Latest news with #MicheleMorrone
CNN
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Blake Lively packs her outrageously big hat for the destination wedding film of the year
CNN — Six years after their original outing, actors Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick are back for 'Another Simple Favor.' This time, a destination wedding on a sun-drenched Italian island is the backdrop to intrigue, murderous intent, and floppy hats the size of small parachutes. The sequel to 2018's dark comedy 'A Simple Favor' sees the cunning Emily (Lively) reunite with frenemy Stephanie (Kendrick) after the former's early release from prison for double murder. The simple favor in question this time? 'Will you be my maid of honor?' Emily asks — a surprising turn as Stephanie played a key role in the arrest and conviction of Emily years prior. Nonetheless, the two jet off to Capri, Italy, for the lavish wedding of Emily and the very suave and wealthy Dante (played Michele Morrone) where betrayal, snappy dialogue and vintage mob boss-inspired suits await them. Fans of Emily and Stephanie's wardrobe in 2018 can look forward to more bold, opulent statement pieces and elevated looks, according to the film's costume designer Renee Ehrlich Kalfus. 'I'd say the whole of the picture was to attain more of a grand and over the top style,' Kalfus told CNN over email. 'The costumes altogether were designed to be imposing and memorable.' When we first see Emily, her outfit leaves us in no doubt where she's been these last few years. Her jumpsuit is a couture twist on the cartoonish striped getup of a jailbird. Her hooped earrings resemble separated handcuffs, and her belt reminiscent of one you might see on a member of a chain gang. Then there's the highly-anticipated wedding itself. For the extravagant nuptials, director Paul Feig (who clearly knows a thing or two about on-screen weddings, having directed 2011 comedy 'Bridesmaids') took particular inspiration from one real life union. 'Paul came to me and his team to tell us to look at this video of fashion editor, Giovanna Bataglia, marrying Oscar Englebert,' Kalfus says of the lavish gathering, also held on Capri. 'He wanted his movie to have the look of grandeur, and he wanted us to create an ostentatious and gorgeous wedding.' One of the film's most memorable garments is Emily's one-of-a-kind wedding dress — complete with 40-foot veil — designed by Kalfus herself. The gown features a bustier and leggings made of latex courtesy of designer Renee Masoomian, with a satin skirt by Tirelli Costume House. 'It is an unexpected mix of beauty and harshness,' Kalfus says — the garment an embodiment of how Emily herself could be described. The extravagant veil was bordered with hundreds of crystals dipped in blood-red as a 'harbinger of things to come,' according to Kalfus. The dress — latex aside — is a surprisingly traditionally feminine look for Emily. Fans may remember her appearing in several tailored (and largely monochromatic) suits throughout 'A Simple Favor' — a look which was inspired by the way Feig dresses in real life. 'We were trying to figure out what Blake's look was,' explained Feig in an on-set interview during the production of the first film. 'Over the course of trying to figure it out, she became enamoured with the way I dress,' he added. Kalfus, who designed the looks for both films, adds that, 'Both Blake and I, we looked at each other and go 'somebody should dress like Paul, don't you think?' Every day he wears a three-piece suit.' Emily's outfits ended up making their way off screen, with Lively promoting the first film in tailored pantsuits by Ralph Lauren, Roland Mouret and Vivienne Westwood among others. In the sequel, 'Emily's style is pushed, much more heightened,' according to Kalfus. Her dresses, accessories, and that hat — the striped number worn while descending a hotel's grand staircase (that could block out the sun for a small village) — have all increased in size. Emily's black and white lines, neckties and waistcoats are juxtaposed with Stephanie's colorful floral sweaters and flowing skirts. You also see Emily's dramatic couture going toe to toe with an often dressed down Stephanie — appearing in sweatshirts and sweatpants, 'showing her reluctance to be part of the wedding,' Kalfus says. When Stephanie is in more formal attire, it errs towards a more youthful femininity, while Emily's appears more mature and domineering, lending a 'psychological edge' over Stephanie, Kalfus says. That 'edge' may be the key as to why Emily's looks are so striking. However, as Dante's mother Portia (Italian actress Elena Sofia Ricci) says, 'No amount of fashion can save this wedding from being a disaster.' She may just have a point.
South China Morning Post
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Michele Morrone, the hunky leading man of 365 Days and Another Simple Favor fame, on his friendship with Blake Lively, staying grounded in Hollywood, and the importance of being a good dad
Everything is romantic in the eyes of Michele Morrone, the hunky Italian leading man who's out to prove he can give Colin Farrell and Leonardo DiCaprio a run for their money. 'I'm obsessed with my life and obsessed with my passions,' the 34-year-old breakout star from erotic thriller 365 Days tells me over the phone one morning, dialling in from Milan to discuss his life as an actor, a father and everything in between. Self-assured and confident, as you would surely expect from one of Hollywood's most handsome faces, Morrone's name is also one of the most recognisable right now. Fresh off starring alongside Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick in Another Simple Favor, the sequel to Paul Feig's 2018 smash hit A Simple Favor, the actor is set to take on another blockbuster role in Feig's upcoming film The Housemaid, which casts him alongside A-listers Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney Michele Morrone photographed for Style by Mike Ruiz. Dsquared²: suit, shirt, tie, shoes; Intimissimi Uomo: socks Advertisement 'From my point of view, it's a waste to use only one life to do only one thing that you love,' Morrone says of his somewhat unconventional career path so far, from navigating humble beginnings in Puglia to finding fame through films like Subservience with Megan Fox and appearances on the Italian version of Dancing with the Stars. That's not to mention his side hustles dabbling in music and fashion. 'It's not that I'm going to wait until this life to finish my acting career and then in the next life be a singer, and then again in the next be a painter. I want to do it all together because I'm drunk on life – my passions are like a drug for me.' Riding that high, so to speak, not only transformed Morrone into an international heartthrob nearly overnight with 365 Days, but also took his career to new heights by bringing him face-to-face with pre-eminent filmmaking figures like Feig, whom the actor calls 'one of the most incredible gentlemen I've ever met'. If you ask Morrone whether he could even conceive of all this success back then, as a young hopeful from southern Italy, he would again speak with a sense of romanticism and whimsy – kismet, he calls it, borne out of uncompromising dedication and commitment to a path he feels was laid out for him all this time. 'For me it was more like a trip, like I'm going somewhere,' the actor muses. 'Like, I'm going to Hollywood. And there was something in my mind telling me that it was never a question mark for me. I don't know how much time I am going to take but I'm going there.' Emporio Armani: overcoat. The ring is Michele Morrone's own And go there he has in the span of just a few short years. Since 365 Days was released back in 2020, Morrone filmed two sequels before being tapped by Feig for Another Simple Favor, something the actor describes as a great honour and one which has become one of his most high-profile projects to date. Though legal drama surrounding Lively and her former It Ends with Us co-star Justin Baldoni , has since engulfed his famous castmate and distracted from much of Another Simple Favor's promotion, Morrone refrains from commenting on the controversy and instead gushes about Lively, whom he now calls a best friend. 'We talk almost every day on the phone. We exchange advice. She's like a sister to me – one of the most beautiful women, people, I ever met in my life. I became such good friends with Ryan [Reynolds] as well.' 'You always have the hope that you're going to get along with the person you're working with, especially when you have to play her man,' Morrone continues, when asked about acting alongside Lively and playing her romantic lead. 'You're always hoping to find someone who understands, and me and Blake we had such a great bond straight away. We became good friends from day one so it was very easy for me.'
