Latest news with #AmritKaur
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Margaret Atwood, Jeanne Beker reference Canada-U.S. tensions at awards gala: 'We all wish [The Handmaid's Tale] was more fictional'
A celebration of Canadian women in entertainment, some of the country's most beloved talents were in Toronto for the The Hollywood Reporter Women in Entertainment Canada awards on Thursday night. Among the award recipients were Amrit Kaur, Jeanne Beker, Margaret Atwood and Tantoo Cardinal. Several of the women who accepted awards didn't just reference Canada's entertainment industry. They also spoke about escalating tensions between Canada and the U.S. "When [The Handmaid's Tale] came out, a certain number of people felt I was a lunatic, because surely the United States would never, ever do such things," Atwood said while accepting the Icon Award. "I'm sure we all wish the H.M.T. was more fictional and less of a docudrama drama. Will we all look back and say, 'Remember how scary that show was back then?' Or will we be unable to say anything at all, because we will have been censored out of existence. Meanwhile, we live in hope." When Jeanne Beker accepted the Impact Award, she spoke about how she was able to build her career in Canada, and not move to the U.S. "You do not have to move to the States to make it, you might have to move to the States to make more money," Beker said. "Things have changed so much. ... When I was rising up through the ranks in the '80s, there were not a lot of powerful women around. ... Women were kind of jealous of each other. It almost felt like, and certainly in this country, that there are only so many pieces of pie to go around." "There was an intense competition. I felt it and I felt threatened by women, I'm sorry to say, some beautiful, wonderful women. We were all just fighting to hang on to what we worked so hard for, to what we aspired to. And I have to say that slowly, but surely, over the decades, things started to change in the most amazing way. And an older woman didn't have to be threatened by a younger woman anymore. Quite the opposite." You do not have to move to the States to make it, you might have to move to the States to make more money. Amrit Kaur began her speech for the Breakthrough Award speaking about how inspired she was by Deepa Mehta's 1996 film Fire. "It was the first time I saw two women in a romantic relationship that were Indian women," Kaur said. "It was un-glamorized. It was raw. It was real. It was me. That bravery in telling the truth by the production, the artist, the director, that came out in Canada, is the reason I'm an actress." "I don't think our talents should have to go to America to break through. I think we can find more art like Fire. There are a lot of wonderful women in this room and that is so f—king rare. A lot of women decision makers, and I want you to take more chances, more risks. Women have intuition. We're not scared of the truth the way men are. We understand the human condition. We've dealt with oppression. We don't take no for an answer." Kaur also made a call for action to stop being so "polite." "I want you guys to fund art that fuels our fire as women, as humanitarians and as artists," she said. "Art that's ugly, art that's uncomfortable. But in order to do that, we have to stop being so polite." "Art isn't always polite. Art isn't always good. And as Canadians, we're so caught up in being good, we forget to be human. But I know as women, we can change that, because women know the pretence of being nice. We know the pretence of smiling, because behind every smile is a goddamn raging story." Tantoo Cardinal, who received the Equity in Entertainment Award, spoke about growing up as an Indigenous person in Canada. "I was born right into that world where people were breathing just really short breaths," Cardinal said. "There was no pride in who we were. There was shame in who we were. People who spoke the language were ridiculed." "You put the kids in school for generations and generations, and make them ashamed of who they are. ... My people have been forged in the fire and the smouldering embers of genocide. And we were not allowed to speak until the Truth and Reconciliation Commission revealed it in their findings. ... I came from a powerful people. Our history will tell you we found truth in our survival of atrocities in the marrow of the children that did survive, touched by the spirits of those who did not. ... Stories are part of the sacredness of life. We still have so many stories to change so that we might walk in balance in this new world we're creating," she said. "We must be allies. We must honour each other's truth and trust us to tell our own stories."
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Hollywood Reporter Takes Home 2025 American Society of Magazine Editors Best Cover Award
The Hollywood Reporter has taken home an award from the 2025 American Society of Magazine Editors' best cover contest, the organization announced Thursday. THR has been awarded the best local magazine cover for its 2024 'Work Issue,' which hit newsstands on October 30, 2024. The issue competed against four other finalists in the category including entries from New York magazine and Texas Monthly. More from The Hollywood Reporter The Hollywood Reporter's Access Canada Summit to Launch During Toronto Film Festival Amrit Kaur to Receive The Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment Canada Honor Webby Awards Nominees Include The Hollywood Reporter, Zoe Saldaña, Kendrick Lamar and Travis and Jason Kelce ASME's best cover contest, judged by top editors, art directors and photo editors in the magazine industry, honored magazines in 10 different categories that range from news and politics to style, fashion and more. Other 2024 winners included The Atlantic, The Economist, New York and The New York Times Magazine. All issues were published in 2024. The ASME best cover honor follows several art and photo awards from the Los Angeles Press Club's SoCal Journalism Awards and National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. In 2024, THR took home the SoCal Journalism awards for entertainment and culture photo essay, entertainment portrait photo, entertainment photo and NAEJ award for photo essay. Last year, THR's Lovia Gyarkye was honored with one of 2024's ASME NEXT Awards for Journalists Under 30 during The National Magazine Awards. The awards – also known as the 'Ellies,' a nickname derived from the Alexander Calder stabile elephant given to each winner — are considered among the most prestigious in digital and print journalism. Gyarkye's honor marked the ninth time that THR was nominated for a National Magazine Award. In 2014, THR scored its first-ever nod, for General Excellence, Special Interest; in both 2015 and 2016, the magazine won that category and also earned Magazine of the Year nominations. It also was nominated again in 2017, in 2019, in 2020, when it also won the award, and in 2022. In 2023, Christian Cody's photo of Lupita Nyong'o for a THR cover story was nominated for best news and entertainment photograph. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Harvey Weinstein's "Jane Doe 1" Victim Reveals Identity: "I'm Tired of Hiding" 'Awards Chatter' Podcast: 'Sopranos' Creator David Chase Finally Reveals What Happened to Tony (Exclusive)
Buzz Feed
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
"Sex Lives Of College Girls" Star Amrit Kaur Recalled Being Told She'd Never Land A Leading Role If She Didn't Get Facial Surgery
Amrit Kaur is opening up about the discouraging and insensitive feedback she received from a popular agent early in her career. She is widely known for starring as the confident and utterly hilarious Bela Malhotra on the hit series The Sex Lives of College Girls. But before she landed that role, there was a time when the Canadian actor and writer didn't fully believe in herself, and unfortunately, she was surrounded by people who made her feel even more insecure. Earlier this year, in a Q with Tom Power interview, Amrit spoke candidly about her career journey and how she was told multiple times to make changes to her physical appearance, particularly her face. "I had a very well-known Canadian agent look at my headshot, put it on the desk, and she took her pen out and said, 'When you smile, your nose goes down to your mouth, and because your nose is so big, you'll never be a lead in a TV show." Amrit went on to reveal the agent suggested getting a "nose job" was her "best bet" to move forward in her career, and, unfortunately, at the time, Amrit believed her. "It's because there wasn't enough," she began to say about the lack of South Asian representation on-screen. "I never saw people, I mean Mindy Kaling, sure, but it was so few that looked like me. So, I was like, you're right." "This is the thing: I had self-loathing about my race and about what I looked like. I was being told from every cross-section that what I am is less than, which is such unintelligent thinking. How could the universal create someone who is less than someone?" Unfortunately, that agent wouldn't be the last person to criticize Amrit's physical appearance. She recalled other agents and acting teachers telling her that the right side of her face was more "white looking." These were the messages she was being bombarded with in an industry she so desperately wanted to succeed in. It wasn't until she met a mentor who encouraged her to embrace her natural beauty that her mindset began to change. "I met a teacher who was phenomenal who said, 'I'm going to stop working with you if you ever change your nose. The way you look is exactly the type of stories you need to tell.'" "'Because your face is the one of everyone. We need to see the everyone on TV. How many billions of brown girls are there that look like you?'" Amrit said that advice really resonated with her purpose. She's still training with that teacher to this day. Ugh, I love a happy ending, and I'm so glad she found someone in the business who uplifted her. We won't take any Amrit slander over here! Oh, and I can't help but smile at the fact that she got the last laugh. Not only did she prove she could become a leading actor, but she's also received a ton of recognition in Hollywood and Canada. Did you know she won the Canadian Screen Award for Leading Role in a Drama for her film The Queen of My Dreams? View this video on YouTube To learn more about Amrit, be sure to watch her full interview below. And don't forget to binge The Sex Lives of College Girls on HBO Max, which recently released their third and, sadly, final season.
Globe and Mail
22-03-2025
- Health
- Globe and Mail
Ethnic nose jobs are about more than rejecting one's heritage
When I was growing up, my family always told me I have my mother's nose. It was meant to be a compliment – hers, like mine, is long, perfectly pointed, sharply edged. But that praise was at odds with what a boy in my Grade 5 class once said to me with a prepubescent cackle I'll never forget: 'You have a witch's nose! Ha!' Naturally, it was the second observation that's stuck with me. For years, it was the one part of my body I wished I could change. I wanted it to be smaller, more curved at the bridge and overall just less noticeable. But I knew simply saying that aloud would be like rejecting not only my family but my Pakistani heritage. In South Asia, a larger nose is commonplace – and in some cultures, it's even considered a sign of beauty and wealth. At 13, living in Toronto, that didn't register much. The urge to believe an 'ethnic nose' is unattractive is ever-present. Just this month, Pakistani-Canadian actor Amrit Kaur went viral after sharing on CBC's Q that 'a very well-known Canadian agent' once took a single glance at her headshot and told her she'd never be a lead on a TV show because her nose was too big, and she'd best get a nose job. While the pressure for celebrities to have work done is nothing new, cosmetic surgery is also going more mainstream – especially among Gen Z, who have been booking nose-job procedures at increasing rates, according to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. It's hard to ignore the role social media plays among the most online generation ever. Recent research has shown the more time you spend on social media, particularly those platforms that are more visual, the more likely you are to want a cosmetic procedure. In the past few years, 'ethnic rhinoplasties' have become a regular discussion on social media, where brown and Black folks share the before-and-afters of their cosmetic surgery. This particular procedure is meant to retain ethnic features, such as bone density and nostril size, while still reshaping. But yeah, it still often involves reducing the size. While some people have heralded these ethnic nose jobs as a sign of the cosmetic-surgery industry becoming more inclusive, Rachel Rodgers, a psychology professor at Boston's Northeastern University who studies socio-cultural influences on body image, is skeptical. She says the profit-driven industry could be simply expanding into a new market and 'tailoring their product to encourage consumption.' Imani Reid, a 27-year-old marketing assistant in Toronto, had wanted a rhinoplasty since she was 17. She did her research, and found the results from some surgeons in Canada and the U.S. were often more uniform – featuring a defined bridge, upturned tip and smooth profile. In other words, they looked like the average white nose, no bumps in sight. 'I wanted to preserve the integrity of my natural features while refining my nose,' she said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. So last October, she went to a clinic in South Korea to have the ethnic rhinoplasty, and shared with her surgeon photos of 'beautiful Black women' as her models. Three months post-op, Reid says the rhinoplasty has 'allowed me to feel more confident in my own skin.' While Reid's friends were supportive (in fact, several of them have also gotten the same procedure), her mother, a first-generation immigrant from Jamaica, struggled to accept her choice. 'Unfortunately, she interpreted my decision as me rejecting my heritage or trying to conform to a Western beauty standard, which couldn't be further from the truth,' says Reid. 'For me, it was about enhancing what I already loved about myself, not changing who I am. My identity and my connection to my culture aren't defined by the shape of my nose.' Divisiveness around this subject isn't new. More than 50 years ago, some of the earliest academic writing on the motivations for cosmetic procedures focused on people from certain ethnic and religious groups reducing the size of their noses to facilitate cultural assimilation in the post-Second World War world. 'Family members often expressed concern about the loss of ethnic identity or a distinct family trait,' says Dr. David Sarwer, a dean at Temple University's College of Public Health who studies the psychological aspects of plastic surgery. 'These issues still resonate for some patients today.' In support of preserving these traits today, some people are celebrating natural ethnic noses online, such as Pakistani-American photographer Simrah Farrukh, who shared her collection of nose portraits of various South Asian women. And Niyati Sriram, a New York-based software engineer, has made several TikTok videos sharing how she's come to accept her Indian nose. She says she did this publicly to hold herself accountable, and to give voice to a feeling that is shared by many girls out there who, like her, have been bullied for their nose. 'This is something I have always struggled with and possibly will always struggle with,' she said in an interview with The Globe. 'I can't say I will be able to resist ever changing it. How I feel about my nose constantly fluctuates, but I am proud of it because it is a product of generations of my ancestors.' It's a mantra I've said to myself many times, as have many of the other young people of colour I spoke to about their noses. Almost all of them, too, shared a lack of judgment for each other's choices and a deep empathy toward feeling insecure in the Western world. Cosmetic surgery is a deeply personal choice, often one that takes years of thought and reflection. And that choice doesn't always have to be about maintaining cultural morale. How we feel about how we look comes from a number of other factors, including where we grew up, the media we consumed, or simply because we don't see who we feel we really are when we look in the mirror. In that case, perhaps an ethnic rhinoplasty is better than one that doesn't take cultural factors into consideration at all. Surveys and research have found that most people who undergo cosmetic procedures experience 'high satisfaction' with their results, and report feeling less anxiety and depression thanks to a rise in confidence. When it comes to feeling a lasting psychological shift, results vary, but significant research remains to be done. For me, all these years later, listening to these different perspectives have helped me realize my nose isn't even one you could call all that 'big.' There are better ways to describe it; it is different, it is unique. But it is also my mother's nose – and despite what that kid said back in Grade 5, that alone makes me proud.
