“When individuals requested me, ‘What could be the factor that you simply need to do?,’ it’s all the time been to do a rom-com with Working Title,” “Bridget Jones: Mad Concerning the Boy” costume designer Molly Emma Rowe informed IndieWire throughout a latest interview. “So to do the rom-com with them was actually… I used to be like, ‘OK, the manifestation of that went rather well, I’ve to say.’”
Sure, Bridget is again — and in a extra melancholy providing than the earlier three installments. There’s nonetheless loads of slapstick (Bridget is older, however she’s nonetheless relatably messy) and romantic entanglements, however life for Bridget hasn’t been easy since she reunited with Mark Darcy on the finish of “Bridget Jones’ Child.”
Now 4 years widowed, Bridget finds herself at a crossroads when the movie begins, till she makes the selection to do greater than survive. She’s going to stay! She promptly meets two new romantic entanglements — the youthful Roxster (Leo Woodall) and her son’s new college instructor, Mr. Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor) — and returns to work, the place she nonetheless mildly flails however, on the entire, feels extra grounded.
Selecting up a beloved character in her fifties is an enormous job, significantly one with whom audiences fell in love in her mid-thirties. However Renée Zellweger’s central efficiency retains the movie on monitor — as do Rowe’s costumes, which really feel of a chunk with what got here earlier than whereas firmly establishing each Bridget’s present id and people of the brand new males in her life.
IndieWire spoke to Rowe about her work on the movie, discovering the road between attractive and humorous, and ensuring Bridget didn’t lose her iconic brief skirts.
The next interview has been edited for readability and size.
IndieWire: Congratulations on the film. I noticed it yesterday, and I alternated between sobbing, cackling, and homosexual gasping each time Leo Woodall walked onto the display screen.
Molly Emma Rowe: OK, so we did the nice factor.
Clearly, I need to discuss Bridget’s outfits. However let’s discuss in regards to the males first, since you received to assist create Leo as Roxster and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mr. Wallaker. And what was it like arising with the place Daniel Cleaver [Hugh Grant] is at this level in his life, sartorially talking?
That was very attention-grabbing for me. Daniel wasn’t within the third movie, so we’ve received like 20 years from after we final met him. I actually needed to talk to Hugh, in the beginning, and perceive Daniel Cleaver from his viewpoint and why he wore what he wore. A tailor known as Richard James made Daniel’s fits for the primary two films. Richard is now not a tailor, however my tailor very kindly discovered me a tailor who used to work with Richard. His work was all the time very slinky and attractive and funky.
We needed to be sure that Daniel felt present. And Richard all the time made his shirt stand, which is the form of bit that the collar then comes off of, very deep. So when Daniel has three buttons undone, the collars nonetheless stand fairly proud and body his face. Hugh kindly lent me a few his shirts from the primary movies. So [my shirtmaker] Dima and I might see what the little tips have been and recreate them for Hugh.
After which there’s Roxster within the white shirt and the denims, soaking moist. What went into choosing these clothes?
With Roxster, it was about creating one thing very timeless that will really feel youthful. It’s a really form of James Dean type of T-shirt and denims, however it’s fairly exhausting to get these issues proper, so there have been rather a lot of T-shirts and rather a lot of denims till we received the correct match for Leo. With the white shirt, my assistant designer Lauren spent a day on the pool with Leo, testing out white shirts. [Laughs] I believe she had a pleasant day at work.
Life is so unfair.
I didn’t even get to go! However we actually needed to echo the very well-known Mr. Darcy “Delight and Prejudice” scene, after all. There’s a number of Easter eggs of all kinds, with dialogue, with jokes, with garments. Like the primary time we meet Bridget within the movie, she’s carrying a inexperienced gown, and Mark seems. We needed it to type of remind you, she wears a inexperienced gown on the christening after they get collectively within the third movie. And New 12 months’s Eve, she’s carrying slightly headband with silver, which is to remind you of when she’s drunk doing karaoke within the first movie. So it’s actually delicate little Bridget-y issues in there that felt fairly necessary, and I believe that [Roxster’s wet shirt] was positively a form of further one. We actually needed to search out one thing that clung however wasn’t see by. Once more, it’s a lot more durable than it appears to get the correct factor. However that was a Paul Smith shirt that does precisely the correct issues.
Sure, as a result of if it’s too see-through, it stops being attractive, and it turns into a joke.
Sure, precisely. And I believe all through the movie, we actually needed to make use of garments in an genuine method in order that they weren’t caricatures or jokes. It’s not proper if he feels comedic in that second.
Roxster’s garments are youthful however not younger. And it’s so necessary whenever you see him standing subsequent to Bridget that he appears to be like youthful however not younger.
Sure, I believe so as a result of then, visually, it’s an excessive amount of. It’s attention-grabbing as a result of, with Bridget, I used to be very, very eager on ensuring that Bridget felt like Bridget. And for me, with all my analysis going again over the movies, Bridget’s brief skirts are essentially the most Bridget factor. And I used to be like, “Yeah, OK, she’s in her fifties, however why shouldn’t she?” , I’m in my mid-forties, and I put on shorter skirts than I ever have.
What I believe you probably did so brilliantly with Bridget’s costumes is there may be nonetheless the sense of chaos, however it’s contained. The layers, the patterns — there’s a lot occurring visually, however it’s all cohesive and nonetheless feels simply the correct facet of raveled.
Listening to you say that makes me very comfortable. It makes me assume that we type of achieved what we got down to do. We didn’t need something to distract from what’s taking place. And Renée could be very, very, very sure about who Bridget is and what she’s going to put on. I can’t actually put it into phrases. It’s a sense and it simply works or not. And it was essential, for me, that I revered the work [of] the earlier three costume designers.
So there are issues which might be again [from previous films]. Bridget wears her grey hooded belted coat, which is from the primary movie when she goes to Turkey Curry Buffet. She wears her plum scarf from the identical scene. The pajamas. There’s the see-through gold prime with the mini skirt that we needed to recreate, which was primarily a number of the hardest work, as a result of none of us might work out what it was truly fucking product of. [Laughs]
The place have been you sourcing Bridget’s garments? Was it bespoke? Classic?
It was a combination. One factor I did once I met Renée and understood her course of slightly bit extra, I went to Hampstead and wrote a listing of all of the retailers there. Bridget and Mark stay in Hampstead within the story, so mainly we went buying within the consignment shops and the charity retailers in Hampstead. So then if there was one thing tremendous attention-grabbing or a label or one thing like that, Bridget might have gone to the charity store and acquired it as a result of that’s what we did. There was an authenticity that meant that I might perhaps get it previous Renée.
There’s an actual melancholy to this movie that I’m undecided persons are anticipating, and a variety of it comes from having this character in our lives for therefore lengthy, seeing how she’s developed and what life has thrown at her.
Michael Morris is such an unimaginable director. The best way that he handles grief is so — my dad died once I was fairly younger, so I drew on my experiences quite a bit. I keep in mind that my mother used to put on a variety of his garments, so we did that with Bridget. When she goes to Hampstead Heath, she’s carrying a shirt that was Mark’s that we monogrammed with MD. She wears this sort of outsized grey cashmere cardigan that’s actually bobbly, and that’s like her consolation blanket that we’re saying was Mark’s.
We’ve got to speak about Mr. Wallaker.
We do have to speak about Mr. Wallaker as a result of I really like him a lot.
He’s so buttoned up in a very completely different method than Mark Darcy.
That was one thing that I used to be very, very acutely aware of. This character completely couldn’t be something like Mark Darcy so far as I used to be involved, costume-wise. It was looking for a line the place he felt buttoned up or severe sufficient, however that there was a heat that we might perceive the youngsters have been a bit drawn to him.
I believed rather a lot about our schoolteachers and type of stereotypical schoolteachers from our previous. My English instructor was very tweedy and cords and issues like that. So I took that, after which I believed rather a lot about pals of mine who’re academics now. So he’s slick and good. All of his garments have been tailor-made by my tailor, Chris Kerr. All the things is made for Chiwetel particularly, after which it meant that I might select materials that have been very nice herringbones with oranges, and he wears this overcoat on the finish, which is sort of a inexperienced and black test. I actually needed him to have character and magnificence, so he wears denim shirts beneath his fits and issues like that. I don’t assume it’s tremendous type of statement-y, however it form of brings his character some place else, I believe, from anybody that we’ve seen with Bridget earlier than.
That clear prime, I believe, may be your triumph. I really assumed it was from the archives.
My God, I spent a complete flight again from L.A., and I used to be like, “Proper, I’m gonna sit right here for 10 hours.” And I actually simply watched that scene and freeze-framed it and ran it again. I used to be like, “I’ve to work out what the hell that is.” I imply, nonetheless I haven’t. That prime in all probability got here from Topshop, and who knew it was going to turn out to be that iconic?
“Bridget Jones: Mad Concerning the Boy” is now streaming on Peacock.