Cannes Film Festival: Backstage at the ‘Vanity Fair’ Dinner for Ethan Coen’s ‘Honey Don’t’

It’s the last day of competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2025. We’re on Copal Beach, in the heart of the Croisette. The cast of Ethan Coen’s Honey Don’t has gathered before climbing the steps in front of the Palais des Festival. First, the cast and crew will celebrate their Cannes moment with Vanity Fair.

Cohen, the director of this black and queer comedy, is here with his second solo feature after Drive-Away Dolls (2023). So is screenwriter Tricia Cooke and the actors at the top of the call sheet: Aubrey Plaza; Lera Abova, very elegant in a white Nina Ricci suit (and saved by Plaza’s stylist Jessica Paster when a button suddenly comes off), and Charlie Day. There’s also new talent, bathed in one of the most beautiful sunsets at the Cannes Film Festival: Jacnier, the Puerto Rican-born actor, and Talia Ryder, both taking their turn on the huge banquet-style table facing the sea.

Talia Ryder, Tricia Cooke, Ethan Coen, Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza and Charlie Day climb the Cannes Film Festival steps for Honey Don’t.

Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Getty Images

A Cannes dinner gives all of them an opportunity to discuss the 78th edition of the annual film festival with their team, as well as producers Peter Kujawski and Jason Cassidy—to talk about their favorites, their hopes, and their bets on the Palme d’Or and future awards. It’s a dinner that’s all about complicity, encounters… and speed. Honey Don’t is in competition, so it’s time to get changed: the Festival steps, right next door, are the next spot where the whole team will rendezvous.

Original story in VF France.