NEED TO KNOW
- Cole Escola shared more details on how their fashion tribute to Bernadette Peters came to life at the 2025 Tony Awards
- In an interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers, the actor revealed that he didn’t tell Peters about their big moment ahead of time
- “This was like a formative gown for me,” Escola shared
Cole Escola’s 2025 Tony Awards experience was special thanks, in part, to their meaningful red carpet look.
On June 8, the Oh Mary! star stepped out for Broadway’s biggest night in a custom Wiederhoeft “Cinderella blue” gown embellished with glass beads, faceted crystals and metal sequins. The look paid homage to the dress Bernadette Peters wore to the 1999 ceremony, where she took home the award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for Annie Get Your Gun.
In a Wednesday, June 18 interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Escola, 38, talked about what it meant for them to bring the tribute to life and why they didn’t give Peters a heads up about their planned red carpet style.
“Were you hoping it’d give you luck if you borrowed the look?” host Seth Meyers wondered.
“Maybe a part of me thought that it might bring me luck. But also I was like, this is never going to happen to me again,” Escola explained before playfully taking Meyers’ cue card, which showed them posing on the red carpet.
They continued, saying, “This was like a formative gown for me. It was like a formative moment of like, ‘Wow, [Peters] is the most beautiful woman in the world. So, I was like, if this is my special Cinderella goes to the ball one night, I want to look as perfect as possible.”
Meyers asked if Escola gave Peters, 77, a heads up.
“I said, ‘Watch your back,'” they jokingly replied, before going on to explain why they decided not to tell Peters about their outfit beforehand. “Frankly, I was worried that she’d be like, ‘Okay, that’s creepy, stay away from me.’ But then she put up a nice statement.”
In a statement shared with PEOPLE shortly after Escola’s Tonys appearance, Peters said: “I thought they looked absolutely lovely but when I wore it, I wore my chest hairs in a different pattern,” adding, “But, more importantly, congratulations to Cole on the Tony!!”
Escola took home the award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.
During their interview, Escola humorously told Meyers, “As you can see her [chest hairs] are more tucked in.” They then went on to say Peters’ response was “very funny and very sweet.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The PEOPLE App is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more!
As shared in a press release from Wiederhoeft designer, Jackson Wiederhoeft, Escola’s gown was also “inspired by additional themes of faded crypticism, false innocence, fightfulness, womanly age-hold historically feminine garments, queenly status and ancient doors.”
In addition to Peters, Escola also wore an ode to famed British actress Laura Keene, who was featured on their necklace. Keene starred in the play Our American Cousin, which was attended by President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington on the evening of his assassination.
Read the full article here