Why Christopher Nolan always wears the same clothes when he’s directing: “He likes certain routines”
Christopher Nolan is one of the most influential modern directors, pioneering a style of cinema that sits somewhere between arthouse and commercial filmmaking, appealing to the masses as well as the nerds. From the explosive relevance of Oppenheimer to the disturbing dream world of Inception or the lasting humanity of Interstellar, Nolan has created distinct and cutting-edge story worlds that continue to inspire conversation and be interpreted in new ways.
Many people have praised his work ethic and meticulous attention to detail on set. He prefers to work quickly, with few breaks, and without any distractions. John David Washington recently explained that his sets don’t look how you would expect. They are very sparse and minimal, with no video village or crew of hundreds of people, just a small team of dedicated creatives.
Given the specificity of his approach, it comes as no surprise that this manifests in many ways, with Nolan’s director of photography describing how this is reflected in the way he dresses.
There have been many creative minds and innovators who have chosen to dress in a hyper-specific way when working, from the uniform of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein and Stanley Kubrick, who all chose to wear the same thing nearly every day, or at least, while they were doing their job. Kubrick, in particular, found it important to eliminate the existence of mundane decisions and deliberations from everyday life, wanting to put every single ounce of his energy into his films. It’s a very touching idea, and one that makes sense when you watch his work.
Nolan has adopted a similar philosophy when on set, choosing to wear the same outfit in order to eliminate the stress of personal fashion. For many people, this decision can plague our mornings, leading to scattered wardrobes and piles of clothes as you try to find one godforsaken outfit that doesn’t look completely horrid. And evidently, this is a dilemma that Nolan also suffers through, making him weirdly more relatable that a fashion crisis can consume us all.
Hoyte Van Hoytema has worked with Nolan on four films now, and when asked about his working habits he said, “His dressing style is a manifestation of the fact that he’s putting his energy elsewhere. He wears the uniform to make things easier for himself and to strip away the bullshit. He likes certain routines, and he hangs on to them in order not to have to think about anything else. He has such a hawk’s-eye focus on the task at hand. There’s no other director I’ve ever worked with who has such a specific devotion and dedication.”
The pair first worked together on Interstellar and have not strayed from this partnership since, so Hoytema has a deep understanding of his habits and on-set behaviours. Each project that Nolan works on feels so consuming and all-encompassing, putting everything into the creation of an immersive world that will leave audiences in a spell. Perhaps the truly great directors can only do this when they don’t have to worry about the outfit they’re wearing the next day, and maybe this is the true secret to global success.
