Growing up in front of the eyes of the public isn’t something Malia Obama is not familiar with. Being the daughter of the former president of the United States, Barak Obama, she has spent her life under the limelight, and even today, the media is interested in her every move.
The 25-year-old just presented her directorial debut, The Heart, at the Sundance Film Festival. In the Sundance Institute’s “Meet the Artist” spotlight video, Malia Obama revealed she was going by the name Malia Ann, thus ditching her moniker.
Malia, who was born Malia Ann Obama on July 4, 1998, has her middle name honoring her paternal grandmother, who died from ovarian cancer at the age of 52 in 1995, and now, she has dropped her last name in favor of her middle name.
Speaking of the short film for which she served as both director and screenwriter, Malia said. “This is an odd little story, somewhat of fable, about a man grieving the death of his mother after she leaves him an unusual request in her will.” Further, in the YouTube clip of the short film, she wrote, “The film is about lost objects and lonely people and forgiveness and regret, but I also think it works hard to uncover where tenderness and closeness can exist in these things.”
The Heat isn’t her first attempt into the profession. Previously, the Harvard grad worked in the writers’ room on Donald’s Amazon Prime show Swarm, co-writing the fifth episode, “Girl, Bye.”
“She’s a very professional person,” Swarm‘s co-creator Janine Nabers said Malia in a January 2023 Vanity Fair interview. “She’s an incredible writer and artist. She made significant contributions… She’s very, truly committed to her craft.”
Swarm‘s executive producer Stephen Glover also spoke of Malia. “We can’t be easy on her just because she’s the [former] President’s daughter,” he told Vanity Fair. “No, she is really down-to-earth and cool. So it’s not an issue at all.”
Malia Obama isn’t the first celebrity who made the decision to ditch their family name. Other celebs have done that before, including Nicolas Cage, who changed his last name from Coppola, and Angelina Jolie, who dropped her surname, Voight.
For her directorial debut, Malia looked cozy, with minimal makeup, her curly hair down with small braids scattered throughout.
Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis Hold Hands on ‘Freaky Friday 2’ Set as Sequel Begins Filming
It has been reported by Walt Disney Studios that the sequel will open in theaters in 2025.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan are back together.
In a recent picture taken on the set of Freaky Friday 2, Lohan, 37, and Curtis, 65, join hands and smile more than 20 years after their first comedy came out in 2003. They switched positions and sat on the other star’s trailer’s steps.
The news, which was revealed by Walt Disney Studios on June 24, verified that the sequel is now in production and scheduled for a 2025 theatrical release.
The new movie is “in the process,” according to Lohan, who told PEOPLE in March that she was “excited to work with Jamie again and see how much further we can take it.”
We chat about it virtually every other day anyhow, so I think this will be a lot of fun,” Lohan continued.
The two costars got back together for an interview with The New York Times to celebrate Freaky Friday’s 20th anniversary, during which they talked about their “easy” friendship.
“After meeting in an office and going through the read-through, it was really game on.” Curtis remarked, “I had to let go of all control mechanisms and just let it fly. Lindsay was equally supple as I was. She has an extremely remarkable acting facility if you watch “The Parent Trap.” It was a significant task. It was a large-scale event. Our connection was also quite simple.
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