TIME has released its #Time100, the annual list of 100 Most Influential People for 2023.
Source: TIME 100 / TIME 100
The list includes the most prominent figures throughout different industries, including artists, innovators, and icons. The artists to make the list are some of the most famous entertainers in Hollywood right now, featuring names like Michael B. Jordan, Doja Cat, Zoe Saldaña, Angela Bassett, Beyoncé, and Steve Lacy.
Along with their selection, each artist had a friend and/or collaborator write about why they made the list, offering some interesting insight into how their peers view them.
For Michael B. Jordan, his longtime business partner and friend Ryan Coogler gushed over just how talented and hard-working the actor and director is.
“With this year’s Creed III, he took on a new role—feature-film director—and handled it with aplomb. I knew he would…The world sees the press tours, the interviews, and the edited behind-the-scenes footage, but I am deeply familiar with the reality,” Coogler wrote. “Marathon conversations with actors. Budget meetings when you realize cutting part of the story is the only way forward. Postproduction hours when your own mistakes laugh at you from the footage. It’s like climbing a mountain summit through enemy territory with your heart exposed.”
“But I knew Mike had it in him,” he continued. “Because over that quarter-century of work, nothing was given to him. Everything was earned. And I strongly believe that his best work is still to come.”
Elvis director Baz Luhrmann spoke about Doja Cat, who contributed to the 2022 film’s soundtrack.
“I’ve worked with all kinds of artists, but with a certain few you connect on a deeper level. For me, Doja Cat is one of those artists,” Luhrmann wrote. “She’s at the top because she works to bring everything she does to the highest possible level….She can’t be boxed in. She’s a rapper, a singer, a performance artist—she’s the canvas on which she expresses a character or an idea.”
