The Big Picture

Ben Mendelsohn’s role in
The New Look
is one of his most beloved across his 40-year career.
The series explores the lesser-known aspects of Christian Dior and Coco Chanel during World War II.
There is hope for a second season of
The New Look
, which Mendelsohn is excited about the possibility of.

Junket interviews can be tedious when you only have a short window of time with the talent, but sometimes you can also really luck out. In the case of my short, but lively conversation with Ben Mendelsohn to support the upcoming release of The New Look on Apple TV+, it appeared that I struck gold. Mendelsohn seemed genuinely thrilled about having the opportunity to discuss Christian Dior and the remarkable true story of fashion, war, and everyday heroism that inspired Todd A. Kessler’s new series. Mendelson’s joy was quite infectious during the interview, and I would encourage anyone who is still on the fence about tuning into the series to watch how he speaks about the role—he isn’t being hyperbolic when he compares the role to the entire breadth of his 40-year career.

In The New Look, Mendelsohn stars as the legendary designer Christian Dior, who is forced to navigate the tedious world of fashion amid the perilous Nazi occupation of France. His younger sister Catherine (Maisie Williams) is in thick with the French Resistance, risking life and limb daily to try to make a positive change for those impacted by the Third Reich, which sends her on a harrowing journey that few returned from during World War II.

While the series borrows its title from Dior’s fashion label at the time, The New Look is very much split between the Dior siblings and Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) a similarly iconic fashion designer who aided and abetted the Nazis during the war. In an episode, early in the series, Christian comments on how he once thought his work had meaning, but—in the midst of the horrors of the war—he finds that to no longer be the case. When asked what he believes this series “means,” Mendelsohn provided a succinct and apt summation of the series by saying:

”
That you can be a person with convictions and ideas and a certain brokenness, and you can meet different realities, and that your certainties can change.
But you can meet reality, as uncomfortable as it is, time and time again, and be horrified in one version or another each and every time and still end up in a better situation than you ever could have believed possible. In that way, the way you framed it originally, yeah, it’s that you can think you know what’s what and go along life, hit reality, adjust and get over the line, and contribute something amazing under incredibly crappy circumstances.”

The New Look Explores the rise of fashion designer Christian Dior, as he dethrones Coco Chanel and helps return spirit and life to the world with his iconic imprint of beauty and influence.Release Date February 14, 2024 Creator Todd A. Kessler Main Genre Drama Seasons 1

‘The New Look’ Is a Love Letter to Who Christian Dior Was

As the interview progressed, I revealed to Mendelsohn that I loved the series because my background is in history—which is all true. He lit up at that with a quick reply, “Love a bit of history!” The New Look requires audiences to have a firm grasp on the events of World War II, especially when it comes to Chanel’s tawdry relationship with the Nazi party, and some of the more intimate details of Dior’s rather private existence. But at the same time, Kessler doesn’t treat either of these aspects of the characters as shocking revelations, but rather innate facts to be accepted without scrutiny in the script. He doesn’t overexplain or treat the audience who doesn’t know about these people or their history as equals to even the most astute historian.

With the series digging into these oft-overlooked aspects of this period of history, I asked Mendelsohn if he learned anything during the production that has stuck with him. “Well, I learned all about Christian and Coco, in particular, and the larger fashion world and what was going on there, which I had no idea, nor any appreciation, nor would have thought I cared to, right? And wouldn’t have given a rat’s, right? But the longer I played him, the more I loved him. He’s the role, the character, the person, whatever you want to say, that I love more than any other over 40 years of doing this. I love him more than anyone else. Now, I can’t fulfill him. I can’t give you what he properly is, but I can send a love letter to him.” He went on to say:

“But the thing is, Todd Kessler has always said, every time I’d ask him a fancy-pants question on
Bloodline
, he’d say, “No, no, no. We’re just trying to entertain.” And that’s his basis, so we’re not gonna make a documentary about fashion, or the wars, this or that and the other. He’s making a show that you can enjoy, and then you can go, “Oh!” You know? Because what’s the point otherwise? I mean, we’re not gonna step up and make a show about how to do a garment, interesting as though that information is.
We take you away from your world, give you something that’s gonna be absorbing and that you’ll dig, and it just
happens
to be full of all this protein and minerals and all this other stuff if you want it.
You don’t have to take it. It’s all there, but you could just sit down and have a good time and just be taken completely along with it.”

Will ‘The New Look’ Get a Second Season?

During the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike last summer, there were reports that The New Look was already in production for a second season, though there have been no further updates about the future of the series. Season 1 is very much contained in its exploration of Chanel and the Diors, but there is room to extend the series beyond the end of World War II, as Dior’s brand continued to grow up until his death in 1957 and on into today. With Mendelsohn’s enthusiasm for the role and the man, I couldn’t help but express that I hoped he would be able to continue exploring Dior’s life, and he seemed just as excited by the prospect:

“Look, I’m very hopeful. I said yes to this over one thing that [Todd] Adam [Kessler] told me like five years ago, and I said, “When do we start?” And waited for five or six years for us to actually get the chance. Fortunately, we landed with Apple TV+, who gave us Paris, who gave us the most wonderful tools to work with, and couldn’t be happier to be anywhere.
If it all works, it all works, and I would be delighted to bring it back because he’s the best, man. He’s the best, and he’s just such a hero, but he’s not heroic.
You know, in his ways. But the result, he’s very inspiring. He’s a very deeply inspiring person, in part because he’s so sort of broken in a lot of ways, so I’m able to do certain things and whatnot that I really find it a very big life-affirming story in that way. But it’s a ride.”

We wrapped up the conversation with a quick question about whether Mendelsohn might reprise his role as Orson Krennic in the upcoming final season of Andor, but the seasoned and highly media-trained actor played coy with me. Regardless of whether we’ll ever see him a galaxy far, far away, readers should prepare themselves for his exceptional performance in The New Look, which premieres on Apple TV+ on Valentine’s Day.

Catch the first three episodes of The New Look on Apple TV+ on February 14, and stay tuned for more interviews with the cast and creatives. Check out a clip from the premiere below: