Ben Mendelsohn Had ‘Doubt’ About Portraying Fashion Icon Christian Dior in Apple TV+’s ‘The New Look’ (Exclusive)

Ben Mendelsohn is currently starring as Christian Dior in Apple TV+’s drama series, The New Look, but the Emmy-winning actor had some “doubt” about portraying the fashion icon. The series is a dramatic retelling of what Dior and fellow French fashion icon Coco Chanel — as well as their familes — experienced during the Nazi occupation of France during World War II.

Speaking exclusively to PopCulture.com about his role, Mendelsohn explained that series creator Todd A. Kessler knew he was right for the part long before the project got off the ground. “I signed on like five, six years before, off one thing that Todd said when he was making a pizza at my joint,” Mendelsohn said, going on to explain that he “knew a bit about World War II” before taking the part, but wasn’t aware that this time period was “the very beginning for” Dior and his counterparts, such as Cristóbal Balenciaga and Pierre Balmain. 

During this time, Dior and his peers were forced to make dresses for Nazi wives and girlfriends, which has long been a controversial topic. “There’s some incredibly heroic survival going on, and that survival looks very different for different people,” Mendelsohn offered. “It’s very easy to sort of [judge], but unless you walk in the footsteps of those people and get where they’re coming from, don’t be quick to judge.”

Going on to share why he loves working with Kessler, Mendelsohn praised the writer/director as “a genius at putting you right in that spot where you think you know.” He continued, “I love him. He’s a master storyteller… Sopranos, Damages, Bloodline, The New Look.”

Mendelsohn also shared that Kessler knew he was right for the role of Dior before he even knew it himself. “You tell me three or four or five years ago, someone saying, ‘Oh, you’d make a great Christian Dior…’ But he knows, he can see it. He goes, ‘You,’ because he knows. He knows the bits that I can just lean more into and go, ‘That’s going to be an interesting Christian.”

“He just told me the thing about this,” Mendelsohn added. “He said he has what he thinks is his real self, and then he hates that he’s got this other self that he has to be to go and operate in the atelier selling dresses and stuff. I turned to him and said, ‘Well, when are we doing it? When are we doing it?’”

Mendelsohn then confessed, “I always doubt,” when it comes to taking on a role, but explained how that worked to his advantage this time around. “I think the great thing about someone like Christian Dior is we have ideas about what it takes in the world to get by and how you should be and what attitude you should have to be a successful person,” he said. “Well take a look at this example.” 

“This is not someone that’s saying affirmations,” Mendelsohn continued. “This is someone that’s got all this doubt, all this this, all this that. He’s got a good heart. He’s got a good heart, he wants to do the right thing, and he gets his chance. He gets his chance and he does change the world. He really does. He brings in the economic miracle of France after the war. He’s hugely important in France, more than I understood.” Finally, Mendelsohn said, “I worry. I’m really concerned to do the best job I can, because I’m kicking it up to you guys, the audience, which is all anything’s about.”

The first six episodes of The New Look are now streaming on Apple TV+.