reflects

When Ateez first arrived in Los Angeles from South Korea in 2018, they were aspiring K-pop idols who were still only learning their craft and unsure what the future had in store for them.

From humble beginnings training at Movement Lifestyle and Millennium Dance Complex, Ateez have gone on to headline arenas and stadiums across the city and established themselves as one of the biggest K-pop groups in the world.

The eight-member K-pop unit — made up of Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Yunho, Yeosang, San, Mingi, Wooyoung and Jongho — have headlined festivals, accumulated billions of streams and transcended the genre with viral songs and dances such as “Bad” and “Bouncy (K-Hot Chilli Peppers).”

Marking another milestone in their careers, Ateez headlined their first outdoor festival in L.A. with the inaugural two-day K-pop music festival 82 World at Los Angeles State Historic Park in October.

Following their performance, Hongjoong, San, Mingi and Jongho of Ateez sat down with The Times to discuss their comeback with their 15th mini-album, “Golden Hour: Part.6,” out Friday.

The excitement about the album was palpable, as San and Jongho couldn’t hold back their dance moves while discussing songs like “Up” and “Drip.” The album sees Ateez experiment with genres, such as heavy trap, while incorporating familiar elements that have made them so popular over the years.

How was the performance at 82 World?

San: It’d been over a year since our last show in L.A., so it was special, and the fans were full of energy as we hadn’t seen them for so long.

How have these big performances, like 82 World or headlining at BMO Stadium, helped you grow as performers?

San: I think the most important thing that we’ve gained from these big performances is confidence. We have been performing on bigger stages and meeting more Atiny — the fandom name — and this made us enjoy performing more.

Did this feel like a full-circle moment, as you’re headlining a festival in the city you trained in?

Hongjoong: We have been to L.A. a lot of times, but this is the first time we’ve had a big outdoor performance in L.A. This felt like a full-circle moment. Also, the fact that we got to perform “From” at the end of the show, which is a song that we made in L.A., made it even more special.

What are your memories of recording “From”?

Hongjoong: When we recorded “From,” it was our pre-debut song, so it was before all of this happened. So getting the chance to perform this in front of the fans who we thought about whilst writing the song made it even more special.

What did you learn from training in L.A. that perhaps you couldn’t have just picked up in Seoul?

Mingi: The thing that I learned the most in L.A. is about showmanship. There’s a lot of freedom and happiness on stage.

How did you feel that freedom in the studio when recording in L.A.?

Mingi: Rather than in the studio, it was something I learned to express whilst on stage. But as we travel to different countries and cities, I picked up bits and pieces from each place, so it wasn’t just from L.A.

What energy does L.A. bring you?

Jongho: It’s not just the concerts; it’s the fact we have beautiful weather in L.A., too, and that gives me a lot of energy. Also, on my way to the concerts, I love looking at the beautiful scenery, and everything here is a little bit brighter.

Did you have any favorite places you liked to go while training?

Hongjoong: When we first came to L.A., we were just there to train, so we didn’t really go to any special places. We would just go to places near the dance studio to get sandwiches during our break. We would just try anything during that time.

How will “Golden Hour: Part.6” show a new side of Ateez from what we’ve seen recently?

Hongjoong: Of all the “Golden Hour” installments, this feels like the most Ateez and the most representative of what we want to express. We’ve also tried a lot of different genres throughout the “Golden Hour” and “Treasure” series, so we’re bringing them together for this mini-album.

What was that like, experimenting in the studio and bringing all these sounds together?

San: We’re thankful that we have the freedom to try all of these different genres. There was an opportunity to explore the different music tastes of Atiny and what sounds they liked, and that helped us grow as artists. It was a good challenge to experiment.

Congratulations on the eighth anniversary. How does this album celebrate your anniversary, and why is this a special milestone?

Mingi: The fact that we’ve stayed together for eight years is a gift in itself, and we’re thankful for that. Also, we were able to grow together and share these experiences in such a short time, which is a blessing. We are looking forward to our ninth, 10th and 20th anniversaries.

Is there any moment in your eight years that you wish you could relive?

Jongho: Rather than one specific moment, every moment that we’ve been able to live through these eight years has been special. We just want to enjoy every moment and connect with the fans for a long time.

One of the biggest moments must have been your first show, which was at the Globe Theatre in L.A. in 2019. How did that feel?

San: We went in not knowing much. We didn’t know how many people would turn up, but from the first moment we were able to hit the stage and connect with Atiny, we started to feel more confident. Our first show was in L.A., and people from all different cultures and backgrounds were coming from different places. The fact that they were able to sing with us as one and sing in Korean and all our songs from the beginning to the end was a beautiful memory that I still cherish.

You go through lots of training, but what did you learn from that first show that you couldn’t have prepared for?

Mingi: The thing I learned the most was how to connect with the fans and get them as excited as us. It’s like a symbiotic energy. With every concert and every moment, I’m always learning how to get fans more excited, how to communicate with them and make sure they enjoy it from the start until the very end.

Is there anything you wish you had known before debuting that would have helped you prepare differently?

Jongho: We always used to beat ourselves up when things didn’t go as planned, even if it was just a little mistake or it wasn’t as perfect as we had imagined. It meant that we couldn’t always enjoy the moment. Now, we try to enjoy the moment, and then we review our performances afterward and we can adjust that for the next show or project.

How does “Up” reflect the sound and energy of the new mini-album?

Hongjoong: One of the reasons that we were able to get a lot of attention early in our careers was that we had a signature energy in our songs and performances. We think that “Up” carries this same energy, but as we’ve been on this road for eight years, it has a more mature sound. It’s something that people have missed from Ateez, but it is also a culmination of our eight years of experience.

In a similar way, what did you want to express with “Drip”?

Hongjoong: “Drip” has a heavy trap sound that we’ve never really explored before. As we’ve mentioned, “Golden Hour” is all about bringing new sounds and energies.

How did that new heavy trap sound feel in the studio?

Jongho: At first, when I heard the song, I thought, “Oh, my God! How am I going to make my voice match with this rhythm?” But from the moment I hit the studio and started recording, I was taken by the rhythm and started moving along to the beat, and it was a really fun recording experience.

Congratulations on the success of “Bad.” What has it been like to see a song transcend the genre and become so popular?

San: We received a lot of love from “Bad.” With all of that love, we want to give back with better performances. … We want to give back all of the love, support and attention.

There was a great music video with Chase Infiniti. What was it like to work with her on that?

Hongjoong: When we were in the early stages of planning for the music video, we knew that her role was going to be really important for this video, so we were really eager to have her involved. She was very professional and dedicated to always doing her best. She also brought a great energy to the set and gave each one of us really positive vibes. We are really grateful that she was with us and she is a big part of why “Bad” was such a great success.

Collaborating and working with Chase, what new perspective did you learn about Atiny and your fandom?

Hongjoong: Chase was actually the first Atiny to hear the song, as she needed to hear it for the music video. Also, since she had a dancing part, she also needed to look at the performance. She was really excited about it, so we knew the reaction from Atiny would be the same. She was really proud of being an Atiny and was talking about it and happy about being part of the fandom. We are very proud of her and the way that she has been able to grow that much as a great actress. We are really looking forward to what she’s going to do in the future.

In his jaunty new memoir, Dustin Hoffman describes himself as “a guy with a bawdy sense of humor who is obsessed with sex and is always looking for attention.”

Yet in “Look at Me,” the two-time Oscar-winning actor maintains that “when a reckoning started making its way around the internet, and tearing through Hollywood, I thought it was a very good thing.” Until, in 2017, he found himself in the crosshairs of #MeToo, accused by several women of sexual misconduct from decades earlier.

Hoffman denied the allegations at the time, issuing only a vague apology. In the memoir, he admits to having “made some women uncomfortable” and perhaps being “guilty of insufficient empathy.” But “taking something from someone sexually that they didn’t want to give,” he writes, “it’s just not something I’ve ever done.”

He also says: “Different times have different rules. The way we perceive what’s appropriate all depends on the air we’re breathing.”

Draw your own conclusions.

Co-authored with New Yorker staff writer and “60 Minutes” contributor Ariel Levy, “Look at Me” is a gossipy, entertaining compendium of stories assembled in a nonchronological mosaic. It makes clear that Hoffman wasn’t the most congenial of colleagues. His intense combination of self-confidence and insecurity led to repeated clashes with directors and sometimes costars. He even quarreled with his Method acting teacher, Lee Strasberg.

About all this, he is mostly unapologetic. “I’m really not that difficult,” he insists, only partly tongue in cheek. “It’s not my fault I’m right all the time.”

Hoffman, as the unemployable actor Michael Dorsey, famously lampooned his own perfectionistic tendencies in the 1982 film “Tootsie.” He reproduces one comic scene in the memoir. Director Sydney Pollack, as Dorsey’s agent, George, tells him: “You argue with everyone. You’ve got one of the worst reputations in this town.” Dorsey indignantly defends his refusal to sit down while portraying a beefsteak tomato, declaring: “Nobody does vegetables like me!”

There is just enough candor and self-reflection in “Look at Me” to make the actor seem, on balance, sympathetic, even endearing. Certainly, Hoffman’s childhood in Los Angeles was not easy. His father, the onetime head of the Columbia Pictures prop department, aspired to directing but became instead a perennially bankrupt businessman. When Hoffman was about 12, his mother urged him to get a nose job. “No one suspected I might have any kind of intellect or talent,” he recalls. “I was designated to be the failure in the family, and I accepted my role entirely.”

A distracted student, he found focus in an acting class. There, he writes, “for the first time in my life I had girls whom I considered to be attractive approaching me.” Later, when he became famous, he recalls women waiting for him on his Manhattan doorstep.

Like many young New York actors, Hoffman struggled for years to get roles and make rent. He lost one big break — a 1964 Broadway debut in Frank Gilroy’s “The Subject Was Roses” — after suffering severe burns in a kitchen accident. He stoically showed up for rehearsals anyway but ended up in the hospital and was fired. That misfortune left him free to accept an Obie-winning part off-Broadway that led, circuitously, to his career-making 1967 role as Benjamin Braddock in “The Graduate.”

Hoffman’s philosophy of acting inevitably caused conflicts. “You can’t force me to do something that feels inauthentic to me,” he writes. “Truthful acting has to do with understanding a character’s inner life, not forcing outward expressions of emotion.” Until an actor finds his character, “blindly obeying the director isn’t going to fix anything.”

Hoffman was so stymied by his autistic character in “Rain Man” (1988) that he almost quit the movie. Director Barry Levinson’s collaborative spirit kept him engaged. But he tangled with other directors, including Pollack and Nichols, who directed “The Graduate.” Working on that film was “a terrible experience,” Hoffman remembers, but Nichols’ later praise mollified him.

Hoffman’s relationship with Steve McQueen, his costar in the 1973 film “Papillon,” followed a similar trajectory. Furious when McQueen chased a friend of his from the set, Hoffman gave McQueen the silent treatment and then ranted at him on a live microphone as the rest of the cast and crew listened in. But he concludes the story on an upbeat note, quoting a letter, four years later, from McQueen that said: “We were good, weren’t we?”

Hoffman lavishes his own encomia on friends and costars, including Tom Cruise (“Nobody worked harder”), Robin Williams (“the fastest brain I’ve ever encountered”), Gene Hackman (“hilarious”), Robert Duvall, Bill Murray and others. As the director of “Quartet” (2012), he worked with “the incomparable Maggie Smith,” known for her curmudgeonly temperament. In a backstage encounter in London years later, she greeted him warmly as “Dustin! My favorite Jew.”

The nonlinear, anecdotal structure of “Look at Me” presents some challenges. The narrative ping-pongs somewhat confusingly between Hoffman’s two wives — dancer and actor Anne Byrne, whom he divorced in 1980, and his longtime spouse, Lisa Gottsegen. It also skips around freely among his films, including “Midnight Cowboy” (1969), “Lenny” (1974), “All the President’s Men” (1976), “Marathon Man” (1976) and “Kramer vs. Kramer” (1979).

Even now, at age 89, Hoffman’s restless self-doubt persists. “I’ve never allowed myself to feel truly gratified by a positive review or deserving of a trophy,” he confesses. “But I can remember every negative review I ever received.” Only in his family life — he has six children and eight grandchildren — does he seem to permit himself unalloyed joy.

The memoir’s title, “Look at Me,” drawn from a conversation with Laurence Olivier, suggests a profound, narcissistic neediness that may be endemic to the profession. What distinguishes Hoffman, along with his unconventional leading-man looks, is the magnitude of his talent and his unyielding faith in his own instincts. No doubt many egos, and maybe hearts as well, were bruised along the way. But the camera loved him, and it is hard to argue with the results.

Klein, a cultural reporter and critic in Philadelphia, has been a three-time finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing.

On a blazing hot Silver Lake morning, ushering in yet another heatwave day, Anna Holmes and I say “no” to a steamy sidewalk table at Millie’s Cafe, opting instead for an indoor, air-conditioned spot. Our server reads our order back to us, shaking his head in theatrical disbelief. “Pancakes. French toast. Biscuit. Waffle with whipped cream.” He glances from one of us to the other. “No protein?” he asks. “Just the carbs?”

“I guess I’ll have some egg whites, too,” I cave. Not so my brunch companion who confirms, “Just the carbs.” Holmes grins, “I’m not a fan of fad diets that make women hate ourselves.”

In fact, Holmes has built a career of saying “no” to woman-hating of all kinds — starting in 2007, when she founded the boundary-pushing feminist website Jezebel, the sister site of the notoriously provocative Gawker. “I decided that NO would be our mantra of sorts,” she writes in her new book, “The Power of No: A Celebration.” “‘No’ to diet tips, ‘no’ to sexist gossip, ‘no’ to conspicuous consumption. We drove the point home again and again … creating new definitions and examples of what it means to be female.”

Raised in a biracial, working-class family in Davis, Calif., Holmes escaped to New York at 18, chasing her writer’s dream. “Davis was a safe, homogenous little town,” she tells me, spearing one of the sliced strawberries fanned prettily across her waffle. “Being Black, I wasn’t one of the homogenies. I couldn’t wait to get out.”

“The Power of No: A Celebration” by Anna Holmes

(Crown)

Accepted by several top universities, Holmes said ‘yes’ to New York University. “They gave me money,” she explains. “And they had a journalism school.” After graduating, Holmes grabbed a rung on the media ladder and started climbing: writing and editing for Glamour, InStyle and Entertainment Weekly. Holmes published her first book, “Hell Hath No Fury: Women’s Letters from the End of the Affair,” featuring a collection of breakup letters from the likes of Anaïs Nin, Charlotte Brontë and Sylvia Plath, in 2002.

“So, you’ve always been a slacker,” I say.

Holmes laughs. “I come by my drive honestly. It stems from my fear of failure. And growing up lower-middle class, without the kinds of connections the wealthier kids had.”

Next came the breakthrough media success of Jezebel. Her project quickly reached 10 million monthly views, exceeding Gawker’s. But the bold irreverence that drew droves of devoted readers to Jezebel brought contention, too. In June 2010, Jezebel reported that women’s exclusion from senior positions at “The Daily Show” — which the article called a “boys’ club” — was “frustrating and alienating” for women. The story earned an on-air mention by Jon Stewart, who announced “Jezebel thinks I’m a sexist prick” — and an open letter signed by more than 30 female “Daily Show” employees, refuting Jezebel’s allegations.

Author Anna Holmes.

(Annie Noelker / For The Times)

Weeks later, under the header “How feminist blogs like Jezebel gin up page views by exploiting women’s worst tendencies,” former Gawker employee Emily Gould wrote in Slate, “When Jezebel was founded, it proposed itself as an explicit alternative to traditional women’s magazines … but the easiest way for Jezebel writers to be provocative is to stoke readers’ insecurities — just in a different way.”

Holmes says some Jezebel haters were anti-feminist or far-right. “Others were politically aligned with Jezebel, but felt we were too pop-culture-focused. Some accused us of being snarky to other women,” she adds.

After three years, Holmes resigned. “I’d done what I went to Jezebel to do,” she says. “Also, the 14-hour workdays were threatening my marriage, my sanity and my health. I was smoking too much. Drinking too much. Gaining weight.”

Holmes said a final goodbye to her creation in 2013 by publishing “The Book of Jezebel: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Lady Things.” Despite — and because of — having founded one of the internet’s most provocative publications, she helped lift up journalists, and journalism, in her wake.

“I would follow Anna off of a cliff, professionally and personally,” says Reyhan Harmanci, Wired’s editorial director, who reported to Holmes at Topic magazine a decade ago. “She channels her curiosity in a way that opens the world to readers.”

Former Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio also lights up at the mention of Holmes’ name. “If you look back at Anna’s history of finding and developing talent, you can see her impact. Writers who’ve worked with and for her can be found on podcasts, on mastheads at major publications and on bestseller lists.” Meanwhile, New York magazine’s Emily Gould, who wrote the biting Slate critique of Jezebel in 2010, has come to admire Holmes. “Nobody’s right 100% of the time,” Gould says, “especially when publishing around the clock and reacting to news as it unfolds. My current sense of Anna is that she’s genuinely brave, clear-sighted and wise. I’m eager to read her new book.”

Post-Jezebel, Holmes wrote the “Bookends” column for the New York Times Book Review. Her byline grew a few picas when she replaced Roxane Gay as editor of the Times’ popular “Work Friend” column. Having “made it there,” Holmes decided to leave New York.

“I never considered myself a New Yorker,” she says, stirring a foam flower into her latte. “When people asked, I’d say, ‘I’m from California but I live in New York.’”

While deliberating about where to go next, Holmes says, “I got a job offer with the Obamas’ production company in L.A.”

“The Obamas?” I blurt. Holmes nods. “I was tired of New York. And wanting to be closer to my elderly mom.” In the first week of the COVID shutdown, Holmes packed her two hissing black cats, donned an N95 mask and flew to LAX. Six years later, after several moves around town, she shares the upper half of a sun-splashed 1920s duplex with Ewok and Harriet.

“I didn’t have a writing community in New York and I don’t have one here,” Holmes says about her L.A. move. “I had a media community in New York. If that exists here, I’m not invited to those parties.” She cocks her head. “Every once in a while, I wonder, ‘Does Susan Orlean have regular salons? And if so, can I please go?’”

Holmes continues to settle into a slower, more domestic groove. “I’m 53 now,” she says. “I don’t want to go out all the time. I like going to bed early. All the cliches are true of me: moving from NYC to L.A. and ending up in Silver Lake — with a Volvo, no less. In my defense, I dress like a tomboy, I don’t have tattoos and I’ve never been to Bar Stella.”

Since her big move, Holmes has written “The Power of No” and is finishing up her fourth book, a sexual memoir. Her articles on wildly divergent topics continue to appear in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Atlantic and L.A. Material.

“The Power of No” is a slim but impactful guide to the human dance between yes and no; vulnerability and ambition. The book consists of readily digestible yet smart, sophisticated bits, including quotes from luminaries, research findings, anecdotes from Holmes’ own life and others, practical tips, and lists like “Ways to Say No” (which is especially helpful to have on hand during the upcoming holiday season).

“No,” Holmes writes on Page 1: “As uttered by a woman, a provocation. Has there ever been a more fraught relationship between women and word?” By way of example, she cites what she calls “my biggest NO, my strongest rejection of what was expected of me as a woman: founding Jezebel.”

“Has writing about ‘no’ made you better at saying it?” I ask Holmes.

“I don’t purport to be good at it,” she answers. “But I’m more cognizant now of wanting to say it, at least.”

Maran, author of “The New Old Me” and other books, lives in Silver Lake.

Miranda Hart broke down in tears on the latest episode of Celebrity Traitors following the exit of Joe Lycett and spoke candidly of the connection they had struck up following her illness

Miranda Hart broke down in tears on the latest episode of Celebrity Traitors following the exit of Joe Lycett.

The comedienne, 53, had a hugely successful career in the 2010s with her eponymous sitcom but had to take time out of the spotlight after struggling with chronic fatigue. She had struck up such a close bond with fellow Faithful Joe that when he was banished from the castle, she was visibly moved.

She said: “I can’t believe how emotional I’m getting. Wow. Connection and laughter and joy are bigger than this game and to meet someone and just play and laugh – it’s all us humans need.

“I’ve had times in my life when I haven’t had that through illness and it’s brought up that in a silly sensitive soul.”

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Speaking to Traitor James Acaster, who comforted her with a hug, she said: “I haven’t played like that in so long. The floodgates just opened i guess, it suddenly wasn’t about a silly Faithful or Traitor.”

The TV star previously told how she had suffered a “tick-borne illness” while living in the USA as a teenager. At one point, she was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, before eventually being diagnosed with Lyme Disease in 2020.

The Celebrity Traitors will mark Miranda’s first mainstream television appearance in six years, and she has now explained that she jumped at the chance to take part.

She said: “My decision making in life generally, and certainly work, is follow the joy. I haven’t done much TV work for a long time, having only recently come out of long-term ill health issues and when I was offered this, my whole body sort of relaxed, I smiled, and I just wanted to jump about like a schoolgirl with joy.

“It’s just fun. It’s outdoors, it’s games. All the stuff I love. It’s play basically. And I’m passionate about encouraging people to play more generally, and this game is that in spades.

“It’s a brilliant television show – the only flaw in taking part is that as a fan of the show it will be less fun to watch it with myself in it!”

Despite her new lease of life, the former Call the Midwife star, who secretly got married in late 2024, is still living with elements of her illness and is struggling to a point but has been able to manage her symptoms and insisted she felt well enough to join Claudia Winkleman’s hit BBC game show.

She added: “I’m still living with elements of ME, and that brings fatigue and pain to manage, but I have come to a point where I feel well enough to step out, and that’s also partly why I’m doing this.

“The joy of mucking about on television again will hopefully outweigh some of the challenges. And I think it will be challenging on my body, so it’ll be interesting, and it’ll take some courage as this is a big next step.

“When you live with a chronic illness, it’s invisible, so people don’t know that you’re sitting there in pain. But then it reminds you that everybody’s got their thing. So, I’m also really looking forward to making friends and looking after each other and hopefully they can carry me up a hill or whatever we’re going to have to do!”

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