10 minute read
NAT KELLEY
Words By Elisabeth Hower | January 27 2022
Woman On Fire
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Nathalie Kelley is not only creating the life she wants to live, but the world she wants to live in.
To say Nathalie Kelley is effusive is an understatement, an accomplishment over Zoom. Barely a minute into our interview, we’ve deep-dived into the balance of the Yin and Yang of the Earth, the effect of a capitalistic mindset on our collective mental health, and a glimpse into her Incan ancestry. She’ll tell me later that she’s “terrible conversation at a party,” because of her aversion for small talk. Excellent. Me too. Though it’s early evening, she’s bright eyed and bushy tailed, dressed in a cream pajama set she hasn’t taken off all day. By the end of the interview, I understood that’s simply because she has far too many other passions on her plate to bother with changing.
Nat wears vintage Gown by Richard Tyler Jacket by Alassandra Petersen from Proyecto Republica, Jewelry by Kuu
Kelley is Peruvian by birth, but moved to Australia with her single mother by age three. However, she grew up in a home rich with an appreciation of the history and culture they left behind. Her mother was proud of their heritage, and made sure her daughter was, too. When asked why they left Peru, considering the obvious love, her answer was simple: “Poverty.” She explains further, “the first time I went back to Peru, I was shocked and saddened to see [the conditions] indigenous people were living in.” Perhaps even more heartbreaking is the way she describes how undervalued their wisdom is. Her ancestors are nothing short of brilliant bio-scientists. “At the height of their empire, [Incans] were feeding 10 million people without a single drop of [pesticides.] Pure organic farming. And creating thousands of species of plants. All the potatoes you know today were created by my ancestors.” It’s clear to her that very wisdom holds many answers to our modern day environmental challenges, among others. But so far, too few are listening. That’s partly why she spends so much of her time advocating for indigenous peoples, their human rights, and rights to their land. For instance, Maxima, a documentary about an indigenous Peruvian female farmer and her fight against corporate greed is just one project she’s thrown her support behind. Not to mention those she’s creating herself. Kelley knows she’s got a platform, and she’s not afraid to use it. In fact, it’s what drives her. And what’s more? She’s pressing that pedal to the metal.
Her fire and grit got me inspired. It also got me curious. Why? Of course these are more than worthy causes to get behind, but it breaks the model of celebrity we’ve been sold. Kelley has got all the makings of a classic Hollywood starlet, and with 1.6 million followers on Instagram, she’s primed to don designer dresses, shoes with red bottoms, and Post Mates every meal. Instead, she’s committed to the #NoNewClothes movement to promote sustainability and fight fast fashion. Not even the fancy threads a magazine stylist can access will tempt her. For her shoot, no conventionally created textiles were entertained, as “the textile industry is a major contributor to pollution and climate change.” That intention and mindfulness extends to her skincare, too. When looking at what she’s about to put on her skin, she says, “I always ask, would I want to drink it? Because that’s what’s happening. It’s going into our water.” Nathalie Kelley has set some boundaries, and I am here for it. “There was a time when I was younger when I was on the Hollywood train of ticking off boxes,” she explains. ‘Oh, you make a certain amount of money and you get to buy a nice car or you get to have a house.’ I feel like I’ve spent the past two years or more really deprogramming those models of success for myself. Because if everybody in the world lived like we live, or like we’re aspiring to live in this first world, we’d need four earths to accommodate the resources.” She repeats: “Four earths.” It’s a fact that she’s doubtless stated before, but the gravity seems to hit her with the same weight as the moment she learned it.
Was she always this passionate about the planet? Yes. Sort of. She speaks about her mother and grandmother, who was a farmer, and the great reverence they have for the land. However, it was more recently that she recognized her responsibility, as well as her abilities to do something more about it. The fires in Australia in 2019 and 2020 ravaged the country on a catastrophic level, burning 46 million acres, caused the death of 34 people, and upwards of 3 billion animals, some species of whom are believed to now be extinct. And it shifted Kelley’s perspective irrevocably. According to her, the fires “were a catalyst for me hitting the brakes on this trajectory of what I thought life as an actress and success as an actress would look like. I realized I’d been promoting all kinds of wrong things. Flying around the world to sit front row at fashion week to sell more clothes.” She muses, “What meaning does that have in a world that has no water left or that is all burnt up? Those fires showed me what our world could look like if we don’t start taking care of our soil, if we don’t start looking at the interconnectedness of all of our choices. The way that we eat, the way that we clothe ourselves, our purchasing choices… they all have an effect somewhere on the planet.”
Nat wears vintage Suit by Stella McCartney, Jewelry by Kuu
Nat wears vintage Suit by Stella McCartney, Jewelry by Kuu
Retail therapy, for instance. Who among us isn’t guilty of imbibing the occasional shopping spree on a bad day? However, “we tend to turn a blind eye to the drain on our resources to supply the retail that’s supposed to heal us,” she says. In other words, we don’t like thinking about how much water it took to make that shirt we wore once, maybe twice, and tossed. Further, “young women are committing suicide at higher rates than ever before,” proving that retail therapy hasn’t even worked as therapy therapy; it’s yet another tragic consequence to the messaging and marketing that plays up unrealistic ideals to increase their bottom line. Kelley instead ascribes to the indigenous perspective on resources. Rather than focusing on what we can “get” from nature and its resources, “it’s about belonging to the web of life,” she says. “We’re no longer separate from nature. We are nature… and we could be really beneficial to all species, but right now we’ve been pretty parasitic.”
Nat wears Jacket by Alassandra Petersen from Proyecto Republica
Nat wears Cream Cami by Sarah Janks Jacket by Alassandra Petersen from Proyecto Republica, Vintage Fossil Necklace from Decades
To set her beliefs into action, Kelley has co-founded Ritual Community, a class platform aimed at “creating benevolent leaders,” where women and men can “cultivate a connection to Self, Community & the Sacred.” In fact, mid-interview, she pauses. “Do you have two minutes? I’m just setting up for class and I have to do a lighting test, but I’d like to keep talking. Is that okay?” The platform offers classes for the full moon, as was the plan for this evening, but also those centered on Indigenous Allyship, Living A Zero Waste Lifestyle, How To Compost, and Wealth Redistribution. It’s work she’s passionate about, and seems to ground her. Kelley urges us to “look around at the world and ask, is this really working for everyone?” She recognizes her position and privilege, as well as the cost. “I don’t want to live in a hierarchy where I’m at the top and the people at the bottom are suffering in order for me to get my two day delivery from Amazon.”
On top of growing this community, she’s a board member of Kiss The Ground, a non-profit who’s mission it is “to awaken people to the possibilities of ” regenerative agriculture. The latter also has a documentary of the same name on Netflix, narrated by Woody Harrelson. She’s also on the board of the Fungi Foundation, another NGO focused on preserving fungi and educating people about their importance to the global ecosystem. Because of the nutrients they supply to the soil and 90% of plant life, we quite literally cannot live without them, not for long anyway. Kelley joined the organization after being inspired by the film Fantastic Fungi and reaching out to the filmmakers to see how she could help spread the word.
Nat wears Cream Cami by Sarah Janks Jacket by Alassandra Petersen from Proyecto Republica, Vintage Levi’s and Vintage Fossil Necklace from Decades
Nat wears Top by Alejandra Raw from Casa R - San Miguel De Allende, and Jewelry by Kuu
With all that fills her day, I was starting to understand why she stayed in pajamas. But let’s not forget, Nathalie Kelley is also an actress. Where, and how on earth, does that fit into the schedule?
We circle back to our earlier conversation of Yin and Yang. The pandemic began just as she finished shooting The Baker and the Beauty for nine months in Puerto Rico. She tells me she’d have spent a great deal of time following that resting and recovering anyway. Which is to say nothing of how fulfilling it was to shoot. Kelley and the cast knew they were “capturing something special,” and it was this show that taught her “content can be medicinal.” She received more fan mail for this project, which went to number one on Netflix within its first week of release, than any other. Fans told her how much hope the show gave them, and “made them believe in love again.” It became a balm to many during these last two years.
Nat wears Top by Alejandra Raw from Casa R - San Miguel De Allende, and Jewelry by Kuu
The experience has made her cautious about what projects she wants to take on next. “There’s been a lot of work that I’ve turned down in the last 2 years.” Why? “Content can also be poison. I don’t want to be a part of that anymore. I don’t want to tell any stories where violence against women is glorified. Even if I’m the cop solving the murder. I don’t care. That happens enough in real life. What’s the antidote to that?” Kelley’s not saying she only wants to participate in G-rated films, however, she’s interested in asking, “What’s the intersection between entertainment, education and elevation? Elevating our consciousness, of where we want to go as a human race?”
It’s nearly time for her class to start, and Nathalie apologizes a second time for not having more, well, time to give. It feels fitting. Pouring her passions into each of her waking moments has become her lifestyle, one where it’s cool to care and where social media platforms aren’t about promoting your own voice, but supporting the voiceless. I’ll take that over Louboutins any day.
Nat wears Vintage Top from Casa R - San Miguel De Allende, Vintage Levi’s and Jewelry by Ippolita
Nat wears Vintage Top from Casa R - San Miguel De Allende, Vintage Levi’s and Jewelry by Ippolita & Kuu
PHOTOGRAPHY : GLENN NUTLEY @THECONTENTCOLLECTIVE HAIR STYLIST : ANDREW ZEPEDA @ANDREWZEPEDA MAKE-UP ARTIST: STEVI CHRISTINE @NATURALLYBY STYLIST : LINDA MEDVENE @LINDAMEDVENESTYLING
