Q: Do you remember your first thoughts about costume design?
A: As a child, I loved the costumes in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). As an adult, The Leopard (1963) was the first movie that made me aware that costume design could be something spectacular. I was probably twenty years old and living in Seattle, Washington. I was just selling clothes at the time and not involved in this industry at all.
Q: When did you realize it could be a career?
A: There was a long period of having a child and having to make a living a different way—working in an Yves Saint Laurent boutique, selling clothes and fitting clothes. Once my daughter was out of high school, I decided I really wanted to work on films. I moved to New York and got my first break working in the art department on Ragtime (1981) for Patrizia von Brandenstein. I was doing everything I could to survive. I was basically starting over, sewing labels on at night in little designers’ back rooms, and all kinds of stuff to make a living in New York.
Q: Was it sink or swim?
A: I was just excited by the prospect and the idea of doing it. I ended up making things by hand with Patrizia’s daughter in their loft for set dressing for Ragtime, and became aware of the possibilities for design. I studied fine art in school, but not as it related to clothing or costumes.
Q: How did you break out to design on your own?
A: I was recommended by Patrizia for a job working for the film division of Saturday Night Live. It was for the little films they made that went with the show every week. Once I did that, I was recommended for my first design job. I got in the union, which in New York is not easy to shortcut, and then I was able to get my own work.
Q: What was your first meeting like with Tim Burton for Edward Scissorhands?
A: I lived in New York at the time and I was flown to Los Angeles for the meeting. I was very excited about the possibility of working with him. The meeting was so casual, we just met and had a cup of coffee. We only talked about the script a little bit and who Edward was and the world Tim was thinking of creating. He asked me right then if I wanted to do it and I said, “Yeah!” I’ve had two jobs in my life where the directors actually said in the room, “Will you do the movie?” and that was one of them. Tim and I have had a very long collaboration and understanding of each other. I think we have similar taste in a lot of ways. After working with him, I know things he doesn’t like, but he’s always approachable for new ideas.
Q: Do you know what it was that made you both click from the start?
A: He liked my ideas, and I think he liked the fact that I didn’t talk too much, to be honest. I’m a bit older than Tim, but we grew up in the same way—in very middle-class neighborhoods. We had a lot of experiences in common with life and who we were as artists, and I think that is really our connection.
Q: Would it be correct to say that Johnny Depp is your muse?
A: I think Johnny Depp is such a special artist and actor in his own way. We just get silly together and have a great time. If you fire off a little idea, Johnny takes it to another place. When I know I’m working with him, I always try to come up with little things and just lay them around to see if he picks up on them, and he always does. He is definitely an inspirational artist and muse that way, for sure.
Q: You went on from Edward Scissorhands to do Silence of the Lambs (1991), which are two radically different projects. What attracts you to a project?
A: It’s a combination of things, but a connection with the director is the most important part for me. If I know a director and what excitement and energy they’re going to bring to a script, it changes the aspect of what that script is to me. It’s great to read a script that is just a good script and say, “Wow, I want to do this.” But most of the time it, helps me to imagine what the director’s take on the script will be.
Q: So even if there isn’t a great opportunity for costuming, are you attracted to really good characterizations, as in Silence of the Lambs?
Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renée Zellweger in Chicago (2002).
A: Those characters were so sparse and well drawn, and [director] Jonathan Demme connected with them in a great way. It was a very good script, but none of us realized it would be such a huge hit. We were just doing another movie with the Jonathan family. But then we would go to dailies and see the performances between Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, and the tension of the way it was shot, and we felt like we were part of something.
Q: You used the word “sparse.” So even if a character is sparse, you can still be drawn to costuming them?
A: What I like is that these projects are all so different. To me, that is the most interesting thing about my work. One-half of the year I can be working on a big-budget film with fantasy costumes, and the other half of the year, I can be working on a film with four costumes.
Q: When you work on musicals like Chicago (2002) and Nine (2009) with director Rob Marshall, how do you design in conjunction with the choreography?
A: It depends on the movie, and if it’s a movie with a lot of choreography. In a perfect world of film, the choreography is designed in pre-production. Then I start my process of designing, measuring, and fitting the costumes. In the case of Chicago, when I met with Rob Marshall, I had just finished Planet of the Apes (2001). I brought my book from that film to the meeting. We talked about the difference between action and choreography and how it’s closely related as far as costume functions and needs. So I knew a lot of things that dancers required. He told me he wanted me to do the movie and that he would call me in a few months. When production was starting, Rob called and he said he wanted to bring me in to see the choreography. Rob, John DeLuca, Joey Pizzi, Denise Faye, and Cynthia Onrubia performed the entire choreography for Chicago for me in an empty space using just chairs. It was the most impressive, inspiring thing I ever saw. It was amazing to see how the choreography was built to tell a story in a film, and to see all the movement, so you knew what the costumes were going to be doing before you built them.
Charlize Theron in Snow White and the Huntsman (2012).
Carlos Rosario’s costume sketch for Renée Zellweger in Chicago (2002). Costume design by Colleen Atwood.
Q: Can you give me an example of a costume that almost got cut from a film and why?
A: There’s almost always one costume in every movie. In Nine, there is a costume that Judi Dench wore when she had a flashback. We were really struggling to make it work as a romantic costume on her in a number where she had to sit on a piano. I really wanted to make it look like an old cabaret tuxedo and I wanted it to be really sexy. We all had a moment over a weekend where Rob was saying, “I’m not sure this is right. I don’t know if it’s going to help her do the number.” But I loved it, and Judi did, too. So when Judi came in on Monday for a fitting, we took the costume to Rob and John DeLuca. She sold it so well, they said, “It’s great, she’s going to wear it. It’s going to be fine. We just had a moment,” which happens with people. Judi made it work in a great way.
Q: So the actors can really hit things home when they like it?
A: Yes, in both ways. They can also whine about a costume. It doesn’t happen that often, but especially with young actresses who come from modeling, and not acting, it can happen. But they have to wear the costume and they have to feel the costume is their character. It is a real collaboration between the costume, the costume designer, and the actor. And if you’re not helping them, then you’re really not doing your job. It is really important to be able to move on if something isn’t working for somebody. You have to have a vision, but you have to have more than one.
Kate Hudson in Nine (2009).
Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct (1992).