(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
One of the most fun and exciting parts of Hollywood culture is the glamorous and exuberant outfits the stars wear to parties, campier than anything you might see in your local pub and made from fabrics worth many times the price. Think: Marilyn Monroe in her rhinestones; Monica Belluci in Dolce & Gabbana at Cannes; Leo spruced up in his suits; or all the Met Gala looks. A surprising new addition to the iconic outfit’s legacy? Donald Sutherland.
In a joint interview in Vanity Fair, Keira Knightley and Rosamund Pike reminisced about a memory from the Pride & Prejudice wrap party in 2005, when Sutherland turned up wearing quite the unexpected garb.
In the interview, Knightley recalls that Sutherland was not a fan of smoking: “He had it in his contract that nobody on the set was allowed to smoke anywhere near, and you couldn’t smell of smoke. But of course, everyone smoked back then. And everybody would be smoking, and then you’d be sort of spraying yourself. But the party he came to, he came in a gas mask. And he was like, ‘I want you to all be able to smoke, and I wanted to come to the party.’”
The heartwarming anecdote about the actor, who passed away in 2024 and is considered one of the best actors to have never been nominated for an Oscar, despite his many other accolades, was followed up with an equally absurdist story from Pike. “[Donald] was amazing. He also remembered halfway through shooting that he had a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow that he’d bought while making Don’t Look Now or something and completely forgotten about. [He] remembered it was garaged somewhere up near Manchester and had it delivered to set,” she mused.
The pair worked with Sutherland on the Joe Wright period drama based on the Jane Austen classic. A 20-year-old Knightley played the lead role of the romantic Elizabeth Bennet and was nominated for an Academy Award for her part. Meanwhile, Pike portrayed the sweet but sensible eldest Bennet daughter, Jane, and Sutherland played the cynical family patriarch eager to marry his daughters off.
The movie was a jumping-off point for its young stars, with Keira later making a name for herself within period pieces through her continued work with Wright. Sutherland, on the other hand, was well-established in the film world, something that made him a scary name for Wright to work with. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Sutherland recalled telling the director, “Joe, goddammit, I’m not right for this, why the fuck did you hire me for this?” Wright confirms this too, sharing with Letterboxd that every time the actor laughed, it was strange because he hid his teeth as he thought they were “too modern”. Despite all these peculiarities, Sutherland believed it was one of the favourites of his career.
Sutherland set the bar so high for his co-workers that Knightly confessed that her colleagues since then have not lived up to those standards. Although he shared many more interesting anecdotes with the cast and crew, the gas mask incident will always remain one of the highlights.
Related Topics