Latest / The Art of Costume Podcast / Dicks: The Musical with Costume Designer, Valerie Klarich

Transcript

Dicks: The Musical with Costume Designer, Valerie Klarich · The Art of Costume Podcast

• 0:11
  We could cut this next part out, but I just had to ask.
• 0:14
  I I think it's a no, but at the very beginning.
• 0:17
  Do you have a cameo in this film that's like you do?
• 0:22
  OK, I. Don't have to say, I mean you
• 0:24
  can we. Don't.
• 0:25
  Have to cut it. It's funny because I'm like,
• 0:28
  they put me in it because the woman who is supposed to be
• 0:31
  pregnant that day didn't show up on the set.
• 0:43
  Hello and welcome to the Art of Costume Podcast.
• 0:46
  I am your host, Spencer Williams, and thank you so much
• 0:49
  for joining me for another bonus episode.
• 0:52
  Hey costumers, it's so good to be here with you all, especially
• 0:57
  as we dive into the hilarious world of a 24's first musical
• 1:01
  film, Dick's the Musical. It is such a great film.
• 1:07
  I loved it. It is so funny, so colorful, so
• 1:11
  joyous, so horny. It's all the things, all the
• 1:14
  things that you need and a great film.
• 1:16
  And honestly, my life has been changed.
• 1:18
  There is life before and after Dick's The Musical for me.
• 1:22
  Such a good one. I'm so excited to dive into all
• 1:25
  the costumes with today's special guest.
• 1:27
  But first, let's do a quick summary.
• 1:30
  A pair of business rivals discover that they're identical
• 1:33
  twins and decide to swap places and attempt to trick their
• 1:37
  divorced parents to get back together.
• 1:39
  And that is Dick's the Musical. Short and simple, I love it.
• 1:44
  Diving behind the costumes, we have director Larry Charles and
• 1:48
  costume designer Valerie Klarich.
• 1:51
  You know Valerie from her lengthy resume of incredible
• 1:55
  work, notably her work as a ACD and costume coordinator, for
• 1:59
  which she worked on Gossip Girl, Orange is the New Black Girls,
• 2:04
  Broad City, Aquafina is Nora from Queens.
• 2:07
  And of course, Saturday Night Live.
• 2:10
  You also know her costume designer work on the Unicorn and
• 2:13
  Panhandle. I'm so excited for you all to
• 2:16
  hear from Valerie. She is an incredible costume
• 2:19
  designer and I loved meeting her.
• 2:21
  And I hope you all enjoyed this conversation about Dick's the
• 2:24
  Musical. Well, everyone, I am so excited
• 2:52
  to welcome to the podcast for the first time my friend,
• 2:55
  costume designer Valerie Klarich.
• 2:58
  Hey, Val, how's it going? I'm good.
• 3:01
  Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to finally talk
• 3:03
  to you. I got to see you at La Comic Con
• 3:06
  for a impact panel and I met you there and I knew I just had to
• 3:11
  talk to you as soon as possible about this film is so good.
• 3:16
  We where while we shot it, I wasn't sure what it was going to
• 3:19
  be. And then when I went to the
• 3:22
  premiere, it was way more than I could have ever imagined.
• 3:28
  So yeah, I love it. I hope everybody loves it.
• 3:32
  I think anyone who sees this film is absolutely in love with
• 3:36
  it as soon as they press play on it.
• 3:39
  So let's get into it. So I'm such a fan of your work,
• 3:43
  especially with a 24's first musical film, Dix the Musical,
• 3:47
  which I'm excited to say that is now streaming on Max by the time
• 3:50
  this podcast comes out. So I'm dying to know when you
• 3:54
  first heard about this project, what was your reaction?
• 3:58
  Because I think people, I still had a hard time being like, what
• 4:02
  is this about? So you must have your head must
• 4:04
  have been turning. Yeah, I remember I was on, I was
• 4:10
  on a commercial and my agent, Charlie, sent me the script and
• 4:13
  was like, give it a go, let me know what you think.
• 4:15
  I read it. And I also, he sent along the
• 4:18
  link to Josh and Aaron's UCB performance.
• 4:22
  So I read the script, then I watched the performance and I
• 4:24
  called Charlie and I was like, what is this?
• 4:27
  And he's like, I don't know, but I feel like there's a lot.
• 4:32
  I mean, and as I was reading it, you know, the creative juices
• 4:36
  are always flowing. You're like, oh, it could be
• 4:37
  this and it could be this. But I must say, from that moment
• 4:42
  to the moment we started prep, what I I originally envisioned
• 4:48
  to what ended up happening was completely different.
• 4:53
  Once I met with the director, Larry, he had all these ideas.
• 4:58
  And you know, after speaking with the actors, they had ideas
• 5:02
  and you know, I'm very collaborative.
• 5:04
  So after speaking with my team, they all had ideas.
• 5:07
  And I think the combination of everything, that's kind of what
• 5:14
  came of the movie, I guess you could say.
• 5:16
  Right. It just was a very collaborative
• 5:18
  project, Lots of fun ideas, colors, all sorts of madness.
• 5:23
  So tell me a little bit about your preparation for this and
• 5:27
  your collaboration with director Larry Charles.
• 5:31
  So I put together board. So I read the script, put
• 5:35
  together boards, met with Larry and he he loved my background at
• 5:41
  Saturday Night Live and I think his whole, his whole mantra or
• 5:46
  what I learned of him is that no idea was bad and anything crazy
• 5:50
  usually is the thing that he would pick.
• 5:53
  So I kind of just went with that.
• 5:55
  And Megan Mullally's character, Evelyn, she was my favorite and
• 6:04
  that care building that character was my favorite
• 6:07
  because Larry had this vision of Miss Miss Havisham and wanted it
• 6:13
  wanted that sort of silhouette. But because it was a musical, I
• 6:17
  was thinking, you know, we've got to add as much color and
• 6:20
  texture and fat, like just anything and everything to her,
• 6:25
  all the while keeping that sort of Havisham silhouette.
• 6:29
  And then, you know, they decided to put her in a wheelchair.
• 6:31
  The entire movie, which I was, now I'm, it works.
• 6:36
  But at the time, I was like, oh, it's going to cut her in half
• 6:38
  and we're not going to see the full look.
• 6:41
  And but I think that Michelle, the DP, did a really good job
• 6:45
  of, of getting the full picture of who Evelyn actually was.
• 6:51
  And so going into the fitting with Megan, you know, I had
• 6:53
  never met her. We spoke briefly on the phone
• 6:55
  about, you know, what she's comfortable with, what she's
• 6:58
  not, her sizing, all that. And then me and my assistant
• 7:02
  Haley just haunted and gathered everywhere from Saks to the Real
• 7:09
  Reel to vintage stores to the rental houses here in LA.
• 7:15
  And yeah, we just put it all in a fitting room.
• 7:19
  And I don't know, honestly, I usually going into a fitting.
• 7:22
  I have a really good idea what the character is going to be or
• 7:26
  look like or a a direction. And this was like, I had pieces
• 7:30
  in there that I loved and Megan, myself and Haley just put stuff
• 7:35
  together and it just clicked. It was the first fitting of the
• 7:39
  movie. And yeah, it just, Megan was
• 7:42
  like, this fitting really helped me wrap my head around who this
• 7:45
  person is. And that is my, like, goal
• 7:50
  always is, is, you know, when the actor comes in, we're
• 7:53
  creating this character and then it helps them wrap their head
• 7:56
  around what they're actually going to do on set.
• 7:58
  So I sent Larry and Josh and Aaron and some producers the
• 8:03
  fitting photos and and I got called into Larry's office and
• 8:07
  he was just like, you guys nailed it like this, this is her
• 8:11
  and I. It sort of set the precedent for
• 8:13
  the rest of the fittings. Because you know, when the
• 8:19
  director is giving you positive feedback, you're just you feel
• 8:22
  like you're on the right track to kind of going crazy and
• 8:26
  doing, you know, the craziest funnest That's even a word most.
• 8:32
  Fun. Great.
• 8:35
  Then I'll say funniest, you know, most wildly creative
• 8:38
  costumes which then sort of poured into Bowen's costume as
• 8:42
  God. And because those two, I think
• 8:44
  were the. Yeah, and Nathan, I I I would
• 8:47
  say Nathan's costumes were really fun too.
• 8:50
  I mean, it just was fun. It was the first job I was on
• 8:53
  that there wasn't limits. You know, sometimes you're
• 8:57
  working with like tight parameters and you know, there
• 9:01
  was in the sense of a budget, you know, But we made it work
• 9:05
  and it it kind of turned out in my opinion, I'm biased but like
• 9:09
  you know, and I am my my biggest critic, but but I left that job
• 9:14
  being really proud of of the work that was done by me and my
• 9:20
  team. Like it was a small team.
• 9:22
  So it's pretty shocking that we were able to.
• 9:24
  Pull. Pull out what we did.
• 9:27
  Wow, I mean it. You all should be proud because
• 9:29
  it is. So it's kind of inspiring
• 9:31
  actually seeing what you were able to do with this, you know,
• 9:34
  small production and these pretty wacky characters, but
• 9:38
  incredible costumes that really said a lot about the characters
• 9:42
  and the small amount of time because it is a little bit of a
• 9:44
  shorter film too, and I just feel like the feature.
• 9:47
  Like 25 days, Yeah. Gosh.
• 9:50
  Wow. And just to talk about Megan
• 9:52
  Mullally's character for a bit, Evelyn I.
• 9:55
  She's also my favorite character, favorite costumes,
• 9:58
  because to me, she reminds me of a lot like Joan Crawford from
• 10:02
  Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Just like I can't be a 24
• 10:06
  person. And it's just so flawless.
• 10:08
  This is, if we were to redo that film, that's what this is, what
• 10:12
  it would look like today. I think so.
• 10:14
  I agree, I agree. Yeah, she was wonderful to work
• 10:17
  with and we actually became friendly after the project and
• 10:23
  she brought me on to other things that she was doing, which
• 10:25
  I'm obviously grateful for. But you know, she was lovely and
• 10:29
  she just her voice, I didn't know this about her when I mean,
• 10:33
  I guess I maybe should have done some research, but I don't
• 10:36
  necessarily like to do too much because then I'm in my head too
• 10:38
  much. And if I, if I don't know too
• 10:41
  much about who they are and more just the project we're working
• 10:45
  on, then it, you know, I don't get overwhelmed or starstruck or
• 10:48
  any of that kind of stuff. You know, I didn't know she
• 10:51
  could sing the way that she did in the movie, so.
• 10:56
  Yeah, I like. A lot on.
• 10:58
  This Bob. She has an intoxicating voice.
• 11:00
  Oh my God. So our two main characters are
• 11:03
  identical twins Craig and Trevor, who are also the writers
• 11:07
  of the film. I would love to understand your
• 11:09
  approach to these two lovely, hilarious characters.
• 11:13
  I just have to shout out there like aquarium shark shirts that
• 11:18
  they wear later on in a film. Those are two of my favorite
• 11:21
  shirts. I actually want the shark shirt,
• 11:23
  so just point that out there. Get it?
• 11:24
  Actually, I think you can get it.
• 11:26
  I've actually a few people deemed me asking where and I
• 11:30
  have to give all the credit to my assistant, Haley.
• 11:33
  We didn't know what. OK, so let's start from the
• 11:37
  beginning. When I first fit them they had
• 11:40
  ideas about wanting to be and I don't know if I can say this so
• 11:46
  you can bleep it out, but like douchey Wall Street Bros, like
• 11:50
  as straight as, straight as a finance looking guy that lives
• 11:58
  in Manhattan that is I guess I could say very promiscuous.
• 12:04
  And you know they wanted those like the tie bars and the the
• 12:10
  unnecessary like ring that Josh wears or the cropped pants on
• 12:15
  Aaron who is so tall and it looks so ridiculous.
• 12:19
  But you know the guys that wear the like cropped pants and you
• 12:22
  see their ankles like they wanted to hit all of those
• 12:25
  things to obviously sell that they were as straight as
• 12:29
  possible as well. Nailed.
• 12:34
  It yeah, we we just went with that and what's funny is their
• 12:37
  costume as as plain ish as they ended up being in comparison to
• 12:42
  the other costumes of the film. It was actually the hardest
• 12:45
  because the idea was that we wanted them to start off looking
• 12:50
  different in their color palettes and then as I don't
• 12:53
  know if a a normal eye watching this film who isn't into
• 12:57
  costumes would notice this. But as the movie goes, we
• 13:00
  started to make them look more and more alike, keeping in their
• 13:03
  color palettes. But then it would be, you know,
• 13:05
  a suit. And then they both lose the tie,
• 13:07
  and then they both lose the jacket and roll the sleeves and
• 13:10
  then, you know, And so towards the end of the movie, they ended
• 13:14
  up dressing all the way until they were twins at the wedding,
• 13:17
  at the last scene of the movie. And the shark shirts, honestly,
• 13:22
  it was. So it was kind of just random.
• 13:24
  Haley went out shopping. She sent me a picture and I
• 13:27
  showed it to the boys and they were like, yes, so this one was
• 13:31
  a shark and one was, I think, sea turtles.
• 13:34
  Looks like a turtle, yeah? And I and they're and we thought
• 13:37
  they were just vintage shirts that Haley found at like a
• 13:40
  random vintage store here in LA. But then I searched for them and
• 13:45
  you can actually get the Shark shirt, So I'll send you when
• 13:48
  we're done. Yeah, please, please do, because
• 13:51
  I want it really bad now. Yeah, yeah, that's hilarious.
• 13:55
  And I did totally notice how they start to like, really come
• 13:58
  together, become identical because that really is part of
• 14:01
  the storytelling through the costumes too, is they're
• 14:03
  identical but not too identical. Yeah, exactly.
• 14:10
  So there is a lot of costumes in this film.
• 14:14
  So I imagine, and there's a lot of dancing in this film too.
• 14:17
  So the costumes have to be able to work with that.
• 14:20
  So just tell me, how did your team pull this off?
• 14:22
  You must have had, I mean, you said earlier you had a small
• 14:24
  team. I imagined you had a big team,
• 14:26
  so. No, we had it was there was
• 14:30
  maybe five or six of us total including our set costumers and
• 14:35
  our like wonderful PAS. And I kept calling the
• 14:39
  linebirders and be like OK, can we get just a couple more labor
• 14:41
  days just like so we could just, you know whatever.
• 14:44
  But yeah, it was a small team, but it was, you know, everyone
• 14:49
  did like 10 different jobs. And you know, I must say the
• 14:53
  dancers. It was the same, I want to say
• 14:57
  10 dancers throughout the movie. And they just moved them around
• 15:00
  to make it look like a lot of people.
• 15:02
  And then they threw background in and I think it was the same
• 15:05
  10 dancers and the same something like 30 background and
• 15:09
  that was the same throughout the whole movie.
• 15:11
  So it made it really easy to pre fit everybody before we even
• 15:14
  started shooting. But for the dancers, yeah, I had
• 15:18
  them bring a lot of I said business attire that You Can
• 15:22
  Dance. And so they brought and then we
• 15:25
  and then we went shopping for anything with a little bit of
• 15:28
  stretch. And I think on a normal musical
• 15:32
  men in dress shirts would have you know they like they the
• 15:36
  tailor will like sew in underwear that snaps underneath
• 15:39
  to make sure. Like I really wanted to do all
• 15:42
  of that but we just didn't have the time, didn't have the money.
• 15:45
  So I bought on Amazon these like snap things that you'd clip onto
• 15:50
  the bottom of the shirts and then clip onto their underwear.
• 15:52
  It was very not necessary. You know, I we just did what we
• 15:57
  could afford, honestly. And the dancers were lovely and
• 16:01
  so insanely talented and I loved how they cast them in all
• 16:06
  different shapes and sizes. And yeah, that's.
• 16:12
  Pretty much it. It felt very diverse and it felt
• 16:14
  like a world that I want to be in, honestly.
• 16:18
  Well, Josh and Aaron were really, that was very important
• 16:22
  to them. So, which I liked, They're very,
• 16:26
  they have very infectious personalities, like you're
• 16:28
  around them and you just want to be around them all the time
• 16:31
  because they're, you know, they could be doing a million things.
• 16:33
  They wrote it. They starred in it.
• 16:35
  They, you know, they were being pulled in a million directions.
• 16:38
  But every time you talk to them, it was like you were the only
• 16:40
  person talking to them and they really prioritized what you had
• 16:44
  to say. And I feel like that's really
• 16:46
  important when you're working on a movie there where there's not
• 16:51
  a lot of time and not a ton of money.
• 16:54
  Yeah, you just, you want to make.
• 16:55
  They made it feel like every department was as important as
• 17:00
  the next, I guess, which is I love them and I'm like, what are
• 17:05
  you going to write the next thing?
• 17:06
  Let's go. Come on, please.
• 17:08
  We need it so I we could cut this next part out, but I just
• 17:12
  had to ask. I I think it's a no, but at the
• 17:15
  very beginning. Do you have a cameo in this film
• 17:17
  that's like, you do, OK? I don't.
• 17:23
  Have to say, I mean you. Can we don't have to cut it.
• 17:25
  It's funny, 'cause I was nervous, 'cause, you know, the
• 17:28
  movie. Remember when Book of Mormon
• 17:30
  came out and everyone was like, some people were like, it's
• 17:32
  amazing, and some people were, like, so offended by it.
• 17:35
  That's this movie. Really.
• 17:37
  I'm like, they put me in it because the woman who was
• 17:40
  supposed to be pregnant that day didn't show up on set.
• 17:44
  And I had the bellies because we had, you know, all the pregnant
• 17:47
  bellies, pregnant bellied women standing in the coffee shop.
• 17:51
  So we had a bunch of bellies and Larry was like, would you mind
• 17:55
  doing it? And I'm like, as long as hair
• 17:56
  and makeup will make me look then throw, like throw me in.
• 18:00
  But I was so nervous. I wish my hands were shaking.
• 18:05
  I was. So I definitely belong behind
• 18:08
  the camera. And I was also nervous, like
• 18:11
  wonder if everybody's like, super offended by this movie and
• 18:14
  now I'm in it and I'm designing it.
• 18:16
  I I just, I don't know. I didn't know what to think.
• 18:18
  And then I. Went to I went to Corey Adelson.
• 18:21
  She's the producer from Chernin who was attached to this.
• 18:24
  I went to her house to watch the trailer, and she also had a
• 18:28
  baby. And I just couldn't believe that
• 18:31
  my face was the first thing in the trailer.
• 18:35
  I was like, Corey, take it out like.
• 18:37
  What are you doing? There's such cool parts of this
• 18:39
  movie, like, I do not need to be the first face everybody sees.
• 18:44
  And she was like, it's not happening.
• 18:47
  It's so funny. OK, so I've pictured this.
• 18:49
  I'm watching the film and it's I hear cameo's like all of a
• 18:53
  minute and 1/2 into the film. It's so quick and I'm just like,
• 18:58
  it happened so quick and I hate to start Googling immediately.
• 19:01
  I was like, was that a her? I can't.
• 19:03
  So that's why I was gonna cut it out because I was like, there's
• 19:05
  no way it was her. I think I was just making it up
• 19:07
  it. Was doing reshoots, so we shot
• 19:09
  the film and then did a few reshoots and it was like
• 19:14
  November of last year that we did it.
• 19:18
  I was so nervous, I literally, I was shaking.
• 19:21
  No, You killed it though. I'll send you a picture from Set
• 19:24
  it. It was really funny.
• 19:25
  Yeah, please do it. I loved it.
• 19:27
  I thought it was great and I think you should be proud.
• 19:29
  It was one of my favorite 5 seconds of the film.
• 19:34
  I'm. Going to stick to designing
• 19:36
  though, I don't think acting is my bag.
• 19:38
  You're right. So going back to what we were
• 19:44
  talking about before, we will leave that in color palettes.
• 19:48
  I feel like color played a big role in this film because you
• 19:52
  know, at times it was very like kind of office setting, but then
• 19:55
  I feel like you and your team cleverly used like pops of color
• 19:59
  when you needed it to really help tell the story.
• 20:02
  Would you agree with that? Yeah, I think, you know, I'd
• 20:05
  never worked on a musical before.
• 20:07
  The only thing closest to musical numbers would be, you
• 20:11
  know, cold openings on SNL when a host would be dancing
• 20:16
  backstage and we'd have to, you know, incorporate BG and dancers
• 20:20
  and all that. But for the most part, I'd never
• 20:22
  had done a musical. And so I did a lot of research
• 20:26
  and I noticed color played a big role because you, you know, the
• 20:30
  vibrancy of it all and and so I just wanted everything to have
• 20:34
  as much color as possible when appropriate.
• 20:36
  The funny thing is this scene at the end when they go into the
• 20:39
  tunnel, the blue theme of Megan's costume and Nathan and
• 20:44
  the boys, that kind of wasn't planned.
• 20:48
  I didn't. I didn't intentionally do it.
• 20:50
  But when I was, you know, I I take their fitting photos and I
• 20:54
  have a board and I have all the scenes and I and I sort of mix
• 20:58
  and match and put it together to see visually the four of them in
• 21:02
  scenes what will look the best. And I was just, you know,
• 21:05
  normally designers shy away from having people in the same colors
• 21:09
  in the same scenes, if for the most part.
• 21:12
  But I was like, let's just do it.
• 21:14
  And I it kind of worked, you know, there was no crime or
• 21:17
  reason behind it. It was just fun.
• 21:21
  So I was like, let's just do it and see how it.
• 21:23
  Worked. It felt purposeful so it.
• 21:25
  Did, and it wasn't at all. I love that.
• 21:30
  Well, we talked about our eccentric parents a little bit.
• 21:33
  We talked about Evelyn. But we haven't really talked so
• 21:35
  much about Harris. I mean, the legendary Nathan
• 21:38
  Lane. What was it like working with
• 21:40
  Nathan Lane to create this very interesting father figure?
• 21:45
  Yeah, so we we, I knew I had boards made and I send them to
• 21:50
  him of like inspiration of what I was envisioning.
• 21:54
  And he kind of was down with it all.
• 21:57
  He is the loveliest man I was. You know, I was nervous at the
• 22:01
  time. I have two young daughters who
• 22:03
  are obsessed with The Lion King, and so Nathan's voice is in our
• 22:07
  home often. So calling him for the first
• 22:10
  time to talk, I was definitely intimidated and it was for no
• 22:16
  reason. He is just the kindest, most
• 22:20
  polite gentleman. Hilarious.
• 22:24
  Like I can't say enough good things about him.
• 22:25
  And so we spoke and he wanted to connect me with Anne Roth, who
• 22:31
  is, you know, just to be like, you know, I worked with her on
• 22:34
  the Birdcage. We've been friends for many
• 22:36
  years. She she knows what fits and what
• 22:39
  works. So you guys should connect.
• 22:40
  And and I was like, OK, but like, I'm more intimidated to
• 22:43
  talk to Anne Roth. And I am.
• 22:45
  That's like talking to our, like, costume God, you know,
• 22:48
  like Bo and Yang. And then there's Anne Roth.
• 22:51
  Right. So anyways, he ended up just
• 22:54
  connecting me with this man in New York who helped us just
• 22:59
  custom make suits that have has done it for Nathan in the past.
• 23:02
  So we swatched and built everything for him and yeah, and
• 23:08
  then added the ascots and and we went to Anton which is this
• 23:12
  shirt maker in LA and once the jackets were made you know made
• 23:17
  the shirt. It was just fun.
• 23:18
  I just had, you know, I get hired on a lot of contemporary
• 23:24
  comedy shows and and films and not a lot of opportunity to
• 23:29
  build. And I have to say I have a bit
• 23:32
  of impostor syndrome with with it because I didn't go to school
• 23:35
  for costume design. I just sort of, I got a funny
• 23:40
  enough, I got a Facebook message from a girl I went to high
• 23:43
  school with and was like, hey, we're looking for an intern on
• 23:45
  Gossip Girl. And I was like, OK, so I
• 23:48
  interviewed and that's how I really truly get, that's how I
• 23:51
  got in. So I have imposter syndrome
• 23:55
  because sometimes, you know, I don't necessarily know the names
• 24:00
  of all the different silhouettes and shapes and building and all
• 24:04
  that. It's sort of was self-taught and
• 24:06
  and taught by designers that I worked with.
• 24:08
  So this was the first job where I really got to Swatch and see
• 24:13
  what fabrics I liked and what was my taste.
• 24:16
  And so that is what I like, why I loved doing Nathan's costumes
• 24:23
  so much, because Megan was a lot of piercing shopping together,
• 24:27
  which I'm used to, but Nathan's was building from head to toe
• 24:32
  and so it was out of my comfort zone.
• 24:35
  But it like it ended up working. We had an extraordinary tailor
• 24:38
  in LA. So once the stuff got sent to us
• 24:41
  and we had a fitting with Nathan.
• 24:44
  Yeah, she, she nipped and tucked and and made it fit in
• 24:47
  perfectly. So yeah, his was, it just was.
• 24:50
  It's funny because every character it was just in the
• 24:53
  movie was so different. You know, I'm so used to just
• 24:56
  going out and shopping in stores, everybody shops and to
• 24:59
  put costumes together. And this was Nathan was
• 25:02
  building. Megan was like a mix of
• 25:04
  everything. Bowen was on a whole other level
• 25:08
  and the boys were like Banana Republic.
• 25:10
  So yeah, it was just like a fun. I mean, it was like, I think in
• 25:17
  my opinion, it was a costume designer's dream of getting to
• 25:20
  just do a little bit of everything on this.
• 25:22
  Yeah, no, that's really exciting.
• 25:23
  You could really see that. And I'm just so happy that you
• 25:26
  got this opportunity because you really got to.
• 25:29
  I I understand the imposter syndrome feeling, but I feel
• 25:32
  like you really showed yourself in a great way with this film.
• 25:35
  I think it's quite brilliant. Thank you.
• 25:38
  OK, so we're almost there. We have two more characters I
• 25:40
  really want to talk about, and one of them has to be Megan the
• 25:43
  stallion who I'm. I mean, I don't know anyone
• 25:45
  who's not obsessed with her at this point.
• 25:48
  She plays boss, Queen Gloria, and you've got to tell me what
• 25:51
  it was like. It cost me.
• 25:53
  This she was amazing. So she so I mean, not normally,
• 25:58
  but from what I was used to, like even at SNL, if it was like
• 26:01
  a musical guest, usually they come with stylists.
• 26:04
  Yeah. Unless they know Tom.
• 26:06
  And then they, like, want Tom, you know, because everyone wants
• 26:09
  Tom. But so Megan's people connected
• 26:14
  me with her stylist, Eric Archibald, and he was absolutely
• 26:18
  lovely. He basically called and we spoke
• 26:21
  about, you know, her sizing and what she likes and hates.
• 26:24
  And he was like, these are the brands she likes.
• 26:26
  I'll connect you with anyone that you need, but I'm just
• 26:28
  going to let you do your thing. And he kind of did.
• 26:33
  So again, sent the team of us 5 all out to basically it was
• 26:38
  Rodeo Dr. And we just went into like every, every store that she
• 26:43
  like, you know, Dolce and Gabbana, like all the brands I
• 26:46
  ordered everything on Netaporte, you know, every suit, power
• 26:52
  suit, powerhouse suit that I could get in.
• 26:56
  And I have an amazing picture of her fitting rack I'll send you.
• 27:00
  It's just like the most beautiful thing.
• 27:03
  And so she came in the morning, she was shooting and we fit or
• 27:08
  maybe it was a rehearsal. Whatever.
• 27:11
  We had her for, like, no time she came.
• 27:13
  In whatever it was, it was close to 0.
• 27:16
  Close to zero, She came in. I I made sure Eric was there
• 27:19
  because I wanted Megan to feel comfortable, like I don't.
• 27:22
  I don't need to be on a high horse.
• 27:24
  Like, I just want them comfortable and to really, like
• 27:27
  be able to get into character. So he was there too, and we just
• 27:33
  went through the rack and we fit her in every single like,
• 27:36
  pantsuit dress, everything we could think of.
• 27:39
  I know I knew that she had one look that she didn't have to
• 27:42
  dance in and one look that she did have to dance in.
• 27:45
  But when she got there, she didn't even know she was
• 27:47
  dancing. She did all of that, learned all
• 27:50
  of that in like a day. It was unbelievable to watch
• 27:53
  her. She like is a true, true talent.
• 27:57
  I've just never seen anything like it.
• 27:59
  And so we ended up putting her in the black dress with Dolce
• 28:02
  Gabbana, with the with the jacket.
• 28:05
  And then the yellow neon suit was Alex Perry and it luckily
• 28:11
  had some stretch. But we panicked because we saw
• 28:13
  what the choreographers it kind of was because it was so quick.
• 28:17
  We didn't necessarily all have all the information all the
• 28:20
  time. So what?
• 28:21
  I fit her in. I didn't necessarily know that
• 28:23
  the choreographers were going to have her like, you know, be on
• 28:26
  the ground and splitting her legs and doing all.
• 28:28
  This crazy stuff sweating a bit backstage, yeah.
• 28:32
  So we panicked. I called that a Forte because we
• 28:36
  ended up getting a suit from them and like, we haunted and
• 28:40
  gathered trying to find another pair of the Alex Perry pants,
• 28:43
  'cause I was like, if she splits them, we don't have anything
• 28:46
  like we have that one look like. I didn't buy multiples of her
• 28:51
  rack and she fit that morning, so we didn't even know what she
• 28:54
  was going to go into, so I had the tailor on standby.
• 28:57
  We found extra fabric of the suit.
• 29:00
  It wasn't the pants, but we I think we found extra jackets so
• 29:04
  the tailor was ready to like cut up this like $5000 blazer to
• 29:08
  like add a panel in the pants if we needed to.
• 29:12
  But she didn't. Nothing split.
• 29:14
  She looked awesome. She She is like a true genius.
• 29:20
  Wow, that that can be very. Scary I was, you know I like go
• 29:25
  to stead. I'll establish or like the big
• 29:27
  scenes. I'll be there.
• 29:27
  But I couldn't leave that day I was my heart was pounding.
• 29:31
  Every time she like slapped the ground and every time for every
• 29:34
  take I. It was a little bit of like we
• 29:36
  were all holding our breath. But she nailed it and.
• 29:40
  Alex. Perry is durable suiting.
• 29:44
  You hear that everywhere. It is not an ad.
• 29:47
  They are not paying me to say this, but luckily nothing split.
• 29:53
  That's amazing. Actually.
• 29:54
  I would be so nervous. I can't imagine had to like put
• 29:59
  forward a little prayer to God. Which is why I wanna talk about
• 30:03
  for our final character. Yeah.
• 30:06
  Yeah. Thank you.
• 30:07
  That's why I do. So you, as we've talked about a
• 30:10
  little bit. You have a little bit of a
• 30:12
  history with Saturday Night Live, talking about working with
• 30:16
  Tom Broker, who we love, Bowen Yang who is on it.
• 30:20
  And now here we are with Bowen Yang playing God and Dick's the
• 30:23
  Musical. So tell me about these costumes.
• 30:26
  They are so beautiful. This was actually one of the
• 30:28
  reasons why I originally want to see the movie Before I met you,
• 30:31
  when I saw pictures of these costumes.
• 30:34
  Yeah, so Bowen's a dream. OK, so Tom's a dream.
• 30:37
  We all know that. Yeah, yeah.
• 30:38
  Get that out the way. Yeah.
• 30:39
  Bowen is just as much of A dream.
• 30:42
  He he, I knew he was attached as God when I got the job.
• 30:49
  So it was a little bit of a comfort thing because I had
• 30:50
  worked with him before on Aquafina.
• 30:56
  I assisted Stacy Greenbaum on Nora from Queens's comedy show
• 31:01
  with Aquafina in New York. So Stacy hired me to his sister
• 31:06
  and we so Bowen and I. It was SNL.
• 31:08
  Then it was Nora from Queens and then it was this.
• 31:11
  So it was a bit of a he was. It was comforting to know he was
• 31:15
  cast because we have all these like heavy hitters and he is
• 31:18
  such a heavy hitter, but we are on a more friendly basis.
• 31:21
  So we spoke. I sent him images of what I was
• 31:25
  thinking and he was like let's go, like he was so onborn on
• 31:29
  board from the get actually, you know, I think the boys sent him
• 31:34
  the first rendering of the Cape, the gown and the Cape and he So
• 31:38
  when I reached out he was like, I already saw it.
• 31:40
  The boys sent it to me. Josh and Aaron sent it to me.
• 31:43
  Ben. And it's so good.
• 31:46
  I'm so excited and and bummer. But also like when the creators
• 31:50
  of the movie are sending it, you know, they like it.
• 31:52
  So you're like, that works. That works.
• 31:56
  So the idea behind God, you know, it could have been
• 32:00
  anything, but I really didn't want the white suit.
• 32:05
  I mean, at first it was this like ethereal white, because
• 32:07
  that's what everyone equates God as being.
• 32:08
  But then there was an early script of God in a nightclub and
• 32:13
  you knew from the get that he had a very flamboyant
• 32:16
  personality. So I was like, well, maybe not
• 32:18
  white. Maybe we do like iridescent,
• 32:20
  something that shows a little rainbow ish and some color, but
• 32:23
  not necessarily white, and then it's sort of just built from
• 32:27
  there. The iridescent suit was so hard.
• 32:33
  I wanted the fabric we haunted and gathered.
• 32:36
  Everything that we tried to screen print on would melt
• 32:39
  because it's like rubber or. Not an easy fabric.
• 32:43
  Not an easy fabric, so a few costume designer friends of mine
• 32:49
  recommended this guy Wilburth Gonzalez.
• 32:52
  And then you Do you know him? Yeah, of course.
• 32:55
  OK, he is. He's the best.
• 32:57
  The best I call him for any pickle I'm ever in and he was
• 33:01
  like oh try this or do this or he's.
• 33:04
  His mind is so brilliant and I feel like he hasn't had his
• 33:08
  moment and it needs to happen because he is going like
• 33:13
  already. He like the things he creates
• 33:15
  are so unbelievably brilliant. He just, like, I'm like waiting
• 33:20
  for like he's going to accept an Oscar for best cost, like.
• 33:24
  Such a talent and everyone calls him so clearly like we need to
• 33:28
  give him his flowers. He's the nicest, so I called him
• 33:33
  up and I was like, let's brainstorm.
• 33:35
  Can I bring you on? And yeah, he we there was this
• 33:40
  idea that I had about like stained glass and churches.
• 33:43
  And so I knew that he had painted this blazer for Ocean's
• 33:48
  Eight, and I couldn't believe it.
• 33:49
  Did you see it? I haven't seen that one, but
• 33:53
  I've seen his Blazers because he's like my blazer inspiration,
• 33:57
  you know? Yeah.
• 33:58
  It's insane. So I knew his painting on
• 34:00
  fabric, so I was like, why don't we, you know, he actually I I
• 34:03
  don't even remember. Like we were just spitballing
• 34:06
  back and forth. Anyways, we came to that it
• 34:08
  should be gold because that was sort of on my boards.
• 34:11
  And then the he would paint stained glass.
• 34:13
  So he started rendering a bunch of images for me.
• 34:15
  And then I was like, you know, the like, OK, so I'm Jewish, so
• 34:19
  I have no idea what these people are called.
• 34:21
  But you know the like. People who like are reaching for
• 34:23
  each other in the stained glass. Oh yeah, the Sistine Chapel.
• 34:28
  Right. That's like, yeah, I but like
• 34:30
  the the gods whatever in this. Thing I know you're talking
• 34:34
  about the he came. Up with that, Yeah.
• 34:36
  They're like touching or they're reaching for each other and
• 34:38
  there's like genitals and stuff. Yeah.
• 34:44
  Yeah. So.
• 34:45
  So he was like, let's do something like that at the
• 34:48
  bottom. And I'm like, because this, this
• 34:50
  God has a specific personality. Maybe we just make it like male
• 34:54
  on male. So.
• 34:56
  So Wilburth rendered a bunch of images in men in all these
• 35:00
  different sex positions and I took him to Larry and I was
• 35:03
  like, what is funny enough, but not too far because there was
• 35:07
  like a lot that was sent. I have to find that e-mail for
• 35:11
  Wilburth because it's really funny.
• 35:12
  Quite the presentation. Exactly.
• 35:15
  And so, yeah, we landed on positions we wanted to like
• 35:19
  cover all the different skin tones and colors.
• 35:24
  And yeah, so then we picked the fabric.
• 35:28
  I sent it to Texas, where Wilburth was, and he started
• 35:31
  painting and he did it all by himself.
• 35:36
  He painted that entire Cape and the gown and then hand glued.
• 35:45
  We couldn't afford Swarovski crystal so it was something else
• 35:47
  and I have to ask him what it is but hand glued crystals on the
• 35:51
  entire Cape himself, he says. It was somewhere around 5000 but
• 35:56
  I like it had to been been more like it had to have been so.
• 36:01
  And then he flew it out to LA and finished embellishing it.
• 36:07
  Then Bowen came because his schedule was so crazy.
• 36:10
  We fit him in the in the Cape and the gown and like that was
• 36:15
  it. But I give most of the credit to
• 36:17
  Wilburth, because his attention to detail, his eye, everything
• 36:22
  about it, was just extraordinary.
• 36:25
  It's incredible. I could look at it forever,
• 36:27
  which is funny because it's quite the interesting art too.
• 36:30
  I'm afraid it's like stuck in a box somewhere.
• 36:32
  And Larry Charles, the director, kept saying it needs to be in an
• 36:38
  exhibit and like nothing ever happened.
• 36:40
  And I wish, like I went to the movies with my kids and there
• 36:44
  was like a, a costume exhibit thing I I want to say it must
• 36:49
  have been at the Americana and it was like some costumes from
• 36:53
  some movie were on display and it was like a every costume is
• 36:57
  amazing. I'm not, you know, but it was
• 37:00
  just like a bloody nightgown. Maybe.
• 37:03
  It was around Halloween too. So maybe it was that works or
• 37:06
  whatever. But I'm just like gosh, how cool
• 37:08
  would it have been if we got that Cape and put it in a clear
• 37:13
  box in a just in a movie theater for people to see it in real
• 37:16
  life? Although maybe with the sex
• 37:18
  positions that might not be appropriate for kids.
• 37:20
  But hey, I'm. Thinking like it might be hard,
• 37:22
  but like definitely. Bloody pajamas.
• 37:26
  Yeah, that's true. Yeah.
• 37:28
  Who wants to see that? Scary for children too.
• 37:30
  I don't know. Whatever.
• 37:32
  So nothing ever came of it. And it's probably in a box in
• 37:35
  some age 24 warehouse. Sadly but.
• 37:38
  Maybe they'll be Dix the musical, too.
• 37:41
  Yeah, and we need a Dixon musical exhibition somewhere.
• 37:44
  So whoever's listening to this, I could set that up.
• 37:47
  Let's do it. I mean, set it up because we're
• 37:49
  all in. Well, Val, this has been so much
• 37:55
  fun. I'm obsessed with this film.
• 37:57
  I just had to ask you, what do you hope that now that's
• 38:00
  streaming, some more people are going to be able to see it?
• 38:02
  What do you hope audiences take away from seeing this film for
• 38:05
  the first time? Just like the last song, all
• 38:09
  love is love. And there's so much going on in
• 38:12
  the world right now that I feel like don't get offended by the
• 38:16
  film. Just take it for what it is and
• 38:19
  laugh and enjoy it, you know, and take that with you into
• 38:24
  life. It feels like people need to be
• 38:26
  more accepting of everybody and our world is unfortunately not.
• 38:32
  It just doesn't seem like it is right now.
• 38:35
  And for my children and all the children's sake I hope that
• 38:39
  things start to shift and change.
• 38:41
  And I think this movie did that hopefully for a lot of people
• 38:45
  who walked into the theater, you know, and I didn't know what to
• 38:49
  expect. And then was like, this was a
• 38:50
  crazy movie, but all love is love and be more accepting and
• 38:55
  you know, all of that kind of stuff.
• 38:56
  Yeah, I I agree with that 100%. This has been amazing.
• 39:01
  You should be so proud of yourself and your team.
• 39:03
  There was so much work that went into it and I think it came out
• 39:06
  beautifully. Costume designer Valerie
• 39:08
  Klarich, thank you so much for joining us.
• 39:10
  This has been so fun. So nice to see you again.
• 39:13
  Yeah, well, I can't wait for Dixon musical too, so we could
• 39:16
  do it again. Yes, let's do it.
• 39:18
  Josh and Aaron, if you're listening, start writing.
• 39:22
  Come on, the art of. Costume Podcast is hosted and
• 39:30
  produced by Elizabeth Joy Glass and Spencer Williams.
• 39:34
  Our audio engineering and editing is done by Dan White.
• 39:39
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• 39:44
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• 39:47
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• 39:52
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• 39:57
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• 40:02
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