What You Never Knew About Margaret Qualley
Not too long ago, you probably had never heard of Margaret Qualley — or, if you had, you probably only knew her as the daughter of Andie MacDowell, the actress from "Groundhog Day" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (via IMDb). However, these days, Qualley is known more for her own work rather than her famous mother. Ever since 2016, Qualley has been making waves as an actress, with roles in "The Nice Guys," "The Leftovers," and a Kenzo ad. However, in 2019, Qualley really burst onto the scene as Pussycat in the highly anticipated Quentin Tarantino movie "Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood." Since then, Qualley has been exceptionally busy, taking on role after role (via IMDb). It's clear that she's set to take Hollywood by storm just as her mother did before her.
Even though Qualley is quickly becoming a household name, there's still a lot we don't know about the actress. Curious to find out more about Andie MacDowell's talented daughter? Here are some of the things you never knew about Margaret Qualley.
Margaret Qualley has a conservative sense of style
Margaret Qualley is descended from Hollywood royalty — plus, she's quickly on her way to becoming Hollywood royalty herself. While she could easily wear flamboyant designer clothes, the star prefers to dress a little more conservatively.
In a 2017 interview for The Cut, she wore a maxi black skirt, a baggy black sweater, and black flats. Funny enough, Qualley was promoting "Novitate," a film about nuns, at the time. As director Maggie Betts joked in the interview, "Margaret's been living in a convent, that's why she's dressed like this." Qualley explained, "You guys, this is just how I dress. Maggie always makes fun of me for dressing like a nun in real life."
Qualley has been spotted around New York wearing some (very stylish) nun-like clothes, including a green pinafore and a few maxi prairie girl dresses. While Qualley seems to love her old-school, conservative, day-to-day style, we have to say, she definitely pulls off the look!
She loved this childhood movie because of her real life story
Margaret Qualley's parents split up in 1999 (via the Daily Mail). As Qualley explained to James Corden, she ended up turning to one of her favorite childhood movies as a source of hope: "The Parent Trap." "Being a child of divorce, I was fairly glued onto 'The Parent Trap,'" she said. "The Parent Trap," as we all know, is a movie about two divorced parents who eventually end up getting back together.
Qualley loved "The Parent Trap" so much, she tried to convince her parents to get back together because of it. "I'd continuously be like, 'Hey, guys, I don't know if you've seen 'The Parent Trap' but things turned out pretty great for them, right?'" Qualley recalled.
While her parents didn't get back together, Qualley's mother, actress Andie MacDowell, did start dating Dennis Quaid, who played the father in "The Parent Trap": just one of his many movie roles over the years. Apparently, Qualley blamed herself for forcing her mom to watch the movie! "I felt like I'd ruined my life, my parents' life," Qualley joked. What a hilarious story!
Before becoming an actress, Margaret Qualley wanted to be a professional dancer
Even though Margaret Qualley grew up around movies, she didn't initially see herself following in her mother's footsteps. In fact, she was set on a different artistic career path. As a child, she was a very serious dancer. As Qualley told Vogue, she started dancing when she was just 4 years old. When she was 14, she went to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and, at 16, she moved to New York City to study at the American Ballet Theater. Suddenly, in the middle of a dance class, Qualley realized that she was dancing for the wrong reasons. "I thought, 'I'm hating this class. I'm doing it for all the wrong reasons. I'm only here because I want to be better at school on Monday,'" Qualley recalled. So, she left and never looked back. "It was my big dream, and I threw it all away," she said.
Even though Qualley gave up dancing, it did help her land an ad with Kenzo in 2016 in which she plays a crazed dancer at an awards show. Watching the ad, it's clear that Qualley is a seriously talented dancer — but her emotional performance shows that acting was always her true calling.
Margaret Qualley had an interesting audition process for Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood
Margaret Qualley's real breakout role came in the 2019 Quentin Tarantino movie "Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood." In the film, Qualley plays a Charles Manson disciple called Pussycat, and the majority of her scenes are with none other than Brad Pitt. At first, Qualley didn't think she'd gotten the role. As she told W Magazine, she sang the song "Always is Always Forever" for her audition. "Then I didn't get the part ... And I just went on with my life," she said.
However, things soon got a little spooky. Apparently, her dad invited her for a visit in Panama, telling her about a Tarantino movie — and he didn't even know about her failed audition. So, Qualley booked her flight and left for Panama. While she was there, she got a callback for the film. "It was crazy that my dad called it and now he feels like he has magical powers," she said. Sounds like Qualley was destined to play the part!
The actress didn't buy furniture for her apartment for 10 years
Margaret Qualley moved to New York City when she was just 16 years old to study ballet (via Vogue). Most of us would probably imagine that the daughter of a Hollywood star, who's also an up-and-coming star in her own right, would be living in a huge brownstone. However, it turns out, Qualley was living in a much more humble studio apartment. And, as Qualley explained on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," it took her a pretty long time to settle in. "It's taken 10 years, but I finally buckled down and I bought some furniture," she said. "For a very long time I've had a mattress on the floor and a light from Ikea."
She even showed a picture of her empty apartment with a plate of food and a laptop on the floor during her appearance. Eventually, as Qualley explained, she realized that her living situation was getting ridiculous — after all, she had just been in a Quentin Tarantino movie! Getting real furniture made life a lot easier for her. For one thing, she said, she no longer had to hoist herself off of her mattress onto the floor!
Margaret Qualley seriously loves books
Margaret Qualley is a self-proclaimed bookworm. In 2020, she starred in the film "My Salinger Year," which tells the real-life story of a publishing assistant. It turns out, the role was pretty close to home for Qualley, as she explained in an interview for the film. "A great book is a great feeling," she said.
For Qualley, reading and journaling are key to her mental health routine, as she told Interview Magazine. In fact, as Qualley went on to say, novels become like "friends" for the actress, keeping her company when she feels lonely. Apparently, she reads a wide range of books — everything from self-help, to the classics, to contemporary fiction. One of her favorite authors is Donna Tartt. "Doesn't she feel kind of like 'Harry Potter' for adults?" Qualley said. "She creates these worlds that are so delicious and cozy-feeling." In fact, when Qualley read Tartt's novel, "The Goldfinch" — just one of the books that your favorite celebs love — she said she was actually super sad to finish it!
Margaret Qualley once dated Shia LaBeouf
Margaret Qualley met Shia LaBeouf on the set of a music video for her sister, Rainsford. The pair dated for just a few months in early 2021. During this time, they were seen going on hikes and jogs around Los Angeles. LaBeouf even picked Qualley up from the airport. However, the relationship was fairly short lived.
Qualley began dating LaBeouf around the same time his ex-girlfriend, FKA Twigs, publicly accused him of sexual battery. Many people criticized Qualley on social media for her seeming support of the actor. In January 2021, Qualley and LaBeouf reportedly broke up. One source told People, "They broke up on Saturday. They're just in different places in their lives," while another source suggested that the scandal surrounding LaBeouf had been part of Qualley's decision to end things. In February, Qualley posted a picture of FKA Twigs' interview in Elle, in which she recounted her traumatic time with LaBeouf. Qualley simply captioned the photo, "Thank you."
The actress got her start as a model
As a teenager, Margaret Qualley dabbled in modeling. It seemed to make sense — her father had been a model, and her mother has had huge success as the face of L'Oreal. However, the lifestyle didn't agree with Qualley. As she recalled to C Magazine, she spent a month in Paris when she was 16 years old as part of her modeling career. However, she became lonely and struggled to make friends. Apparently, she even started talking to herself.
Even though Qualley found the actual job pretty easy, she ended up quitting after only a few months. "I was fortunate enough to be able to capitalize on the way that I looked in a society that will pay you to look that way," she said. "But after about four months I was like, 'I'm lucky and I'm privileged ... but this is making me very unhappy.' So I quit." Lucky for her, her first acting job was just around the corner.
She had to grow out her armpit hair for a 2019 movie
Actors and actresses sometimes have to do some pretty strange things to get ready for their films. In the 2019 film "Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood" Margaret Qualley was asked to grow out her armpit hair, as she was playing a 1960s hippie. And if you've seen the movie, you know that she has a lot of armpit hair on display! In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, she said, "I can really, I guess, grow a lot of armpit hair." Apparently, she only started growing her hair a few weeks before shooting began — "but by the end I really had some!" she said.
While Qualley doesn't love the look for herself, she admits that she was interested to see how it felt. "It's definitely a cool look that people do," as she put it. However, once the film was finished, Qualley wasted no time in getting rid of all that hair. In fact, she actually got it waxed off (one of the better ways to remove it) to rid herself of every last hair!
Is Margaret Qualley dating musician Jack Antonoff?
In 2021, Margaret Qualley made headlines when she was spotted in New York City with a new boyfriend, Jack Antonoff. You may know Antonoff as the lead singer of the Bleachers, or you may know him as the co-writer behind many of the songs sung by artists like Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Sara Bareilles, and many more. He was previously romantically linked to Lena Dunham and reportedly dated Lorde (via People). But now, it seems, sparks are flying between him and Qualley. The rumors began when Antonoff and Qualley were spotted kissing and getting ice cream in August 2021.
While the pair has only been spotted in public once, it seems their relationship is legit — they certainly look very comfortable with each other. We hope we get to see more of their new relationship soon and find out all the details.
She was passionate about the environment as a child
Most Hollywood stars become passionate about their chosen causes once they've racked up a following — however, for Margaret Qualley, the environment has always been an important issue. As she explained to Hunger, she wasn't what she would call "popular" as a kid, because she was too busy trying to help the planet. "I used to put up signs of cows being slaughtered in my North Carolina high school and I would rummage through the trash in the cafeteria to separate recycling," she said. "I'm definitely [climate] conscious and it's definitely something I think about."
In fact, she's still working on limiting her impact on the environment. She added that she wishes someone like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Elizabeth Warren would one day become president and make changes to help the planet. Qualley is apparently a proud supporter of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, which aims to protect the world's remaining rainforests. We hope to see her continuing to speak up about the climate crisis as her platform grows!
The actress got to play her hero in a movie
In 2019, Margaret Qualley starred in "Fosse/Verdon" as Ann Reinking, a musical theater actress, dancer, and choreographer who worked with Bob Fosse. As Qualley explained in an interview with GoldDerby, she was well "aware" of Reinking. In fact, Reinking was one of Qualley's "heroes," which made the role "very daunting" for her to play.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Qualley explained that she got to speak to the real-life Reinking, which made the job a little less scary. "I basically told her how petrified I was, how much I've looked up to her for so long, and she ended up giving me a pep talk," Qualley recalled. "We ended up talking probably once a week for the entire shoot. She's an angel."
We can't imagine how scary it must be to try to step into your hero's shoes — but, by the sounds of things, her weekly chats with Reinking certainly helped get her through it!
Margaret Qualley finally got to work with her mom in a movie
Most actresses could only dream of having someone like Andie MacDowell for a mother. It's no wonder then that Margaret Qualley has always been desperate to collaborate with her mom on a project. Her chance to work with her mother finally came in 2021 on the Netflix series "Maid," in which the pair play characters based on a real-life mother-daughter duo. As Qualley told Net-A-Porter, "I've always wanted to work with my mom, I just didn't think it would be this early on in my career ... my mom's so incredibly talented and to have the opportunity to work with her is an honor."
Plus, working with her mom gave Qualley and MacDowell the chance to spend quality time together. As Qualley told Interview Magazine, the shoot took place during lockdown. So, she and her mother developed a routine: "I go and have dinner with her on Sundays. She cooks for me, and it's great," she said.
As Qualley explained in an interview with The Zoe Report, it had actually been her idea for MacDowell to join the cast. "My mom's career is so incredible and expansive and now she has the luxury of only doing things that mean the most to her. I feel lucky that 'Maid' fit the bill," she said. Who knows, maybe Qualley has a future in casting as well as acting!