Cailee Spaeny is a phenom if we’ve ever seen one. Though a relatively fresh face in the scene, her filmography boasts a multi-faceted range, with each film peeling back a layer to her delicate persona.
Main character energy may be a syndrome for most, but it’s safe to say that’s simply a factual reality for Cailee. Her breakout role came in the blockbuster Pacific Rim Uprising, where she joined the main cast as a driven cadet with a killer instinct. Perhaps a daunting task for some, but one that she did with gusto. She landed her dream stint playing the titular role in the A24 film Priscilla, working with Sofia Coppola, a director whom she’s always admired as she tells Vogue Singapore in her cover story for the April issue. Her nuanced performance beautifully captured the rocky intricacies of Elvis and Priscilla’s mystifying relationship, earning her a stamp of approval from Priscilla herself and a Golden Globe nomination. She continued her main lead streak in Civil War as gritty young journalist Jessie Collin, before portraying a fearless Rain Carradine in the Alien: Romulus. It leaves little room for doubt of the talent that Cailee holds, as she deftly illustrates her versatility in her repertoire.
And she shows no signs of stopping in 2026, as the 28-year-old stars in the much-anticipated second season of Beef. In the black comedy universe, she’s Ashley, a Gen-Z country club staff whose life gets rapidly entangled with fellow club members alongside Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan and Song Kang-ho. Working with an acclaimed roster seems to be a signature of Spaeny’s, who boasts a star-studded co-star lineup across her works, with the likes of Glenn Close, Daniel Craig, Wagner Moura and Kirsten Dunst to name.
It’s clear Spaeny is a rising stalwart, but there leaves much to the imagination on who the star really is. Look no further as Vogue Singapore rounds up all there is to know about Cailee Spaeny, our April ‘Retrofuture’ issue cover darling.
1 / 5
She was raised religious
Raised as one of nine in Missouri out in the Midwest, Cailee’s childhood was simple. The conventional path of finishing school, working and getting married paired with an extremely orthodox religious background painted a picture of a life that was all too conventional for Cailee, who yearned to break the mould. She’d eventually leave formal education at 13, before working shifts at an amusement park and rising to be the unstoppable force she’s become. When eventually approached for her role in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, she found herself resonating with the overarching themes of faith and struggle. “He [director Rian Johnson] grew up in a similar way, he grew up in the church, a very Christian background and it was an opportunity to interrogate that part of my life,” Cailee shared in an interview with Today.
2 / 5
She's musically inclined
From a young age, it was clear that the arts was what Cailee was meant to do. Acting opportunities didn’t come until her mid-teens, but that didn’t stop her from dabbling in music. She embarked on piano and guitar lessons at eleven and even started her own band, where she was the frontwoman, naturally. She also tried her hand at dance and theatre, even participating in talent shows with the pop star Chappell Roan.
3 / 5
She's got a neat party trick
We’re well aware of her artistic range and versatility, but trust the starlet to have a little trick up her sleeve. In a Wake Up Dead Man press interview with fellow cast Mila Kunis and Kerry Washington, Cailee deftly demonstrated her skill at performing a sneeze on command. And if all else fails, she can depend on her newfound cello skills, courtesy of her role as a cellist in the murder mystery. Consider us convinced.
4 / 5
She's just like us
Stars, they’re just like us, they say. A little hard to believe but some moments lead us to concede. Take Cailee’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, for example. She’d recounted her time at the 81st Golden Globes (she was nominated for her Priscilla performance) where she met Taylor Swift, chatting briefly with the pop maven. Trust her legion of fans can only dream of such an encounter, and Cailee was no exception. It left her completely starstruck—“I could’ve said so many things like I loved your last album or ‘wow, the Eras Tour’ but instead I just said “your hair is so pretty!” she abashedly shared on the talk show.
5 / 5
She's found a mentor in Kirsten Dunst
Cailee has come a long way when it comes to her relationship with Kirsten Dunst. Her first memory of the actress was of her younger self sitting in the movie theatre watching Dunst in Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man. “I remember having a visceral reaction as a little kid watching her on-screen,” Cailee recalled in an interview with film social platform Letterboxd. It was Dunst’s collaborative work with Sofia Coppola in The Virgin Suicides, and later Marie Antoinette, that made Cailee realise acting was her life’s ambition. Little did she know that life would eventually come full circle, when she starred alongside Dunst in Civil War, forming a kinship that would eventually land her the role in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla. The stars do align after all.
