Woman of the HourBreakoutAutumn Best on Navigating Hollywood as a Queer Person with a Disability: It's ‘Who I Am’ (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Autumn Best at the ‘Woman of the Hour’ premiere on Oct. 10.Photo:Tommaso Boddi/Getty

Tommaso Boddi/Getty

Autumn Bestwas working at a coffee shop in Chicago when she got an email offering her the opportunity to audition forAnna Kendrick’s directorial debutWoman of the Hour.

Best, 22 — whose only other professional screen credits were several episodes of The CW’s sci-fi series4400— didn’t think she had a chance in landing a role as one of Alcala’s would-be-victims.

“Every time I get an audition that’s for a biopic type movie or something that’s based off of real life, I always kind of write it off quickly because I only have one hand,” says Best, who was born with just a thumb on her left hand.

Autumn Best in ‘Woman of the Hour.'.Netflix

Netflix

“And it’s not very often that you see people with disabilities cast in roles that are real people thatdon’thave disabilities. Just doesn’t happen very often,” adds the Saint George, Utah, native.

She auditioned anyway. Then she got a callback — and an offer to have a Zoom meeting withPitch Perfectstar-turned-director Kendrick.

“I was just so honored that Anna even wanted to meet me and she just talked me through the character and she told me what she liked about my interpretation of the character,” says Best.

She was back working at the coffee shop — a gig she likes to satisfy her cravings for cold brew — when she got the call that Kendrick had cast her. “I was like, ‘Who me? Really? That’s crazy.’ And I was just so excited and surprised.”

Amarr Wooten, Autumn Best and Khailah Johson on ‘4400.'.Courtney Rader/The CW/Courtesy Everett Collection

Courtney Rader/The CW/Courtesy Everett Collection

Best was even more excited and surprised when she got to the set in Canada. “Anna was just so welcoming and informative and just willing to teach me and actually be a mentor for me and that was really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” continues Best.

In one scene, her character smokes a cigarette. But Best, who was raised Mormon, had no idea what to do. “I’ve never even seen someone smoke a cigarette, because I grew up in Utah,” she says. “I was so stressed.”

“​​Then when they brought me the prop cigarettes, I was trying to play it cool that I knew what I was doing and I started to smoke it and I was like, ‘I’m sorry guys, we got to cut.’ I was like, ‘I don’t even know which end of the cigarette to light.’” she recalls.

“I’m about to put it in my mouth to light it. And I only have one hand. And I’d only ever seen in movies when people put the cigarette in their mouth and then light it with one hand. And I was like, ‘I can’t quite figure it out.’ I didn’t know you could just put it in your mouth and light it,” adds Best.

“Anna was dying and she came up to me and she lit the cigarette for me sitting under the stairwell and she was just like, ‘Never change,’” says Best.

The actress, who began performing in theater as a young kid, planned to study theater at New York University, but was cast in4400. She moved to Chicago to film the summer after she gave the valedictory speech at her high school.

Autumn Best on Oct. 10.Jesse Grant/Variety via Getty

Jesse Grant/Variety via Getty

Navigating show business over these past few years has been a delicate dance for Best, who identifies as queer and came out publicly on Instagram in 2022.

She said she used to have moments where she’d wonder if she should “edit” herself: “Am I being too queer? Am I going to wear a dress or am I going to wear pants?” she says.

But now she’s content to be herself. “I just gave up thinking too hard about it. I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to be who I am, and the people that want to work with me — like Anna and the beautiful people that I’ve worked with — are going to love me for who I am. And anyone else who doesn’t want to work with me, I don’t care to work with anyway."

Woman of the Houris in select theaters now and streaming on Netflix.

source: people.com