Adam Brody was a valet. Jeremy Renner was a makeup artist. Nicki Minaj famously waited tables at Red Lobster.
Nava Mau’s pre-fame day job was a little more…intense. Before her breakout role as Teri in the hit Netflix series Baby Reindeer, which earned her an Emmy nomination and a Film Independent Spirit Award, the 32-year-old worked as a counselor for survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) and hate violence.
“I never thought of the work as heavy,” Mau tells me over Zoom in late March, gently correcting my assumptions about such serious subjects. “For me, it was actually about healing.”
The actor, writer, and producer is thoughtful and articulate on the topic and surprisingly optimistic. “That was my first job out of college,” she says. “It was actually about the invincibility of the human spirit and how people find a way to love and feel joy and have dreams and fulfill them in whatever circumstance they find themselves in.”
There’s a bit of this relentless optimism in Mau’s performances, too. As Teri, she was a patient—almost too patient—and present partner; in HBO’s Generation, she was Ana, the “cool aunt” who was always on hand to give her niece an assist in the makeup department. Her latest role is a brief but impactful cameo in season five of You, where she plays a detective investigating yet another murder in the Joe Goldberg universe.
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I ask if she felt more prepared for this role than others considering her past work, and given that You deals in violence, often at the hands of an otherwise charming suitor. “Once you learn about IPV, and especially if you work in the anti-violence space, it’s impossible not to see the world through those frameworks, and I think it means that I have such deep compassion for people and the choices they make,” she says. “I think that it inherently is a lens that I see all my work through now.”
Mau is barefaced, wearing a blue smocked dress, and seated in front of an easel where a painting appears to be is in progress. (She lives with a “a very talented filmmaker and painter” in LA.) She has a relaxed, off-duty glow about her, even as our conversation zips between IPV and her go-to skincare products—the dichotomy of womanhood. When I apologize for the whiplash between questions, Mau laughs.
“Welcome to my brain,” she says.
Read our full conversation about Nava Mau’s work as well as her answers to Glamour’s Big Beauty Questions, below.
Glamour: I’m excited to chat with you about You and your guest spot in season 5. What was your experience working on You, and being in such an intense moment in the show?
Nava Mau: I just couldn’t believe that it happened, it was so fast. It was a week after I got the part that I went to New York and filmed, and so I felt like I got to come in and play. [My] episode is sort of contained, and I think it has a pretty unique structure to it compared to the rest of the series.
The main reason that I immediately said yes to the role was my excitement about working with Madeline Brewer. I saw her name on the cast list, and I was like, oh my God, what? And then, when I read the episode, I just couldn’t believe that I was going to get to work with her. She’s somebody that I’ve looked up to for a long time and I really, really admire her work. It was surreal to work with her.
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Were you a fan of the show before landing the role?
I had seen a couple episodes. There’s so many things to watch, and I always meant to come back and finish it, but I didn’t keep watching.
Between You and Baby Reindeer, you’ve worked on shows that deal in different ways with the fall out of social media, and of people reading into things, and taking them to the extremes. Has working on these projects impacted your relationship to social media at all?
Well, I have been simultaneously addicted to social media and desperately hoping for a world without social media for so many years now, so that predates my experience with Baby Reindeer and You.
I have a real love-hate relationship with social media, so I think I’m definitely even more aware of the need for security and in thinking about privacy and what I share and what I don’t share. And I think we all could benefit from that. But mostly, I think social media is dangerous because of mental health.
There are almost too many different ways that social media can impact your mental health—is there one you’re talking about specifically?
All of them. But I think there’s something about being disconnected from your present physical reality. You open this tiny little screen, this tiny little machine, and it gives you access to communications and media from all over the world, from millions and billions of people’s lives, and I think that that inherently is disorienting and disruptive to being present. It’s hard enough to be present and happy and well in today’s world.
Before your breakout roles in Generation and Baby Reindeer, is it correct that you had a different career path in the counseling space?
Yeah, I worked in anti-violence. I worked first as a legal assistant and then as a counselor with survivors of violence, primarily intimate partner violence and hate violence.
I know you haven’t seen most of You, but there is a bit of a parallel with regards to intimate partner violence. Do you find that your previous career inspires your work as an actor?
Yeah, and once you learn about IPV, and especially if you work in the anti-violence space, it’s impossible not to see the world through those frameworks. I think it means that I have such deep compassion for people and the choices they make.
There are other ideologies that are very judgmental and blame people for their own pain and suffering, and I think that I have a lot of empathy and I understand that sometimes you end up in a situation or in a dynamic that you would not have chosen if you knew that that’s where it was going to go. We’re all just doing the best we can.
Do you have any plans to continue that work simultaneously, or are you just solely focusing on Hollywood right now? Acting, writing, producing…
I’m always looking to build a bridge between the cultural work and the film and TV work, and part of that has been that I like to spotlight and support people who are focused on activism and organizing. They are the experts, they are the people that we really should look to in those fields. But I directed my second short film, All the Words But the One, and it’s coming out this year.
The story that needed to come out of me was about intimate partner violence, and I wanted to explore the concept of a healing narrative and what happens when you re-encounter somebody who has hurt you in the past and you’re faced with the possibility that maybe they’ve changed. Can they still be cast as a villain in your story if now you know their next chapter? That perspective is only because of my work with survivors, that I’m not interested in clear-cut lines of who’s a villain and who is a victim. Violence is much more of a structural and systemic issue, and that’s how I see it.
To get into the Big Beauty Questions: What is one beauty trend that you’re obsessed with right now?
I’m horrible with the trends. I like what I like, and I get inspiration from the ether, and trends pop in there sometimes. I would say I love when trends just align with what I’m already doing. I’m like, great, that works.
I saw something called “ghost waves” yesterday, and I Googled it, and I was like, oh, that’s literally me. My favorite way to deal with my hair is that I get out of the shower and I literally don’t touch it. I towel dry it in a very specific way, and then I place it, and then I can’t move my neck and I can’t bend over for three hours. And my hair looks beautiful.
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My go-to for just quick simple makeup out the door is my Haus Labs concealer and my Rare Beauty liquid blush. If I’m not running late, I’ll do a little lip liner and maybe some brown smudged eye liner.
Haus Labs Triclone Skin Tech Hydrating + De-Puffing Concealer
Sephora
Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush
Amazon
Oh, the things we do. Do you have any beauty rules that you swear by?
Moisturize twice a day. And sleep with a humidifier.
What is one beauty rule that you think is BS?
A 13-step skincare routine. My dermatologist told me that it is better to do the least amount possible, use the least amount of products possible, and I have only gradually added things in here and there.
Fill in the blank, I love my hair when…
I love my hair when it’s soft, shiny, and not stiff.
Do you have anything in your hair right now? Like color or a treatment?
Oh yeah, I have remnants of the journey. I got highlights last year, and then I did a dark gloss on top of it because I needed to for the Golden Globes. Now it’s faded, and it’s perfect.
Fill in the blank, I feel most beautiful when…
I feel most beautiful when I’m dancing.
Do you remember the first beauty product you ever used?
It’s probably that scrub, Clean & Clear.
With the microbeads?
The microbeads, yep. In high school, definitely that. And then there was also one that was a peach, is that St. Ives?
St. Ives, yeah. Do you have any beauty fails?
I bleached my eyebrows once for a photo shoot. They were like, “We want to paint them to look more blonde.” And that was great, and I loved it. But then I tried to do that for an in-person thing and I looked like I was ill. Sometimes you want to give Sick Girl, but for the event I was supposed to really give Refined Lady, and it was just really not working out. Deep regrets. Deep regrets about that.
Bleaching in general is a really hard one to get right.
Yeah, you have to get it to the exact shade, and we did not get it that time.
You can only use three products for the rest of your life. What are they and why?
Vanicream, because I’ve been using it for a decade, and I literally start to have eczema if I skip it for 36 hours. I’m not equipped for the apocalypse. That will be genuinely the first thing in my go-bag when everything comes tumbling down.
And my SkinCeuticals sunscreen. It’s this tinted, beautiful finish. Sometimes that’s all I wear, and I go out and feel great. And my humidifier.
Best on Amazon: Vanicream Moisturizing Skin Cream
Amazon
Ulta
SkinCeuticals Sheer Physical UV Defense SPF 50 Mineral Sunscreen
Dermstore
What colors are you loving for your nails right now?
At this very moment, I need to be completely bare because my nails are ruined.
What’s your getting ready music?
Well, it depends what character I’m trying to get into, so it’s varied. But Tyla, Beyoncé, Rihanna.
How much time do you spend getting ready? Say, for the red carpet?
I think the best that we can do is two and a half hours, and sometimes it’s like four.
What is your favorite way to take a moment for yourself?
I like to take a moment to just breathe. And so, if it’s just looking in the mirror and doing breaths and closing my eyes, that’s one version. The other version is in the car. The music’s so loud, and I’m belting along to the words.
What’s your power perfume, and why?
Honestly, I’m still on the hunt for a signature scent. I went to the Jil Sander show, and they were launching their perfume, and the honey scent is phenomenal. It makes me feel scrumptious and delectable.
What is the last Instagram rabbit hole you went down?
I just went to a screening of No Other Land that was put on by an organization called Latino Muslim Unity, and I was very excited to meet the organizers and connect with them.
I literally saw the documentary the night before the news broke that the co-director had been kidnapped, and it just underscored the importance of people getting to see that documentary. That documentary has not received distribution in the United States despite winning the Oscar for best documentary feature film, and we cannot afford to ignore it anymore.
Sorry for the subject whiplash here, but what is your favorite emoji?
Welcome to my brain. My favorite emoji? I think it’s the emoji with the Xs on his eyes, like the dead emoji. I’m very dramatic.
If you could change one thing about beauty perceptions, either on social media or in Hollywood, what would that be?
I think that we are seeing that so many of us want to celebrate individuality and celebrate a wide variety of faces, bodies, skin tones, and backgrounds, and so I just hope that because so much of beauty revolves around the beauty industry, that the industry can recognize what people actually want, which is to feel celebrated and represented.
Who are women who inspire you the most right now?
Always Bamby Salcedo, of course. The director and the cast of All We Imagine as Light—it’s a film made in India that was nominated for some Indie Spirit Awards. And my mom.
The post Nava Mau’s Biggest Beauty Fail Is So Relatable appeared first on Glamour.
