(Credits: Far Out / Warner Bros)
Mon 2 February 2026 23:30, UK
It’s not uncommon for musicians to dabble in acting, but Teyana Taylor has proven that she’s interested in taking her craft seriously, truly caring about cinematic excellence, and thus, 2025 saw her co-starring as the revolutionary Perfidia in One Battle After Another, the masterpiece by Paul Thomas Anderson that was named by most reputable critical outlets as the best film of the year.
Taylor’s role, while not long for the screen, is not a minor one; Perfidia is the partner to Leonardo DiCaprio’s Bob Ferguson, and helps lead the French 75 revolutionary group as they strike out against immigration detention centres guarded by paramilitary forces.
It’s a nuanced role that Taylor fleshes out, as Perfidia’s relationship with the villainous Colonel Lockjaw, played impeccibly by Sean Penn, leads to some of the biggest surprises in the film. Although One Battle After Another is the frontrunner in many Academy Award categories, it seems more than likely that Taylor would be picking up the trophy for ‘Best Supporting Actress’.
Landing a role in a new film from one of the greatest living directors is an impressive achievement, but Taylor has long been working to show how dedicated she is to the art of acting. While she first tried flexing her acting muscles with early roles in comedies like Stomp the Yard and Madea’s Big Happy Family, she said that her performance in the independent drama A Thousand and One was vastly different compared to everything else that she has done.
“I was always either the hot girl or the ghetto girl,” Taylor lamented, “I was ready to be taken seriously”.
Written and directed by AV Rockwell, A Thousand and One starred Taylor as Inez, a hairdresser and former criminal who discovers an abandoned child in New York City in the 1990s, and decides to take him in so that he does not have to deal with the frustrations and indignities of the foster care system. It’s only as her son begins to grow up that Inez is forced to reconcile with the past and speak her truth.
The film was met with rave reviews when it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for narrative feature. For Taylor, the fact that the film clearly resonated with people solidified to her that taking acting seriously had its benefits.
“I’ve never felt so many different emotions at once,” she said, “You know, I’m a movie girl. I love to watch movies, but I’m usually on the outside, so this is just surreal”.
A Thousand and One managed to perform well at the independent cinema box office as well, which has been under more duress in the aftermath of Covid-19, and despite debuting within the first quarter, was remembered by awards voters until the end of the year, with Taylor even picking up nominations for ‘Best Actress’ at the Gotham Awards and Independent Spirit Awards. Even if One Battle After Another has been the biggest film of her career thus far, it’s hard to imagine that Anderson would have singled out Taylor to play such an important role in his latest project if she had not already proven herself with A Thousand and One.
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