Christopher Nolan is uncompromising: The accessory that must “stay in the closet” on his film sets

On a film set, Christopher Nolan doesn’t mess around with… UGGs, which he described on CBS Morning as “those big, cozy, floppy slippers.”

The famous fur-lined boots from the UGG brand have the same effect on the American director as “someone eating a bag of chips during a movie.” To him, they’re one of those“things that abruptly snap you back to reality, just when you’re trying to create a separate world for the actors. I want to stay in the moment.”

He continued: “For me, UGG boots are a symbol of modernity, as absurd as that may seem.”

The actors get involved

Faced with this aversion, confirmed by Matt Damon—his lead actor in The Odyssey—several actresses have tested his limits.

Anne Hathaway, who tried to show up on set wearing the famous boots, told USA Today that the director, as soon as she arrived on set, “looked down before saying, ‘No.’” “I just replied, ‘No problem!’ And I never wore them again,” she recounted, bursting into laughter.

For her part, Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer) believes he has “a serious problem” with those shoes. On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2024, she recalled a day when she arrived wearing them. "It was just like in 'The Devil Wears Prada'. He literally stared at them. I said to him, 'Chris, come on…'," but he immediately cut me off: "Take them off." The actress eventually took it a step further by giving him a pair as a wrap-up gift. It was a little jab that had the desired effect on the filmmaker, who conceded that “UGGs are great… but not on a film set.”