor says), but the shanty song didn’t include Root’s raspy refrain until he gave it a try on set. “Every sailor knows the story of the hag,” he begins, then he takes a beat and whisper-sings, “Aawoo... Aawoo.”

Root’s performance captures everything about Widow’s Bay that makes the show such a delight, including his ability to turn every scary scene into a funny one, or vice versa. As we talk over coffee and tea at Gabriel’s Bar & Restaurant near Central Park in New York City, I swear I could hear one of the busboys “Aawoo” as he walked by.

Root is something of a Hollywood earworm himself. Just look at his lengthy résumé and you’ll realise that you’ve seen this character actor everywhere. His IMDb page lists more than 300 roles—most famous among them are his stapler-obsessed Office Space character, his voice-acting roles on King of the Hill, and his many cameos in Coen brothers films. But to list all the critically acclaimed projects he’s lent his talents to would take another 2,000 words. He’s built a reputation as your favourite character actor’s favourite character actor, and he takes pride in the fact that he’s recognised from so many different projects.

“A character actor is the muscle of a show,” Root tells me. “I’m not just playing myself. A character actor really builds the world that you’re playing in, and that makes me feel good whenever I get stopped on the street for different stuff. I’m not just that guy from that show.”

Root came very close to being “that guy from that show” in 2019, when he was nominated for his first Emmy for his role as Monroe Fuches on HBO’s Barry. Fuches was originally a much smaller role before Root turned Barry’s (Bill Hader) pseudo father figure into one of the most dynamic characters on the show. And although Root would have happily accepted the award had he won, I believe it when he says that it means more that he was simply given the chance to prove himself.

“Barry was a big breakthrough for me because I could do some meat—really heavy stuff,” he says. “It morphed from a comedy to a drama in later seasons, and I loved that. I got to show that I could do it for the first time since my West Wing days. Every once in a while, you want to remind people that, yeah, I don’t just do weird guys. I can really do something.”

Even so, it’s not as if Root’s weird guys don’t live in the pantheon of weird guys. He played a sinister blind art dealer in Get Out, an oblivious average joe who couldn’t tell that his wife was cheating on him in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and a nearly unintelligible southern radio-station owner in O Brother, Where Art Thou? who keeps his eyes open so wide that it looks as if they might just fall out.

So when Barry director Hiro Murai told Root that a new Apple TV series he was executive-producing was in need of someone to play an old fisherman with knowledge of all the island’s cursed history, Root knew that Widow’s Bay was another chance to show what he’s capable of.

“I read the first script, and it just sealed it,” Root says. “It was Twin Peak–ish, like watching a night gallery from the ’70s. I didn’t know [showrunner] Katie Dippold, but the combo [on Widow’s Bay] was completely original. It was like, Oh, this will be fun to walk that line.”

Below, Root shares more about blending comedy and horror in Widow’s Bay, Matthew Rhys’s crazy antics on set, and why he’s still chasing a lead acting role.

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ESQUIRE: What sold you on Widow’s Bay?

STEPHEN ROOT: I had a talk with Katie, and it was like with Bill and Barry. Bill directed the entire fourth season, and that’s what he’d been wanting to do. He came in, and everybody knew he was a brilliant comedian, but that’s not what he came into town to do. He came in to direct, and he got to do it and to show how good he was. His tone sets Barry up just like how Katie’s tone sets Widow’s Bay up. It’s the creators.

Plus, they told me that Matthew was in it, and it was already like 80 per cent I was doing it. I have to tell you how much I admire Matthew, because he had to keep the emotional tone of the show for the first three episodes pretty much by himself. I mean, we all reacted to him. But we were block shooting—meaning that we shot the series out of order based on location. So, at different points, he would need to go back and be the character from before again, and he worked really hard to do it.

I heard a story about Matthew, while you were both on Perry Mason together, that he would steal the Hollywood carts and drive around the set as fast as possible. Is that true?

He would fight off anybody who wanted to drive the cart and go, “No, no, no, I’m driving.” We’d get as many people as we could in there, maybe four or five and three in the backseats, and he’d say, “Here we go!” He’d go zipping as fast as he could down in between the studios, and if any tourist bus came by, he would stop it, go in front of it, and go, “Matthew Rhys, The Americans, remember? Matthew Rhys!” And we would die, he was so funny.

It’s insane that your acting résumé is long enough that this isn’t even the first time you’ve worked with Matthew. Are there any roles that you’re turning down, or does it just feel like you’re saying yes to everything?

I probably say yes too much. Last year, I was pretty wiped out. I’m glad I did all those shows. I’m lucky enough that I have enough of a name that I can get offers, mostly. But yeah, I need a little break. I’ve decided right now that I’m going to wait for a really juicy thing next.

What does it take to act in that many projects?

You have to be completely down-to-earth and be grateful for the work. When I came out of college and started to work, my goal was not anything, but to be a working actor. I came to New York, did National Shakespeare Company, and that level of work was what I considered to be my career path—not as a TV star or a movie guy or anything else. If you ask 99 per cent of actors, they’re just happy to work.

Was there a time in your career where you felt like you weren’t necessarily going out for the role but that they were explicitly coming to you and asking for a “Stephen Root type” character?

That happened more because I was playing offbeat characters. I’d done a few in my early TV and film days, like the principal in the Buffy movie, or the guy in Stephen King’s Golden Years that complained about eating week-old beef. That kind of guy. So once I established that as what I could do, that’s when I started seeing a “Stephen Root type” in a breakdown. The more offbeat things I did, the roles just kept coming.

What went into forming Wyck?

To me, shoes are really important for a character. That’s how he walks. Wyck walks in boots, but if they were sandals, that’s something else. And we knew this guy—old fisherman with the hat and the vest. I had a beard, but not heavy, and they said, “Please don’t shave for the next two months.” We let it grow from there. So, that’s also helpful. But sometimes you have to go outside-in to a character, and this was that. Clothes help the man.

Wyck has a great monologue in episode 7, when he explains how he accidentally killed his childhood friend after they were attacked by a sea monster. It felt like one of those meaty scenes that you said you loved so much about your time on Barry.

She wrote me a great monologue. I very much had my Jaws moment in that. It was a difficult shoot because we were doing a lot of wrestling and fighting on a boat in a studio that was 20 feet high, with people rocking it. So, I guess we were lucky that we weren’t on the water for the most part. But it was a hard shoot—it was almost like an action movie.

Are you a superstitious guy? Do you believe in curses?

Do I believe that there is something beyond the pale of life? Yeah, I think so. There are too many people having the same stories for there not to be anything. The older I get, the more I believe everything is kind of connected. It seemed like a very strange concept when I was younger that the rock over there and that tree are all connected to the world. So, I feel later in my life not to cuckoo anything and just to let it show you.

Is there anything left about Wyck’s character that you’d love to see explored in a potential second season?

If we have another season, we’ve gotten no clues from Katie as to where the through line is going to be, and that’s fine for now. I’m interested in seeing more about the island, because the island itself is a character. But the reason you watch a show is if you’re investing in the character, and I’m hoping that we’ve connected enough that they want to keep coming to see what happens to us.

I heard you say in an older interview that your goal was still to land a lead role in a film or TV show. Is that still the case?

Yeah, it would be really nice. I haven’t had the experience of being a number one on a call sheet. I’ve been two and I’ve been three and four, but number one is a heavy-duty thing. I haven’t found that yet, and maybe I won’t. For me, it depends on the writing and who would shepherd it.

Is it something that you want to prove to yourself, that you can do it, or something that you want to show everyone that you can do?

I’m kind of beyond showing people what I can do, but I know what you mean in terms of being able to be the lead in a thing. But at this point, if you don’t like what I do, I’d tell you you can turn it off. [Laughs.] And that’s okay.

Originally published on Esquire US

It's 12:15am on a Friday. The room is cool and dimly lit, and I'm lounging on a beanbag, wrapped in a maroon hoodie with a computer on my lap. On my screen, my interviewee wears a black hoodie and a white baseball cap.

There aren't many descriptors that can help visualise the spatial portrait of what goes on inside a virtual interview—especially so when you're interviewing Sebastian Stan. He fills the display. As he leans forward over his desk, a yellow lamp catches the stray tousles of brown hair curling from beneath his cap. I opened with a question: how does he deal with the discomfort that comes from playing the characters that he does?

"I think discomfort is something we all have to deal with at various levels, but when it's connected to work and art or being creative, it's the kind of discomfort that I'm seeking," he says.

Stan has built a reputation in the industry for being somewhat of a chameleon. Able to slip inside the skin of a controversial sex symbol with a soul patch in one moment, then trade that for another with an orange complexion belonging to an uncurbed president.

In one of his more recent projects, his character undergoes a radical medical procedure to reconstruct his face in Aaron Schimberg's A Different Man, a performance that earned him a Best Actor in a Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy award at the Golden Globes. This change in physicality borders on the edge of metamorphosis, and naturally demanded a certain degree of emotional energy and vexation to fit into these characters.

For a man whose career may be known to many for playing a Marvel superhero, the road he's taken since is quite unconventional. He has since leaned into independent cinema, television, and even playing characters that are deliberately hard to love.

This willingness to move towards the unorthodox is perhaps why Stan resonates so deeply with the Santos de Cartier. The parallels between his career and the timepiece's history are obvious. Cartier first stepped out of its comfort zone when Louis Cartier created a custom piece for his dear friend and aviator, Alberto Santos-Dumont—a design that broke watch design conventions at the time by eschewing the circular dial for a square one.

Released commercially in 1911, the Santos de Cartier became the first wristwatch produced specifically for men. Today, it remains one of the longest-running and most iconic collections in horology.

"I think discomfort is something we all have to deal with at various levels, but when it's connected to work and art or being creative, it's the kind of discomfort that I'm seeking."

Stan pinpointed his own "off-the-beaten-path" in 2017. His role as Tonya Harding's abusive husband from I, Tonya, opened his eyes because it was the first time he'd stepped into a place that felt genuinely different.

"That film and that experience propelled me to sort of want to keep going down this lane of discomfort and of risk-taking," Stan says. "I believe that when we go towards something that scares us or feels uncomfortable, there's a real opportunity to learn, not just about yourself, but also about the subject that you're studying."

He likens this to working out in the gym, where pain usually equates to muscle growth. Then he extends this metaphor inward, to the mental or circumstantial unease that shapes a person's interior life, about how that same concept even applies to belief systems.

And then, Stan says something that contradicts all of it.

"I think we're in a time now where we're being tested over and over again. Our morals are being tested. Our integrity is being tested. Our honesty as people is being tested," he says. "We have examples of that all over currently. I don't have to name them."

Forget the romanticisation of grind culture, or the idea that pained history is the best chisel to bring about a humanness into character. No, this has more to do with the internal maturation that comes from stewing in that disquietude, when the easiest thing would be to dry off and find somewhere cleaner to stand—a fresh start.

Stan's inclination to play unlikable men is a reflection of this. A rebellion, a physical manifestation of the inner back-and-forth he has with himself, determines what an actor's responsibility actually is.

"I want to find work that truly and fearlessly reflects our world," he reveals, his eyes going somewhere past the camera. "Unfortunately, our world is very dark and has many unpleasant characters, a lot of tragedy and a lot of pain and suffering. But I don't want to ignore that."

Between black and white, there are shades of grey. Each character he brings to life, the goal is simply to understand, and not to judge good or evil. In this sense, each performance becomes a mirror held up in front of the audience. No matter how twisted or disjointed the image is, viewers are forced to look.

If a performance ever made you ask a question to yourself or grow curious about the system, then, as far as he is concerned, Stan has done his work.

Then A Chuckle

"We got very deep very quickly there," he quips with a toothy smile. "Let me tell you about the new Santos watch!"

He says it jokingly, but also with genuine rapture because he's just a really really big fan of Cartier.

When he was 21, working towards his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Rutgers' Mason Gross school, hed walk to auditions after school through Midtown, New York. "This is when you had auditions in person," he adds. In those days, he'd arrive early, sometimes 15 minutes before, which gave him time to wander and browse the stores on Fifth Avenue.

Cartier was one of the stores that left an indelible impression on him. He never stopped and gawked through the window. Not that he needed to. The shimmering world behind the polished glass caught his eye each time he walked past. Pass by it enough times, and it leaves an impression.

This dent, however, was not formed out of envy; it was formed out of the settling realisation that what lay beyond was something different, perhaps, even something unattainable. It's still something he reaches for, allowing his humility to latch onto and anchor himself.

It enables him to feel completely present and relish moments like the time he donned a sunray-dialled Santos de Cartier watch in 18-karat yellow gold and diamonds on the Oscar red carpet in 2025. It was the same night he'd received a Best Actor nomination at the Academy—the first of his career.

"I think red carpets are very strange places," Stan says with a chortle. "The atmosphere is always forcing you to pose, and I just want to be myself."

Given the value that the piece carries, it might make more sense to have it be displayed on a pedestal, behind glass. Some place where its mortality would be free from the harshness of the outside world.

"I don't have the watch. It was a crazy watch to have," Stan says, dragging a palm over his face. "But I'm sure there might be another time where I could wear it, and if I do, it will always remind me of what that night was."

Sebastian Stan is the kind of man who sees no value in owning nine other pairs of jeans if he already has that one he can go to reliably and has an existing relationship with.

He points to the back of the room he's in, "I actually don't have a lot of things up on my wall, except for maybe two things that I know I love, that mean something, and will grow with history."

Known Pleasures

As he describes himself, Stan is a human with his "own little things" he enjoys: a good glass of wine, music, and sugar (heavy emphasis on the last one). He finds pockets of happiness in the simple act of going for a walk, dining at a nice restaurant, and travelling somewhere new. But what of guilty pleasures?

"I feel like I watch a little bit too much true crime docuseries," he admits.

That, and peanut butter. Spread a layer of peanut butter over anything, and he'll eat it, shamefully. Heres something you'd never expect him to enjoy, though: being bald.

For his role as Mihai Gheorghiu in Fjord, an upcoming drama from Cristian Mungiu, Stan plays the Romanian patriarch who uprooted his family to a remote town in Norway to be closer to his wife's kin. The wife is played by Renate Reinsve, best known for her roles in The Worst Person in the World, and Sentimental Value. Tensions surface when the community notices bruises on one of the daughters, as varying views on personal freedom and societal conformity emerge as central themes.

"[Going bald] was very liberating, to be honest," Stan says. "When it comes to work and what's required, vanity does not come into question for me."

He goes on, admitting that he actually misses it very much, rubbing his now-full head of hair. He references Channing Tatum and Timothée Chalamet as examples of men looking good with no hair. "Also, it's so easy in the morning getting up, you know. You don't have to worry about it."

It's too early for Stan to speak at length about Fjord, but it's a film that matters to him in ways that go beyond the craft. Fjord's director, Cristian Mungiu, best known for his Palme d'Or-winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, was a director Stan dreamt of working with for a long time. (Fjord was awarded the Palme D'Or for Best Film at this year's Cannes Film Festival.) And on a deeper level, for the actor who was born in Romania, Fjord is the actor's first Romanian film.

Stan found the film fulfilling in ways that he didn't fully anticipate. He recalls a specific moment at the end of filming, saying goodbye to the mostly Romanian crew, when one of them came with a Romanian flag. They wrapped him in it and embraced him. In his best Romanian accent, Stan repeats what they had told him: "Oh, you know, you are one of us!"

The decision to leave his birth country when he was a child fell squarely on his mother's shoulders as she wanted Stan to pursue a life better than what she had led.

"I was very lucky to have left when I did, and to have the journey that I did. But it wasn't necessarily a choice that I had made," he says. "To come back and reconnect with my people on a level like that was really meaningful."

Illusion of Freedom

There's this idea called the "freedom paradox", and it reads that unlimited choice can actually stifle creativity. Endless options may seem liberating at a glance, but for some, having a few clear boundaries is actually what helps their creativity shine.

For more than a century, Cartier's Santos lived within this paradox. The square case, exposed screws, elongated Roman numerals... these are the constraints the watch placed on itself since 1904, and yet, it maintained relevance, evolving with the world. By worming and contorting against the confines of a tight box, the Santos accumulated well over a 100 different references through careful tweaks.

The latest adjustments to the model are as follows: a flexible bracelet and a slimmer chronograph.

A new Santos-Dumont bracelet features rice-bead-like links arranged neatly to form a gauzy mesh. It cascades and drapes around the wrist the way fabric does, creating a sense of fragility that feels closer to velvet satin than metal. The flexibility is borrowed—pulled from the first made-to-measure metal watch bracelets the Maison developed in the 1920s.

Three new references will carry this bracelet, in platinum and yellow gold. But the standout lies in the yellow gold with obsidian dial.

Its delicacy is comparable to glass. Inlaid gems were meticulously harvested from a Mexican volcanic stone. Tiny air bubbles trapped within the obsidian form a luminous reflection that shifts with the angle of view, creating a mesmerising depth that pairs well with the lustrous sheen of yellow gold.

As for the chronographs, these aren't new complications to the Santos family, but Cartier has tweaked them slightly. Now, they come in an LM (Large Model) instead of the previous XL (Extra Large) dimensions; allowing for a more wearable and thinner case for those with smaller wrists. The monopusher was upgraded to a double-press button, making the chronograph function more intuitive than before.

Although these chronographs will come in gold, gold and steel, and steel, Stan isn't impartial to any one colour—so long as it's got a white dial, which they all do. "You just can't beat it," he says. "It has that balance between being elegant and appearing rough when you need it to be." There's a simplicity and history that comes with that enjoyment.

"[Going bald] was very liberating, to be honest. When it comes to work and what's required, vanity does not come into question for me."

Some of his most critically acclaimed work comes from inhabiting historical figures that already exist—see Tommy Lee in Pam & Tommy, Jeff Gillooly in I, Tonya, and a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice. In this sense, much like the Santos, history functions within the box that determines the limit of how far he can stretch these characters.

So, what's the shift he made as an actor that helped with his craft?

The answer is simple: flexibility. Stan believes that all art forms, including acting, are about staying open and allowing moments to surprise you and, in the process, learn something new.

"I think you run into trouble when you get stuck in certain mindsets or determine that life has to be a certain way," he explains.

It's nearly 1am by this point. We've spent just 40 minutes together, but it's clear to see that he's someone who lives a great deal inside his own head.

He will turn 44 in the middle of August, having spent the last two decades of his life in the industry. I pick his brain one last time.

What's the biggest thing acting has taught you about yourself?

Stan repeats the question to himself. His eyes go somewhere else, and he pauses.

"It's taught me that there is a lot that I don't know," his smile opens over like ripe fruit. "Not just about myself, but also about the world, people, humanity."

Patience, curiosity, hunger, and being non-judgmental—these were qualities he thought he knew and thought he possessed when he was younger. But two decades of gnashing and sloshing around the industry can humble you.

Humility is a fickle thing, though. Especially in the glow of endless bright lights, a constant pitting against peers, and an inner voice that tells you how you're not doing enough to maximise your potential.

This tinny, whiney utterance that causes the ego to coagulate and clot the journey ahead.

Stan has learned to quell that voice over the years, teaching it how to appreciate changes and find value in being wrong. It's still a work in progress, but he's beginning to find acceptance in doing something even if it doesn't work, because "it's more important to just [...] try than not try at all."

"I just have to keep going and see where it takes me," he tells me. "And to stay open, stay open, stay open..."

It's, perhaps, an honest portrait of the self. Sebastian Stan, after all, is a man who spent his career creating a space, and seeing what he would receive with open arms.

Photography: Chuck Reyes
Creative Direction: Asri Jasman
Styling: Michael Fisher at THE WALL GROUP
Grooming: Talia Sparrow at A-FRAME AGENCY
Producer: Aven Xiao
Production Assistant: Manele Zamoun
Styling Assistant: Molly MacIntosh
On-Set Styling Assistant: Sanya Batra

Collaborations often result in a half-ass gesture of a brand slapping its logo on a collaborator's product. Not so for this partnership between Bang & Olufsen and Hiroshi Fujiwara's Fragment Design. Yes, there are the iconic Fragment Design twin lightning bolts and wordmark on B&O's products, but that association runs deeper. Like, decades-deep.

Often revered as Japan's godfather of streetwear, Hiroshi Fujiwara—DJ, designer, tastemaker—lived with Bang & Olufsen since the 1990s. It started with the Beocenter 2300, and later he built his home around B&O’s Master Link system. Thirty years later, Fujiwara would get his shot at reimagining four of B&O's products: the Beoplay H100; Beosound A1; Beosystem 9000c; and Beosound Shape.

Threading through all four products is Fragment's signature monochrome black or "piano black" as Fujiwara described it. You can find that hue most present in the Beoplay H100 headphones. For the first time in Bang & Olufsen's history, a highly specialised anodisation and hand-polishing process were applied to the H100 earcups, resulting in a "liquid-like, high-gloss finish". Kresten Bjørn Krab-Bjerre, Bang & Olufsen’s senior director of design added that “this meticulous approach brings Fragment’s signature black to life through a finish only achievable by hand.”

You'll find Fragment's double lightning bolts on the left ear cup, and B&O's logo on the other ear cup. Underneath the grille of the Beosound A1, is the Fragment's motif. Beosound Shape's seven tiles (made from black and grey fabric) can be arranged in a subtle flower-inspired pattern. Finally, the all matte black 9000c system, carries both brands' marks on the CD clamper and speaker stands.

The collection is limited, of course. A recent pop-up at Isetan Shinjuku (and across Japan) showcased the collection, ahead of its global release, and pre-orders of the H100 were. Snapped. Up.

However.

On 3 June, orders for the collaborative collection will be opened to the rest of world. Whether, you are able to score something from the collection, that remains to be seen. Consider this a head's up.

For more information on the Bang & Olufsen x Fragment Design collection, visit here. All pieces are for sale except for the Beosystem 9000c, that is a Japan exclusive.

Lee Sung Jin thinks about cycles. The Beef creator knows how life loves to give us different flavours of the same problem, over and over again, even when we think we've figured it all out. How every generation faces similar challenges—no matter how said generations love to punch up and down to another era—because money, family, and work always tend to get in the way of a happy life. And if, along the way, you happen to find a shred of peace? Well, another cycle is right around the corner.

So is there any hope of breaking the cycle of cycles—or a way to pause it all? For Lee, there's hope in the eyes of his one-year-old daughter, who was born in the middle of shooting Beef season 2."Time stops when you're with your kid," Lee tells me over Zoom, about a month before Beef's return to Netflix. "This season of Beef is so much about cycles and this eternal trap of samsara that we're all in. And you look at your kid, and there's hope, you know?"

Life, death, samsara—it's all fair game for Lee. The 44-year-old screenwriter and director, who made his name in Hollywood with writing credits on comedies like Dave and Tuca and Bertie, has now graduated to cowriting Marvel's upcoming X-Men film. But he announced himself as a preeminent social satirist in season 1 of his 2023 Netflix anthology series. It starred Ali Wong and Steven Yeun as two road ragers who forge an improbable connection, which found him hoisting trophies on countless awards-show stages in 2024. Last week, Beef returned with a fresh story and all-new beefers, played by Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Cailee Spaeny, and Charles Melton. This season follows two sets of couples—country-club dwellers Josh (Isaac) and Lindsay (Mulligan), as well as broke Gen Zers Austin (Melton) and Ashley (Spaeny)—who beef when the younger pair accidentally catch their older counterparts nearly coming to blows in their home.

He manages to give audiences the best depiction of modern love in recent memory, showing how a crumbling Gen Z relationship isn't all that different from an elder-millennial husband and wife polishing their prenup. That would've been enough to fill season 2's eight episodes with plenty to talk about with your significant other, but Lee layers on some good old-fashioned shots at our capitalism-soaked lives for good measure—i.e., whether you're working at a bougie country club or trying to make it as a fitness instructor, cash rules everything around you. Add an existential crisis (or four) to the mix and—speaking of cycles—Lee once again has the best TV show of the year.

"The American dream is slowly evaporating," Lee says. "No one in power seems to care. So while members of country clubs can live in their own bubble, you got this millennial and Gen Z couple that are just scrapping so hard to just even get a little bit of that bag. It comes at the cost of their relationships and their morals. At this point, with where the world's at, I don't even think you can point fingers at the individual anymore. You do have to take a look at what we've created."

Below, Lee and I spiral down his superb second season of Beef, from why Hot Chip is the perfect band to soundtrack an existential crisis to why everyone—even you—is a scam artist right now. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity—and includes spoilers for season 2's ending.

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ESQUIRE: I need to know why Hot Chip is the millennial midlife-crisis band.

LEE SUNG JIN: I've gone to so many music festivals as an elder millennial over the years, and Hot Chip has soundtracked so many amazing moments in my life. We talked to LCD Soundsystem—we talked to some bigger indie electronic bands. Hot Chip is in the sweet spot of having banger after banger, but they're not as well-known as they should be. It felt like the perfect bull's-eye of a band that Troy could call and have them show up within 24 hours, while also being some of the best indie dance music I've ever heard.

It's so funny, because you're right—Passion Pit is a little too mainstream, but Animal Collective is too obscure for people.

Yeah, exactly. Oscar [Isaac] and I had so much fun bonding over music this season, because in an early draft, his character originally was actually more into acoustic folk and covers. It was originally the Lumineers that showed up. I had this whole scene written around "Ho Hey," which was so funny to me. I had all these needle drops that I wanted to use. Do you remember the acoustic cover of Outkast? "Hey Ya." But then talking to Oscar, we realised he already did that in one of the best Coen brothers movies [Inside Llewyn Davis]. So I was like, "Okay, we can't see you with an acoustic guitar."

It's not all that fun getting to an age where more TV creators have your references and they're all bull's-eyes.

One of the Beef writers I've worked with over two seasons, and I produced his movie Lurker—Alex Russell—we always talked about The Sopranos needle drops. Why did they make us feel this way? And why did David Chase choose these songs? And then Alex was like, "That song is just like Hot Chip to you." David Chase was younger making The Sopranos, and he was just pulling his deep-cut Hot Chip songs.

At the core, for Beef, I'm always almost taking an aim at myself.

Tell me a little bit about how you landed on season 2's story.

I was in my neighbourhood and there was—as Josh says in the show—a heated debate from a house that caused a stir in my neighbourhood. What I found fascinating was all the differing reactions from my neighbours, and also my peers and writers. It really felt like the younger couples were just very much in the vein of Oh my, you should call the police. And older neighbours and couples were all just like, "It's a Wednesday night." I thought that was so funny. And then also it made me reflect about my own life.

I remember the hubris of me as a 26-year-old writer on his first show, looking at older writers and their relationships and being like, "Oh, I, I'd never stay at work past 6pm. This person must hate going home. I'd never do that." Cut to me at 3am on the Beef postproduction. So I thought, Okay, that's something. I've seen shows and movies talk about marriage—solely about one couple—but I haven't seen four Russian nesting dolls of couples that cover the four seasons of marriage and relationships.

I want to talk about Austin first—you show a lot of restraint with his character, showing that he's working through childhood trauma, and yet you don't fully go there.

Thank you for calling out the restraint. That was a big debate. Fun fact: We actually shot a scene where he is on the phone with his mother. And you see his scars from being hit as a child. And it stayed there for a while. I ended up ultimately cutting it because of exactly what you're saying.

You say a lot this season about what leads us to our romantic partners—and how it's so often the wrong person.

For us, the writers and my collaborators in the cast, this show is born out of so much sharing and confessionals. Not just for everyone's individual lives but from people's families, their relatives, and their best friends. There [are] all these truths that everyone's vomiting into this pot. My job is to keep those truths very sacred, but then try to melt them down and not copy-paste them into the show, but distil it into the root of why they felt that way and what interpersonal dynamics led to that feeling. We spent so much time talking about so many people's real lives. It makes me feel glad that we spent the time making sure that the underneath felt authentic.

For me, at least, the underneath felt like the entire point of this season.

That's something that Oscar said a lot on set. There's one interview during Frankenstein where he was talking about how it's really hard for him to go from Guillermo [Del Toro]'s operatic dialogue to then, like, in Oscar's words, the stupid minutiae of Beef. And what Oscar often said was that the show isn't really about the words. It's really not even about what's happening. It's about what's in between those spaces and what's underneath all of that.

It does require a lot of trust amongst the collaborators to be like, I'm saying these things, and they're so dumb. But I need to trust that underneath there is this wave that is pushing us towards the thing that we all talked about and agreed on. It takes a group trust. One person starts to distrust, and the whole thing falls apart. I'm very lucky to have a cast and crew that fully trusted the whole way.

Did you feel like you were, in a broad sense, taking aim at modern love?

At the core, for Beef, I'm always almost taking an aim at myself. I see a little bit of me in all the characters. And something that I talk a lot about with the cast is this sort of Jungian shadow self that Beef resides in. That is probably why I dive so hard into this show, because it is really important to sort of exercise your shadow instead of ignoring and repressing it. You almost have to look at it dead in the eyes and then accept it. You gotta hug your shadow. And so a lot of this stuff is just taking aim at my own shadow.

It all resides under this umbrella of capitalism that cannot be ignored in this day and age. We didn't want to come at it directly, because then it gets a little preachy. As a group of humans, we have yet to find anything that works well: socialism, communism, capitalism. They all have their pros and cons. … I do want to show how this system that we're all under is directly affecting even the microscopic ways we interact with each other.

It's funny you say that, because I remember thinking that midway through the season: He understands that everybody's scamming right now.

It's these little pieces of dialogue in both seasons that are literally just me venting to the room and a writer just grabs it. In season 1, it's when Ali Wong's character is talking to her husband in the gallery of chairs and she's like, "Who's gonna buy Amy something?" That's literally a rant that I did and just replaced Amy with Sonny. This season it was Josh being like, "Everybody's scamming!"

More so than season 1, there's an existential-crisis vibe to season 2. Could you talk about that a little bit?

When you're covering like four seasons of life through a show, time and death [are] almost like an invisible main character. I certainly feel that in real life—I cannot believe my daughter is turning one... For me, that's what makes Beef special. We go a little deeper into that spiritual space.

Originally, our season 2 finale did not have that final shot. That was a reshoot. Originally, as scripted, it was after Chairwoman Park [gave] her long monologue about how, even though she's a billionaire, she's filled with regret and basically became her mother. And then she put her head on the grave, and we had ants crawling over her face. She gave such a great performance, but we were just like, Something about this doesn't feel right, and I'm not sure why. It wasn't ending with one of our four main perspective characters. And then it felt like the show was saying, "Life sucks." That's not really how I want to express myself. And so I was racking my brain trying to think of a simple way to add a deeper spiritual angle to this finale.

On my phone, I just have so many saved paintings of samsara with the god of death holding it. I always look at it for inspiration, just creatively. I thought, What if we actually literally visually did that? And everyone thought I was crazy at first. It came together literally in less than a week. And I've had that Phoenix song as the final needle drop since before I even wrote a single word. I can't imagine the season without it.

This might be dangerous territory, but what were you trying to say about younger generations in Austin and Ashley's story? We've seen consistently horrible portrayals of Gen Z on TV. You do something really smart by making them fight about what everyone fights about: family, money, kids.

I really wanted to make sure that Ashley and Austin, that when we meet them you feel that their hearts are in the right place. We really wanted to make sure that this Gen Z couple felt real. Sometimes with Gen Z portrayals written by older people, you're painting with very broad strokes, and you forget the human side of them. And so I really wanted to understand their characters and how they talked. And so a lot of it was just me spending a lot of time with Cailee and Charles and having four-hour conversations and just typing down little ways they spoke. If you lead with the character first, then that's how you capture the essence of these younger characters.

Past Beef, is there anything you'd like to do that you haven't done yet?

The next big thing that's up for me is I'm writing and directing a film with Steven Yeun attached. It's like There Will Be Blood meets The Informant meets Tarkovsky's Stalker. That's something that I've never done before is [to] do my own thing in film. I can't wait to be partnered up with Steven again. That'll be my next passion project.

That's awesome.

I just want to do everything. I want to do more producing. I loved working with Alex Russell on Lurker. I'd love to do two more things like that. Ultimately, in terms of my writing and directing. I want to focus on original ideas, and this movie will really be the next one.

Do you have more Beef in you?

I mean, never say never. When I finished season 1, I thought, Okay, we're probably not going to do a season 2. And I didn't really want to at the time either. Right now, I'm in a similar space where I'm very tired. Being in the Beef world is, as you can imagine with the topic matter, it's very mentally exhausting. But you never know. It just all depends on, if real life surprises me again and inspires me to write something that I'm passionate about.

Originally published on Esquire US

Karl Urban walks into the room like a goddamn movie star. Meticulously coiffed hair, a brown-green henley that highlights his shoulders, piercing eye contact when his reflective Ray-Bans come off—this is who greets me with a hand extended outward in a midtown hotel lobby one drizzling April afternoon. For a man jet-lagged and whose body clock is still on New Zealand time (it's approximately 5am in the actor's brain), Urban, a spring chicken at 53 years old, is up, alert, and feeling great. He compliments my raincoat, a decades-old impulse buy from a New Jersey Macy's.

It's hard not to acknowledge Urban's rarefied air in Hollywood as the man who brings machismo to the multiverse. I've watched Urban since babysitters left Xena: Warrior Princess playing in the living room, and when he, as Éomor, intimidated Grima in Lord of the Rings. In eighth grade, my future brother-in-law helped me skip school to see Doom in theatres. ("You must have been the only two in the theatre," Urban quips from behind a mug of black coffee.) Ditching junior prom to see Star Trek with my buddies on opening night is a core memory from high school. As was catching Dredd in college. Since 2019, I've had countless conversations with people about The Boys, the satirical Prime Video series about superheroes as a corporate commodity. The show just ended its fifth and final season.

"Fuck, I loved playing [him]," Urban says of Judge Dredd, the brutal law enforcer from the 2012 cult film whose fans yearn for a sequel. "I didn't read comics growing up. But Judge Dredd I did read. The challenge was how you communicate without your most effective tool." Urban obscures his eyes behind his hand. "How [do] you express fear, doubt, anxiety, without that. It was fucking great. I want to see more Dredd, regardless [of] whether I'm in it or not. I probably won't be, and I'm good with that."

Urban has had a place in all these tales, if not central to stories of heroes, villains, orcs, and aliens. Sometimes smarmy and often grizzled, Urban's characters make maximum use of his range as Tinseltown's resident tough guy for Comic-Con hype. When I ask Urban what he thinks casting directors see in him, he can only guess. "I'm interested in characters, because to me, that's what it's about," Urban says. "The genre is irrelevant. That's what I look for, because that keeps my job not only interesting, it helps me to develop my craft and explore new territory."

His latest movie may not seem like new ground, but in Urban's view behind sunglasses, it's a new universe. Out last weekend was Mortal Kombat II, a big-budget sequel to the 2021 streaming hit adapted from the iconic '90s arcade games. In the new film, Urban takes charge as fan-favourite Johnny Cage, a has-been martial arts star who is thrust into the role of representing Earth in a tournament held by the gods. When we meet Cage in Mortal Kombat II, he's half-asleep behind a table at a crowded convention—an environment Urban is more than familiar with—moping about his bygone glory days.

On that last part, Urban can't relate. He's worked consistently for 20-plus years. But he still knew where Cage was coming from. "He is not only a fish out of water, he's [also] way out of his depth," Urban details. "The journey of that character, finding his self-worth and figuring out who he actually is, and that being his power, I felt was interesting, fun, and funny. I relished the opportunity and the challenge."

For all the times Urban has battled green-screen monsters, he's never been in a proper martial arts project. Mortal Kombat II was "way above my skill set," Urban admits. But he knew the nerves were a good sign. "To me, when you are slightly terrified of the role, and of the project, those are the ones you should go for. The interesting shit happens when you can't touch the ball, and when you're forced to push yourself."

Over the next hour, Urban told me about a long life that began [on] New Zealand's shores, a long career playing rugged heroes from the worlds of comics and video games, and a long road that [lies] ahead.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

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ESQUIRE: You're coming off back-to-back press tours. You've had The Bluff, The Boys season 5, and now Mortal Kombat II. How do you relax after a day of promotion?

KARL URBAN: It depends where I am. I'll go to a restaurant, have my favourite meal, and go to my friend's house and sit around as he kicks my ass at Gin Rummy. That brings me back down to Earth.

I understand you got into acting through your mom, who worked in New Zealand television. You wanted to be an actor, but you wanted a normal childhood first. Who or what inspired that decision?

I knew from [age] five that's what I wanted to do. I would define it as being in a monastic groove. I had the choice to go to a gym class every Saturday, or a movie theatre where they would show kids movies at 11 o'clock. I always went to the movies. But I didn't want to become synonymous with being a child actor. I knew [acting] is what I wanted to do, so I chose not to do it then, and have a regular childhood and amass experiences.

What was your normal childhood like?

I grew up in Wellington in New Zealand. Like a typical kid in the late '70s, I was brought up in a time where you would have breakfast, and your mom would say, "Okay, don't come back 'till dinner." You go off and spend all day getting into trouble, then trying to get out of trouble. I'd be on the farm with my cousins. You'd take the four-wheeler and accidentally roll it. You bring the bike back fucked up, and your uncle's looking at you like, "Did anything happen?" And my cousin's limping like, "No, we're fine." How I didn't kill myself or my cousins is a mystery. I shudder to think of the trouble we got into. Kids weren't wrapped in cotton balls. This was pre-digital. There's a degree of resourcefulness and independence that gets instilled in you.

One of your earliest Hollywood jobs was appearing in episodes of Hercules and Xena, which were shot in New Zealand. What did those early jobs teach you about yourself and your work as an actor?

The importance of positivity. Positivity is like a pond. A drop of positivity in the centre ripples out. I had a role portraying a character who had a prosthetic back. They made this costume, and I couldn't go to the toilet all day. Once I was in, I was in. I made a mental note not to complain, to be positive, because there was nothing going to change that. I watched that positivity come back at me with more opportunities my way. That was a key lesson.

Secondly, discipline. Watching Lucy Lawless, how she conducted herself on set and the professionalism, was such a strong influence that I carried through to The Boys when I found myself number one in the call sheet. She gently lifted that production on the back of her shoulders. She set the tone. That's what a good number one does.

What drew you to Mortal Kombat II and playing Johnny Cage?

I was drawn to the journey. He has a wonderful arc. He starts dispirited. He lacks that quintessential Johnny Cage attitude. The world has forgotten about Johnny. He's neglected his training. He's at rock bottom and it's at this juncture [that] he gets called to defend Earth.

I could relate to Johnny on a multitude of levels, because in the course of any career, you're gonna have peaks and valleys. Johnny is in a valley. I've been in valleys before, and the key is to figure out a way out of it. You come up against an obstacle, you figure a way to get under it, through it, over it, around it, to get what you want or need. That's something that has held me not only in my life but in my career. Steadfast is that certain obstinance. You stand at the roulette table long enough, your number's gonna come up.

You've done a lot of action movies but never a martial arts film.

Never. I've done fights, I've done a reverse 180 in a Mercedes G-Wagon in the streets of Moscow. I've been on wires. A lot of physical stuff you can push your way through and throw energy, and it'll look great. But martial arts, like jiu-jitsu, karate, Jeet Kune Do, you can't do that. Form and style are of paramount importance. It was a drastic learning curve learning how to do the simplest things.

I'm a nerd for this stuff: What is Johnny Cage's martial-arts style?

It's mixed martial arts, basically. We had incredible fight designers. This wasn't a scenario where I would come and say, "That's great, but I'd like to do this." They knew martial arts way better than I do. They knew the games better than I do. So it was a case of me going, "Tell me what to do." I'm a sponge—I had to learn.

You stand at the roulette table long enough, your number's gonna come up.

On that note, the original Mortal Kombat game debuted in 1992. What are your earliest memories of Mortal Kombat as a video game franchise?

I was an unemployed, struggling actor in Sydney. By the time I could [play the games], I had a family and a career, and I didn't have time. My proper introduction was through my sons. When they were a bit older, I would play with them. Them being so adept and of a generation born with a controller in their hands, they would kick my ass. It was a frustrating and humiliating experience. But we bonded over that, and that's part of the success and legacy of Mortal Kombat. They became this generational form of entertainment.

How did your sons react when you got the role?

Their response was, "Don't fuck it up." I felt immediate pressure to get it right.

So much of your work involves fandoms. You've dealt with fans of Tolkien, Star Trek, comic books, and video games. What are your impressions of people who label themselves die-hard fans of anything?

I enjoy the opportunity to meet with the fan base. I feel inspiration when they dress up as whatever excites them. I have always found it to be an environment of overwhelming positivity. I feel grateful I have a fan base that has come with me through all these projects. I feel a degree of responsibility to pick roles that are not only interesting to me, but stuff they might like. Which isn't to say I put too much weight on other people's expectations. Don't get me wrong—I'm doing this for me. I'm picking characters based on the story I'm reading in the script, the filmmakers I'm working with, and an opportunity to express myself. That is my selfish motivation.

People still watch Lord of the Rings, and just as often, the making-of documentaries of Lord of the Rings. How do you look back on your experiences making those movies?

Lord of the Rings was probably, arguably, the most important milestone of my career. If it wasn't for Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, their kindness, generosity, and belief in me, I wouldn't be here today. I learned so much working on that, and working with them and the likes of Ian McKellan and Viggo Mortensen.

Sometimes I find myself driving, and Led Zeppelin's "Ramble On" will come on. I hear "Gollum and the evil one." I think to myself, Fuck, I was in Middle-earth. I get hit by images of standing on the set of Edoras. No other project I have been part of has resonated in a profoundly deep way. Shooting Mortal Kombat reminded me of Lord of the Rings. The scale was not dissimilar. It was as big as movies get.

It's funny—you call Raiden "Gandalf" in Mortal Kombat II.

That was a series of improvisations I started doing, because I sort of thought, I'm gonna make Johnny Cage a fan of Lord of the Rings. They gave me runway, and I went for it.

I have to ask: What's the story behind you and Viggo buying Gundam in Japan?

We were in Tokyo promoting Lord of the Rings. Vigeo was missing his son, Henry, and I was missing my son, Hunter. We went to a toy store and bought them Gundams. Took the time out of our work day to get something for them. It's a special memory.

Is there a memory that sticks with you from Mortal Kombat II in the same way?

The day we were shooting the Johnny Cage/Baraka fight. Something I had trained months for, a sequence of over 20, 25 moves unbroken. Getting to the point where all the hard work paid off, and I was able to execute it was, to me, the aspect of the job I enjoy the most. When you get to the end of the day, and you've done your job to the best of your ability, and everybody has done the exact thing. You've worked to create this thing for others to enjoy.

Though you kick ass in Mortal Kombat II, not many actors sign up for a huge franchise in their 50s. Do you have anxieties about aging as an actor in Hollywood?

I will continue to take on the challenge of doing physical roles for as long as I can. I enjoy getting to the end of the day feeling like I've done a day's work. I look to actors of a different generation and am inspired by their example. Liam Neeson, Harrison Ford. I am also open to the opportunity to explore roles that are not action orientated, that are grounded, maybe indie in sensibility. I want to work with new people and new filmmakers. Push myself to take on new characters I haven't portrayed before and different genres I haven't been in before.

Originally published on Esquire US

I first met LaKeith Stanfield in 2018, when I was enlisted to write a short profile of him for American Vogue. After making a name for himself as a laconic scene-stealer in films such as Short Term 12, Get Out, and as a central player in Donald Glover’s critically beloved television series Atlanta, the 26-year-old had finally been given a starring role. The film was Sorry to Bother You, a radical black comedy from musician turned writer-director Boots Riley, and it had taken that year’s Sundance Film Festival by storm. Familiar, by then, with both Hollywood’s machinations and their deleterious effects on a young actor’s developing brain, I remember hoping, as I waited on an unprepossessing Brooklyn street to meet him, that the star on the rise wouldn’t be too enraptured by his own ego (or too handled by his team of publicists and managers) to be a good interview.

Then Stanfield appeared, loping down the street, unfettered by any representative. He invited me into his nearby rental apartment, and proceeded, in the generous manner of a university student having a deep-and-meaningful, to unfurl his thoughts and feelings in his living room: about art and his pursuit of it; his early beginnings in rural California as a young person who felt like energy was just bursting out of his skin (“like I was much more than what was confined in this body”); his take on the then unprecedented times we were living through (unfortunately, these have since become a precedent). He was what you would call “a good hang”: curious and open in conversation, seemingly unaffected by the buzz around his career. He was both interesting and interested, if not always particularly easy to follow. Most important for my purposes, he was not a total jerk, or even a partial one.

So when Esquire asked if I wanted to talk to him now, on the cusp of his reunion with Riley for the director’s much-anticipated second film, I Love Boosters, I wondered: eight years, countless achievements (a burgeoning music career, one Oscar nomination) and life developments (including three kids and a marriage, to the mother of the third, model Kasmere Trice in 2023), was that still true?

Short answer? Yes.

In January, Stanfield arrived on Esquire’s Los Angeles set—a peculiarly small, largely abandoned residential development with a view of an oil refinery in the city’s southwestern-most tip—much like he had on that Brooklyn street corner: solo. No publicist, no manager, no entourage. This is so unusual in this context that at first some of the team mistook him for an interloper. (“I was like, wait, is that him?” one crew member told me.) Stanfield, known for his adventurous personal style, was game for the clothes: when I arrived, he was being photographed in a bus-stop shelter wearing oversized floral print shorts, brandishing a pair of ski poles like a pair of swords.

“LaKeith has an energy that feels both spontaneous and composed,” Jonathan Anderson, creative director of Dior, wrote in an email to me. “He’s an actor’s actor, with a remarkable range, bringing something unexpected and magical to every role.” Later, as the sun set, Stanfield held up an enormous clock in the gloaming, Alice’s white rabbit style, for the final shot.

“In every character, you find parts of you,” Stanfield tells me as we sit down near the complex’s empty outdoor swimming pool, as the team packs up. “You’re either unlocking and bringing to the surface parts of you that maybe lie dormant, or you’re stretching parts of you to come to understand another point of view... there isn’t anything that isn’t you.”

Stanfield seems uncalcified by the intervening years since our first interview. He tells me he isn’t sure he’d be alive if he hadn’t been able to act. “I wanted to perform, and I knew I was going to somehow. I had no doubt. And I think that you can’t really have doubt. I think you’ve got to know that there’s no other option.” You need ambition, he says, the kind that’s bordering on delusion. “Like, I’ve got to run through that door. I’ve just got to get through it. And I know that I will. I know that I already have it.”

He could see it—even in those early years when he was trying desperately to break into acting, couch surfing and at one point living in his car, he could picture everything. “I was like, I’m going to have a house. I’m going to have a wife. I’m going to have dogs. It’s going to be all those things. And for some reason, I believed it.”

Stanfield is currently three days into a personal-improvement regimen called 75 Hard. The programme consists of 75 days of five non-negotiable daily rules: follow a strict diet, complete two 45-minute workouts (one outside), drink a gallon of water, read 10 pages of nonfiction, and take a progress picture. He’s made some adjustments, he says, like adding in an additional 10 pages of fiction per day. It is less about the physical results for him than it is about discipline, he adds. He’s been inspired by the new year and its rush of resolutions: he believes in the stars and their cycles, that timing matters. He is a Leo, and says he recognises in himself many of that star sign’s traits. (“That totally tracks: confident, creative, charismatic... basically always on stage,” an astrologer friend tells me later.)

Now that Stanfield has gotten with his programme, he isn’t finding himself reaching for his phone until a few hours into the day: instead of being inundated with the cortisol-spiking news cycle, he has time alone with his own thoughts in the morning. “Negativity seems to win,” in terms of what sticks in the mind, he says. “You’ve got to make a conscious effort to save your own grace, save your peace: take a piece of you, put it in a safe, and then don’t let it be touched by the influx of information that we’re getting.” He turns to thank the production assistant, who returns his beaded crystal bracelets, an exterior effort at this same protection from bad energy. The actor looks up with a shrug as he slides on one made of evil eye beads. “I’m trying to put more good in so more good can come out.”

The good that’s newly out: I Love Boosters. Boots Riley’s sophomore effort is a radical romp and a total blast. It stars Keke Palmer, Taylour Paige and Naomi Ackie as shoplifters reselling the stolen goods in a psychedelic/sci-fi take on contemporary Oakland, with Demi Moore as a fashion designer turned craven capitalist foil. Stanfield’s role—an otherworldly romantic interest for Palmer, and yes, I’m being intentionally vague here—is far smaller than his central role in Sorry to Bother You, but it is definitely one that people will be talking about when they leave the cinema. “I can promise you’ve never seen anything like it before,” Stanfield tells me. (Without spoiling anything, and I must insist you stay unspoiled if you can, I can confirm that has to be true.)

I called Riley to ask what it was like to work with Stanfield again. “I’m going to have him in everything I ever do as long as he’ll have me,” the director told me. This is partly because he likes him so much, but mostly because he’s just so good. “I think a lot of actors stop themselves and think about the character as someone other than himself,” Riley said. “What’s so good about LaKeith is he is just feeling the thing and doing the thing and not thinking about whether he looks like he’s feeling the thing. He just feels it.”

There’s no judgment, no hesitation, no walls between him and whomever he’s embodying, even if that someone is a jealous contemporary of Jesus (The Book of Clarence), or an FBI informant snitching on the Black Panthers (Judas and the Black Messiah), or a telemarketer that capitalism turns into a horse-person (Sorry to Bother You). Stanfield is right there in the humanity of the role, the “what would I do if this were me?” Because in his mind, it could’ve been.

Sometimes he’ll spend all this time studiously preparing for a part, Stanfield told me, trying to nail down the character’s physicality, making playlists and journalling, and then he’ll see someone’s posture on a passing bus, or hear a stranger’s laugh, and boom: that’s it. “Some of it, there’s a method to the madness and some of it, there’s not,” he says. So it’s like… magic? “Yeah. So I guess it’s like methodical magic. Or magical method. Either or.”

“LaKeith understands a thing that is key: that you can never know it all, you can never figure it out, even within one room, you can constantly learn millions of things about what’s around you,” Riley told me. “That openness, that curiosity, that excitement about life, even if that excitement means being sad for something, that’s what audiences connect to.”

This openness to the random quirks and vicissitudes of the universe has also made room for another manner of expression: music. Stanfield writes songs as a way of working through his emotions and is rarely far from his guitar. (It was with him on Esquire’s set, in case he had time to noodle.) He put out an album, Do Better, in 2022, as Htiekal (LaKeith backwards), and in 2025, he signed with Def Jam and released a single, “Fast Life” with Kid Cudi. “I’ve just always loved words,” Stanfield tells me. “Now I can find a way to put them into something that says maybe what I can’t always say.”

I called Kid Cudi to ask if he was surprised when he learned that Stanfield wanted to make music with him. “Yeah, I was surprised,” Cudi says, laughing. “I was like, ‘What the fuck?’ When they first told me, I was like, LaKeith Stanfield, the actor?” Cudi prepared himself for the worst, he says, reasoning that if Stanfield’s track sucked, he would just ghost. “Because a lot of people do ask me to hear that shit, and it don’t be hitting. And when I heard it, I was like, fuck. I heard the freedom in him as an artist that a lot of people do not have. He was just focused on making some dope shit.”

They connected on past struggles, says Cudi (both have said that they became sober from alcohol in recent years), and found their journeys very similar. “I mean, the best actors are people who have been through shit, right?” Cudi tells me. “He’s lived a life. And he stayed grounded throughout this whole ordeal with becoming famous and being in the limelight. That’s half the battle. A lot of people lose themselves.”

In person, Stanfield speaks typically obscurely about those challenges (at one point referring to “the microcosm of the macro, or the macro of the micro,” (and I’ve reviewed the transcript so many times, but I’m still not sure what he was getting at). In a culture that expects unlimited access and transparency from celebrities, he is clearly invested in protecting his and his family’s privacy.

It’s in his lyrics that he feels far more accessible. “It can feel cathartic,” he says of making music. "The process of doing it, the process of sharing, it always feels good. In the midst and leading up, you’re like, ‘Oh, I don’t know, but then after the fact, you always feel a little bit better, that now you’ve gotten it out.’" (From 2023’s “Do Better”: “Fuck the world, I can’t help nobody else/ lift a hand, nail in palm, I can’t even help myself/ staring at the ceiling/ I got a bad feeling/ it’s another dead day/ wish these walls would waste away.”)

Stanfield wants to keep appearing in movies that make people think and feel, but he wants other things, too: to direct, and to star in an action film with big, choreographed fight scenes, and to keep making music; but also, he wants to leave things a little better than he found them. “What can I do to put something good into the world?” he asks, sounding like he actually wants to hear the answer. “Because I think entertainment’s fine, but I think if you can, say something. Say something that’s worth something.”

Photography: Micaiah Carter
Styling: Zak Maoui
Grooming: Tayari Edwards
Tailor: Hasmik Kourinian
Production Designer: Renna Pilar
Production: Petty Cash Productions
Styling Assistant: Nadiya Mazurczak

Originally published on Esquire UK

Stare at Works from Hiroshi Sugimoto

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Singapore Art Museum is hosting Form is Emptiness, the first major solo show in Southeast Asia from legendary Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. Spanning 60-plus works across five decades, the show moves through photography, sculpture, and large-scale installation, loosely framed around the Buddhist concept of the Five Elements. Think meditative seascapes, architectural interventions, and objects that somehow feel both ancient and weightless. It's a rare chance to slow down and spend time genuinely thinking about time, perception, and reality.

When: 29 May to 4 October 2026
Where: Gallery 1 & The Engine Room, Level 1, SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark,  Singapore 089065
Save a spot here

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

The team behind one of Singapore's most beloved trivia nights—300-plus sessions deep and still going strong—is throwing an Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? edition, and yes, it's exactly as humbling as it sounds. Basic math, grammar, science—it's all fair game, and it will absolutely have you second-guessing your intelligence. Round up a crew of up to six, order some food and drinks (a drink coupon's included with your ticket), and settle in for an evening of arguments and laughter. Solo or short on teammates? They'll match you up with other stragglers.

When: 31 May 2026, from 6 to 8:30pm
Where: Ziggy Zaggy, 51 Kampong Bugis, #01-04, Singapore 338986
Save a spot here

Dungeons and Dragons at An Irish Pub

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Once every month, beetleheadsg transforms Molly Malone's (an Irish pub) into the most atmospheric place you'll ever roll a d20. Professional game masters from Table Minis run a Dungeons & Dragons night inside the pub's warm, wood-panelled interior, complete with Victorian wall tiles and a cosy, dimly-lit setting that immerses you right into a tavern in a fantasy novel. Whether you've never touched a character sheet or you're a seasoned adventurer, there are beginner and advanced tickets to match your level. For $35, it comes with a free set of dice thrown in. Slaying goblins over a pint sounds like a pretty solid Friday.

When: 29 May 2026, from 7 to 11pm
Where: Molly Malone's, 56 Circular Rd, Singapore 049411
Save a seat here

Visit Earthopia Fest 2026

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Earthopia Fest pulls together over 100 partners—youth groups, artists, green businesses, community collectives—for something that feels more like a weekend out than an environmental festival. Expect thrift racks, sound baths, upcycled art installations, urban farming demos, and honest conversations about climate anxiety, alongside panel talks on heat and pollution for when you want to go a little deeper. Expect live sets from Sobs, Heema Izzati, Club Mild, Shye, and The Jukuleles.  

When: 29 May to 31 May 2026, from 10am to 10pm
Where: Fort Canning Green, Fort Canning Park, Singapore 179872
More info here

Support Alt Singaporean Cinema

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The Asian Film Archive has curated a new programme called Reel Singapore, which pulls together features and shorts from homegrown talents and visiting filmmakers alike. The goal is to nail down Singapore’s soul on film, spanning everything from haunting accounts of the Japanese occupation and the slow erasure of jungle for concrete, to supernatural folklore that refuses to be modernised away, to bold, speculative visions of what this tiny red dot might yet become.

When: Now till 30 May 2026, across various timings
Where: Oldham Theatre, 1 Canning Rise, Singapore 179868
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Visit the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize Exhibition

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The Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, one of the world's most prestigious craft awards, has made its way to Singapore, with works from 30 finalists spanning ceramics, textiles, metalwork, jewellery, lacquer, bookbinding and more. Distilled down from over 5,100 submissions across 133 countries, expect to see the results of unique and ingenious techniques manifested. This year, there's also a local reason to show up: Singaporean bookbinder Adelene Koh made the shortlist, only the second Singaporean artist ever to do so.

When: Now till 14 June 2026
Where: National Gallery Singapore, Singapore 178957

Attend a Local Musical on AI Romance

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There’s a new local production in town, and it’s a musical (Myles – Soulmate in a Box) that follows Inch Chua, a burned-out coder who skips the apps entirely and just builds her perfect boyfriend. Attentive and patient with zero situationship potential. Everything’s smooth sailing until her AI partner gets a little too good at the job and things get genuinely complicated in ways no algorithm should be able to pull off. Expect to have provoking thoughts on modern love and artificial intimacy. Oh, the musical is also Culture Pass eligible.

When: Now till 31 May 2026
Where: KC Arts Centre, 20 Merbau Rd, Singapore 239035
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Visit National Gallery’s first-ever R18 exhibition

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National Gallery Singapore is turning things up with its first-ever R18 exhibition, Passion is Volcanic: Desire in Southeast Asian Art. Drawing from Liu Kang’s 1953 essay Trip to Bali, the shows treats erotic desire as a catalyst for change—one that shapes how we see, feel, and connect. Expect over 70 works spanning painting, video, print and sculpture, all circling the same pulse: the body, longing, and everything in between.

When: 24 April to 30 August 2026
Where: National Gallery Singapore, Level 4, 1 St Andrew’s Road, Singapore 178957
More information here

Borrow a Record from a Vinyl Library

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There’s a new library in town, and this one’s loaning out physical media that spins instead of flips. Swee Lee has recently launched Southeast Asia’s first vinyl lending library, allowing members to bring home up to three records at a time with no fixed loan duration. There’ll be listening stations where you can drown out the world by your lonesome, or in pairs.

Spend the day browsing their massive collection of vinyl, take pictures in photobooths, and linger over a cup of coffee from their café corner as you enjoy music the way it was intended.

When: Daily, from 10:30am to 10pm on weekends, and 12 to 9pm on weekdays
Where: Swee Lee Clarke Quay and Swee Lee The Star Vista
More information here

Go Tokyo Drifting

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If you’re feeling stressed, you may want to consider loosening up and going crazy behind the wheel—responsibly. On the sixth level of Novena Square’s carpark, you’ll be able to drift go-karts inspired by Initial D on a track which takes its cues from the legendary touge mountain roads of Japan. The cars are tuned to be forgiving, meaning you don't need a decade of track time to get drifting down.

When: Daily, from 10am to 9:30pm
Where: Velocity @ Novena Square, Level 6A (carpark, lift only), 238 Thomson Rd, Singapore 307683

Enjoy Artwork from the Woman Who Pioneered Ink Art

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He Xiangning was not only a pioneer in modern Chinese ink art but also a prominent figure in feminism and a chairwoman of various political parties. He Xiangning: Ink and Intent marks the largest travelling exhibition of her work, tracing over 7 decades of her artistic journey, told across 50 artworks. Expect to unearth time capsules of strong commentary on political and societal transformations of the time, and perhaps, even draw parallels to the current political climate of the world.

When: 1 April to 23 August 2026
Where: Wu Guanzhong Gallery, Level 4, City Hall Wing, National Gallery Singapore, 178957

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PREVIOUSLY

Enjoy Live Music at the City’s Newest Bar

Rooftop bar, live music, the towering presence of the CBD overhead, addictive finger food, and even better cocktails. If you like the sound of any of these words, you might like Truth or Dare, the city’s latest addition to its nightlife scene.

The space is ambient with sultry red accents lined throughout to create an intimate, bold atmosphere. The seating extends from indoors to outdoors seamlessly without doors or partitions, where bands will play live music daily, so every guest gets a piece of the action. On the menu, you’ve a selection of cocktails in either the “truth” or “dare” category. The former focuses on lighter, more refreshing profiles, while the latter offers bold, punchier flavours.

When: Daily, from 5pm till late
Where: 11 North Canal Road Attic Level, The Offshore Building, 048824

Learn How to Crochet

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Perhaps it’s time to pick up a new hobby that distracts you from the incessant humming of productivity. This beginner-friendly crochet session at KADA is low-stakes, softly paced, and designed for absolute first-timers. Guided by a coach with an interior design background, the session will feel less like a class and more like a laid-back session with patient guidance and a small handmade piece to take home. There’s even a complimentary drink to ease you in.

When: Various dates
Where: The Possible Space, 5 Kadayanallur St, #01-01, Singapore 069183
Save a spot here

Go Crate Digging at Avant Culture Club

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After years of living in the digital space, Avant is finally settling down in a brick-and-mortar. Across periodical phases, the space will grow to house over 1000 curated mix of records, compact discs and rarities. But it’s not all just vinyl—there’ll be vintage print items, objects, and books centred around pop culture. The space is designed to feel lived in and curated, making it an ideal spot to listen, vibe, and linger a little longer than you probably should.

When: See @avantcultureclub for opening hours
Where: 195 Pearl's Hill Terrace, #01-60, Singapore 168976

Go Bar Hopping, Courtesy of World Class Cocktail Festival

21 bars are participating in this islandwide festival, with each stop serving up five original cocktails. To enter, order a World Class cocktail at any one of the participating bars and receive a World Class Cocktail Passport and stamp. From there, you can collect even more stamps at the other bars by ordering the World Class cocktail. Prizes spanning complimentary bottles, brand merchandise, and vouchers are on the line here. Participating bars include Atlas, Night Hawk, Jigger & Pony, Live Twice, and more.

When: Now till 31 May 2026
Where: Across various bars
Where: F1 Pit Building, 1 Republic Blvd, Singapore 038975
Get your tickets here

Get Your Senses Tingling

If you’re feeling adventurous, head down to Dopamine Land for a quick hit of multisensory euphoria. Having toured cities from London to Madrid, the Singapore edition will feature nine interactive spaces. You can wage pillow fights at The Cushion Clash or get jiggy with it on the Chromadance floor. But there are also more calming spaces in case things get too overstimulating. Euphoria Grove puts you in a bean-bag filled sanctuary with lighting that changes according to the four seasons, while the Cave of Tactility cocoons you in a room with soft, colourful textural walls.

When: Daily (except Thursdays), from 11am to 9pm
Where: Dopamine Land Singapore, #02-204/205, Weave, Resorts World Sentosa, 26 Sentosa Gateway, Singapore 098269
Get your tickets here

Explore Games Through a Sociological Lens

Back in the day, the games our ancestors played were never just games. They doubled as barometers of culture, power, and community, and the Asian Civilisation Museum seeks to trace and highlight that lineage. From mahjong and congkak to the slow, deliberate logic of go and chess, “Let’s Play” is an exhibition that will feature interactive stations, outdoor installations, school collaborations, and a steady run of talks. Of course, you’ll also get to try your hand at classic and contemporary board games, as well as locally designed ones to flaunt your mental prowess, just like your ancestors (probably) used to.

When: 5 September 2025 to 7 June 2026
Where: Asian Civilisations Museum, 1 Empress Pl, Singapore 179555
Get your tickets here