Gen Z actors such as Millie Bobby Brown and Jenna Ortega are refusing to do what is expected of ‘the talent’

Last week, I saw a clip that made me want to stand up and cheer. It was of the actor Millie Bobby Brown talking back to a photographer on a red carpet. The paparazzi had been yelling at her to smile, and Brown retorted: “Smile? You smile,” before walking off. She refused to do what was expected of her.

It’s a similar story with the star of the recent TV series Alien: Earth, Sydney Chandler. The actor did not appear on the cover of Variety magazine alongside the show’s creator and one of her co-stars, after she said she didn’t want to take part in a video interview for a regular series called How Well Do They Know Each Other?. The interviewer spent the first half of the resulting cover story explaining the situation in a bemused, tut-tutting tone, noting all the stars who had been willing to take part in the franchise.

Priya Elan writes about the arts, music and fashion

The latest in our ongoing series of writers highlighting their most rewatched comfort movies is a trip back to 1980s London and the predatory music industry

I used to watch Breaking Glass when I worked a very corporate job in the City. With its vision of London at the end of punk and the beginning of the Winter of Discontent, the film provided me a blast of gritty, unvarnished relief in the light of endless training courses and encouraged groupthink.

Released in September 1980, it was disliked by critics (Q magazine memorably quipped: “Breaking Glass? More like Breaking Wind … ”) but through today’s eyes feels relevant again.