Alain Elkann Interviews

FEARLESS, ALWAYS EVOLVING. Michelle Yeoh, the Malaysian actress born in 1962, is considered to be one of the greatest female action movie stars. In a career spanning over four decades, she has acted in film and television productions covering a wide range of genres and received various accolades. Yeoh gained global recognition in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and starred in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). Her versatility continued in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) and The Lady (2011), a biopic about Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2023 she became the first Asian performer to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) and she received the Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival in February, 2026. "When I set out to do a movie, the main intention is to do a good movie, to be very satisfied that it's something that you will be proud of." "The movies and the characters that I have done are not the same, and I tried my very best to do that so that I am constantly evolving and learning." "I do believe that the harder you work, the luckier you become, so that when the opportunity does arise you are prepared for it." https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/michelle-yeoh

CONTINUOUS TRANSFORMATION. The Spanish contemporary artist Miquel Barceló is known for his relief-like mixed-media paintings, expressive bronze sculptures and ceramics.

A JOURNEY THROUGH JOURNALISM. Mishal Husain is a celebrated British journalist who joined Bloomberg from the BBC, where she presented its leading news programme Today on BBC Radio 4 for over a decade. Before joining Today in 2013, she was an anchor on the international news channel BBC World News. In 2024 she was awarded the Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism by the British Journalism Review. Mishal has written a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller family memoir, Broken Threads: A Family From Empire to Independence, and The Skills: How to Win at Work. "The Elon Musk interview is amongst the most difficult that I've done." "I've realised that we are now, perhaps increasingly, again in an age of division." "I hope that in one way or another we still have people who are going to search for the forgotten, overlooked stories."

COMBINING ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIOR DESIGN. Nathalie Droulers and her twin sister Virginie were born in Milan in 1973. Nathalie graduated in Architecture from the Polytechnic University in Milan in 1997. She worked in New York as a Creative Director in product design development and in 2000 returned to Italy, where she collaborated with the Milan-based Dstudio as a Project Manager. In 2005 she founded Nathalie Droulers Studio, developing residential and commercial projects internationally. Her sister Virginie graduated in Graphic Design from Parsons School of Design in New York in 1999. She worked in New York from 1997 to 2000, and when she returned to Italy she founded Kv Design, a graphic and packaging firm. In 2007, Nathalie and Virginie founded Droulers Architecture together, with the aim of creating an international studio developing residential, commercial and leisure projects, now also specialised in architecture and interior design for luxury yachts. Droulers collaborates with a team of specialised and skilled professionals in a concerted effort to achieve these ambitious goals. "Naturally and luckily, we gradually moved into our respective roles." "One of our most important qualities is our ability to listen to what our clients want." "Getting the new generation on board is probably the biggest success we could achieve." https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/nathalie-droulers/

PATTI SMITH – WORKER. Patti Smith was born in Chicago in 1946. In the 1970s the American poet, songwriter, singer, and visual artist blazed a trail for punk rock artists, especially women. Patti Smith earned herself such titles as "godmother of punk" and "punk's poet laureate" with her androgynous appearance, intense live performances, and penchant for writing lyrics that often blend poetry with subversive themes, She retreated from public view in the 1980s but made a successful return to performing in the 1990s. Following her comeback, she has published several acclaimed memoirs about her life and career as one of rock's most avant-garde artists. "I don't want to be rich and famous. I want to be great." "I'm for children. That is my number one concern." "Have I earned all this adulation?" https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/patti-smith

WRITERS ARE UNBALANCED PEOPLE. Paul Theroux is an American novelist and travel writer known for his highly personal award-winning observations on many locales. Over 50 works of fiction and travel writing include modern classics The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, My Secret History and The Mosquito Coast. Theroux's recent book, Burma Sahib, explores Eric Blair's years as a British Raj police officer in colonial Burma that transformed him into the anticolonial writer, George Orwell. "A novelist speculates, and that's my role in life: to invent, to imagine, and to create the person" "The writer is defining himself or herself with each book" "Most of my books are about a person, usually a man somewhat like myself, that needs to solve a problem"

MILANESE MASTER OF CONTEMPORARY DESIGN. Piero Lissoni is a multi-award-winning-architect, designer and art director. One of the masters of contemporary design, he has an almost forty-year history in the development of projects the world over in the fields of architecture, landscape, interior, product and graphic design. He is art director for Alpi, Boffi, Living Divani, Lualdi, Porro and Sanlorenzo as well as being the founder and director of the interdisciplinary studio Lissoni & Partners. "When you're born in Milano and grow up in the polytechnic of Milano it becomes quite natural to control 360 degrees of everything." "I think it was a disease, and I became an architect." "We need to live in our own times, even if sometimes they are imperfect." https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/piero-lissoni/

DOING BRILLIANTLY. Roula Khalaf is the Editor of the Financial Times (FT). Born in Beirut, after studying in the United States at Syracuse University and Columbia University she first worked for Forbes magazine. From 1995 she was a foreign correspondent at the FT, and in 2016 became Deputy Editor to Lionel Barber, succeeding him as Editor in January 2020.

AN EXTRAORDINARY LOVE OF NATURE. Saskia de Rothschild became the youngest person to lead a first growth Bordeaux wine estate in 2018 at the age of 31.

STILL PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES. Sir Norman Rosenthal celebrated his 80th birthday on November 8th 2024. ​A curator and art historian, he was Exhibitions Officer at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, a curator at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and for many years Exhibitions Secretary at the Royal Academy in London. Recently he curated Georg Baselitz: The Last Decade at the Sabancı Museum in Istanbul. His Roberto Matta 1911-2002 opened at Ca' Pesaro, Venice on October 25th 2024, and he is curating David Hockney's April 2025 exhibition at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris. "Art is a complex story, and one has to pick out the great artists who have their own vision of the world." "I always liked to do things with other people." "I'm very proud to be having a dialogue with David Hockney"