Ben Mendelsohn is unpredictable in the best of ways. One minute, he’s carefully considering a question concerning his latest on-screen gig — playing iconic French fashion designer Christian Dior in a historical drama for Apple TV+ set during the Second World War. The next, he’s belting out lyrics to a Beyonce banger. He cares deeply about his craft, and not at all for pretentious discussions on method and process. To him, too much critical praise equates a death sentence, but disappointing his audience keeps him up at night.
He’s all about the work. Not in the pompous, hollow way that sparks some deserved eye-rolling from the non-Hollywood crowd. No, Ben Mendelsohn really doesn’t give a f*ck – at least, not about things that seem unimportant. Like, for instance, too-brief junket interviews designed to fluff up his ego.
So, when we sit down over Zoom to talk about The New Look – a gorgeously shot attempt at covering Europe’s post-war fashion renaissance that sings when it lets stars, Mendelsohn, Juliette Binoche, John Malkovich, and Maisie Williams play against one another – I do my best to refrain from embarrassing us both by raving over his past works. Ben Mendelsohn is good at what he does, he doesn’t need me to tell him.
In his new series, he subverts expectations, playing a tortured artist instead of a calculating villain, anchoring a fascinating (although clumsily-paced) POV of what it was like to live under Nazi rule. Below, UPROXX chats with him about the show, acting myths, and the importance of making art accessible.
I was watching a video where you break down your most famous roles, and the comments section was full of compliments saying you’re underrated, you don’t get your due, you deserve more praise. Do you agree with all of that? Do you feel underrated at this point in your career?
No, no, no, no. I’m as fancy pants as all getup. The actors like me fine, [so] I’m good. You know what I mean? And as to the wider world … that’s the pain in the arse about this whole thing. You want to know what the guaranteed death sentence of an actor is? To be considered the greatest screen actor of their time.
You’ve worked with [showrunner] Todd Kessler before. How did he pitch this project?
He said he was reading [about] Dior, and then he spoke about Dior’s deep, uncomfortable revulsion at his private self versus his public self. And I said, ‘When do we do it?’ I’ve been wanting to work with him again on whatever was viable. I waited five years through this and that and the other. I was waiting for this one for a long time.
Just standing outside his house, waiting for him to toss you a script?
No, he was at my place making pizza. That’s how it happened. I’m not waiting outside his door. Boy, you’ve got a really funny idea of me. [Begins singing Beyonce’s 2006 hit, “Irreplaceable”] You must not know about me …
What was it that appealed to you about playing someone like Christian Dior?
It’s that thing of feeling uncomfortable about who you are and that suggests a very universal idea. When I watched him, he was a sensitive person, he was a person with a lot of anxiety and who sought certainty through tarot, through divination. He was also very Catholic. He was very set in his preferences in how he loved and lived.
It’s a story about, how you take yourself through the world — with all your crappy bits that you don’t much like or you can’t deal with — and do something? The world seems against you and hostile. How do you do it? That to me is what the story is. And then the fact that it’s about these mega [designers]. All around the world, everywhere you go, Chanel, Dior … and there’s an inaccessibility about all that hoo-ha right?
You’ve made him relatable.
I think it’s very reassuring. I think we have a lot of funny ideas about what it takes and the way it gets sold to us. Like yeah, if you remain positive and you have a certain alpha [quality] — and don’t forget, no negative thoughts, don’t get angry, that’ll tear you down, and don’t doubt yourself. It’s all, it’s a crock. It’s very antagonistic towards a person being able to be settled and go, ‘Well, you know what? Yeah, there’s a bunch of things I’ve got wrong. There’s a bunch of things I can’t do, but I just [need to put] one foot in front of the other and [try]’.
It’s just decent intention, plodding along, trying to do the best you can, and being able to put something beautiful into the world in response to a horrible situation. From little things, big things grow.
That’s all internal. Did you reckon with how living in a time of war might make him feel, about himself and his work?
No, you don’t know how people would be feeling. You offer up an idea. You offer a proposition. As soon as you think you know something, you’re jerking off. You never know. You postulate.
How do you measure your performance then? Whether you’re doing a good job?
You don’t, but it’s not important. What’s important is the audience. So the thing is, when you guys talk to us, you talk to us like it’s all about us. But any one of us that’s on the money, is not worried about what [we’re] doing. We’re worried about you guys and getting something to you that is alive and effective, you know?
How we go about doing that or building that is essentially just a bunch of myth. It’s not really the way it happens. It’s got not much to do with that at all. What it is, is a camera, an actor, another actor, a few lines, and then seeing if you can find a way to communicate that in a way that feels alive and has a feeling with it. That all gets stitched together and then you guys get it. It’s not for us. We don’t matter in that respect. It’s not important what we do or how we do it. It’s only ever the audience. And that’s why I can kick a goal sometimes because I’m not worried about how we do it or why we do it or any of that stuff. I take it on faith that we pick this up, but when it goes to you, it comes together and it means something.
Does that mean, when you’re working, you’re not in your head as much?
I’m in my head a lot. But I’m in my head about, ‘Is there a way we can make it better? Is it better if I do that here or there?’ I’m into the minutiae, right? I’m not into all the macro, all of the certainties. That stuff is dead. That doesn’t live. We’re not trying to make a historical documentary, we’re trying to take the real-life situation and go, well, here it is and can you feel it?
Personally, I enjoyed the show and its perspective, not just of Dior, but of this time period – if that was a worry.
Trust me, that is all I worry about. It’s the world to me. I love the audience. I don’t get above them. I stay below them. That’s why we bow. Because we are beneath you. We come for you not the other way around.
