Whitney Peak is ready to leap into the Hunger Games universe | Canada Voices

When Chanel creative director Matthieu Blazy presented his first Métiers d’art collection in a defunct Lower Manhattan subway station in December, it had all the trappings of a grand New York moment. Models swanned along empty trains in plumes of feathers and faux fur, one wearing a very bedazzled “I <3 NY” T-shirt beneath a quintessential tweed skirt suit. There, in the front row, was house ambassador and certified New York It Girl Whitney Peak, giddily taking in the cinematic collision of her two worlds. “It was an incredibly transcendent experience,” she says. “I was like, ‘I don’t know what movie this is, but I really want to be a part of it.’”

A few months later, when I reach the 23-year-old actor on a blustery February afternoon, she’s curled up in front of her couch, wrapped in an elegant black cardigan, with her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. Outside, the requisite sirens whirl. “I’m a bit of a homebody,” she says, “so being able to hear what’s going on outside makes me feel like I’m engaging with it by proximity.”

Despite Peak’s high cheekbones, graceful frame and superstar best friend, singer Sabrina Carpenter, she moves through the city relatively undetected. On the Lower East Side, where she lives, she’s built a cinephile’s routine that anchors her between projects: morning coffees with friends at neighbourhood spots, people watching, and evenings that almost always culminate in a screening. Her most recent favourite is the 2018 Lebanese family drama Capernaum, and she’s teeming with recommendations for obscure indies and old Hollywood classics.

Peak moved to New York in 2020 after being cast in the reboot of Gossip Girl, just as the pandemic was wreaking havoc. The city was silent, and at the same time, she had relatively private access to its most iconic filming locations, from the Museum of Modern Art to the Guggenheim Museum, alongside her castmates. “I was taking naps beside Picassos,” she says. “It was insane.” The experience afforded her a unique introduction to the city that (typically) never sleeps. Over the past six years, she’s seen so many iterations of it that locals should consider shaving a few years off the mandatory decade they say it takes to make you a true New Yorker. “When I think of home, I think of New York,” she says.

Peak is no stranger to change. Born in Kampala, Uganda, she lived with her mother and older sisters before the family relocated to Port Coquitlam, B.C., when she was 10. The culture shock gave her early insights into shape-shifting. “I was one person at home, and then I was at school sort of floating around … never really having a strong sense of self,” she says. Being raised by a hard-working single mother instilled a “good daughter” complex early. “I think it was really difficult for [my mother] to watch me be raised by an environment that she didn’t quite understand.”

When Peak landed roles in Aaron Sorkin’s 2017 film Molly’s Game, and later the Netflix series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, she moved to Vancouver on her own to try acting in earnest. Her mother, despite any misgivings, has often been by her side along the way. Peak moonlit as an Aritzia sales associate before auditioning for Gossip Girl on a whim via a video filmed at her sister’s wedding back home. “I asked them to hold my job [at Aritzia] for me, and then I obviously never went back,” she says. She arrived in New York at 17 for the show, which she describes as her first taste of independence. “I was allowed to be young, try things, make mistakes, learn about myself and experiment,” she says.

During her time on Gossip Girl as outsider-turned-social-insurgent Zoya Lott, Peak became a face of Chanel, a partnership she describes as equally formative. The role has allowed her to travel the world with the house, experimenting with clothing and accessories she once admired from afar. On set, she says, “I get to play dress up in the most beautiful clothes, which always feels surreal.”

This fall, Peak enters an even more bizarre landscape with her starring role in the Hunger Games prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping. Set decades before the original series, the film follows a young Haymitch Abernathy (a role originated by Woody Harrelson) as he competes in Panem’s brutal tournament. Peak plays Lenore Dove, Abernathy’s love interest and moral counterpart, whose soft countenance serves as a foil to the film’s eerie subject matter. “She’s self-assured, fervent, defiant and really knows herself,” says Peak of the character. Stepping into a cinematic world with such a devoted fanbase is intimidating. “But she revealed a lot of myself to me, and I learned a lot from her. It was absolutely terrifying to play her, but I worked with an amazing cast and crew, and I felt really taken care of. It was a beautiful role to play,” she says.

While filming in Germany, Peak immediately bonded with her castmate, Joseph Zada, who plays a young Abernathy. “The first scene we shared together is still my favourite scene I’ve ever filmed in my life,” he says. The pair crafted their relationship by sharing secrets and laughs, and by being unfailingly honest with each other. “I think the key to our relationship in the film is that Haymitch is constantly in awe of Lenore Dove, and it made my job very easy being opposite someone like Whitney,” Zada says. “She’s extremely thoughtful and empathetic, and I learned so much from her – both as a person and as a creative.”

Over her month-long shoot with Zada, Peak learned to play the accordion to perform a song key to Dove’s story arc. It was also her first time singing, despite being named after the iconic vocalist. “My name may be Whitney, but that’s all I’ve got,” she says, laughing.

As Peak prepares for a superstardom complete with fan conventions and red-carpet tours (she’s dreaming of leaning into method dressing), she’s eager to take on more roles that pull her out of her comfort zone. “I’m always drawn to what challenges me, even if it’s scary. I want to push myself and take on characters I don’t immediately understand or feel capable of playing,” she says. “It’s never about a specific goal – it’s about the script in front of me and how it makes me feel. I just love what I do, and I always want to work and challenge myself.”

With that, she’s off to another screening – this time to see the buzzy adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Filmgoing, like acting, is a window into understanding. “It forces you to get outside of yourself,” she says, “and look at things from a different perspective.”

All clothing and accessories from the Métiers d’art 2026 collection by Chanel.

Fashion editor: Nadia Pizzimenti. Makeup by Tyron Machhausen for the Wall Group. Hair by Naeemah LaFond for the Wall Group. Manicure by Nori for SEE Management. Photo assistants: Clay Howard Smith, Kalum Ko. Styling assistant: Raisa Berkowitz. Makeup assistant: Lucie Nguyen. Hair assistant: Khashely Cantrell. Photographed at Danny Kaplan Studio in New York City.