Latest / The Art of Costume Podcast / True Blood with Costume Designer, Audrey Fisher

Transcript

True Blood with Costume Designer, Audrey Fisher · The Art of Costume Podcast

• 0:06
  Hello and welcome to the Art of Costume podcast.
• 0:08
  I'm Elizabeth Joy Glass. And I'm a disgruntled Merlot's
• 0:12
  employee who is always wondering why no one is ever coming to
• 0:15
  work and we're so understaffed. Spencer Williams.
• 0:19
  Hello Spencer. We would both be working at
• 0:22
  Merlot's and be very disgruntled.
• 0:25
  We'd be like, I don't know what the hell is going on, but why
• 0:29
  are we the only people ever at work?
• 0:31
  Why does no one ever show up to work?
• 0:33
  Slicky shows up to work once a season, yeah.
• 0:36
  I look like we're stuck here with Arlene.
• 0:41
  Hey, Elizabeth, Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween, how have you
• 0:46
  been? I am good.
• 0:48
  I have been going crazy on spooky season stuff.
• 0:51
  I've been fiercely watching True Blood, which?
• 0:54
  We're going to get into it. We had Lightbox Expo the other
• 0:58
  day, which I was excited to see some costume nerds there.
• 1:02
  And of course, I was at Vogue Roll the other day Which?
• 1:04
  Was. It's been a wild week.
• 1:08
  A wild, wild week. I just been like watching your
• 1:13
  Instagram being like, okay, what cool thing is Spencer doing now
• 1:16
  while I make my Halloween decorations?
• 1:19
  Elizabeth, will texting be like, are you home this week?
• 1:22
  Yeah, like, not really. I like volunteer your cars for a
• 1:26
  couple days. I just be like, you're alive,
• 1:28
  right? Well, we are so excited to be
• 1:33
  wrapping up our hot vampire month.
• 1:35
  It has been a wild ride. We started with the Lost Boys,
• 1:39
  went into Interview with the Vampire, Only Lovers Left of
• 1:42
  Alive. But I don't think anything's
• 1:44
  more insane than today's episode, because Elizabeth
• 1:48
  finally got her wish and got me to watch True Blood.
• 1:52
  Yes, the one the only HBO classic with, in my opinion, the
• 2:00
  best intro sequence of any TV show ever.
• 2:04
  True Blood. This this was a ride.
• 2:09
  This was a wild ride. I mean, this is probably the
• 2:12
  first time ever texted Elizabeth like kind of non-stop being
• 2:15
  like, hey, remember that one episode where Sookie's brother
• 2:20
  is like drank too much vampire blood and then his penis is so
• 2:24
  engorged that he has to go to the hospital with the with his
• 2:28
  sister's best friend who actually has a crush on him?
• 2:32
  Was was just like, Yep. I'm like, I remember that.
• 2:36
  I remember that you also texted to be early on being like.
• 2:41
  I would have never guessed this would be something you were
• 2:44
  interested in watching. Right.
• 2:46
  Of all people, I'm like True Blood, right?
• 2:49
  You're not talking about like Vampire Diaries or something.
• 2:51
  She's like, no, this is the one True Blood.
• 2:54
  And then the. Stack House and yeah, Eric.
• 2:58
  I was gonna say then I saw Alexander Skarsgard and I was
• 3:01
  like, all right. That's when you see him.
• 3:04
  You're like, OK, I get it. Yeah.
• 3:06
  Yeah. Well, let's get into Elizabeth
• 3:08
  because we have a huge episode. We do.
• 3:11
  We absolutely do. Give us a summary, Spencer.
• 3:15
  All right, in the small town of Bonne Thom, Louisiana, Sookie
• 3:19
  Stackhouse, a sweet, polite waitress with the small
• 3:22
  complication of being telepathic, is doing her best to
• 3:26
  live a quiet, drama free life, even though literally everyone
• 3:29
  in this town is obsessed with her.
• 3:32
  That dream is devastated when Bill Compton, a vampire in a man
• 3:36
  of impeccable manners and questionable timing, strolls
• 3:39
  into the bar where she works. Suddenly, Sookie finds herself
• 3:42
  neck deep in a supernatural world complete with fangs,
• 3:46
  vampire leather bars, fairies, shape shifters, orgies,
• 3:50
  werewolves, witchcraft, Alexander Skarsgard, royal
• 3:55
  disputes, religious cults, drug dealing, sex, demons, a manager
• 4:01
  who's occasionally A Beagle, and more relationship chaos than the
• 4:05
  season of. Flavor of love.
• 4:07
  And that is True Blood flavor of love.
• 4:19
  I will never forget when you rewatch Flavor of Love when we
• 4:23
  were roommates. Oh my gosh, I've never heard
• 4:26
  such a good summary. I mean, I just felt like I, I,
• 4:31
  there's more to fit in there, but I had to cut it off at some
• 4:34
  point. I mean manager who's
• 4:37
  occasionally A Beagle and more relationship chaos than flavor
• 4:42
  of love I think is pretty much hits all points.
• 4:46
  I'll be honest, I didn't even make it to season 7 so I'm sure
• 4:49
  I'm missing some good stuff here.
• 4:55
  But let's let's meet our costume as Iron as Elizabeth.
• 4:58
  Absolutely. We have friend of the pod Danny
• 5:04
  Glicker who designed the first 3 episodes of True Blood and then
• 5:12
  we have Audrey Fisher who you will know her work from the Man
• 5:17
  in the High Castle season 1 Barry seasons one and two.
• 5:21
  I Know What You Did Last Summer from 2021 and Pulse.
• 5:26
  Yeah, I, I love Audrey. I've interviewed her before.
• 5:30
  She did a show also called Love and Death and also she was
• 5:33
  assistant costume designer on That 70s Show.
• 5:36
  She was, and she also started out on True Blood before
• 5:42
  becoming the designer of the rest of the many seasons of True
• 5:47
  Blood and Spencer. I kind of feel like there's so
• 5:53
  much in True Blood that our only choice was to go back to the
• 6:00
  source. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 6:04
  There is absolutely no way we could do this episode without
• 6:07
  some help. So after this break, I am so
• 6:10
  excited that we're going to be joined by the one, the only
• 6:13
  costume designer, Audrey Fisher, to walk us through that laundry
• 6:18
  list of wild things that we've seen in Bonton, Louisiana.
• 6:23
  It's a great conversation. Elizabeth and I met with her
• 6:25
  earlier today. I'm so excited.
• 6:28
  She is the coolest. And I hope you all enjoy this
• 6:30
  episode. And after an interview, make
• 6:32
  sure you come back because we're gonna then play our favorite
• 6:34
  games. And I also have a little special
• 6:36
  surprise for Elizabeth, too. So we're gonna get into it.
• 6:39
  All right. Hi.
• 6:45
  I'm Dan, who does all the magic behind the scenes.
• 6:48
  I wanted to say thank you. And if you want to support the
• 6:50
  show even farther, go to tpublic.com/user slash the Art
• 6:57
  of Costume where you can buy a couple variations of our logo on
• 7:01
  T-shirts, mugs and stickers. Also, be sure to leave a like
• 7:06
  comment and subscribe. And if you're an audio listener,
• 7:09
  leave us a five star review and Apple podcast.
• 7:12
  Now back to the show. So exciting, Oh my God.
• 7:22
  All right, costume nerds, I am so excited for this interview.
• 7:26
  Elizabeth and I have been talking about it for months now,
• 7:30
  and I'm so I can't believe it's actually happening.
• 7:33
  Please welcome our friend, costume designer Audrey Fisher.
• 7:36
  Audrey, hey. Hi, guys.
• 7:39
  Hello Spencer and Elizabeth. I'm so thrilled to join you and
• 7:44
  talk about my beloved True Blood.
• 7:48
  Thank you for. Inviting me to chit chat about
• 7:52
  it. Love it.
• 7:53
  We are so excited. I mean, this show, Elizabeth
• 7:56
  seen it before plenty of times. This is my first time and my
• 8:00
  life has been changed it. Has been.
• 8:02
  An absolute trip. So we have a lot of questions.
• 8:06
  We. We.
• 8:09
  Do especially because during its seventh season run, True Blood
• 8:13
  was just such a phenomenon and it continues to have just a huge
• 8:18
  fan base that still loves it and continually goes back to it.
• 8:24
  The look of the show, the costumes play such a big role in
• 8:27
  its success. Going back to the beginning, you
• 8:31
  originally joined this series as as Assistant Costume designer to
• 8:36
  our good friend Danny Glicker. What do you remember about those
• 8:40
  early days and stepping into Bond Tong, Louisiana?
• 8:44
  I mean, you know, the pilot, I just remember the excitement of,
• 8:48
  you know, Danny telling me that he was going to do this pilot
• 8:52
  at, you know, with Alan Ball. They had done and towel head
• 8:54
  together and so he had this, you know, really, really great
• 8:58
  relationship already. And so yeah, basically he said
• 9:01
  Ellen wants to, you know, make this Sookie Stackhouse kind of
• 9:06
  novel into a show. And there's, you know, many
• 9:10
  volumes and it's a very big story and it's vampires in
• 9:14
  Louisiana. And I immediately I was like,
• 9:16
  wow, that sounds amazing. I've never done anything vampire
• 9:21
  yet. So I immediately started reading
• 9:24
  the books and I just, you know, they're like, I don't know if
• 9:26
  you've read the books, but they're really have popcorn,
• 9:28
  right? They're just fun and such what?
• 9:32
  It's so soapy and wonderful and great characters and, you know,
• 9:35
  Sookie Stackhouse, I mean, incredible.
• 9:37
  So I was very excited to sort of get into this world and, you
• 9:42
  know, it's just the South and the gothic elements and the
• 9:45
  romance. I mean, it all sounded very
• 9:47
  juicy and fun. And then the pilot was just like
• 9:50
  a crazy fever dream. It went so fast.
• 9:53
  It was so crazy. And figuring out, you know, some
• 9:57
  of the blood stunts and, you know, all of the interesting
• 10:01
  sort of rules about silver and things that weaken vampires.
• 10:06
  And, you know, it was early days, so we didn't have a lot of
• 10:10
  money. We didn't have a lot of time.
• 10:12
  And you know, Alan and his team were his writing staff were
• 10:16
  figuring out all of those rules and sort of all the lore.
• 10:20
  So it was kind of fun to watch that start to unfold.
• 10:23
  Like, I don't know if you guys noticed, but in the pilot, you
• 10:26
  know, a tiny silver chain completely like incapacitates
• 10:30
  and then. As the.
• 10:32
  Things go on. It has to be like more silver
• 10:33
  and more silver and more silver. But in the beginning it was just
• 10:36
  a chain, you know, things like that, you know, I'm watching.
• 10:41
  It was fun to have worked on all the seasons to see that sort of
• 10:44
  evolution. But yeah, I just remember the
• 10:47
  nights. I remember being at the Warner
• 10:49
  Brothers, you know, over there, the what's it called?
• 10:53
  The jungle is where it's and you know, I drive by it every day
• 10:56
  now on my current job, I drive by and kind of wave to the
• 10:59
  jungle because I spent all the nights there and from Merlot's
• 11:03
  was and the building, yes, the building that's amazing.
• 11:07
  Production designer Suzuki turned into Merlot's is still
• 11:10
  there. So it's like, you know, I drive
• 11:12
  by and see Merlot's but it's not Merlot's anymore.
• 11:14
  Which is side of the beauty of Hollywood.
• 11:16
  All of those like a palimpsest of all the different shows that
• 11:19
  have come and gone. That's where they did Gilligan's
• 11:22
  Island right? Jungle.
• 11:24
  At that, I know exactly. That's why you're talking about.
• 11:26
  Now I gotta get back on that Warner Brothers tour.
• 11:29
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Driving by.
• 11:31
  And anyway, I always, I'm like just, it's just anyway.
• 11:33
  So yeah, I just remember how exciting it was.
• 11:35
  And then, you know, the the cast had such an incredible, you
• 11:40
  know, the the sort of energy of the cast was so strong.
• 11:45
  And of course, you know, Bill and Sookie fell in love in
• 11:48
  reality and they've been married ever since.
• 11:51
  And, you know, like, there was pregnancies and families were
• 11:54
  built, you know, during the course of the show.
• 11:56
  So I mean, it's incredible, you know, and I think they're also
• 12:00
  that their connection because they kept it secret during the
• 12:03
  pilot and like into the first seasons, I mean, into the first
• 12:07
  episodes. And I feel like the energy of
• 12:09
  their early, like, romance really also created an
• 12:14
  incredible dynamic for the show because it was like, truly, they
• 12:18
  were falling deeply in love, you know, for real.
• 12:21
  Yeah, I built families and I mean, it also was like a jumping
• 12:25
  point for your career as well, too.
• 12:27
  It really was, it was a springboard into the next phase.
• 12:31
  You know, because I've been at more of a theatrical, I've been,
• 12:33
  you know, working in theater and, and assisting in
• 12:36
  television. And, you know, my first gig
• 12:39
  right after working at the Taper downtown was That 70s Show.
• 12:46
  And Danny and I met after I wrapped That 70s Show.
• 12:49
  And then soon after that is when he got True Blood.
• 12:51
  So you know it. Yeah, it's it was my first big
• 12:54
  moment into launching my career as a costume designer.
• 12:59
  That's incredible and moving into when you started to be the
• 13:03
  costume designer, Shirley Harris said.
• 13:06
  She gave the option to Alan Ball because she loved his vision of
• 13:11
  the story. As you moved into that costume
• 13:14
  designer role, what was your collaboration like with Alan
• 13:18
  Ball and how did his vision influence your process?
• 13:23
  Right. Well, you know, Danny, of course
• 13:26
  laid such a strong foundation, you know, for the characters and
• 13:31
  that he developed with Alan. And I think the thing about Alan
• 13:34
  Ball that's so extraordinary is that he absolutely trusts his
• 13:39
  design team and department heads to sort of do their thing.
• 13:43
  So he gives you an incredible amount of freedom to explore
• 13:49
  and, you know, do your research and figure out sort of what you
• 13:52
  want to do and present to him all of your ideas.
• 13:56
  And then he's very collaborative and sort of loves to see it all.
• 13:59
  And I mean, you guys, this was back in the day where, you know,
• 14:02
  it was ripping things out of magazines and making color
• 14:06
  copies and, you know, and like cutting and pasting and getting
• 14:10
  big black, you know, poster board and like boarding it all
• 14:12
  up. And I remember, you know, the
• 14:14
  first time that we got that restickable glue and how amazing
• 14:19
  that was that you could like, Please remember you used to glue
• 14:21
  things down and it was, and then you'd RIP it and destroy it if
• 14:24
  you tried to change your research around.
• 14:26
  I remember the restickable glue and how cool it was to be able
• 14:29
  to like just move things around instead of, you know, anyway.
• 14:32
  So it was really kind of old school where I would take a big
• 14:35
  board, you know, into his office at the beginning of each season
• 14:39
  and present sort of the different worlds that we were,
• 14:42
  you know, exploring. And, and we would just talk
• 14:46
  through all the research and talk about what felt right.
• 14:49
  And then I could dive in. I could sort of hone down and
• 14:52
  drill down on the sort of looks that he responded to and the
• 14:55
  vibes that he responded to. But what I remember most is that
• 14:59
  he was just so supportive and really trusted.
• 15:02
  And, and then the approval process during shooting, because
• 15:06
  it gets very fast and furious. You know, the approval process
• 15:10
  is always very kind of simple, which I also that's now what I
• 15:16
  what I love and expect, but it's not at all what usually happens
• 15:19
  nowadays. It was me and Ellen where I
• 15:23
  would send and that's how Danny did it too.
• 15:25
  And you know, I inherited that that as well.
• 15:27
  And Ellen and I kept it going, but I would e-mail him or walk
• 15:31
  over and show him an image. And if it was an e-mail form, he
• 15:35
  would just write back love. And that was it.
• 15:39
  And then I got to forward that on to everyone else and be like,
• 15:42
  this is what he loves. Let's do this.
• 15:44
  And everyone's like, great. And, you know, I've luckily I've
• 15:48
  had, I've worked with a lot of, you know, powerful kind of
• 15:52
  showrunners who have that kind of control.
• 15:54
  But I know that on a lot of other shows, there's kind of
• 15:57
  like a committee that you have to run all your images by.
• 16:01
  And that sounds terrible to me. And I know that, you know, a lot
• 16:04
  of us have to have to do it that way, but I always kind of
• 16:08
  cherish that memory of just getting the e-mail back that
• 16:10
  just says love, you know, it's. Short and sweet.
• 16:15
  It's the opposite of like this phrase.
• 16:17
  I don't hate it. You know, I hate that phrase
• 16:20
  sometimes. Like, I don't hate it.
• 16:21
  It's like, OK, I'd much rather hear love than I don't.
• 16:26
  The the relationship with Alan was just warm and and amazing
• 16:30
  and he was so respectful and kind and he's so, you know, he's
• 16:33
  a genius. So kind of just, you just want
• 16:37
  to create for him because he's so.
• 16:40
  He's such a wonderful collaborator.
• 16:42
  And so, yeah, just wants to make the best story and, and wants
• 16:48
  your help to do it. And that's a great feeling.
• 16:50
  Yeah. So you design even more
• 16:52
  powerfully, I think. Well, Audrey, this was like I
• 16:56
  said, this is my first time entering the True Blood universe
• 16:59
  and Elizabeth got a lot of shocking texts for me as I was
• 17:04
  going through the first couple seasons.
• 17:06
  I was like, what do you have me watching?
• 17:09
  What is this is crazy. I I love it because it's, it
• 17:13
  just was like so unapologetically itself.
• 17:17
  It was not afraid to do to go for it.
• 17:20
  And I had to ask you about the blood and the gore.
• 17:24
  I mean, because to say that this was a bloody show would be a
• 17:27
  little bit of an understatement. So, yeah, tell me about the
• 17:31
  challenges that were presented to you and your team.
• 17:34
  Looking at the amount of blood that we're covering.
• 17:36
  I mean, it's not like drops of blood.
• 17:38
  We're talking about, you know, Nickelodeon style buckets of
• 17:42
  blood on some of these costumes. Yep, Yep, Yep.
• 17:45
  And what's interesting in this, in this like board is that you
• 17:49
  see here our use of white, it's kind of like white is a signal,
• 17:53
  right? Like you're about to see.
• 17:55
  Yeah. A lot of blood.
• 17:57
  Put on your ponchos. Yeah, and literally people on
• 18:00
  set would be wearing ponchos, like behind the scenes, by the
• 18:03
  way. Really.
• 18:05
  Yeah, that happened. You would sometimes have to wear
• 18:07
  just a plastic bag, you know, just a trash bag, you know, cut
• 18:10
  out just because you can see. Yeah.
• 18:13
  I mean, so the. It's so wild to see these.
• 18:16
  Yeah, to see these stills because yes, the blood was
• 18:19
  obviously a character, right, A huge part of the show.
• 18:22
  And, and what I learned and what my whole team learned very
• 18:27
  quickly was, you know, multiples.
• 18:29
  Like that's one of my kind of biggest lessons is the, you
• 18:33
  know, the how to procure enough multiples so that you can
• 18:38
  achieve, you know, the, the vision of your director or your
• 18:42
  showrunner when you're shooting something that has, you know, a,
• 18:46
  a cannon of blood, you know, being shot out at your your
• 18:52
  lead. So it it really, you know, it's
• 18:56
  like you have frequently you have to build something right
• 19:00
  and then build like that dress on the lower right.
• 19:03
  So that early Sookie, where I see Eric still has his wig on
• 19:07
  right. So I think that was maybe the
• 19:09
  what, episode 4 or five or six of the first season, and that
• 19:14
  was I was designing the show by then.
• 19:17
  And I remember that dress that she's wearing that was actually
• 19:21
  kind of a very like kind of an inflection point for me in
• 19:25
  learning about sort of multiples because there was basically, I
• 19:31
  think for that scene, we wigged her, we wigged Anna because you
• 19:37
  know, it, it was such an intense reset.
• 19:40
  You know, we couldn't get the blood in her hair.
• 19:42
  And that was real. You know, that was, I mean, fake
• 19:45
  blood, but that was obviously you can see it was it's not
• 19:48
  nothing is digital here. It was not put it in poke,
• 19:51
  right? So it really affects the whole
• 19:54
  set. It's a huge reset.
• 19:55
  It's a huge cleanup. It gets everywhere.
• 19:57
  It's messy. So she was being wigged for that
• 20:00
  scene and there was only one wig.
• 20:03
  Which kind of, you know, And so that taught me that when you're
• 20:07
  having a stunt like this where you've got a lot of blood, you
• 20:11
  really pay attention to what's going on in the hair department.
• 20:14
  Because if they have one wig, that's one time basically,
• 20:18
  right? Like you have to be aware of
• 20:20
  that. And I think that I was so kind
• 20:22
  of new and excited that I think I built 6 dresses because I
• 20:28
  anticipated that we might do it that many times.
• 20:32
  And you know, the wide and the close up and then having to go
• 20:35
  back in. And I remember it was sort of a,
• 20:37
  it was an inflection point because we didn't really have
• 20:39
  the time or the money to build 6 dresses.
• 20:42
  And so it was really stressful in the department.
• 20:43
  And then on the day we only did it, I think we did it twice.
• 20:46
  We did it based, you know, because that's what we could do
• 20:48
  with the wig. And then one of them was a close
• 20:50
  up so that it could be this, the wig was already bloody anyway.
• 20:54
  So like taught me like about sort of that you have to pay
• 20:59
  attention to all departments and see what kind of resources
• 21:02
  everyone's bringing to the table for the actual shoot day.
• 21:05
  So nowadays when I'm dealing with blood or any kind of other,
• 21:10
  you know, stunt like this where the costume is going to get
• 21:12
  something on it, like there's something going on right now
• 21:15
  where I had to get prepared for multiples for something being
• 21:18
  thrown. Now my rule is 4 that you need
• 21:22
  for right and that and that's where I stop because there's no
• 21:25
  way they can do it more than that.
• 21:27
  And that like keeps you can have one clean and three to blow and
• 21:30
  you're safe for, you know, reshoots or whatever if you need
• 21:33
  a clean version, but. And people got trusted too.
• 21:37
  They're like, she's from True Blood.
• 21:38
  She knows. She knows the game, no?
• 21:40
  Seriously, that is the thing. It's like people do know that I
• 21:43
  know blood and I know how to handle it and I know multiples.
• 21:47
  But now that you know, so back then, yes, it's like we had, I
• 21:51
  think we had five of that white trench coat and that was I think
• 21:54
  from, you know, that was something we bought over the
• 21:57
  counter and altered over the counter.
• 22:00
  That's not like for medicine anyway.
• 22:05
  We bought that like Bebe or you know, BB.
• 22:08
  I've never really known how people say it.
• 22:10
  I love saying it. Me either, I just write it down.
• 22:13
  Yeah, it's like RIP. But you know, I think that's
• 22:15
  where we got that. I think also that that was like
• 22:18
  maybe I can't remember, but that blouse in the top with the kind
• 22:22
  of the the Rose kind of that was also a purchase.
• 22:26
  Yeah, that's actually one of my favorite costumes because you
• 22:29
  you added so much texture to Lorena's costume before, you
• 22:33
  know, she spoiler alert meets her end.
• 22:36
  And I knew it was going to get covered in blood, but the way
• 22:38
  you added textures and like that, rose and let the blood
• 22:41
  kind of drip down. An interesting text.
• 22:43
  Oh, that was good, Audrey. I know.
• 22:44
  Thank you. Yeah, she loved that costume.
• 22:46
  I think she borrowed that for an event one night, you know, like
• 22:50
  after one of the multiples she wore it out or something.
• 22:53
  I think that's in the archives and as is it the white dress in
• 22:55
  the archives. But yeah, so it's like it was
• 22:58
  all about. And I mean, look at Rosal
• 23:00
  Edgington up there. So amazing.
• 23:04
  We call those the sort of squishy bits of blood, you know,
• 23:07
  the sort of like gooey bits. Those were called Nernies on our
• 23:10
  set. And always you would like put
• 23:13
  the blood on and then you'd put on some Nernies as well because
• 23:16
  that just made it look more gross and chunky, all kinds of
• 23:19
  stuff like that. And we had, I think there were
• 23:21
  three different bloods. There was 1 brand we used that
• 23:24
  had like the, you know, wet, dry and like fresh where the, and so
• 23:30
  we, you know, and we just had buckets of it and it was in
• 23:33
  like, sort of like, you know, it was in squeeze bottles and it
• 23:35
  was, you know, it was everywhere.
• 23:37
  We had a huge supply. I still have some of it, you
• 23:39
  know, but it was really, you know, also remember, you know,
• 23:43
  doing tests to find the right red for the camera because we
• 23:46
  shot on film and you know, it's very, it's really like finding
• 23:50
  the right tone and the right color to represent fresh, dried
• 23:54
  and all of that. You know, it was, it was a
• 23:56
  interesting project. Like it's really was, you know,
• 24:00
  and now it's so different because now there's so much
• 24:03
  blood in post that you don't even need a multiple, right?
• 24:07
  It's like, that's wild. I did a movie called Kate for
• 24:12
  Netflix, and there was a lot of that was in 2019 and it was like
• 24:17
  a yakuza and there was lots of like, you know, gunfight and
• 24:21
  swordplay and and slashing and stuff.
• 24:25
  But that was all in post. So I didn't do worry.
• 24:29
  Like, you know, they would just say, Oh yeah, we're going to do
• 24:31
  it in post. And that was always very
• 24:33
  uncomfortable for me because I was like, right, Like it's not
• 24:36
  practical at all. And they were like, Nope.
• 24:38
  I was like, OK, are you? Sure, I have band fulls of
• 24:42
  blood. Yeah, ready to go.
• 24:44
  Yeah, ready to go. And always for the blood.
• 24:46
  The result, you know, our team, our sort of special effects team
• 24:49
  would be there. And Dan Reibert is the genius
• 24:51
  special effects guy. And, you know, he would be
• 24:54
  kitted out, you know, just like any special effects guy you
• 24:56
  could imagine from like central casting where he's got like a
• 24:59
  fishing vest with all kinds of stuff in it.
• 25:01
  And he's got a special hat on. And he's wearing like these, you
• 25:04
  know, totally paint splattered and blood splattered pants and
• 25:07
  like hiking boots and, you know, all his gear and there's this
• 25:11
  huge bucket of blood with a hose in it and he's just ready to
• 25:13
  like pump it, you know, I mean, just hysterical.
• 25:17
  I mean, the behind the scenes of these is just, I wish the camera
• 25:20
  could turn around and take a picture of all ending their
• 25:22
  covering in plastic, you know, with like a bucket with like a
• 25:26
  plunger in it. It's yeah.
• 25:28
  And I'm sure you're all going home with blood on your, you
• 25:31
  know. Finding things on your shoes, on
• 25:32
  everything, it would get everywhere.
• 25:33
  Some people just had like the the shoes they would wear on set
• 25:36
  because they would get like doctors, you know, because they
• 25:38
  would get room. That's incredible.
• 25:41
  What's also incredible is Sookie Stackhouse, played by Anna
• 25:45
  Paquin, our series Mind reader, part Faye, who's always dressed
• 25:52
  correctly no matter the occasion.
• 25:55
  What was your direction for Sookie and how did it change
• 25:58
  over the seasons? Yeah, well, you know, it's so
• 26:02
  fun to see all of these looks, boy.
• 26:05
  Yeah. I mean, the sort of direction
• 26:06
  was that she's just like perky and beautiful and has that
• 26:10
  Southern charm and that femininity, but she kind of like
• 26:14
  doesn't know how beautiful she is, but you know, like she's
• 26:17
  just like not, she's really not that vain or self-conscious, but
• 26:21
  she's just this kind of like perfect, beautiful, perky girl.
• 26:24
  Clearly everyone's obsessed with her in this town.
• 26:27
  Yeah. And I mean, you know, we lots of
• 26:30
  jokes about the bras, like the boobology of like how we did,
• 26:35
  you know, Sookie. Yeah.
• 26:37
  Yeah, and sort of this like luscious, unbelievably biteable
• 26:41
  bosom. Yeah.
• 26:43
  That. Was amazing.
• 26:44
  Yes, it was always a big effort to sort of make sure we were
• 26:47
  achieving that perfect kind of, you know, boob and the bra, RIP
• 26:53
  the bra that we used for so many years.
• 26:55
  It was a Felina that no longer is made.
• 26:58
  And when they stopped making it, it was like I was in a panic.
• 27:02
  It created. It was the bra under the
• 27:04
  Merlot's tea and Danny designed the Merlot's tea.
• 27:07
  It was an American Apparel, you know, scoop neck cotton, which
• 27:10
  must have tried on 5000 T-shirts.
• 27:13
  This one was the one. So we literally had like a stock
• 27:16
  of them, maybe 50, you know, just lined up ready to go in her
• 27:22
  in her closet in the department. But yeah, you know, it was
• 27:27
  always a challenge to find something that was feminine
• 27:29
  enough that was like not to kind of, you know, it didn't.
• 27:35
  It had to still feel like real and sweet and not go over the
• 27:39
  top and into total camp. And of course, you know, she did
• 27:44
  sort of grow up during this. I mean, you know, a lot of these
• 27:47
  dresses, these very sort of fun summary, like the red, like the
• 27:52
  red and white floral, you know, it's so extreme.
• 27:55
  And we did sort of like as she grew up a little, I think we got
• 27:58
  a little bit away from that totally flirty sun dress, like
• 28:02
  the that beautiful lavender in the left corner that was for
• 28:09
  right where she and he proposed or he's planning on proposing
• 28:13
  and then he does right and she runs out.
• 28:15
  She doesn't answer. So I designed that.
• 28:19
  Yes, that's right, right. That was like sort of inspired
• 28:24
  by Elizabeth Taylor, you know, sort of like a more, much more
• 28:27
  sophisticated. And I feel like that bought us.
• 28:30
  You can see is a little less frothy, right.
• 28:32
  It's a little kind of chic. And that color on her was so
• 28:36
  extraordinary. Anyway, she was.
• 28:38
  We had the best time in all our fittings.
• 28:40
  But really. Yeah, the brief was to make her
• 28:42
  just kind of like irresistible and and sweets, an irresistible
• 28:47
  sweet Southern girl who just is like, everyone just wants to
• 28:51
  make out with her. And we definitely know Bill
• 28:56
  Compton. He's right there right away.
• 29:01
  As. Oh, he looks good.
• 29:03
  He. Does.
• 29:05
  Oh yeah. How did your team draw
• 29:09
  inspiration from his history? Because he's 170 year old
• 29:12
  vampire turned during the American Civil War.
• 29:16
  How did all of this history get reflected in his costumes?
• 29:22
  You know, I remember in the beginning it was really about,
• 29:25
  you know, he's a real gentleman. He's a Southern gentleman.
• 29:28
  And he was like, you know, like the Gentry, like a land, you
• 29:31
  know, a landowner and sort of I think that the gentlemanly
• 29:35
  quality is what we tried to kind of carry along in contemporary
• 29:42
  Bill, you know, living in the now.
• 29:44
  So that and I think that the Henley is a huge part of his
• 29:48
  wardrobe, right. And that felt like sort of
• 29:51
  harken back to like a uniform piece, you know, something that
• 29:54
  was a very typical piece of, you know, sort of an American male
• 29:59
  living in the South in the 1800s.
• 30:01
  You know, also it's sort of evocative of a uniform of the
• 30:05
  Civil War uniform. So I feel like there was he had
• 30:09
  a sort of uniform quality in the way he dressed that was very
• 30:12
  gentlemanly dark colors, but like light, you know, light
• 30:17
  Henley's, lighter Henley's. But also he never he's very
• 30:21
  iconic. Like his fashion was very kind
• 30:23
  of, you know, handsome gentleman and not like trendy, right.
• 30:27
  We always kept like a dark washed denim and, you know,
• 30:31
  everything felt very a lot of like double RL and, you know,
• 30:34
  sort of these iconic kind of lines and silhouettes and
• 30:39
  styles. As opposed to Eric, right, who
• 30:43
  was much more kind of yeah, so much more like about sex and
• 30:48
  about something being tight and revealing.
• 30:51
  And, you know, much more kind of like he was much more
• 30:55
  fashionable in his choices. You know he was interested in
• 30:58
  the current. Trends.
• 31:01
  And always the necklace and the sort of, you know, the chest
• 31:04
  revealing the chest a bit. A tighter T-shirt.
• 31:07
  Yeah. We had so much fun with him.
• 31:09
  And I remember that first fitting, you know, where he's
• 31:11
  got the wig. They're trying on different
• 31:13
  looks. And you can definitely see how
• 31:15
  that first fitting, you know, we were.
• 31:17
  First of all, Alex is a giant, right?
• 31:21
  He's the most beautiful, handsome, tall person you've
• 31:24
  ever met, right? Yeah, I mean, he's really the
• 31:27
  reason why we call this month Hot Vampire Month like it is
• 31:30
  Eric Northman. Exactly.
• 31:32
  His shoulders are like, you know, 4 feet wide.
• 31:35
  And his waist is like, you know this.
• 31:37
  And so he's just, he's like a swimmer, right?
• 31:39
  He's like a triangle. And so everything always had to
• 31:42
  be deeply, deeply altered and tapered to the waist, but we had
• 31:46
  to accommodate those beautiful shoulders.
• 31:49
  And that first video, we were trying to find his look.
• 31:51
  And I feel like, you know, we found this sort of little, you
• 31:55
  can see the little peak lapel, think it was kind of like a
• 31:59
  waxed cotton. I don't even think it was
• 32:01
  leather sort of Sport coat, but it wasn't right like a jacket.
• 32:06
  It wasn't right. That look wasn't right.
• 32:08
  And the collared shirt, right. It wasn't right.
• 32:10
  And the, and the sort of the belt buckle, it had a sort of
• 32:14
  like a snake eating itself. I'm trying to remember where I
• 32:17
  got it. But anyway, all of those things
• 32:19
  kind of felt too medieval or like kind of too old fashioned.
• 32:23
  And we immediately like the minute that his hair was cut,
• 32:26
  which is also sort of like the the lore was broken a little bit
• 32:31
  because vampires hair is not supposed to grow.
• 32:34
  I think that's right. And so that sounds.
• 32:37
  Right. Yeah.
• 32:37
  And so the wig, it's sort of the wig didn't as as his character
• 32:41
  developed, the wig didn't make sense.
• 32:42
  So we had there was that moment where Pam like cuts his hair.
• 32:46
  Yeah, yeah, it's blood in it. Yeah, exactly.
• 32:49
  So, you know, it's like because the wig didn't kind of wasn't
• 32:52
  Eric enough, right? So we sort of Alan and everyone
• 32:55
  decided to go to that next look, this sort of iconic look that
• 32:59
  now everyone knows. Hot vampire.
• 33:02
  And then I got to go into some more kind of like sexy goth
• 33:07
  rocker kind of, you know, vibes for him.
• 33:09
  And that was he had so much fun with it.
• 33:12
  Yeah, and he has this cool. It was a Fantasia.
• 33:14
  Is that what the club's called? Too.
• 33:16
  That's. Like hot vampire leathery, like
• 33:19
  it just all works together in unison the whole time.
• 33:22
  I would go here honestly. I mean.
• 33:24
  Except for the torture chamber, but like.
• 33:26
  You know, right, Not that. And you know, the company maybe
• 33:30
  actually when I was going, the company name, the sort of LLC
• 33:35
  for True Blood the whole time was Fang Banger Productions.
• 33:38
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 33:40
  That was on our checks and that was like always, just funny.
• 33:44
  Well, getting ready for. Not appropriate anymore, but
• 33:47
  anyway. Well, getting ready for True
• 33:51
  Blood, a lot of people were telling me that the character
• 33:54
  I'm really going to love in terms of their costumes was
• 33:56
  going to be in Lafayette. And once I saw this character, I
• 33:59
  totally understood what people were saying.
• 34:03
  Can you tell us about working with the great Nelson Ellis, who
• 34:05
  really just brought so much life to this character?
• 34:07
  And as Elizabeth told me, a character that really isn't in
• 34:10
  the books as much as one would think.
• 34:12
  And but this character just became so integral to the heart
• 34:16
  of True Blood, it just kept going.
• 34:18
  Exactly. Well, first of all, you know, so
• 34:20
  tragic that he's gone. That's always, you know, I, I
• 34:26
  just can't believe that such a great light is gone and such a
• 34:29
  talent is gone. And I feel so lucky that I got
• 34:31
  to work with him and help create this character with him.
• 34:35
  I mean, honestly, you know, a lot of true I have.
• 34:38
  So I, you can imagine how many True Blood fitting photos and
• 34:42
  you know, all the research that I've had on my phone all these
• 34:44
  years. And I finally had to, it was
• 34:46
  taking up so much space. I had to move it off, right.
• 34:48
  So I took my True Blood sort of everything and put it onto a
• 34:52
  hard drive, but I couldn't move Nelson.
• 34:55
  So I still have all my Nelson fitting photos in my phone,
• 34:59
  which means that occasionally when pops up like on this day in
• 35:03
  2009 and there's Nelson as in this like unbelievable outfit.
• 35:09
  And it always just makes my heart skip a beat because I feel
• 35:12
  so privileged to have kind of been in the room with him during
• 35:15
  fittings because it was really like this crazy chemistry that
• 35:20
  happened in that room. And he was just so into it and,
• 35:23
  like, had the most fun with it. And he loved the costumes.
• 35:27
  He loved his character. I mean, a lot of things were
• 35:31
  inspired by him, like the head wraps that was from his, I think
• 35:35
  his Aunt Peaches. You know, like a lot of things
• 35:40
  were sort of referencing his own history growing up in the South
• 35:43
  and his family and sort of struggles that he'd been
• 35:46
  through, struggles at his family, you know, things that
• 35:49
  had happened within his own family.
• 35:51
  So yeah, he really, he, I mean, it's all him, right?
• 35:54
  He just also, you could put these outfits on another actor
• 35:58
  and they could never make it feel and work right like this.
• 36:02
  Yeah, I. Mean no sound really became
• 36:05
  Lafayette like it's just with the the costume, the script and
• 36:08
  all that like it just all came together in like a really kins
• 36:11
  it motion yes. And he delighted in it, you
• 36:14
  know, like, he loved all of the things that I would have for him
• 36:17
  to try. And anyway, So, yeah.
• 36:19
  So I think that look on the left, right.
• 36:21
  That's from the pilot. So Danny had this great dialogue
• 36:25
  that he started with Nelson and we got that belt made in
• 36:28
  downtown Lai think that of course, that's so different now.
• 36:32
  Santee Alley, so different now. But there was a neuron Santee
• 36:34
  Alley who would make those like name belts.
• 36:37
  So we did that and I mean, look, I mean, come on, that belt
• 36:40
  buckle, come on, you know, and I mean the head wrap, the do rag
• 36:44
  bag was also like something that they worked out together when he
• 36:47
  was working. That sort of felt right.
• 36:49
  And then it became, you know, it translated into his, into his
• 36:53
  fashion, everyday fashion. So many do rags, and I made so
• 36:57
  many do rags out of so many fun different kinds of, you know,
• 37:01
  fabric and stretch fabric. But yeah.
• 37:05
  And then I remember the utilicilt, right.
• 37:07
  He was wearing a utilicilt. Danny did a utilicilt on him in
• 37:10
  the beginning. And then I sort of riffed off
• 37:11
  that. And I think everything, you
• 37:14
  know, to the front of the right of the screen is our pieces,
• 37:18
  outfits that Nelson and I sort of created together.
• 37:21
  And yeah, I just went went crazy.
• 37:23
  I just couldn't. I just did the more the better,
• 37:26
  you know? And he had certain favorite
• 37:29
  pieces that we would use a lot. And yeah, I can't say enough
• 37:34
  about how how would a delight he was to work with and just on
• 37:37
  set, too, he would. He was kind of, I feel like he
• 37:39
  was the one actor where he he would often go off book and just
• 37:46
  improvise and no one ever stopped him.
• 37:49
  Right, right. Like because.
• 37:51
  It was good no matter what it. Was yeah, like whatever he
• 37:54
  brought, we were all like, Yep, that's right, you know, like it
• 37:57
  just worked. And Alan knew it and everyone
• 37:59
  knew it. And we sort of, you know, let
• 38:01
  him go. And.
• 38:03
  And he just. Yeah, yeah.
• 38:04
  The way he created, the way he made this character come to life
• 38:07
  was astonishing. And yes, the character is killed
• 38:09
  off in the end. Of the first book.
• 38:12
  And but Nelson was so magnetic and fascinating and amazing that
• 38:19
  they they were like, we Nope, we cannot kill this character.
• 38:22
  This character survive. We need him.
• 38:25
  It it was the right choice too. He brought so much to the show.
• 38:32
  Some other characters who are in the books as much as you would
• 38:34
  think. We have the Newlands and the
• 38:37
  Fellowship of the Sun. What were your inspirations for
• 38:42
  these two? Because it was.
• 38:44
  These are some of the episodes where I'm like, this is wacky,
• 38:47
  but I love it. Yeah, these are some of the
• 38:49
  creepiest characters, actually. Totally.
• 38:52
  So much to say about these two. OK, so the inspiration was
• 38:57
  absolutely Joel Osteen. Yeah, A.
• 39:01
  Creature in Houston and his wife.
• 39:03
  So it was absolutely them and all kind of those tell, you
• 39:06
  know, televangelistic sort of couples, you know, just
• 39:11
  completely over the top, right, the sort of the sort of this
• 39:16
  hyper feminine, you know, kind of well, now we can say
• 39:19
  Trumpian, right, the Trump kind of.
• 39:21
  Look. And then this kind of this man,
• 39:27
  this very kind of masculine man, but there's kind of a weird edge
• 39:30
  to him that's a little bit feminine and it's a little
• 39:32
  confusing, but and he's like kind of like a sociopath, right?
• 39:37
  Even though, right, they're sort of leaning into this crazy
• 39:40
  religious, religious kind of world.
• 39:43
  So we just riffed on all of that kind of culty televangelist
• 39:47
  stuff and had so much fun with it because of course, these two
• 39:52
  actors are so incredible. Like they will go anywhere and
• 39:57
  do anything and just have the best time with it.
• 40:00
  Like I will text Michael occasionally, like I have also
• 40:05
  photos of Michael that come up and I will just text him a
• 40:09
  picture with like no words. And we just, you know, because
• 40:12
  like that was he loved that outfit so much.
• 40:15
  The light of the day, light of day Institute with the dress
• 40:18
  part. Like we decided in the moment we
• 40:20
  were like, Oh my God, we've got to just put this on over this
• 40:22
  dress shirt. Yes, so.
• 40:24
  Wild. Right.
• 40:25
  And then he was like, yes. And then we just did it and we
• 40:28
  had the best time and I have that.
• 40:31
  So that apron right there, I've got one of the aprons that we
• 40:34
  made where we spelled something wrong when we caught track the
• 40:39
  letters in my kitchen right now. That's amazing.
• 40:43
  I know it's so incredible, right?
• 40:46
  And and I can't I mean crazy. They're so they were they and
• 40:49
  they just obviously they just went crazy with it and just
• 40:52
  didn't right. They just, they pushed it to the
• 40:55
  limit, these performances, and it worked because these
• 40:58
  characters were so over the top. Yeah, it's they're great.
• 41:02
  Yeah, and the pleated pants, Michael, and those pleated
• 41:05
  pants. It's too much.
• 41:08
  Well, I, I love them. They were, they really were like
• 41:11
  to me, some of the scariest villains in the series.
• 41:14
  They really something about just felt a little too on the nose
• 41:17
  recently. If you know what I know.
• 41:19
  So, but I, I heard a rumor that there's gonna be werewolves in
• 41:24
  this series and I was waiting for it and we got exactly what I
• 41:28
  was looking for. We have plenty of werewolves in
• 41:31
  this series. We have.
• 41:32
  I'll see to Hervo, who, you know, I'm loving the very rugged
• 41:36
  kind of, you know, outdoorsy werewolf.
• 41:39
  You know, you didn't go typical, like everyone's wearing like fur
• 41:42
  collars and stuff. So kind of dressed like dogs.
• 41:44
  There's a lot of like flannels and kind of cut offs, which I, I
• 41:47
  just think is so lovely. Can't tell us about working with
• 41:50
  the werewolves. Yeah.
• 41:52
  Yeah, we just went kind of like, you know, biker rocker on them,
• 41:55
  right. Actually, we were really
• 41:58
  inspired. So one of my colleagues, Sarah
• 42:00
  Walbridge, she's a, she's a costume supervisor now, but she
• 42:03
  started on set with us and we've known each other since, you
• 42:07
  know, 2008. And she's actually working with
• 42:09
  me right now. Like she's the best done a lot
• 42:12
  of projects together with her now supervising for me and her
• 42:15
  family in Ohio. Basically we, we just call this
• 42:20
  look Wolf Pack. And her family in Ohio has a
• 42:24
  sort of like biker vibe. And so early on when we were
• 42:28
  trying to figure out the Wolf Pack vibe, she showed me a bunch
• 42:31
  of pictures of some of her family gatherings.
• 42:33
  And, you know, they were like roasting a pig on a spit.
• 42:36
  And like her uncles, you know, all had hogs and, you know, and
• 42:40
  all they're wearing, you know, sort of sort of, you know, all
• 42:44
  kinds of motorcycle gear. And anyway, it was just that was
• 42:47
  it Wolf Pack. So this is like we and even now
• 42:50
  when we have to do a sort of like Southern kind of working
• 42:54
  class, you know, motorcycle riding person, we just I just
• 42:58
  say, yeah, Wolf Pack. And she's like Wolf Pack.
• 43:01
  That's. Incredible.
• 43:02
  Yeah. So Wolf Pack is now our kind of
• 43:04
  code word for the werewolf look. Yeah.
• 43:08
  And we just kind of, you know, we leaned into that.
• 43:11
  We leaned into that sort of, you know, Americana iconic kind of.
• 43:16
  Yeah, working class look and just had fun with it.
• 43:18
  I did put a few fur callers on there.
• 43:21
  His mom. I'll see.
• 43:23
  Mom had a fur collar on like a guest leather jacket.
• 43:26
  That felt really right. So we went for it.
• 43:28
  But yeah, I know we tried not to like make it completely.
• 43:32
  I meant like, more like they weren't like, dressed like dogs.
• 43:34
  Oh yeah. No, like it was a.
• 43:35
  Little bit more subtle than that, yes?
• 43:38
  Yes, but we did a lot of like Western wear, a lot of snap
• 43:40
  front, you know, but but yeah, it was fun.
• 43:43
  It was really fun to have that, you know, as a, as an element
• 43:47
  like that. You know, it's so fun to create
• 43:49
  all the different worlds and get then getting to create this
• 43:51
  werewolf Wolf Pack look was fun up against Merlot's and to try
• 43:55
  to figure out how to keep the Merlot's people sort of in their
• 43:58
  own look that wasn't and that they didn't overlap too much.
• 44:02
  Like that was one of the greatest things about True Blood
• 44:04
  was all the worlds that we got to create and the fairies and
• 44:08
  these guys, yes. They say that too, because there
• 44:12
  was a couple of times where I was watching it with someone
• 44:16
  else, like wait, that person's a werewolf, right?
• 44:18
  But you could just tell like by looking at the costume, like you
• 44:20
  said, that Wolf Pack kind of nature.
• 44:22
  I'm like, I'm pretty sure they're the werewolves.
• 44:24
  You know, they just wait, they're about to turn into a
• 44:27
  wolf aired and he's like it now. Exactly.
• 44:30
  There's so many different characters in this show.
• 44:32
  You really had to like keep your head straight on.
• 44:34
  Like Merlot's people look like this royalty, which we're about
• 44:37
  to get into and the wolves. But let's talk about the royalty
• 44:41
  because this is who I've been excited to talk about because
• 44:44
  I'm a big Evan Rachel Wood fan. And I was just waiting, you
• 44:49
  know, I watched Season 1, season 2, and I'm like, where is she?
• 44:52
  We really get some good Evan Rachel Wood moments in Season 3.
• 44:56
  And of course, Russell Eddington, played by Denis
• 44:58
  O'Hare. So you have these royal vampire
• 45:02
  courts, so to say, in in the Midwest America.
• 45:07
  How do you bring that sense of royalty to, you know, what was
• 45:10
  then a contemporary time? Yeah, well, I mean, it was just,
• 45:15
  you know, thinking about how old they were and what they were
• 45:18
  used to and sort of like this historical reference point that
• 45:22
  they were both used to a much more, you know, I mean, how old
• 45:25
  was Sophie? And I think anyway, they, you
• 45:27
  know, they come from a different time.
• 45:29
  You know, when they were they were sort of they were
• 45:34
  incredibly as they became right when they became vampires and
• 45:38
  then the world's they lived in, they were sort of yeah, Lords
• 45:42
  and ladies. And we're used to all this like
• 45:44
  extreme wealth and extreme just access.
• 45:49
  And it just but from another time, like just this sort of old
• 45:53
  school kind of royal vibe. So we tried to, you know, just
• 45:57
  kind of show that through these completely over the top clothes
• 46:02
  and sort of like a much more old fashioned, kind of like, you
• 46:05
  know, this riding jacket, which looks like, you know, it's
• 46:08
  that's a typical style, the riding jacket like it's been,
• 46:11
  you know, for the last 100 years, sort of the same shape
• 46:14
  and silhouette. And, and sort of I felt like for
• 46:17
  Sophie and I also wanted to do a very classic line, you know,
• 46:22
  sort of old Hollywood glam that also felt like so lush and sort
• 46:28
  of dripping with pearls. And right.
• 46:30
  She's just, she's yeah, she's like a queen.
• 46:33
  She doesn't even know, you know, she's just got all these
• 46:35
  diamonds on her ears because that's what she, you know, that
• 46:38
  she's a queen. So it was just trying to inject
• 46:41
  a sense of royalty into contemporary clothing.
• 46:44
  And they're in, you know, contemporary situations where,
• 46:48
  you know, she's sitting by a pool.
• 46:50
  But I had to make it seem completely over the top.
• 46:52
  So we did that Amazing, right? Put the brooch on the on the
• 46:56
  bathing suit and added that flamboyant sheer sort of, you
• 47:01
  know, gown over the top, the sort of dressing gown over the
• 47:04
  top and the glasses, you know, just did everything to kind of
• 47:06
  make it seem like 30s Hollywood, but then also like, you know, a
• 47:13
  sort of sovereign from hundreds of years ago.
• 47:15
  It's. Actually, one of my favorite
• 47:16
  costumes is when she's on the ground scratching out a Lotto
• 47:19
  tickets, which is with all these jewels just hanging off of her,
• 47:22
  you know, she's scratching lottery tickets.
• 47:24
  I like this was one of, I was going to tell Elizabeth Flaher.
• 47:27
  Like that was probably one of my favorites.
• 47:29
  It's a good one. It's a good one.
• 47:31
  And the dichotomy is so fun, right?
• 47:32
  Like the sort of that she's on the ground with a Lotto ticket,
• 47:36
  but she's in this kind of cream, right?
• 47:39
  Elegant, crazy jewel bedecked outfit.
• 47:43
  I love those. I love those counterpoints that
• 47:45
  that that Alan would create. We also get a lot of those
• 47:48
  counterpoints with the fairies. What?
• 47:52
  What a fun group of characters so unique to everyone else in
• 47:58
  the series. What did you want to convey with
• 48:01
  their costumes and what did you end up drawing on for
• 48:04
  inspiration? Yeah.
• 48:06
  So the fairies, you know, it was, it was such a sort of like
• 48:09
  over the top, right when that first script that the fairies
• 48:13
  kind of made their appearance. I think it was, you know, it was
• 48:17
  at their club which was called Hot Wings, if anyone wants to
• 48:21
  know. But yeah, the fairies, I think
• 48:24
  if I remember right, we sort of the way that we, and that was
• 48:28
  Alex Woo, one of our writers who's now, you know, he's show
• 48:33
  running and writing the three body problem.
• 48:36
  You know, he's a star in the world of, you know, showrunners
• 48:40
  and creators. But I think the I remember, I
• 48:43
  just remembered this just now while we're talking, that part
• 48:46
  of the idea for these kind of like eclectic sort of fun
• 48:50
  costumes that have so much layering and color is that the
• 48:54
  fairies would sort of take little mementos from the people
• 48:58
  that they interacted with and the people who fell in love with
• 49:00
  them. And, you know, they because
• 49:02
  they're, you know, always kind of mesmerizing everyone around
• 49:04
  them. And so that was cited part of it
• 49:07
  that they sort of were like plucking all these different
• 49:09
  things from all the different humans that they had loved, but
• 49:12
  like maybe left behind. So that enabled me to sort of go
• 49:17
  crazy and sort of have this fun. It feels like it was sort of
• 49:20
  also kind of 90s fashion, kind of like all all the different
• 49:24
  elements and layering up and all the color, you know, and fun
• 49:29
  corsets and just tons of great jewelry.
• 49:32
  And it, yeah, it was like a circus.
• 49:35
  There was definitely a circus vibe as well.
• 49:38
  Just kind of people who are not in, you know, these kind of
• 49:40
  creatures who are not really of our world and sort of just
• 49:44
  dipping in and out when they want to and sort of taking their
• 49:47
  things. So that was that was kind of
• 49:50
  what inspired us. And then of course that that
• 49:52
  sort of ethereal sort of classic, like Alma Tadeema sort
• 49:57
  of fairy vibe of, you know, these sort of sylph, like this
• 50:01
  little bit of dancer, kind of the tool, sort of the encrusted
• 50:05
  bodice, but it's still very like loose.
• 50:07
  And I think those dresses actually came from a a Dutch
• 50:11
  designer. I remember it was like an
• 50:13
  international purchase and it was all very scary, the delivery
• 50:17
  and it was all very tight and getting a multiple and they're
• 50:20
  all custom handmade with this silk.
• 50:23
  Wow. And beaded and we weren't able
• 50:26
  to with the time frame and the amount of Labor that it would
• 50:29
  take to create these stresses. It just made more sense
• 50:31
  ultimately to work with this designer.
• 50:34
  And so that's what those two are wearing this, I can't remember
• 50:37
  the brand. I don't even know if they exist
• 50:39
  anymore, but the label. But they were gorgeous.
• 50:42
  You know, they felt very like balletic, you know, but also
• 50:45
  very modern and very like sexy and pretty.
• 50:48
  And then when we had when, you know, when you see the fairies,
• 50:51
  excuse me, when you see the fairies in their sort of dark
• 50:54
  reality, those costumes, those were really fun to make because
• 50:59
  we used a lot of at Western costume.
• 51:02
  They have a whole water world aisle.
• 51:04
  Stop. Yeah, that's amazing.
• 51:07
  I know. And that aisle is unbelievable
• 51:10
  and those costumes are extraordinary.
• 51:13
  I am blanking on the designer right now.
• 51:15
  I know Chrissy Carvinidis was I think the ACD, but the the
• 51:19
  costume designer of Waterworld, he spent years making these
• 51:23
  extraordinary costumes and it's so much money went into them and
• 51:28
  they are exquisite. And so I rented a lot of those
• 51:32
  and would build up around those pieces because they just have
• 51:36
  this apocalyptic gorgeousness to them and they're so layered and
• 51:41
  so beautifully made. And there's so much like aging
• 51:44
  and dying on every piece. It's incredible.
• 51:47
  Like I, I encourage you if you ever are in Western costume to
• 51:51
  go to the water world aisle and just be astonished.
• 51:55
  And that costume designer was John Bloomfield, who we've
• 51:57
  talked about, who did The Mummy. Also Elizabeth.
• 52:00
  Oh yeah, that's right, that's right.
• 52:03
  What a genie, clearly. Audrey, we could talk to you
• 52:06
  about True Blood forever. I actually would like to, but we
• 52:08
  do have to let you go at some point.
• 52:10
  But you know, we announced to our listeners a month in event.
• 52:15
  So we're going to be talking about True Blood and the amount
• 52:18
  of people that reach out. I mean, we we talked about
• 52:20
  Interview at the Vampire Only Lovers Left alive.
• 52:23
  Oh my gosh, I'm blanking on our other one.
• 52:25
  Oh, the Lost Boys and now True Blood and the amount of people
• 52:28
  that reached out there were like, thank God you guys are
• 52:30
  finally talking about True Blood.
• 52:32
  I mean, I was inundated with messages.
• 52:34
  People love True Blood all these years later.
• 52:37
  So just as our final question, just looking back, I mean, what,
• 52:41
  what has True Blood meant to you and just your career personally,
• 52:45
  professionally, just looking back on the amount of people
• 52:48
  that still love the show and go back to it as a comfort watch, I
• 52:51
  think might be more than any of us actually really know.
• 52:54
  There's a lot of people that love True Blood.
• 52:56
  Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, I just I look
• 52:59
  back at it and I feel like so privileged to have been a part
• 53:03
  of it, honestly. Also, it was really like that
• 53:06
  golden age of television, you know, when when it was when we
• 53:11
  would all have parties and watch the show on Sunday nights and
• 53:15
  people talking about it the next day and anticipating it.
• 53:19
  There was, you know, it's feels sort of.
• 53:21
  I mean, I know there are some shows that still are only, you
• 53:25
  know, you can only watch them on Sunday night and and that that
• 53:28
  now feels kind of so old fashioned, right?
• 53:31
  But remember back then, that was just how it was.
• 53:33
  And we all waited with bated breath and it was totally great.
• 53:37
  And it created this whole kind of structure where you you had
• 53:40
  to wait and the season lasted for two months, right?
• 53:43
  And and it was so exciting and fun.
• 53:46
  So I'm also really happy that I got to be a part of that, that,
• 53:50
  you know, that sort of, sort of must see television when HBO was
• 53:54
  really kind of cresting and. And yeah, I mean, the show,
• 54:01
  yeah, really was the start of my career as a designer.
• 54:04
  And I feel like it was an incredible training ground.
• 54:06
  And I got to meet the the most exciting actors and I got to
• 54:10
  sort of build up this costume family that's still with me, you
• 54:13
  know? So I can't, it's like I can't
• 54:18
  ever kind of thank Danny enough for bringing me along on that
• 54:21
  journey and then leaving, leaving kind of handing it off
• 54:24
  to me so that I could have this incredible arc.
• 54:28
  Yeah. It means the world to me.
• 54:30
  And I still truly, it's like my True Blood family is part of my
• 54:33
  everyday life. All, you know, every day I talk
• 54:37
  to people who either are working with right now, who who know,
• 54:40
  you know, we built up our way of working together on that show.
• 54:43
  We built up our base of knowledge on how to deal with
• 54:45
  blood and stunts and this and that.
• 54:48
  Like, you know, we rely on the knowledge that we built up until
• 54:52
  today. Just yesterday, you know, Sarah
• 54:54
  and I were working out the multiples for this thing that we
• 54:57
  have to do on the current show. So yeah, it's a lovely like,
• 55:00
  through line in my life and yeah, I loved every second of
• 55:05
  it. And for all the True Blood fans
• 55:09
  are out there listening, do you have anything, any last words
• 55:11
  for them for watching and coming back and rewatching the show
• 55:15
  every single day? I mean, I have to say that True
• 55:19
  Blood fans are the best. I mean, they are the most like
• 55:24
  sweet, loving, you know, group of people.
• 55:27
  I mean, I still get emails from True Blood fans about things
• 55:31
  that they want to find or like, where can I get this?
• 55:34
  And I always write back and try to help work it out.
• 55:36
  Like I still get fan letters, like fan emails, right?
• 55:41
  So I just think that and and also there's something, so I
• 55:44
  don't know. Yeah, it's something.
• 55:46
  So what's the word like again? It's like kind of old fashioned
• 55:50
  the way we all feel about it and the kind of the watching it when
• 55:54
  we watched it and sort of the experience of going through all
• 55:57
  those seasons together. I feel like it's yeah, there's
• 56:00
  like an analog quality about it that I really cherish as well.
• 56:03
  Like it's, you know, back in the day, kind of the True Blood of
• 56:07
  it all. So yeah, Truebies forever.
• 56:11
  Yes, forever. Well, forever costume designer
• 56:15
  Audrey Fisher. This has been such a joy.
• 56:17
  I mean, I've been looking forward to this interview and it
• 56:20
  was so much fun. I feel like we could talk to you
• 56:23
  all day. I literally could sit here and
• 56:25
  look at pictures and talk about it all the time.
• 56:28
  I love it so much and I so. Don't.
• 56:30
  Tempt us, do it again. Maybe we'll bring Danny next
• 56:32
  time. And.
• 56:33
  Seriously. That.
• 56:34
  Would that would be fun? Well, I really appreciate, I
• 56:37
  really appreciate you reaching out to me and asking me to come
• 56:40
  on and talk about it. I, it's always like, I love
• 56:42
  talking about True Blood, you know, I, it's just great to kind
• 56:46
  of, you know, take a walk down memory lane and to know that
• 56:49
  people are still loving it so much.
• 56:50
  It's just a huge, it just makes my heart sing.
• 56:53
  So thank you so much and. Thank you.
• 56:57
  And with that, well, we're going to take a little break.
• 57:00
  Thanks everyone. Thank you.
• 57:06
  Spencer, I could have talked to Audrey forever.
• 57:11
  Yeah. And ever and ever about True
• 57:13
  Blood. Same.
• 57:14
  She is, well, first of all, Audrey's hilarious.
• 57:16
  And also, you know, sometimes we talk to designers and we are
• 57:20
  kind of like, I hope they remember this because it was
• 57:22
  such a long time ago. Audrey acted like she worked on
• 57:25
  the show like 2 weeks ago. I was like I can't remember what
• 57:29
  I did 3 hours this ago this well.
• 57:33
  She knew brands. She knew.
• 57:35
  I mean, she just remembered everything.
• 57:37
  And I was like, all right, So yeah, it was such a pleasure
• 57:41
  talking with Audrey. I think she's, you know, one of
• 57:43
  the best. And I just, I love True Blood
• 57:47
  just because I love how passionate, like, people are
• 57:50
  about it. And you could just tell it
• 57:52
  really meant a lot to her and her crew.
• 57:54
  So I really had such a good time talking with her and after the
• 57:59
  conversation, I was so inspired. So I actually was like, I just
• 58:03
  want to keep diving into True Blood and learning more about
• 58:06
  the people who made it. So Elizabeth, for your surprise
• 58:09
  and a surprise to everyone else, I actually reached out to friend
• 58:12
  of the pod Danny Glicker and I asked him if he would be also
• 58:18
  willing to like reflect a little bit on True Blood ever so
• 58:21
  briefly. So Danny emailed in and this is
• 58:26
  a Denny's letter to the podcast. Amazing.
• 58:31
  Hi Spencer and Elizabeth, I want to share how much I love
• 58:34
  designing the initial looks of the costumes and characters for
• 58:37
  True Blood. So here are some random
• 58:38
  memories. First, it was such a costume
• 58:41
  designer's dream to delve into a world that was constantly in
• 58:44
  tension between the truth and artifice.
• 58:47
  The short version is, in the world of True Blood, it was
• 58:49
  rarely to people who look like what we think of vampires, who
• 58:52
  are actually vampires. And I loved playing with that,
• 58:55
  toying with cliches and then subverting them.
• 58:59
  And I love placing trinkets of information into the costumes
• 59:01
  that would be important and seasons down the line.
• 59:04
  One of my favorite details was I show how Sookie was always
• 59:07
  attracted to sparkly things such as rhinestones on her cheap
• 59:10
  sunglasses as a nod to the fact that she didn't yet understand
• 59:14
  that she was part fairy, something that would be revealed
• 59:17
  later down the line. And finally, I love working with
• 59:21
  Audrey Fisher, first as dear friend and a wonderful assistant
• 59:24
  costume designer, and then having a great pride to being
• 59:27
  able to pass a baton of a project that I love to her
• 59:30
  because I knew that she would imbue it with all of her passion
• 59:33
  and insights. In a world of True Blood.
• 59:35
  Would remain in the hands and heart of a costume designer.
• 59:38
  Would give all the characters of True Blood the lives and souls
• 59:41
  they deserved, even if some of them may have long since lost
• 59:45
  both their lives and souls. And that is from Danny Glicker.
• 59:50
  That is incredible. Yeah, it was so lovely.
• 59:54
  You can just really tell that there's such like a genuine
• 59:57
  connection, friendship, relationship between the two of
• 1:00:00
  them, which is why the, you know, it feels so harmonious,
• 1:00:04
  that transition from costume designer to costume designer.
• 1:00:07
  And Audrey was really able to pass.
• 1:00:09
  Grab that baton and. Create some incredible costumes
• 1:00:12
  and evolve it through, I mean 7. Absolutely, absolutely.
• 1:00:17
  I love what he said about adding like, little clues to what would
• 1:00:20
  happen later on, 'cause I this time around, 'cause I told you
• 1:00:25
  this. But this is my first time
• 1:00:26
  watching the series since I'd also read the books.
• 1:00:30
  And in the first episode you see Jason with that trucker hat and
• 1:00:33
  the Panther on it. And it's like alluding to like,
• 1:00:38
  hey, he's gonna he's gonna get into some to some trouble with
• 1:00:43
  some Panthers. Better watch out.
• 1:00:46
  He's. Gonna get into some mess.
• 1:00:50
  So what would you give a what would be your stitch rating for
• 1:00:54
  True Blood? It's kind of like an impossible
• 1:00:56
  question for me. But this is so hard, especially
• 1:01:02
  because I was definitely a little bit more critical of it
• 1:01:08
  this time after having read the books.
• 1:01:12
  But after like season 2, I was like, it's it if you have not
• 1:01:18
  seen either if you have not watched the show or read the
• 1:01:21
  books, 2 completely different things.
• 1:01:24
  Just so people out there know. So I kind of like after season
• 1:01:29
  2, I've kind of like, let's just sit back and enjoy this like you
• 1:01:32
  did the first time. And honestly, I, I, I think I
• 1:01:40
  gotta give it a 5 out of five stitches.
• 1:01:43
  That's fair. This show knows what it is and
• 1:01:49
  gives that to you in every episode.
• 1:01:51
  Yeah. Yeah, it is.
• 1:01:53
  Like I said, Audrey, it's very unapologetically itself.
• 1:01:56
  The True Blood is authentically True Blood.
• 1:02:01
  I'm gonna give it like A4. I mean, it's like it's True
• 1:02:06
  Blood is perfect for what it is. You know, like, obviously, like
• 1:02:10
  the script is batshit crazy. Oh yeah.
• 1:02:14
  Like sometimes it doesn't make sense.
• 1:02:17
  I think season 2 like the entire plot of like this sex demon orgy
• 1:02:22
  thing maybe went on a little long, but like but you can't
• 1:02:27
  help but just keep going and next thing you know, you're
• 1:02:30
  seven seasons deep. So I think A4 feels fair.
• 1:02:34
  So yeah, I love it. But I understand that, yeah.
• 1:02:41
  Are you ready to play our favorite game though?
• 1:02:45
  Yeah, I think so. You go first.
• 1:02:47
  All right. The one costume to rule them
• 1:02:52
  all. So this was hard.
• 1:02:57
  There's there's quite a few costumes, endless costumes,
• 1:03:02
  endless costumes. Like I feel like Sookie were
• 1:03:06
  some good ones, Especially like in the game where it's like very
• 1:03:08
  hot pink, you know, very girly. I also feel like Evan Rachel
• 1:03:14
  Wood's character wears some great costumes.
• 1:03:18
  But then I'm like, which one to me just says everything about
• 1:03:21
  True Blood? I don't know.
• 1:03:22
  When I think of True Blood, I think of this iconic image.
• 1:03:25
  And so then I fell on Eric Northman and just him walking
• 1:03:29
  around in his simple tracksuit. I don't know, to me, that's just
• 1:03:34
  like the iconic True Blood image to me.
• 1:03:37
  Like you see this tracksuit and you just know Alexander
• 1:03:40
  Skarsgard fits so snugly right into that thing as hell.
• 1:03:44
  I'm just going to stick with that one for the sake of not
• 1:03:47
  having to go through the Rolodex of 1,000,000 costumes from this
• 1:03:51
  show. That is so, so fair.
• 1:03:58
  And this was like definitely a hard one for me cuz there's so
• 1:04:05
  many incredible characters. And I was like, OK, let's like
• 1:04:11
  narrow it down. I narrowed it down to like
• 1:04:14
  Lafayette and Eric and I was just like, OK, but like, like
• 1:04:20
  what? I'm thinking of True Blood like
• 1:04:24
  like what's one of the first things I think of and it is
• 1:04:30
  Lafayette in his his yellow shirt with that bejeweled
• 1:04:37
  Lafayette belt in like the first episodes with his fan.
• 1:04:42
  And I was like, that is just like so iconically True Blood.
• 1:04:47
  That's fair. That is so fair.
• 1:04:49
  Yeah. I mean, and I love that Andre
• 1:04:51
  said that they got that belt originally made.
• 1:04:54
  I think it was actually with Danny's side of it.
• 1:04:57
  They got it made in Santee Alley like a wild.
• 1:05:01
  I love that I want to get one. And that brings us to the end of
• 1:05:06
  our hot vampire month and spooky season.
• 1:05:08
  I I can't really believe it, but we still have a lots of great
• 1:05:14
  episodes coming up for the rest of this season, especially our
• 1:05:18
  next one, Elizabeth Winter is coming.
• 1:05:22
  What is our next episode going to be?
• 1:05:24
  Winter. Is coming.
• 1:05:27
  Our next episode is a show that helped bring this podcast
• 1:05:34
  together. Honestly.
• 1:05:37
  Honestly probably the first thing me and Spencer bonded over
• 1:05:43
  another HBO classic. True.
• 1:05:46
  Game of Thrones. I'm so excited.
• 1:05:50
  I love Game of Thrones and this is one that we have all the
• 1:05:54
  behind the costume facts ready to go already so.
• 1:05:57
  There's a whole. Book.
• 1:05:58
  Yeah, yeah. We have a Game of Thrones
• 1:06:00
  costume Bible they're referred to, so I'm excited.
• 1:06:03
  I love Game of Thrones. To me, it's still one of the
• 1:06:05
  great shows of all time. Even with the last season.
• 1:06:09
  I don't care. I'm the last season apologist.
• 1:06:12
  I just think this show is perfect.
• 1:06:14
  I'm so excited to talk about it. We used to do Game of Thrones
• 1:06:16
  watch parties together all the time, so it's this episode has
• 1:06:21
  been a long time coming. So if you're excited for Game of
• 1:06:26
  Thrones or if you want to tell us who your favorite hot vampire
• 1:06:29
  was, don't forget to e-mail us at theartofcostume@gmail.com.
• 1:06:33
  Or you could always message us on Instagram or Tiktok, at the
• 1:06:37
  Art of Costume Pod or at The Art of Costume leave us a five star
• 1:06:41
  text review on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
• 1:06:44
  If you just loved Vampire Month, that would just reward us with
• 1:06:47
  your vampire love. Let everybody know.
• 1:06:51
  Let everybody know. Or maybe there maybe we missed
• 1:06:55
  some. We needed to man more hot
• 1:06:56
  vampires. Do so in the five star text
• 1:06:59
  reviews and also don't forget to subscribe on YouTube so you can
• 1:07:04
  see all these hot vampires on screen.
• 1:07:07
  What's better than that than having Alexander Skarsgard look
• 1:07:10
  upon you as you lay in bed with your bag of sour bats and, you
• 1:07:17
  know, Halloween candy? There you go.
• 1:07:20
  Perfect. Perfect.
• 1:07:22
  It's solid landing. Everybody have a spooky
• 1:07:26
  Halloween. Happy Halloween.
• 1:07:27
  Be safe, don't drink and drive. Be safe.
• 1:07:30
  But do eat, Yes, but do eat lots of campy.
• 1:07:34
  Do eat lots. Of Campy and.
• 1:07:35
  Make out with lots of hot vampires.
• 1:07:38
  That's my plan. Every.
• 1:07:41
  Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween.