There are faces that seem familiar even before we know where we have seen them. This is what is happening with Ella Rubin, the actress who plays Annie Jacobson, the protagonist of Sterling Point, the new teenage phenomenon on Prime Video. The series, released earlier this month, has become one of the big events of the summer, praised both by the specialized press and by an audience that seems to have found in it a particularly fine-tuned representation of a generation, Generation Z, which until now had been portrayed too broadly in fiction. And its protagonist is one of the key ingredients of that success. So much so that she has sparked a viral debate on social media about her resemblance to other stars who were also, as this 24-year-old young woman is now, America’s sweethearts. Whether it’s Julia Roberts’ smile, Anne Hathaway’s profile — she even played her daughter in The Idea of You — or that beauty with nineties echoes reminiscent of Winona Ryder or Rachel Weisz. The series creator, Megan Park, described her undeniable magnetism like this: “It’s impossible not to feel something while looking at her. I know one day she will be one of the biggest movie stars in the world.” But there is something much more interesting behind this new viral face: Ella Rubin is not just arriving in Hollywood. She has been preparing for this moment for over a decade.
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In Sterling Point, the summer youth drama, she plays a responsible and studious New Yorker who unexpectedly inherits a Canadian island from her late grandfather. Her father takes Annie and her twin brother there, beginning a journey of self-discovery in which family secrets that had been kept hidden until then come to light. The role places her as the actress of the moment, the fashionable girl everyone is talking about. But, with a career spanning years despite her youth, Rubin promises to be much more than a one-summer Hollywood phenomenon.
Getting here, however, took time. Although she was discovered by a talent agent during an extracurricular theater production that, following one of Hollywood’s great clichés, her best friend had encouraged her to join, she was not a child star. Showing up to auditions carrying a briefcase to give casting directors the impression they were dealing with a fully-fledged actress was not a strategy that worked for her, probably to her fortune. For seven years all she received were no’s, but when she turned 17 something changed. Her first leading role came last year in the horror film Until Dawn, after having earned credits over a decade with small roles in films like The Idea of You — in which she played Anne Hathaway’s daughter — or Anora, where she played the sister of the character that earned Mikey Madison an Oscar.
Now, in a summer when Hollywood seems to have focused on its new ‘hijísimos’ — there are Homer Gere, son of Richard; Sunny Sandler, daughter of Adam; or Sunday Rose Kidman, daughter of Nicole — Ella Rubin appears as an asterisk in the manual. Her parents are not famous actors nor Oscar-winning directors, but it cannot be said that she came completely from outside the industry either. Her mother is a talent agent and her aunt, Jodi Kipperman, is a prominent casting director. She grew up surrounded by entertainment professionals and studied acting at the Professional Children’s School on the Upper West Side, an institution specialized in young people who combine studies with artistic careers. She is not a nepo baby in the most traditional sense of the word, but neither is she a girl who was discovered by chance and suddenly launched to stardom. She grew up in a privileged Manhattan environment, had access to artistic education from childhood, and knew how the industry worked. That does not detract from a career that in a few years already includes work on Broadway, independent films, major productions, and TV series like the upcoming The God of Woods, which she is already filming for Netflix and is set to become another success. But Hollywood was part of her landscape long before the movie capital began to see her as a possible star… and perhaps that is why she seems so natural in front of a camera.
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Certainly, her style and image also bear some of the blame. Social media applauds her “nineties actress-like” beauty, perhaps because of that face that somehow seems familiar and moves away from today’s hyper-highlighted and sculpted contouring makeup. To date, her style leans towards minimalism, especially favoring monochromatic dresses in white or black. Dressed in strict black signed by Prada on Jimmy Fallon’s show, in Balenciaga with a white mini dress and modest-heeled ballerinas, or with a pristine halter-neck dress signed by Louis Vuitton at the Sterling Point premiere, Rubin avoids complications and excesses, enhancing natural beauty, with loose hair and discreet makeup. However, she knows well what she is doing and has chosen Emma Jade Morrison, stylist of Kaia Gerber and other actresses who stand out wherever they go stylistically — like Sarah Pidgeon or Zoey Deutch — to build an image that promises to continue bringing joy at events and red carpets.
Her interest in fashion is evident. She has attended events and fashion shows of brands like Louis Vuitton or Chanel and even helped the costume designer of Sterling Point build the character that now brings her global fame. “I wore my own flat shoes. That’s why they are so worn out,” she said in an interview with W Magazine, explaining how her contribution helped her better understand Annie, to the point of “even knowing what she would wear.” With the goal of becoming “a versatile actress who can do everything” — so far she moves fluently from horror to comedy to drama — Rubin says she looks for roles that satisfy her creatively and characters she is afraid to play. “I think any actor would give an arm and a leg to be on The White Lotus. I would play a palm tree if they let me. I would love to work with Mike White, Rachel Dratch, Parker Posey, or Isabelle Huppert,” she confessed to Teen Vogue about her professional aspirations.
But perhaps the biggest reason to pay attention to Sterling Point is not just Ella Rubin. Maybe in a few years we will look back and discover that that summer series brought together several of Hollywood’s upcoming young stars. There is Bo Bragason, who plays Oona and already has the role that will change her career ready: she will be Zelda in the film adaptation of the legendary Nintendo video game, which could make her a global star next spring. There is also another illustrious nepo baby, Keen Ruffalo, son of Mark Ruffalo, who plays Annie’s twin brother. Sterling Point is his first major role after briefly appearing alongside his father in the HBO series Task. And there is Daniel Quinn-Toye, who plays Rory. The Scottish actor has just appeared alongside Bella Ramsey in Sunny Dancer and has been chosen by Tom Ford himself to star in his upcoming and highly anticipated film, A Scream to the Sky.
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