One year ago, the Democratic National Convention was buzzing with celebrities like Meryl Streep, Lena Dunham, and Elizabeth Banks. But none of them had closer proximity to the candidate than Chloë Grace Moretz, who took the stage 45 minutes before Hillary Clinton.
“It was one of the happiest moments of my life, that’s for sure,” recalls Moretz, 20, on a recent afternoon, sitting with her two-month-old pug, Ruby. The actress had such a plum spot at the DNC because organizers were hoping she’d reach first-time millennial voters.
Moretz has something in common with her multitasking generation: She knows what it’s like to burn out as a teenager. After appearing in dozens of movies since she was a pint-size kid, Moretz realized at 18 that she needed a yearlong break. She left her home in Los Angeles for a solitary vacation in Tulum, Mexico, embarked on a few road trips, dated and spent time with her friends — a period that she likens to the gap year that high school students may take before heading to college.
“It was one of the most important things I’ve done yet in my life,” Moretz tells Variety. “It allowed me to stand back and go, ‘I’ve had a career since I was six years old, I’ve made over 52 films and who am I?’”
Many know Moretz from films such as “Kick-Ass” and “Carrie.” Outside her on-screen persona, she’s also cultivated a robust following on social media, with 13.4 million Instagram fans browsing through her feed that’s more defined by black-and-white portraits than selfies. Her most notorious internet moment came last year when she got in a nasty Twitter feud with Kim Kardashian West over posting a nude selfie. “It’s sad for her to reach out like that to a young woman,” says Moretz, who hasn’t interacted with Kardashian West since. “There’s a lot of woman-on-woman hate.”
Moretz has always portrayed strong female characters. There was her feminist college student in “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising,” as well as supporting roles in “Laggies” and “Clouds of Sils Maria,” where she played a deliciously self-absorbed teenage movie star. But now, the recharged Moretz is entering her 20s with a different mantra. “I want to do things that introduce messages to people, and they show a side of life that maybe people aren’t privy to,” she explains.
The first script she read after her hiatus was “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” in which she stars as a young girl forced into a gay conversion therapy center. She shot the movie during the election, whose outcome left her stunned. She went to bed early on election night because she had to be up at dawn for her call time. When she woke, she looked at her phone and screamed. “I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. I’m going to work on a gay conversion therapy movie, which Pence supports,’” she recalls, referring to the vice president.
Full interview: variety.com
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