‘The Holiday’: How Cameron Diaz and Nancy Meyers Selected Amanda’s Cozy Winter Wardrobe and the 1 Unplanned Scene That Took a Week to Film
The Holiday may have premiered in 2006, but nearly 20 years later it remains something of a modern classic in the Christmas movie genre. For those who watch the Nancy Meyers film every holiday season — this writer included — actor Cameron Diaz’s outfits are, in addition to the sets, just as covetable today as they were when The Holiday first hit screens. And, as it turns out, putting the looks together proved to be a memorable experience for Diaz.
Cameron selected her outfits for ‘The Holiday’ alongside Nancy in a room filled with cashmere
Diaz reflected on The Holiday in a 2020 interview, telling Vulture she and Meyers got to know each other the same day they picked her character Amanda Woods’ wardrobe. In the film, Amanda is a movie trailer maker from Los Angeles, California, who trades places with Kate Winslet’s Iris Simpkins to spend the holidays in England.
For those who find themselves searching “Cameron Diaz The Holiday outfits” year after year, know that the act of creating Amanda’s looks is a fond memory for the now-51-year-old.
“I remember the first chunk of time that we really spent together was doing wardrobe,” Diaz told the outlet. “We were in a huge dressing room full of every piece of cashmere that was available to any one person.”
She and Meyers “collected every piece, and it was just wall-to-wall cashmere sweaters and coats. And we just spent the whole day pulling out outfits and putting them together, and talking about scenes and what we would wear, and what my character would wear.”
“We just had so much fun,” Diaz added.
Cameron’s outfits in ‘The Holiday’ showcased elements of Nancy Meyers’ personal style
From Amanda’s brown shearling coat to her rhinestone-embellished look that prompts one of Graham’s (Jude Law) daughters to point out her Barbie-like resemblance, Diaz’s outfits in The Holiday reflected some elements of Meyers’ style.
Asked how she’d describe the director’s own style and her approach to dressing characters, the
Avaline wine co-founder noted how Meyers favors “understated” and “simple” looks. “She loves a neutral palette,” Diaz said before adding, “It works very well. She has that down.”
“Everything’s textured,” she continued. “There’s the beautiful silk and the beautiful cashmere. It’s very luxe. Luxe but understated.”
Sound like Amanda in The Holiday? Diaz’s character certainly wore clothes made of silk and cashmere with varying textures with the overall style skewing heaving toward quiet luxury.
Cameron spent a week filming ‘The Holiday’ scene where Amanda runs back to Rosehill Cottage
The big scene where Amanda runs back to Rosehill Cottage to spend New Year’s Eve with Graham involved a week of filming, according to Diaz. She revealed the scene, which wasn’t initially part of the script, began as a short “stage description” and ended with her running in heels over seven days of filming.
“It’s literally just the stage description of what Amanda does,” Diaz said. “She’s in the back of a car, she realizes she has to go back, she stops the car, she gets out. The line is, ‘Stop the car.’ And she gets out of the car, and she runs back down the road to the cottage.”
The tricky part, the actor explained, was that “Nancy had her [Amanda] already a half a mile away. It was not like she got to the edge of the driveway and decided she needed to go back. She was halfway to the freaking airport. She’s almost to Heathrow, and she’s like, ‘Stop the car.’”
“They only used two shots, but we shot like 10 shots of me running across 10 different fields. And I’m wearing that Valentino cashmere, wool trench coat, a turtleneck cashmere sweater. And jeans, and my high-heeled boots.”
Nevertheless, Diaz ran through “fake snow” with the music “blasting” during filming before finding herself “so fit by the end of that week.”
“I ran probably seven miles a day in those heels. Through mud and hills,” she recalled. “It was so hilarious. I was literally like, I’m not even complaining right now because my job is to run, and I’m OK with that. But I’m sweating.’”
The Holiday is streaming on Hulu.
