CDG - The Costume Designer

he most startling erformance comes from the itchitches Kathryn Hunter whose shocking transformation from weird sister to crow is accom- lished by the actors etraordinary hysical erfor- mance and some cleer costumes ohres enthus- es, e had ttings at arner Bros and she would do some of her moements hen she twists her limbs, they dont look human anymore I remember saying, She shouldnt hae her arms coered at all, and we need to see art of her legs e ust started taking things o of her e had a cowl on her head that was a hand knit, then we glued the un nished ends to her forehead hat was meant to take away her hair, ears, and neckany human characteristics It was so much fun Ill neer forget that tting Director Joel Coen knew the scene worked because the rst audience, the crew, resonded to it so well First the crew ut down their stu and got close to the monitors hen they moed to the edge of the set hen she nished, they burst into alause here is no CGI, no tricks Just Kathryn in costume on a stretch of sand Like the itches, Ross Ale Hassell is a character whose scenes weae the story together Sometimes narrator, and at other times a shadowy roocateur, he has a courtly costume and another more discreet look when uietly u to no good e looked at hun- dreds of images and landed on this gown-like shae with wings hen I met with Ale, I saw he has broad shoulders, but a ery narrow waist and his I saw his hysiue and said, Oh, we can go ery slim on him In our second tting we ust started taking it in and tak- ing it in until the whole look became a sort of cylinder, which was in keeing with the geometric shaes he tted sleees form wings that are art of the attern of the cowl he wears oer his tted tunic, and gie the character a connection to the itch- es and their crow theme hile his thin, angular silhouette suggest a scarecrow Crow, courtier, and eecutioner, the combination coneys the characters ambiguous moties Hassell describes the eerience laishly It meant the costume married u with the character You could neer uite tell who he was He seemed to hae no ed asect in a way that was fascinating to erform, and I learned a great deal ust utting the costume on his is a story of characters who are like chess ieces moing around the interiors, she elains Ultimately, the costumes become the eicenter of the tableau, and ohres the chess master T e CGI, t s. J K hryn a co u a • t• • s• . Photos: pple T, The Traged o aceth Kathrn Hunter as the Witches le Hassell as Ross T e CGI, t s. J K hryn a co u a • t• • s• . 30 THE COSTUME DESIGNER | SPRING 2022

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