Greta Lee Loves Her Freckles

“Oh wait!” actor Greta Lee gasps just before I click out of our 18-minute Zoom call. “I just thought of something really important. I want to say thank you to Tyler and Jonathan for letting me keep my freckles.” 

She’s talking about photographer Tyler Mitchell and Loewe designer Jonathan Anderson. Lee was announced as one of the new faces of the fashion house’s ever-growing Botanical Rainbow and its newest scent, Aire Anthesis, yesterday. The Morning Show and Russian Doll star’s campaign images include the constellation of freckles that naturally adorn her cheeks and nose. “It’s a big deal for me as a Korean American and an unspeakable act of joy to be able to show my freckles. It’s subverting a certain expectation that I grew up with and feels like some sort of small victory for the little girl in me.”

Lee is having a year of working toward small victories for that little girl inside herself, as well as all the other little girls out there who might identify with her. She shared that another one of those victories—which actually was not small but a huge, monumental one—was portraying Nora in the film Past Lives. 

“The truth is, as an Asian American actor, there really are only certain opportunities,” Lee says. “I was making peace with that in a way and because I loved the women whom I have played. I assumed something like the role of Nora would never come up, and playing her was the professional honor of my life.” 

Tyler Mitchell

With momentum on her side, there are only more triumphs to come for the rest of Lee’s 2023. 

“I feel very emboldened to appreciate this potential new chapter where I can really step forth and own myself at 40,” Lee says. “The things that I am. The daughter I am, the wife, the mother to my two kids, and being an artist, all of it wrapped into one. It’s unbelievable, honestly.”

Please be aware that Greta Lee was granted an interim agreement from SAG-AFTRA and was able to talk about Past Lives.