I read that the boots Blake wears in the party scene were actually her own?
Yes. The YSL crystal boots, yes. Blake’s amazing like that. I’ve never worked with another actor that could just be like, “I have these amazing YSL crystal boots, and I think it’d be great for the party scene.’ And then also be like, “And we’re going to shoot a tracking shot of me walking in with them.” She has the full picture. She knows. She’s really brilliant in that way.
What am I going to do? Say, “I don’t know about those incredible YSL crystal mesh boots?” Absolutely not. I’m like, gobsmacked, and the fact that we have access to her amazing closet and that she’s willing to share — that is fantastic. And gives us very special pieces.
It’s important for the actor to connect with what they’re wearing. I think it helps them. These are tools that help them create these characters. That’s really what I’m there for. I want [actors] to look amazing, but I’ve got to take my ego out of it and make sure that they feel seen and heard. And I love that Blake wants to bring in her own pieces, or something from Ryan [Reynolds]’s closet that she feels connected to, and that helps her in the scene to create this character. I think it’s awesome.
Was there something of Ryan’s that she had?
There was at least one. She definitely wore a plaid vest of his in one of the Lily Bloom montages in the store.
She also connected us with Gigi Hadid. They’re, like, besties, which is awesome. We’re sitting in the fitting room and Blake’s on the phone with Gigi, so casual. And we were able to borrow a bunch of beautiful pieces from Gigi’s line, Guest In Residence. We got to use quite a lot.
So it seems like there are a lot of perks to having Blake on as your principal.
I mean, yes. For sure. She’s delightful to be around, and just great. The perks plus the personality is just really special.
Is there any piece from the film that was memorable, either because it was difficult to source, or because it was kind of a pivotal piece of clothing?
For me, there are two pieces like that. One that is for Blake and then one that is for Jenny Slate’s character, Allyssa.
The Blake piece was the Carhartt jumpsuit for the roof scene. Originally, we were going to shoot that scene where it was summertime, and then we just never really nailed it down before we got to shooting. There were a lot of opinions on what Lily should look like on the rooftop, [because] it’s the first time she’s meeting Ryle.
There were a lot of eyes on what we were doing with that look, specifically. And Blake and I were going back and forth about it and trying to figure out, Is it just a hoodie? What is this look? And then the [SAG-AFTRA] strike happened, so we shut down. And then when we came back, we were going to shoot that scene in the wintertime, so you can’t just be in a slinky tank top. There’s got to be another element to it.