‘The New Look’: Juliette Binoche, Ben Mendelsohn & Team Explain Their Characters (VIDEO)
The New Look cast and creatives are giving viewers a glimpse behind the curtain timed to the series premiere on Apple TV+ as they sat down to discuss their complex characters in TV Insider’s 2024 Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour Studio.
The series follows how the fashion icon Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn) and his fellow designers such as Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) navigate the horrors of World War II and how they launch modern fashion. Joining them in the series are Maisie Williams as Catherine Dior and John Malkovich as Lucien Lelong. Together the stars and series creator Todd A. Kessler and fellow executive producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura help shine a light on the stories at the center of this tale through specific quotes and lines.
(Credit: Apple TV+)
Regarding the line, “Creation is survival,” Mendelsohn says that his character is “in a terrible life situation, and the only anchor he has is what he’s making. And so to push into that space and keep trying to create is his way of being able to survive.”
That is a vital aspect of his story as the show unfolds, and as Mendelsohn adds, “I think we kind of have a sense of that too. We work in this sort of stuff. There’s a sense in which you really start to become alive when you’ve got something that you are working on.”
Meanwhile, Binoche has a lot to tackle with Chanel’s storyline, which deals with her relationship with her nephew. As the performer explains, Chanel’s family was torn apart over time. “She was totally disconnected from the family. And the fact that she had a nephew from her sister’s suicide… she really tried to take care of him.”
“When her nephew was a prisoner in Germany she tried everything she could in order to save him, and she went into places that probably morally was questionable,” Binoche adds.
See what else she, Mendelsohn, and the rest of the team are sharing about The New Look in the video interview, above, and don’t miss the show on Apple TV+.
Additional Reporting by Kate Hahn
The New Look, New Episodes, Wednesdays, Apple TV+
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