To celebrate Cinderella, let’s take a look at 25 things you probably didn’t know about
Disney’s live-action remake of their classic animated movie.
To prepare to play Cinderella, Lily James practised yoga every day to help get the right
posture and elegance for her character.
She also took horseback riding lessons for six weeks.
And to understand how Cinderella maintained her strength and goodness despite the cruelty
she faced, James researched spirituality, reading about leaders and pacifists such as
Gandhi.
To help develop the natural rapport real-life sisters have, director Kenneth Branagh encouraged
actresses Holliday Grainger and Sophie McShera, who play Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters,
to improvise on set.
To make Cinderella’s world feel both believable and fitting for a fairy tale, production designer
Dante Ferretti mixed historical reality with fantasy, taking inspiration from Northern
European architecture of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.
Director Kenneth Branagh wanted Cinderella’s world to have a 19th-century look.
Which meant the movie’s design team could include earlier styles of architecture into
their designs.
The set for the palace ballroom took around 9 months to build at Pinewood Studios on the
007 soundstage.
The ballroom’s design was inspired by French architecture including the Louvre and the
Hotel de Soubise, both of which have grand staircases.
The ballroom measured 50 yards long, 35 yards wide and 30 feet high, and had marble floors
and walls, a huge staircase, golden statues, thousands of flowers, and curtains made from
more than 2,000 yards of material.
In the ballroom, there were 17 huge chandeliers that were custom-made in Venice, Italy.
The chandeliers had almost 5,000 oil candles, each of which was lit by hand.
The movie’s design team built the exterior of Cinderella’s family’s home on location
at Black Park, a country park in Buckinghamshire, England.
The interiors of Cinders’ home, including the bedrooms, her father’s study, and the
attic, were built on soundstages at Pinewood Studios.
Although the story takes place around the 1830s, costume designer Sandy Powell used
artistic license to do what was best for each character.
So, the costumes aren’t strictly 19th century, but rather a 1940s version of that era.
Powell approached the film like a storybook for children.
In other words, she made her designs bright and colourful with fairly-easy references
as to who was good and who was evil.
Costume designer Sandy Powell didn’t want Cinderella’s usual outfit to be rags or
a patchwork dress.
Instead, Cinders wears a dress that gradually deteriorates and fades, but looks like something
she would have worn in happier days when her father was still alive.
The dress is made of aqua cotton voile and is influenced by a 1920s floral print with
big pale pink flowers almost hidden in the material.
Cinderella’s ball gown took months to make with numerous prototypes, fittings and trials,
which included moving and dancing, along the way.
To give the dress a light, almost weightless, look, costume designer Sandy Powell used many
layers of very fine fabric in different shades of blue, which gave the gown its watery lilac
blue colour.
Nine different versions of Cinderella’s ball gown were made, featuring more than 270
yards of fabric, lots of petticoats, more than 10,000 Swarovski crystals, and over 3
miles of hems.
It took 16 people 550 hours to make Cinderella’s silk organza wedding dress.
Unlike Cinders’ ball gown, only one wedding dress was made.
For Cate Blanchett’s wicked stepmother costumes, designer Sandy Powell took inspiration from
1940s photos of movie stars such as Marlene Dietrich and Joan Crawford.
Powell used a strong jewel-tone colour palette and a lot of black for the stepmother’s
clothes to give her a sharp edge, in spite of her beauty.
And she gave the stepmother and her daughters so many incredible outfits to emphasis the
fact that they were spending all the money left by Cinderella’s father on their own
clothes.
The stepsisters’ outfits were deliberately designed with the cheapest fabrics to look
over the top and tasteless.
As well as making the sisters look silly, this also helped keep the focus on the stepmother.
Of all the characters in the live-action Cinderella, costume designer Sandy Powell says the Prince
is the one who looks most like his character in Disney’s animated Cinderella movie.
In this new film, the Prince’s costumes often feature shades of blue to accentuate
actor Richard Madden’s blue eyes.
And even though it would have been more historically accurate for the Prince’s uniform to have
tight white breeches with baggy knees, Powell thought fitted trousers looked more flattering.
Helena Bonham Carter’s Fairy Godmother gown was almost 4 feet wide, made up of over 130
yards of fabric, featured 10,000 Swarovski crystals, and had 400 LED lights sewn into
the material so it would light up when she cast a spell.
There were more than 200 extras in Cinderella’s ballroom scenes.
These included 25 guards, 20 servants, 54 professional dancers and 30 orchestra members.
The costumes worn by guests at the royal Ball were inspired by ballroom dance scenes in
classic films such as Italian director Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard and American director
Alexander Hall’s Once Upon A Time.
Over 3 months of planning and preparation, including casting, wardrobe fittings and rehearsals,
were needed for the whole ballroom sequence.
And more than 35 assistant directors helped oversee it.
The shape of Cinderella’s glass slipper is based on a shoe from the 1890s which costume
designer Sandy Powell found in a shoe museum in Northampton, England.
Powell looked at different ways of making a glass shoe, but because the shoe needed
to sparkle, she realised it had to be made of crystal.
So, over many months, she worked with the Austrian crystal company Swarovski and they
developed a special piece of machinery to make the shoe.
Eight copies of the slipper were made, however none of them were actually worn in the film.
Instead, they were used as props, for example in the scenes where maidens try on the slipper,
and where the slipper is smashed.
During the ballroom scenes, the filmmakers used five cameras to make sure they caught
every moment in the dance sequences from as many positions as possible.
And they also used two cranes to get a sweeping effect and show the scale of the set and the
dance routines.
To make Cinderella appear as natural as possible, the movie’s make-up designer kept Lily James’
make-up minimal, and used blusher to highlight her emotions.
So, in scenes where Cinders is sad, they reduced the blusher, making her look a little pale.
While in scenes where she was excited or falling in love, they used more blusher.
To give Cinders more sparkle in the ballroom scene, the make-up team applied a light-reflecting
lotion mixed with white glitter to Lily James’s skin, and glitter to her eyelids.
And crystals were placed in her hair.
It took 5 hours to get each extra ready for the ballroom scenes, as each one needed to
be dressed, made up, photographed, and charted.
The design of Cinderella’s iconic carriage was inspired by jewellery and jewellery cases.
And because the pumpkin’s transformation takes place in the greenhouse in Cinderella’s
garden, the design team incorporated elements from the greenhouse into the carriage’s
design.
For example, the seat Cinderella sits on is from the greenhouse.
The carriage was 10 feet high, 17 feet long, and weighed nearly 2 tons.
In fact, it was too heavy to be pulled by real horses, so the design team had to remove
some of the ironwork used in it and replace it with light-weight sculptures.
Well there you have it, 25 things you probably didn't know about Cinderella!
If you’re a fan of Disney movies, check out my videos on 15 Things You Didn’t Know
About Frozen Fever, and 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Big Hero 6!
And let me know in the comments below, what’s your favourite live-action Disney movie?
And who’s your favourite Disney character?
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