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Winter 2016 The Costume Designer 19 In another career high- light, the New York native cre- ated the on-screen wardrobe for her idol, Audrey Hepburn, in the film Always. She has also created costumes for top stars such as Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, Glenn Close, Sharon Stone, Robert Downey Jr., Mel Gibson, Matt Damon and on the recent By the Sea, Brad Pitt and the film's star, writer and director Angelina Jolie Pitt. Mirojnick was tapped again by Jolie Pitt to design her next directorial project, First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers. The Netflix original movie shoots this year in Cambodia and is an adaptation of the memoir about life under the Khmer Rouge. The designer shares a palpable sense of gratitude when she speaks of working with Jolie Pitt, yet she credits Candelabra director Steven Soderbergh with reinvigorating her spirit and her career. Mirojnick won an Emmy Award in 2013 and a Costume Designers Guild Award for the HBO bio-pic that starred Douglas as Liberace, and Matt Damon as his lover, Scott Thorson. She teamed up with Soderbergh again for The Knick, where Clive Owen memorably plays Dr. John Thackery, in a signature deep green velvet jacket and white—but period correct—boots. For Behind the Candelabra, Soderbergh followed Douglas' suggestion to hire Mirojnick, after Costume Designer Jeffrey Kurland was unable to begin the project. "Jeffrey was my fairy W hen you master the art of Costume Design, you have mastered the art of contradiction. Your work must blend so completely with a character as to be practi- cally invisible. You collaborate, but must also lead. Costume Designer Ellen Mirojnick adds another layer of con- tradiction to the equation. Having built a career on such legend- ary contemporary projects as Fatal Attraction, Wall Street, and Face/Off, Mirojnick has recently been earning accolades for such period projects as the television movie Behind the Candelabra, about Liberace in the late '70s and early '80s, and The Knick, a gritty drama about a New York hospital in the 1900s. Audiences and peers have taken notice. Mirojnick is this year's recipient of the Career Achievement Award in recognition of her many con- tributions to film and television. Mirojnick has worked with many acclaimed directors, includ- ing Oliver Stone on Wall Street, Adrian Lyne on Fatal Attraction and Jacob's Ladder, Steven Spielberg on Always, Paul Verhoeven on Starship Troopers, John Woo on Face/Off, Richard Attenborough on Chaplin, and Nancy Meyers on What Women Want. A pivotal moment in Mirojnick's career came when she met Michael Douglas in 1986 designing Fatal Attraction, and part- nered with him two months later on Wall Street. "It was a seminal moment for Michael's career and the beginning of mine," she says. "Oliver [Stone] was demanding with his actors, and demanding with me at the very beginning. However, he allowed me to create Gordon Gekko. Oliver was uncertain of my choices at the time, though, I continually assured him that Gordon Gekko was right." Her intuition proved impeccable. The designer has often created iconic looks that have influenced fashion, but, Gordon Gekko launched a mania for his signature style—crisp dress shirts with immaculate white collars, patterned ties, and striped suspenders. Her ongoing collaboration with Douglas has endured because, "I am always truthful with him. Also, because I am able to see the totality of the film that the director was after," she says, "He grew to trust my instincts and rely on my vision." Together they made movie history with Fatal Attraction, Wall Street, Basic Instinct, and most recently, Behind the Candelabra. With the support of Emmy's golden light, I've learned to embrace myself, my body of work, and my past, as it's a road that will forever lead to a greater tomorrow.