Ben Mendelsohn interview: ‘The New Look’

“I’m playing him in the way that I can play him,” declares Emmy winner Ben Mendelsohn (“Bloodline”) about the balance between portraying a relatively well-known real-life person authentically with making the character your own. “I mean, Gary Oldman‘s Winston Churchill, [in ‘Darkest Hour’]; he said that when he got really close to real, real Churchill, it started to not work. He needed a little dash of Gary in there to really make it feel real. What I take that to mean is the little rhythms in people and the very specific things, like your facial gestures, all that. The Holy Grail,” he adds, “is you lean towards trying to give the audience the best you can, but not take them out of the experience.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

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“The New Look,” which was created by seven-time Emmy nominee Todd A. Kessler (“The Sopranos,” “Damages”), explores the rivalry between a then-emerging fashion designer Christian Dior, who rose to stardom with his first collection in 1947, and established designer Coco Chanel during World War II-era Paris. Mendelsohn headlines the 10-part Apple TV+ prestige drama as Dior alongside Oscar winner Juliette Binoche (“The English Patient”) as Chanel, with two-time Emmy nominee Maisie Williams (“Game of Thrones”) co-starring as Dior’s younger sister and muse Catherine Dior. The ensemble also features two-time Oscar nominee and Emmy winner John Malkovich as French couturier Lucien Lelong, Claes Bang as Nazi spy Hans von Dincklage, and eight-time Oscar nominee and three-time Emmy and Tony winner Glenn Close as fashion doyenne Carmel Snow.

Mendelsohn says that he embraced the fashion icon’s so-called flaws when he began working out his approach to portraying Dior on the Apple TV+ prestige drama. “Guys can have a hard time sometimes accessing this,” he says about about this man who achieved great success, despite the anxiety and self-doubt that plagued him throughout his life. “Some of the most successful, brilliant, impactful people are finding their way through gaps. They are plugging away. They have got a little eye up every now and then and when it’s in reach, they grab it and they give it a go. It’s a really good take. That’s the thing. He’s a hero, but he’s not the typical hero that we are super familiar with,” he explains. “Having difficult emotions is no barrier to having heroic achievement.”