Zoey Deutch had barely touched down in Cannes when she tried on her Chanel purple carpet gown for the primary time. “I acquired off the airplane and went straight to the becoming,” she advised WWD, talking on the Resort Majestic contemporary from her ultimate becoming.
“It felt like I used to be going to my marriage ceremony with out seeing the marriage gown first. After which I walked in, noticed it, and simply went, ‘Oh — it’s good,’” she mentioned.
Deutch stars in Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Imprecise,” in a contest slot within the pageant. She performs Nineteen Sixties star Jean Seberg, the perfect “American-in-Paris” who grew to become an icon of French cinema and elegance — regardless of being from Iowa — a long time earlier than Emily was a twinkle in Darren Starr’s eye.
The movie explores Seberg’s early years in movie, in addition to her relationship with Jean-Luc Godard.
The gown in query was a customized Chanel robe, floor-length, subtly floral, and pulled from the pages of historical past (or Pinterest, because it have been), primarily based on a photograph Deutch found and despatched to Chanel’s workforce within the earliest levels of design.
It was not a Chanel however was emblematic of the time interval, Deutch mentioned, and served as an inspiration.
The collaboration was months within the making. It began throughout manufacturing for the movie, when the style home created a customized search for Deutch in character.
Chanel supported the manufacturing each financially and fashionably, with costumes by Pascaline Chavanne.
Zoey Deutch preparing for the premiere of her movie “Nouvelle Imprecise” at Cannes 2025.
Emilio Madrid/WWD
“They took that picture and constructed one thing fully new from it,” Deutch mentioned.
The atelier tailored the sample from the unique into new embroidery, slimmed the silhouette, lengthened the form, tailored the neckline and hand-stitched the blooms to match the archival inspiration with a up to date feeling.
The outcome was a white silk organza robe with a tiered peplum waist. Each inch was a nod to Seberg.
The movie, which facilities on the beginning of French New Wave cinema and the early days of French movie journal “Cahiers du Cinéma,” additionally transported Deutch into a very new method of working, each linguistically and stylistically.
“After I first acquired the script, I solely had the English model, and it wanted to be translated. So what I needed to do first was work out Jean’s dialect. She was from Marshalltown, Iowa, however by the point she was capturing ‘Breathless,’ she had this affected voice [similar to] the best way lots of film stars on the time spoke.”
Deutch researched Seberg’s voice extensively, tracing it again to her early coaching when Seberg labored with a dialect coach to remove her Midwest American accent.
As soon as the French and English dialogue was finalized, Deutch started 4 months of French language work. “Clearly phonetically, but in addition to be taught it,” she mentioned. “As a result of it’s not the talking French that’s the issue — it’s the understanding and reacting. Everybody is aware of appearing is reacting. How do you react if in case you have no thought what they’re saying?”
Her method was rooted in listening. “It was extra truly learning different individuals’s strains than learning my very own,” she mentioned. “I had slightly little bit of a leg up in that she wasn’t French and she or he was simply studying French. She admitted to feeling insecure whereas filming ‘Breathless’ as a result of she was doing mainly all improv in a language that she was nonetheless studying.”
To get into character, “there was lots of digging into what I perceived to be quite a lot of thriller and unhappiness behind her eyes, and doing the inside work of the place that got here from,” mentioned Deutch. “Not simply her voice or the best way she dressed, however her spirit.”
Appearing in French modified her method, stripped away her habits and served as a masterclass.
Zoey Deutch preparing for the premiere of her movie “Nouvelle Imprecise” at Cannes 2025.
Emilio Madrid/WWD
“You be taught all of the issues that you simply fall again on, the security nets you’ve, the -isms and issues that make you’re feeling secure within the context of a scene,” she mentioned. “I couldn’t do any of that.”
She labored on her French, however her transformation went past language. Deutch famously chopped off her lengthy, thick curls and dyed them platinum to play Seberg — an act that originally shocked director Linklater.
He questioned her dedication (or supplied a reprieve) and urged a wig as a substitute. However Deutch thought it was a chance to rework and went for the massive chop.
“To me, the best a part of my job is that I get to dwell all these totally different lives. I used to be so excited to cut all my hair off and dye it blonde for this position. However in the event you have been to ask me to do this in my life, I might be like, completely not,” she mentioned. “I can dwell a extremely boring life in my private life, as a result of I dwell these insane lives, and there’s this kind of energy in doing one thing when it’s not hooked up to me.”
Because it seems, going full pixie wasn’t precisely low upkeep. “Everybody was like, ‘Oh, it should be a lot simpler.’ No. It’s considerably extra work,” she mentioned.
Deutch tailored that image of French model — the top scarf. The star relayed that associates teased her for making an attempt to cosplay as a stereotypical Parisienne, however in actuality, it served the very sensible operate of protecting the hair. Safety from poof was her precedence.
Residing in Paris throughout filming together with her new Seberg look gave Deutch a way of place she hadn’t felt earlier than as a vacationer within the metropolis. Three months in Paris modified her perspective. Her central Saint-Germain housing helped; strolling was the important thing.
“You don’t actually comprehend it except you reside in it. However I actually fell in love with Paris, in a method that I felt like I might dwell there,” she mentioned. “Everybody at all times says, ‘Get misplaced in Paris and stroll round.’ And I simply saved strolling. That was one of the best half for me.”
As for the position itself, Deutch targeted tightly on one chapter of Seberg’s life. “It was of much less significance to me to concentrate on that,” she mentioned of the later, extra tragic years. “I didn’t need to learn the final web page of the e-book once I was nonetheless on web page 20.”
As an alternative, she appeared in the mean time earlier than Seberg grew to become an icon and explored the uncertainty and trauma of her early failure after “Saint Joan,” her flip as Joan of Arc, was panned.
The result’s an ebullient movie by Cannes critiques, that epitomizes the hopes of that era.
Earlier than Cannes, Deutch had already labored with Chanel on wardrobe for the movie, which was shot largely in Paris. Costume designer Chavanne customized made two outfits for the movie, together with a cappuccino-colored gown with a striped bodice and a tulle skirt.
Zoey Deutch preparing for the premiere of her movie “Nouvelle Imprecise” at Cannes 2025.
Emilio Madrid/WWD
Chavanne watched movies such because the documentary “Chambre 12, Hôtel de Suède,” and dug by way of the Cinémathèque Française paperwork for her first step, then hit up the flea market in Saint Ouen to dig by way of classic retailers there.
Within the Cinémathèque’s archives she discovered treasures corresponding to the unique receipt for Seberg’s striped gown, which Godard bought on the now-defunct Prisunic retailer on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées.
Each the unique and Linklater’s movie are monochrome, so a part of Chavanne’s largest problem was getting the tone proper.
“The film you see immediately is just in black and white, however once we made the film, it’s in coloration. You don’t get to make it in grey,” she advised WWD.
The method required lots of testing, and she or he pored over Chanel’s personal archives in a warehouse on the outskirts of Paris, the place the model homes books in addition to authentic items and materials.
When she got here throughout the striped gown, she knew it must be within the movie. The form was utterly trendy, and the stripe has not solely a particular place in French cinema however has additionally turn into emblematic of French model.
“With the mariniere, there’s a actual connection,” she mentioned. Brigitte Bardot is one other cinema icon that made the stripe well-known, and it’s additionally a name again to Coco Chanel’s private model.
The unique was silk, however as a result of it will get moist within the movie, the model experimented with materials. That’s one of many hardest issues about recreating classic appears, she mentioned, as a result of the textiles used now are so totally different and don’t carry the identical form or stretch.
And whereas she took some liberties on the gown, one look that needed to be faithfully recreated was Seberg’s “New York Herald Tribune” T-shirt from “Breathless.”
“Many individuals have tried this T-shirt as a result of it’s so emblematically well-known, so it was not straightforward,” she mentioned. It required many tries and discovering the proper textile to get the stiffer form. It took a number of exams to get the proper look.
“It’s not solely in regards to the garments, as a result of the garments aren’t simply to be on the actors — it’s a gathering between the actors and the garments,” she mentioned of the best way they’ll remodel on the display screen.
Deutch fell so in love with the striped gown that she determined to put on it to the Cannes photo-call. It’s the primary time in reminiscence {that a} costume has been worn for the rooftop solid photographs and press convention, which is normally an informal affair.
Zoey Deutch preparing for the premiere of her movie “Nouvelle Imprecise” at Cannes 2025.
Emilio Madrid/WWD
After which there’s the style. “She was completely an icon,” Deutch mentioned. French New Wave movie was centered on realism, and Seberg styled herself.
“The clothes and the appears that she wears in [‘Breathless’] are simply pitch good. They’re so basic and horny and easy,” she mentioned. “I cherished all the things I acquired to put on. I want that’s how I dressed every single day.”
Earlier than hitting the display screen, Deutch dreamed of changing into a clothier. “I nonetheless sketch on a regular basis. Attending to make customized issues and work with designers — I really feel like I get to dwell each of my desires.”
WWD shot the star as she headed to the well-known 27 steps of the Palais des Festivals, wanting calm, cool and picked up regardless of inside jitters. “I really like vogue,” she mentioned. “However the purple carpet half? Nonetheless terrifying. I don’t assume I’ve ever seen a photograph of myself at a premiere the place I appear to be me. I’m simply too nervous.”
That nervousness, although, is a part of her course of. “Somebody as soon as advised me that early in your appearing profession, the components you get are simply no matter you default to while you’re scared,” she mentioned, crediting somebody “smarter — perhaps my mother.” (That mother is actress Lea Thompson of “Again to the Future” fame.)
When you get bubbly, you’ll be solid within the talkative position; in the event you revert to seriousness, you’ll get the brooding one, she relayed. “Crimson carpets sort of carry that out — your default,” she mentioned. Her early components have been rom-coms.
The actress is busy, having simply completed “Our City” on Broadway and is ready to begin capturing “Voicemails to Isabelle” in Vancouver. She’s itching to get again to the stage, partially as a result of every single day is a brand new alternative to strive one thing new.
“It was like I used to be saying a prayer, a two-hour prayer every single day with 28 of my favourite individuals on the earth on a stage with 1,000 individuals watching,” she mentioned of the expertise.
In Cannes, Deutch was reveling within the scope of all of it. “It’s intense with so many cameras, so many individuals yelling your identify,” she mentioned. “But it surely’s additionally surreal and exquisite and utterly thrilling.
“Constructing these appears and these moments — I really feel so grateful that I get to do it, particularly while you’re sporting one thing that appears like a narrative.”
