Latest / The Art of Costume Podcast / Obi-Wan Kenobi with Costume Designer, Suttirat Anne Larlarb

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Obi-Wan Kenobi with Costume Designer, Suttirat Anne Larlarb · The Art of Costume Podcast

0:12
Darth Vader comes out. And everybody who's so serious?
0:15
Working all the equipment would drop to the ground.
0:18
Everybody was dispelled, they played the music.
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You know, he entered on set with the music and everybody turned
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into a teenager, you know, it was just amazing.
0:29
I literally A just got chills right now.
0:43
Hello, and welcome to the art of costume.
0:45
Blogcast. I'm Spencer Williams and I'm
0:47
Alyssa Julie, glass, how's it going, little Elizabeth.
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Oh my gosh. Thank you for joining me on the
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wonderful planet of Tatooine app where everything here is.
1:00
Perfectly fine. Everything's great, there's sand
1:03
and it's fine. This is the Raiders, they want
1:07
to kill you inquisitors, keep showing up chopping her hands
1:10
off looking for some dusty guy who supposedly died, 10 years
1:15
ago but you know Anakin was right?
1:18
The sand is bad. We are here to talk about a fun
1:27
a TV series as Part of our Star Wars month.
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It's been packed the Stars month.
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Absolutely. We are here to talk about
1:36
Obi-Wan Kenobi. The TV show, I gotta say, I
1:43
really liked this one. I really liked this one, it's so
1:47
good. It was just like Charming it.
1:50
Like warmed like my heart. Like it gave me so many like
1:54
warm fuzzies for and like memories from watching the
1:57
chillage the prequel. Of a child.
2:01
I was like where you go. Ewan.
2:03
McGregor look. Here you go.
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Yeah. No really.
2:07
Gave me all the feels, you know, you and II feel like, well he
2:11
shall speak for me. I grew up on the prequels.
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Of course I watched, you know, the classic trilogy but the
2:16
prequel films. Really, what was coming out as I
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was kind of growing up and that was what I you know, fell in
2:22
love with and what's what brought me into the Star Wars
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universe. So this series really just gave
2:27
me all the feels Christensen and come back.
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Let me go back. Come on, man.
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He is just so cool. And I just feel like this is his
2:38
moment, and I'm just so happy for him, and I'm happy for us
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that we got the stick around and see this come together, you
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know, it's so cool. You say, like, oh, you grow up
2:48
with the trilogy? Like I I remember, I definitely
2:51
saw like the original Three first, but that's because my
2:55
parents chose like sure. Does, like, strange movies.
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A very young age because I was like, wow, I was probably a
3:02
toddler when I watched the original trilogy.
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I remember watching the prequels and like knowing what everything
3:09
was about like the first and it came out in like 1999 and I was
3:15
like, like four or five. I remember saying that saying in
3:20
the theaters pertain I was like podracing.
3:23
Oh my gosh at Chuck E cheese. They had the pod racing ride to
3:26
do, remember that it has like I don't get to go to Chuck E
3:29
cheese. Very often my gosh, I mean I
3:33
should have saw this coming but anyways what is that?
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We have a great guess I'm so excited to talk to her about her
3:43
work on this series. But first we have to get to our
3:46
everyday business. Elizabeth, why don't you hit us
3:49
with a summary? Absolutely, we have Obi-Wan
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Kenobi. The former Jedi Master that we
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all know and love as he contends with the Consequences of his
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greatest defeat and the downfall of the Jedi Order and his
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one-time friend. And Apprentice Anakin Skywalker,
4:12
who has turned to the dark side as the evil Sith.
4:15
Lord. Darth Vader.
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Major bummer. Yeah, that's the whole story arc
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for Vader, though. Major bummer.
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Yeah, literally bummer. Down.
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Let's dive behind a wardrobe. We have director, Deborah chow,
4:34
and costume designer suit to rot, and larb.
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Yes, you and those who Tara from her work on some, Dog,
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Millionaire for which she won a costume designer.
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Guild award Sunshine, which Elizabeth just gave me a full
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recounting before we got on the air.
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Sounds very exciting. I did, I did don't start the sun
4:55
everyone 127 Hours Frankenstein. In American Gods to TV series
5:02
Gemini, man. And no time to die to James Bond
5:05
film, for which she was nominated for another costume,
5:08
designer, Guild award. And with that, we're going to
5:12
take a little break and when we come back we will be joined by
5:15
the costume. Designer herself suits rot and
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larb. I am so pleased to welcome
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costume. Designer suit, Aurora and larvae
5:47
Surat. How are you?
5:49
Welcome, great. Thank you.
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Thanks for having me on. We're so excited to have you on.
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We've been talking about your work so much and it's just a
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real pleasure for you to have for you to be a part of our Star
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Wars month won't be. Complete without you.
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Thank you, thank you. Well, I want to start from the
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beginning was so exciting about this project in particular.
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As I'm sure you could attest to is the culmination of the
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Legacy. That is the Star Wars Universe.
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We see two classic Trilogy for which John model famously
6:20
designed a costumes on a small budget.
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Meet the stories and characters of the prequel trilogy, which
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Elizabeth, and I kind of grew up and with costumes designed by
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Trisha biggar. What did your preparation and
6:32
research look like on this project now that we're kind of
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merging those two worlds together?
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Well, interestingly, I know you've put together this Trio of
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images but you could have come and work in my department
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because this is exactly the kind of thing.
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Obviously you wouldn't have had the third image yet, but, but
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this is exactly the kind of thing I would do.
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I would, you know, when you take on something like this, with
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such a iconic Legacy Of almost cultural importance to it.
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You can't ignore what came before you and you have to,
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especially in this story where you're actually you're talking
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about one character who's developed over time, backwards,
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forwards, all of that. So they're sort of special remit
7:17
with this project which is, we're inserting Obi-Wan.
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And to a timeline that is very well established already sort of
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before and after. So yes, very definitely research
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is Like the DNA of the project, you have to go back.
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You have to look at what what the language the visual language
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was and in the world of Star Wars of course you and any Star
7:41
Wars fans will know and and recognize that Star Wars is
7:45
really really specific in the in the world of sci-fi.
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It's so you know arguably it's the most grounded in a way like
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you're in these covers and everybody's costumes,
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everybody's looks the environments.
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The props all of them are derived from womb where they
8:03
live and what that action requires in that environment
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that they exist in. So these costumes, even though
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there's other influences, obviously with Samurai culture
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and all of the things that would have been, you know, enter the
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equation in the original one, the 70s versions with George
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Lucas and John Marlowe. I wanted to make sure I
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understood all of that. So when we Had our version of
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it, it felt natural to that development you know both kind
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of inherently in the language of it.
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Visually you want to have some relationship to just because
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Star Wars is one of those things that sort of bigger than itself.
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Like you can't kind of go to off-piste without alienating a
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whole bunch of people who absolutely, you know, all of
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that is so well digested and I fans memory of Of what came
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before and so you have to pay a lot of homage to that.
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I think at the same time you're showing a new chapter and so you
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have to be able to push things forward.
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But still respect what came before and if you're going to
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make decisions that feel separate, I feel like you really
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have to have a good reason. Interestingly, in this Trio of
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images, you you've done this great job of kind of seeing you
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see the parallels. You see?
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relationship between the development of the cost of
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between each of these photos and the development of Obi-Wan at
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various periods of his life and funnily enough, you know, you
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have this iconic image of the kind of brown and oatmeal color
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Rogue the job and when I did the breakdown of what Tatooine
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residents were like if you actually kind of go in a, with a
9:52
sort of forensic, I I was taking screen grabs of every single
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Patron in the tea teen. I was taking screen grabs of
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everybody who walked by any of the vehicles, any of the people
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on the street, the background, the, you know, the atmosphere I
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took screen grabs of every kind of clothing item, I could see.
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And when I put that on a board you see not just Jedi versions
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of it, but there is a Tatooine look, that is very attached to
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what we've come to understand as a Jedi look, when you break that
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down even further, it's the environment.
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Like it's a very, it's an In which the dies that would have
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come from the plants on Tatooine, or the pigments from
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the minerals of the sound and the Earth would have colored
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these clothing. So you have this one thread
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which is very steeped in sort of Jedi Laura.
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Then you have this other thread, which is very Tatooine.
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And with our Obi-Wan sort of being quote, unquote hidden in
10:53
plain sight in Tatooine. We have this great opportunity
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to still make him feel like B14 a fan but also make him feel
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like Tatooine resident, you know, Incognito ish because he's
11:09
living in Tatooine and can't be recognized by any of the
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Tatooine citizens as being Obi-Wan, the first look you see
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him and he's in a blue kind of an indigo.
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Whoa D blue linen, tunic shirt that is makes him fit into the
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environment he's working in and so that's the I wanted to make
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sure that When we met him, we as both the audience, and I was
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also, if you were living in, tattooing you to understand that
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this is someone who just fits within this whole scheme of
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things. And he's not yet.
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The Obi-Wan will come to understand.
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He is later in the series right here.
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Almost couldn't recognize them at first.
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Yeah. And that was sort of the point
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and there was a lot of ruminating over this because,
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you know, with a, with a franchise like this, there's
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this responsibility to introduce especially a character, like,
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Obi-Wan, who I would say in the top echelon.
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Alon of memorable characters and, and definitive and
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characters. You want him to be recognized
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obviously by an audience coming into it.
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Who knows the history of Obi-Wan, but you also wanted to
12:13
make sense for the story, which is he's in hiding in plain
12:16
sight, you know. And he's not wearing a, it's not
12:19
a disguise, he just, he has to fit into Tatooine.
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But luckily, there were these Bridges between what he would
12:25
end up wearing. And what a Tatooine citizen
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every day might be wearing. That give gave us, you know, the
12:32
right amount of being able to touch on both of those things,
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right? So exciting also probably the
12:41
most exciting character of the whole series.
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We have Princess Leia, her costumes, really channeled like
12:50
the spirit of Carrie, Fisher's, original Leia.
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That we all come to have known and loved the Silhouettes and
12:57
colors. That just like it.
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All really worked and was so So gorgeous.
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How did you approach her design? Well, interestingly to, this is
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a, obviously, another definitive iconic character, who lots of
13:10
people are going to have an opinion about an expectation
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for. And then you think, okay, as the
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responsibility of the costume designer, yes, is to make a
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character exciting for someone to visually consume and
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remember, but you also have this other responsibly.
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We were trying to tell very specific story.
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Where did she come from? And how did she end up being the
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Carrie Fisher version? Where what are the routes that
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you might see in our version that then would develop into the
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version that we all already knew and loved?
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And so you can sort of I think knee-jerk instinctive visual
13:48
firm Princess Leia in the Carrie Fisher version is is the white
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Ensemble right? Cream or caramel depending on
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your calibration of your screen, you know, I think we what we
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know That and knowing that, that was sort of like the Apex.
14:02
Princess Leia, you have to then think.
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Okay, how does, how does she get there?
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And we have obviously the story of she's in Alderaan and we meet
14:13
her and there's this event happening in her in the palace
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in which she's grown up. And we really I loved this idea.
14:23
That was evident in the script that it's in her character,
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she's substituted With one of her minions, right?
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And that person is wearing the official Royal garment that
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she's supposed to be wearing to this banquet.
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And you don't find that as a trick in the beginning and where
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she really is, it's outside playing in the trees.
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Like any could would observing from Vic.
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Not really wanting to be in The Itchy wool clothing.
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Not wanting to be like put in front of a bunch of adults.
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She just wants to play and have Adventures right?
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And she's a kid so we want to make sure that we're
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telegraphing the kid like, Of that like the irreverence and
15:02
the willfulness. And she's a kid who has also
15:04
quite a lot of power. So she's got the stubbornness of
15:09
knowing herself and so even if a parent or an official dresser,
15:14
or anybody in the Royal household be like, no, these are
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the clothes that your mom. And you, we fit them for you.
15:19
They've been made for you for this occasion.
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She's up cheap from the beginning.
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She's already like broken the rules, right?
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She's out there. She's doing her thing up in the
15:27
tree. And she's ignoring like the No,
15:30
what's been set out for that day.
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Anyway, she comes back, she's dragged it into the banquet
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situation, she has to Don those garments, there's a few Easter
15:39
eggs than this garment, which I'm not sure I'm sure people
15:43
have tried to break apart but I'll just explain them in case
15:46
it's not evident, please do go on her, the embroidered in those
15:52
sort of magenta hombre. We called it the pinafore it,
15:57
the embroidery on that is actually Lee a symbol on her
16:01
chest and then the ones that kind of go in the Ark in the
16:05
next layer above that, those are that is an amalgamation.
16:09
I asked when I saw that, we were going to have this banquet.
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I thought to myself of queens and royalty, who in their
16:18
cultures in real life in Planet, in planet Earth, and our
16:21
lifetime Queens who are so connected to their people on the
16:25
culture and the handicrafts of the world that they come from
16:29
that. They Actually encouraged the the
16:33
weaving and the textiles of their country, their world to
16:38
enter into the patterns that they wear when they go to Royal
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occasions. And I wrote to Pablo the Star
16:45
Wars historian and I asked him, what is the Flora and Fauna on
16:49
Alderaan that. I you that's been established so
16:52
far that might be recognizable or even not.
16:56
But what, you know, what were the original discussions of,
16:59
what the environment would be? Be because I feel like that's a
17:02
common thing and weaving is you take the official flora fauna,
17:06
that's everywhere that everybody on that planet, or that country
17:09
would know and you, you make it a motif that people there would
17:13
understand and integrate it into textile.
17:18
So, it's a combination of, I believe, it's called the
17:22
struggling Pearl Blossom, which was established in a Manga
17:27
version of in the Star Wars universe.
17:30
Of all the things that happened in the world related officially.
17:34
It doesn't exempt. Common sort of like the
17:37
lovechild between the struggling Pearl Blossom, fictional flower,
17:41
which has a little Pearl in the inside, which I'm going to come
17:45
back to remind me to come back to the Pearl because it relates
17:47
to the queen queen Brea in this and that.
17:51
And he said that the environment, if it was a real
17:55
world, environment would be like an Edelweiss or an Alpine an
18:00
Fine flour, which the name is escaping me.
18:01
So I took those flowers and I kind of Amalgamated them and
18:05
made it her royal symbol. We her mother, the queen, or her
18:09
adopted mother. The queen has that same Motif
18:14
printed on the inside of a heard the Cape of her dress and
18:18
inside, like the middle of each flower is a pearl that's been
18:23
stitched on. I'm not sure if that's, you can
18:26
see that in the, you know, in the series.
18:28
But if you got up close to the car, She like, that's the kind
18:31
of detail we were trying to run through as a sort of celebration
18:33
of Alderaan. That's beautiful.
18:36
It's I love the attention to detail.
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Especially since Alderaan really doesn't get its time and place
18:40
so much in the universe. So this is really the first time
18:44
we get to explore it and so with that you how you can, then start
18:48
there with all the bells and whistles of Alderaan and royalty
18:51
and then break away from that as she goes on there and she goes
18:54
on her Adventure, she's making more and more of her own
18:56
choices. She's drawn to the yellow gloves
18:59
in the It place she you know, the Poncho rain Cape idea, sort
19:04
of Harkins to something. We're going to see on Carrie
19:06
Fisher and I later rendition, and then the layers kind of peel
19:10
away. And finally, and when you're in
19:11
the last episode, you see a little mini version of what you
19:15
might see. Later, Carrie Fisher, and it's
19:17
also got the same embroidery on it, it's so beautiful.
19:21
I love it so much. It's just the colors.
19:24
The Silhouettes really, just felt like this was like you
19:27
said, planting the roots for what we will later.
19:29
Come to know. That what we grew up with, it's
19:32
so cool. What I also was obsessed with as
19:35
a serious Star Wars nerd was seeing the inquisitors come to
19:39
life and live action. Particularly love.
19:41
Reva and the grand Inquisitor. The pieces are so technical.
19:45
I love the lines in the Silhouettes and the textiles are
19:48
so interesting. I have to imagine working on
19:50
these characters, in particular, were a lot of fun, but probably
19:54
challenge. I'm assuming.
19:55
Yeah, I mean, the thing about doing anything of this
19:59
continent, Nature is yes, you have to link with Udders except
20:04
for Eva are well-established, right?
20:06
So you ready kind of have to you're basically bring to life
20:10
something that was only ever conceived in a sort of literal
20:13
to deform. But when you take something
20:16
that's established a to deform and you bring it to life in 3D,
20:19
and the characters are written with quite a lot of action
20:21
Mobility becomes an issue. So, you start having two, which
20:25
is why I like in earlier days, I'm not just talking about Star
20:29
Wars, but You know, in earlier, generations of filmmaking where
20:33
you have armor, anything that relates to armor, and you have
20:35
to move in that armor as a sort of stiffness to how people move
20:39
in walk. And that is sort of legit.
20:42
Because these are hard pieces on a let's say, soft body.
20:46
And the body is trying to do things that the hardness is
20:48
trying to contain, you know. Yeah.
20:50
So we actually spent a lot of time kind of engineering sort of
20:56
preordained Inquisitor look for the, the Ones that you already
21:00
know and worked on them so that they worked on these particular
21:04
actors bodies and they were able to move and express themselves
21:07
in a way that would be natural to them for their characters.
21:11
Eva is a new addition to this lexicon, there was probably the
21:16
liberty of being able to end knowing obviously, when I come
21:20
into something, as I know what her journey is going to be, so
21:23
anticipating the amount of movement and her particular
21:26
relationship to the other characters was able to sort,
21:30
Channel, all that discussions with Deb our director, with Doug
21:33
Chiang. Looking at the history of
21:35
anybody, that's on that side of the gamut of Star Wars like off,
21:40
you know, and Imperial officers, anything where I could take the
21:43
lines that already exist and kind of recalibrate them for
21:48
this new character who then kind of she is slightly, she fits
21:52
with inquisitors but she's got her own will.
21:55
So she's sort of the least ice would say /e of them, she sort
21:59
of see Serious. And in terms of her her, you
22:04
know, she did, she kind of has this naturalness to her.
22:08
That I think the other ones are, you know, covered in the the
22:13
symbols of being who they are. She is more about the form
22:17
following the function of what she needs to do.
22:20
So her armor is developed in a way that sort of helps, you
22:25
know, not get in the way of all the physicality that she's going
22:28
to be employing her cape. The split in the back for
22:31
Mobility. There's the I used kind of
22:37
historical armor reference to kind of see where all the joints
22:40
would make sense, but also needing to pay attention to
22:42
where the other inquisitors were their armor.
22:45
Paring it down a little bit. There's this cool detail, which
22:50
depending on when you kind of see it in this picture, she has
22:52
a, I remember she came up, Moses came up with a great nickname
22:56
for this detail, and we called it, the spine.
23:00
Fine. And at least like a sharp spine
23:02
that's running down the center, front of her of that leather
23:05
bodice, it's all leather. Her armor is molded leather.
23:08
Wow. So yeah, I guess I could go on
23:13
forever about every single detail.
23:15
It's it's a lot. Well, I think I remember seeing
23:20
this though, telling Elizabeth, I was like, this is probably my
23:23
favorite Star Wars armor I've ever seen.
23:25
If I were to pick my armor, it would be this one.
23:28
I probably went rock it as well. But you know it's badass.
23:32
Yeah, thank you. And I wanted to make sure
23:35
because, you know, I feel like armor and not just in Star Wars,
23:39
but when armor is done for women, there ends up being this
23:44
femaleness to the it, a lot of the time, not all the time, but
23:48
how do you resolve that? How do you give her that sort of
23:52
the power of the gender-free power of just power without
23:55
gender attached to it, right? Like you do with the fact that
23:59
she has A body that is biologically constructed in a
24:03
way that armor doesn't necessarily armor.
24:05
Historically wasn't developed for that shape.
24:08
You know, the anatomy of a woman is not friendly to how armor is
24:12
supposed to begin. So this was a great.
24:16
I feel like we got, you know, taking from all those from that
24:21
palette of information and his Star Wars history, and history
24:25
historical history. We can put this which I was I
24:29
was I You feel very, very close to this armor.
24:31
I was one of the first things that I designed, that's so cool.
24:35
Yeah, we'll definitely shows, I love that set of armor.
24:38
So this series sees the return of Darth Vader.
24:41
And I looked up the stat right before.
24:43
Why I think it's so fascinating. About Darth Vader that the total
24:46
amount of screen time. We see Darth Vader and George
24:49
Lucas's Star Wars is only 36 minutes which was shocking to
24:53
me. So come to Obi-Wan, it's kind of
24:57
exciting because we really don't see this armor.
25:00
As much as we think we do. It's just so embedded in our
25:02
heads. Yeah.
25:03
So it really adds to the mystery and the horror of Darth Vader.
25:07
So I don't get the asses too often but what was it like
25:09
working with Darth Vader? Well yeah I mean it's um, so
25:16
when you get a job like this and you have this responsibility I
25:22
even though like, with some distance, I can kind of nerd out
25:24
about it like oh my God, like scream into a pillow.
25:27
Yeah. But when you You know, but the
25:30
sort of the terror of reality sets in with all the steaks and
25:35
the responsibilities and so I kind of couldn't go there yet.
25:39
I had to like, respect the fact that it was bigger than me and
25:44
respect the challenge that lay beneath it and respect the fact
25:48
that I couldn't get cocky about it.
25:50
I couldn't, you know, like it's two of those moments in cinema
25:55
history looks and in cinema history that's like Any change
26:00
you're going to make? And I say the change with the
26:03
most, the biggest level of respect.
26:04
You can Mountain, we had to let's say, augment some things,
26:09
change some things that were hopefully, imperceptible.
26:13
I mean, there's obviously people who are going to look at it and
26:16
know exactly what we did. But anything, we like that
26:19
there's an absolute necessity to it 441.
26:24
When you design a thing like this for another body, another
26:28
head, another face There are things that have to fit that
26:32
person, otherwise it's going to look, it does, it has to fit it.
26:36
That person is still performing something they need to embody.
26:40
This, this whole thing, it cannot feel like a Halloween
26:44
costume, right? So, so there were changes that
26:48
we had to make to the armor that are imperceptible.
26:51
In the sense that we've paid so much attention to making sure
26:54
that you don't see the change. Or you don't read it as much as
26:59
like. Oh, let's just make it blue.
27:01
It's not that kind of change its engineering changes, right?
27:04
We have different materials at our disposal in 2020 and 2021
27:09
than they did in the 70s. So we could make things lighter
27:12
and more flexible. If it's still read as hard and
27:15
armor like, and pay attention to what follows version was, we
27:20
knew this Vader was going to be more active, more physical, and
27:23
a lot of the original costume and in suing costumes, as
27:27
technology is helping the costume industry.
27:29
We Get more Mobility for our performer.
27:32
That is not natural to this. The shapes that are present in
27:37
this costume, the mask that I need to kind of big up.
27:40
The relationship I had with FBS X in London who kind of created
27:43
all the pieces for us. This go round and really helped
27:47
re-engineer some of the inner workings and how things went
27:50
together, how they stayed on the body?
27:52
Arturo theater lifts his arms in previous for the costumes.
27:57
He if you lift your arm the whole Whole top of the armor
28:01
shifts up and the arm is still down here.
28:03
You know, it gotta make it so that it feels like it's part of
28:07
his body. So there were things that we had
28:10
to. I won't go out on too much about
28:13
the engineering but the same thing goes, for the helmet.
28:15
You know, there's more dialogue because he's fighting so much,
28:18
he has to have better Vision, all these things, the shape of,
28:21
you know, Hayden's head in the helmet is different from
28:25
original performers, in that helmet.
28:27
So weaking, some proportionality, That you still
28:30
get the Vader and knowing that he's actually a younger Vader at
28:34
this point, right? So there is an argument to be
28:37
said that over the the characters aging process that
28:41
some of that armor would change the way that human bodies change
28:43
and you start wearing different clothes when you get older, you
28:46
know, I don't want to cheapen it like that, but that's part of
28:49
the justification for needing to adapt things because a body
28:53
changes over time, right? So but hopefully I will just
28:57
quickly wrap the Darth Vader discussion up with you asked
29:01
about, were you excited screaming into a pillow?
29:03
Well, because I had to actually me and my amazing team in LA.
29:08
And, and also, our amazing team in London, that was
29:10
manufacturing, the pieces and putting it together.
29:12
And we were doing all these remote things.
29:14
We were also weighted by the responsibility that we couldn't
29:18
get that excited. But there were a few moments
29:20
where we all turned back into our teenage selves, which was
29:23
the first faint fitting with Hayden.
29:25
Putting it on the second time was when Starting on Obi-Wan was
29:33
18 months out from shooting. So this was the first thing we
29:37
worked on because we knew about the physicality and how much how
29:40
long it was going to take to calibrate everything.
29:43
So 18 months later, he walks on set.
29:46
After all the work that's been going every day hours and hours
29:49
of work on both sides of globe shows up on set and the 200
29:53
people working on the set who haven't been in that process.
29:57
Darth Vader comes out and everybody who's So serious
30:00
working, all the equipment went drop to the ground.
30:04
Everybody would spread of they played the music.
30:08
You know, he entered on set with the music and everybody turned
30:12
into a teenager, you know, it was just amazing.
30:14
I literally just got chills right now, that was an amazing
30:18
and that was probably, the moment was like, oh yeah, I got
30:22
to work on that. Yeah, buddy, it's so exciting.
30:27
Just like from a costume design point of view to like that.
30:30
That's what made their failure. So cool in this series, as
30:32
you're right, he was able to move his arms which to maybe
30:35
regular people. You think oh the yeah, well he's
30:37
moving his arms but to us it's like he's moving.
30:40
He's able to get it you now because it's costume is allowing
30:42
him to. That's just such a cool concept
30:45
and yeah, just appreciate you. That's so cool.
30:52
Another really cool scene was this flashback with Obi-Wan and
30:55
Anakin. I was so impressed by it.
30:58
I love the costumes. And because I was like, I felt
31:01
like it was ripped right from the, you know, the prequel
31:04
series and I was like, well, child.
31:06
Yeah, these weren't just like hanging around from 2005.
31:11
So yeah, no. I mean, I have the great
31:14
privilege of getting to go to the lucasfilm archives and study
31:18
the costumes as a Wonder for archivist.
31:20
There Lena, who showed me, everything original costumes.
31:24
I mean, even from the 70s. So I spent quite a lot of time
31:27
up there looking and taking photos.
31:30
And then when we knew what the scene was going to be and what
31:33
parts we were going to need to match.
31:35
We couldn't take the clothes with us a lot and a lot of
31:38
costume projects you get to borrow the original thing and
31:42
copy it. You know, you have your tailors
31:44
kind of do precise measurements, you can hold the Fabrics up, do
31:48
tests with die. Really, just get up there and do
31:51
an exact match like a replica match.
31:54
But this and this version we couldn't take the costume of
31:57
they're so precious. And And rightfully so you don't
32:01
want them leaving the building. I mean, what am I going to do?
32:03
Carry them on my carry in my carry-on but you're not going to
32:05
check them in your career is really like so we could try but
32:12
you know like the Dead Sea Scrolls into India.
32:17
So I basically had a good relationship with Alan up the
32:22
archives and when we looked at our pictures and an amazing
32:29
buyer On the team Elise who was so like, she's also an
32:33
incredible Star Wars nerd. She was put the responsibility
32:37
on. She was like, you could see the
32:38
anxiety when she knew we had to copy this costume.
32:41
She wasn't like, oh yeah, it's kind of oatmeal and a kind of a
32:44
loose weave, and yeah, you probably get away with this.
32:46
No, no. Like every time she wanted to
32:49
present me like, okay, so the sash I've looked at the pictures
32:52
that you put these boards together she like zoomed in
32:54
closely she went back and watch the movie.
32:56
She did a version of what I had already done because she needed
32:59
to understand. For herself Alina I would ask
33:02
her. Okay.
33:03
We're looking at the distance between the end of the Sash and
33:06
the beginning of the seamen. And can you do this precise
33:09
measurement? I would do a little draw over on
33:11
my iPad of like this looks like it might be 4 inches in this
33:15
picture but in this picture looks like 2 inches.
33:16
Can you do remember? So it was like a like a you
33:20
know, like an archaeological matching.
33:22
Like you imagine that there's a piece missing from a statue that
33:25
they found in ancient Rome and for the museum version they had
33:28
to fill that piece in so like All the science in the mines
33:31
that go into like, filling out in a faithful way.
33:34
That's what we did for these costumes.
33:37
And I'll tell you the payoff was hearing, you just say that right
33:41
now, but the first payoff was Hayden walking into the room,
33:45
putting the stuff on and just seeing the look on his face like
33:50
he was he just, it was amazing. I have to tell you it was an
33:55
amazing moment. Like I felt something else was
33:58
happening in the room. Well, I mean, it's amazing.
34:02
I feel proud to knowing that he had that moment.
34:04
It just feels like a full circle payoff moment for everyone, who
34:07
loved the movies, everyone who worked on the movies in the
34:10
past, it's just a awesome moment.
34:13
And as a final question, you know, this was such a highly
34:17
anticipated series, you had an Incredible Crew so I'm just
34:20
asking it final thoughts and what did this project mean to
34:23
you? Yeah I mean I to be honest, I
34:26
think I'm still processing what it means.
34:29
You know like I had never been to a Star Wars celebration and I
34:35
went to the Star Wars celebration which we premiered
34:38
the first two episodes of this and I knew intellectually, you
34:43
know, I grew up with the 70s versions and I was obsessed with
34:46
my brother was a huge collector and for me, probably two things.
34:52
Really threw me for a basically knocked me backwards one was the
34:58
response at Star Wars. Celebration was just like it was
35:03
this palpable I don't know. The energy of excitement,
35:07
anticipation and happiness from seeing these characters, come
35:12
back to life and the and the way we did like that's it's not a
35:16
paper reaction, you know it's not a like I don't know.
35:19
It's just like a religious experience or something.
35:22
Yeah. Moved and I was moved by how
35:25
moved people were and I was so excited that I was Bad.
35:30
So I don't think I quite understood before even though I
35:35
was excited and I knew what was potentially coming.
35:38
I do I still don't think I've been able digest like what it
35:41
actually means to have been able to have my hand as part of this
35:44
incredibly his cut like this cultural Touchstone, right.
35:49
The other moment was when I forgot my first action figures
35:51
because as a kid, I was like we were so obsessed with those
35:56
action figures as those. I mean, my brother have like the
35:59
fatty Played with and then he had the set that he never took
36:02
out of the box and then there is a set and like if he couldn't
36:05
find all of them, you know, and then I found recently cleaning
36:08
out my mom's in my mom's house, like going through old closets
36:12
stashes the stuff, she never gave to us, but when I got the
36:18
first action figure, Reva the new Obi-Wan like all that stuff.
36:22
I was like so many cool and like, you know, it just brought
36:25
back a lot of childhood stuff that was.
36:28
Yeah, I'm not sure that I'm able To actually describe the
36:31
feeling, but it's pretty cool. Yeah, amazing, super cool.
36:34
Are you able to, like, check the action figures for accuracy's to
36:40
while you're shooting these things you're actually thinking
36:43
about? Well, when you're doing your job
36:45
but there's after a scene has been established and there's a
36:48
little bit of time in the actors waiting to go to their next
36:52
change or their next scene. There was a section where you
36:55
would go and scan the costume. And I was always, I tried to
36:58
like, I was probably there. By the time we were so busy and
37:01
spread thin, but every time I knew that the scam was going to
37:05
end up as details on action figure.
37:07
So I tried with all my might be there to kind of make sure like
37:12
nothing was folded in weird or like the shoulders were in the
37:15
right place or, you know, because it's the information
37:17
that then goes to like all the other people that are going then
37:21
interpret your work and I can't be there to answer those
37:24
questions so that the answer has to be kind of right there.
37:27
And so me and key members of the team assistant design.
37:30
I was supervisor of the people who take care of these
37:32
characters on set. They were all we were all doing
37:35
that simultaneously to making the film the series.
37:39
Excuse me. Wow, that's so cool.
37:41
I didn't know designers. Did that costume designer suits
37:45
Aurora and larvae. Thank you so much for coming.
37:47
This was awesome. It was so exciting to meet you
37:50
and we're just so happy for you. Congratulations, such a great
37:53
project. Thank you so much.
37:56
Thank you very excited, to talk to you.
38:02
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