Teyana Taylor is setting the record straight on her One Battle After Another character — and reve...

The actress is a firsttime Oscar nominee for her work in the movie as revolutionary group leader Perfidia Beverly Hills. Teyana Taylor is setting the record straight on her One Battle After Another character — and reveals the day on set that 'hit hard' The actress is a firsttime Oscar nominee for her work in the movie as revolutionary group leader Perfidia Beverly Hills. By Gerrad Hall :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/Gerrad413fcf02541834f43bb26c0de8fe66f66.jpg) Gerrad Hall is an editorial director at , overseeing movie, awards, and music coverage.

The actress is a first-time Oscar nominee for her work in the movie as revolutionary group leader Perfidia Beverly Hills.

Teyana Taylor is setting the record straight on her One Battle After Another character — and reveals the day on set that 'hit hard'

The actress is a first-time Oscar nominee for her work in the movie as revolutionary group leader Perfidia Beverly Hills.

By Gerrad Hall

Gerrad Hall is an editorial director at **, overseeing movie, awards, and music coverage. He is also host of *The Awardist* podcast, and has cohosted EW's live Oscars, Emmys, SAG, and Grammys red carpet shows. He has appeared on *Good Morning America*, *The Talk*, *Access Hollywood*, *Extra!*, and other talk shows, delivering the latest news on pop culture and entertainment.

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February 26, 2026 8:30 a.m. ET

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'One Battle After Another' star Teyana Taylor. Credit:

Frazer Harrison/WireImage via Getty Images

If there's one thing being a "Harlem girl" has taught Teyana Taylor, it's to be a "big dreamer."

"You never know which one of them dreams is gonna become a reality. So I've always been a big dreamer," she says on **'s *The Awardist* podcast. "I dream about everything, all the possibilities, even just bucket list stuff. Just growing up watching *SNL*, who would've ever thought that I would've been hosting *SNL* in this same year that I'm like nominated for a Oscar. Like, I used to be that little girl watching the Oscars."

Still, Taylor — who scored her first Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe for her work as revolutionary group leader Perfidia Beverly Hills in *One Battle After Another* — admits she's never imagined it could be her up on that stage one day.

"To now be in that space where I'm probably the one that another little girl sitting at home is watching me or saying that she loves my dress, or saying that she loves my speech, like, oh my God, I'm getting chills talking about that," she says. "It's a lot in the best way, you know? I'm so overwhelmed with joy and gratitude."

Teyana Taylor in 'One Battle After Another'.

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

Taylor couldn't be more unlike her character in Paul Thomas Anderson's film, which centers on the fearless and formidable Perfidia and the far-left French 75 (also including Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio's Pat/Bob and Regina Hall's Deandra). When we first meet them, they're infiltrating a detention center at the U.S./Mexico border to free the immigrants being held there. That's where Perfidia finds sleeping in his command tent Col. Lockjaw, played by Sean Penn, also nominated for his performance. After grabbing his gun and turning it on him, it's time to end his nap.

"Wake up, soldier boy. You died and went to p---- heave, motherf---a," she says, taunting him.

"Paul wrote that. That's just Paul poetry," she says when asked if that was in Anderson's script or if it was a bit of Teyana flair. "He is a troll in the best way. He knows how to push the needle. He knows how to shake the table, and he is like Perfidia to me in so many ways, 'cause he's unapologetically himself and he's gonna stand 10 toes down on what he wants to say, what he believes in. I'm telling you, his, his mouth is crazy. And I'll be dying laughing because he says it so calm."

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While Taylor, also a singer (she earned her first Grammy nomination this year for Best R&B Album for *Escape Room*), dancer, and choreographer, doesn't have much in common with Perfidia on the surface, she says she connected with how her treatment by others is based on her identity.

"What black women go through, that was easy to understand in Perfidia. It was easy to understand what it felt like to be ignored. It was easy to feel like what it felt like to be in survival mode. It was easy to understand what it felt like to not be feel seen or heard," Taylor says. "I had just got out of [the film *A Thousand and One*], where I was somewhat of a complex woman that was trying to navigate motherhood. So I felt like with playing Perfidia, I was able to take the complexity up a few more notches."

Teyana Taylor and Sean Penn in 'One Battle After Another'.

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

It's no secret how much Taylor loves her character, to the point that she is quick to defend her actions — for example, using sex to get what she wants and needs from Lockjaw — by those who are quick to judge.

"She is so misunderstood, but most importantly, human, and so raw. And she is unapologetically herself," she says. "I feel like sometimes people just write her off as like, she's just horny.... Perfidia became a revolutionary because of the things that she believes in. You see her mom saying Perfidia comes from a long line of revolutionaries. That in itself, to any woman, any person, is also a pressure. So not only is she carrying it on, it is instilled in her, and now it's become a part of her identity."

Getting pregnant and becoming a mother wasn't exactly part of her plan. In fact, a nine-month baby bump doesn't stop her from firing a machine gun.

"So now you have this woman that's like, whoa, what do I do now? Because all I know is the revolution. What do I do from here? Do I stay? Do I run?" she explains. "So then the baby is born and you see a shift to where now it's like, oh, okay, Willa's here, and now you only see her and you don't see me. So even if I thought about slowing down to play house, who wants to play house with the person who is ignoring them?"

But Taylor notes that there's something bigger at play, something many haven't considered when watching the movie.

"If people understood the weight of postpartum depression, we wouldn't even be seeing half of the discourse that we see in regards to Perfidia," she says. "She's misunderstood, but I feel like people who've seen the movie two, three, four times, they understand her completely. Whether it's right or wrong, there's a compassion there. There's an empathy there. Because we see this woman who was in survival mode. We see Bob walk up to that door and heard that lady crying, and instead of walking in, he walked away."

Teyana Taylor and Leonardo DiCaprio in 'One Battle After Another'.

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

It all triggers something deeper in her. "Now we see survival mode. I gotta be selfish. I gotta show up for myself because I'm all I got. And ain't nobody else gonna show up for me but me," she says.

Ultimately, Taylor is part of the first 33 minutes or so of the movie, until Perfidia flees to Mexico and away from Lockjaw, who Taylor insists never had the power in that dynamic. But she sends a letter to her daughter, who finally gets to read it at the end of the movie. That letter, though, wasn't in Anderson's script — so Taylor had no idea what Perfidia's message to her daughter would be. But because Anderson "works in real time," they were able to workshop the note together.

"It's so crazy because that note that you hear, we did that in one take. And I just remember how emotional we were — me, Paul, and our sound guy. We are all crying. And at that time, we were losing Adam," she recalls, referring to producer and first assistant director Adam Somner, who died on Nov. 27, 2024, from cancer. "It was very, very heavy for all of us. And the perseverance, everything that we were going through, it was the last day of filming, and that letter just hit hard. *Are you happy? Do you have love? *I'm getting chills just thinking about it."

Listen to Taylor's full interview on *The Awardist* below, where she also explains why she's in culinary school, gives an update on her feature directorial debut, and more. Plus, we discuss the Oscar nominees luncheon, where nearly 200 of this year's 230 nominees gathered for the annual class photo — Taylor among them — and analyze whether the overwhelming applause for *Sinners* writer-director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan could equate to something bigger on Oscar night.

98th Oscars Nominees Luncheon class photo.

Richard Harbaugh/The Academy

***Check out more from EW's *****The Awardist*****, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best in TV, movies, and more.***

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Source: Drama

Published: 2026-02-26T13:38:06Z on Source: RED MAG

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