Practical clothes, sexual fluidity and no posing: How 'Charlie's Angels' got millennial
Yes, there's a sensual hair flip, choreographed dance scene and a dose of disco-era music in the new "Charlie's Angels." But aside from key moments in the new film (in theaters Friday) that pay homage to previous "Angels" installments, director Elizabeth Banks' reboot is very much a 2019 action-comedy.
Exactly what changed for the new Angels, now played by Kristen Stewart (as Sabina), Naomi Scott (Elena) and Ella Balinska (Jane) as the three crime-fighting ladies who work for a mysterious investigative agency?
Banks, who also wrote and stars as Bosley in "Charlie's Angels," chats with USA TODAY about the film's Millennial makeover.
The Angels' clothing got more practical
Sure, the new Angels rock sequined rompers and glamorous dresses when they're undercover at parties. But when it's time to fight, there's no need for low-cut bodysuits and heels: The trio change into athletic outfits with elbow pads and sneakers. "All of our clothes that we wear are pretty practical," says Balinska, including the time her character dons bulletproof body armor in preparation for combat.
"We wanted the clothing to be more reality-based," agrees Banks. "They had to have padding and things that keep them safe, and we didn't try to hide that stuff in the movie. If you're going to fight, you want to have advantages."
Fashion is also used at the start of the movie as a way to let viewers know that these Angels aren't quite the untouchable heroines of the previous movies and 1970s television show. In the first scene, Stewart's Sabina is is all long blond hair, pink sequins and sweetness – until she removes her wig to dismantle a baddie and reveal her true, hilariously dry personality.
"I definitely wanted to play with audience's expectations off the bat and subvert them immediately," says Banks. "I wanted the opening shot of the movie to be (Stewart) basically dressed as a pink Barbie."
The director worked with her lead actresses on costumes they "felt great and confident in," Banks says. For Stewart, that meant plenty of bubblegum-pink clothes and animal prints, including one custom-made silk leopard-print pajama set that was inspired by a Victoria Beckham design.
The women are more 'real'
In the '70s, Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith knew they were both women on a mission and viewer eye candy. In the early aughts reboots, Cameron Diaz and the gang cheekily played up both their adorability and grit. This time, though, the stars seem a little more like women you might know, complete with struggles, quirks and flaws. They also speak like millennials, with Stewart's character making jokes about "swiping right" and being "extra."
"One of my goals was to make the women, these Angels, a little more relatable," says Banks, noting the women in the original series were trained police officers, not superheroes. "It was a quiet celebration of everyday heroics."
In the 2000 "Charlie's Angels," Lucy Liu was introduced as the first Angel of Asian descent, a groundbreaking casting move for the time. But in the movie, she still had to go undercover in a massage parlor called Wong's House of Blossoms, with Diaz and Drew Barrymore's Angels donning white face makeup and wigs as the song "Turning Japanese" played.
Banks' casting feels more inclusive: Scott is a British actress of Indian descent, Balinska has a diverse background and Stewart's Sabina is the first Angel to display sexual fluidity, showing romantic interest in a woman when she checks someone out at a spin studio.
"I want these women to wear what they want and love who they want and just have no limits on anything that they want," says Banks. "That's really what that moment is about: Acknowledging fluidity, which is also very modern."
There's plenty of sisterhood, with no focus on romance
Gone is the famous '"Charlie's Angels' pose," where three women kneel with finger guns pointed or stand in prayer posture. The new stars of "Charlie's Angels" appear on buses and billboards holding hands.
Banks says the new pose is meant to show the themes of "camaraderie, sisterhood and teamwork" displayed in the movie.
That teamwork they employ? It's used to fight misogynistic men, naturally.
And the closest thing to actual flirting comes when Jane takes a bite out of a nerdy engineer's sandwich (played by Internet crush-of-the-moment Noah Centineo). But the moment is quick, and the most deeply explored relationship shown onscreen is clearly between Jane and Sabina, new friends with opposite personalities.
The movie "has none of those tropes that the series has had in the past," says Banks. "There’s no romantic entanglements. It’s like, they’re at work doing their job, and they’re doing it together. Period. The end."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Charlie's Angels' got Millennial with sexual fluidity, confidence