Latest / The Art of Costume Podcast / Twisted Metal (S2) with Elisabeth Vastola - The Costume House with Spencer Williams

Transcript

Twisted Metal (S2) with Elisabeth Vastola - The Costume House with Spencer Williams · The Art of Costume Podcast

• 0:12
  About his rig and it was really just for me to listen, obviously
• 0:16
  to listen and understand what needed to happen for hands and
• 0:21
  feet and then also. You're like, I have questions.
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  Yeah, I have. Questions.
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  You know, that rig was real. It really did what it did.
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  And watching it kind of get craned around was so funny.
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  It was pretty slow in person. Welcome to the Costume House
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  with Spencer Williams, a podcast dedicated to the art and
• 0:43
  storytelling of costume design in film and television.
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  I'm your host, Spencer Williams. Thank you so much for being
• 0:49
  here. For today's episode.
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  We're taking a drive down a post apocalyptic Hwy. filled with
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  some of the most unforgettable characters you'll ever meet.
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  We are, of course talking about the dark, hilarious, and wildly
• 1:00
  chaotic world of Twisted Metal, which is now streaming on
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  Peacock, both seasons 1:00 and 2:00.
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  I could be more excited to share this conversation because as
• 1:09
  maybe you know, I've been a gamer for as long as I can
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  remember and Twisted Metal was absolutely a part of my
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  childhood, which probably explains a lot of my, well,
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  quirks. So I was thrilled to catch up
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  with my friend, costume designer Elizabeth Festola to talk about
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  season 2. Liz was recently nominated for a
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  Calf Cat award in an International Costume Design for
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  Television Made in Canada category, which is so well
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  deserved. This season she not only
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  continues to the stories of fan favorite characters like Sweet
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  Tooth and Quiet, also expands the visual world of the series
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  by designing the costumes for the Twisted Metal Tournament
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  itself. Bringing up characters that I've
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  been dying to see on the big screen since I was a kid.
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  We have a lot to get into, so without further ado, let's step
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  inside the costume house. I am so excited to welcome my
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  friend to the podcast for the first time, costume designer
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  Elizabeth Vastola. Hey Liz, it's so good to see
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  you. It's.
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  So great to be here. Hey, Spencer, how are you?
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  I'm doing good. It is not fair that I only get
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  to see you every time Twisted Metal comes out, so we're going
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  to have to make this more regular.
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  I'd love that. I'd love that.
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  Oh, it's so good to see you. It's been a long while since
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  we've talked about Season 1, which as you probably remember,
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  I was a huge fan nerd about. I'm a big gamer, play Twisted
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  Metal. So you've told me a little bit
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  about about your history with the game or or not so history.
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  So tell me, were you a gamer growing up?
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  Tell me about your familiarity with Twisted Metal before we get
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  into Season 2. I was a gamer growing up,
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  actually. I mean, it's kind of hush hush
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  to say this given, you know, where Twisted Metal resides.
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  But I definitely grew up playing Nintendo, Super Nintendo and
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  Nintendo 64. I mean, in the 90s, I remember
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  my sister and I, you know, like rushing to our basement and,
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  and, you know, firing up the games and Mario Kart and, you
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  know, all of that Donkey Kong. So growing up, I wasn't as
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  familiar with Twisted Metal as AIP, but since of course, now
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  we're kind of in the dawning of like PlayStation, then, you
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  know, PlayStation 5 is the, you know, one of the bigger, I think
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  consoles on the market. And we have one and, you know,
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  it's, I love, I, I, yeah, I, I love video games.
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  I love. And it's been very interesting
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  to return to video games from a different perspective, from a,
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  you know, thinking about kind of translating the medium to
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  screen. And I think it really helped to
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  have an idea of what it's like to sit down and play a game and
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  be immersed in it and what the visuals are and what the
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  possibilities are. And then, you know, because our
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  fan base of the game of the series is such a huge part of
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  the fan base of the show. So I think having that knowledge
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  really gave me a leg up, you know?
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  And one thing I really appreciate the last time we
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  talked was like this idea too, when you're playing video games,
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  some of the like most exciting parts is kind of actually going
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  through your characters and understanding their personality
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  and looking at their costumes, which to me kind of feels like
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  the costume designers dream to, you know, it's it's a post
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  apocalyptic show, but that's not really the main point when it
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  comes to the costumes now, because we're identifying these
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  these personalities through the costumes for these, you know, a
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  million and two different characters that you have.
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  Yeah, it's interesting to balance the tone of the show and
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  of the games with the setting. I mean it clearly it's a, you
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  know, post apocalyptic. It's not a happy place
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  necessarily, but it is a funny show and there are a lot of
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  tongue in cheek moments and references and especially season
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  2 really settles handedly into the comedy of it all.
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  And so I think costume is a great kind of meeting point
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  between tone of the writing and then also, you know, bridging
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  that with the setting and, you know, the production design and,
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  and the vibe of the surroundings of the characters.
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  Right, so coming back for Season 2 is an exciting accomplishment
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  for you and the characters that have survived this world.
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  So before we get into some of these characters, can you talk
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  about your partnership with the showrunners, including Michael
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  Jonathan, who's someone I've been following ever since I met
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  you. Just waiting for like a little
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  tidbits on the how this show is going to look.
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  Yeah, I'd love to know a little bit about your collaboration
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  with the showrunners. It's interesting.
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  I I remember MJ, who we like colloquially call him, but
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  Michael Jonathan for sure professionally.
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  I remember when we chatted like deep into season 1, you know,
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  when everything was getting off the ground and we were filming
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  and people felt good about how sweet tooth look, you know, like
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  all the anxieties started to kind of simmer a bit.
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  And he copped to me that like I was one of the last people that
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  met on the show and they were, you know, you know, without kind
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  of the the process of costume designing of interviewing is so
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  interesting and such a like not a really trodden path to talk
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  about. I feel like, and it's
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  interesting to delve into because it's a part of the job.
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  And he he had talked to me about how they met a lot of people
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  because this was M JS first show running experience after being a
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  writer and producer on Cobra Kai.
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  And we just had a connection in the interview.
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  I think we are of similar. We are both, you know, like
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  elder millennials. We're from the Northeast.
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  We, we just connected. I felt like I knew him in a way
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  that, you know, you don't always immediately know your
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  collaborators. And we had a shorthand visually,
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  immediately, and then like a mutual mutual respect for each
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  other. I remember he told me he was a
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  big fan of Daredevil. And, and I, of course, Cobra Kai
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  was a great show. And I just loved his enthusiasm
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  and his ideas. And so, you know, I I think that
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  we it's it's it is a privilege to be able to given the
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  opportunity to work again with collaborators and showrunners
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  and directors, because you do then get to build on that
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  shorthand and have very frank discussions about, OK, what do
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  we want to kind of move away from from season 2?
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  What do we feel like worked? What can we do?
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  You know, what can we kind of plus what are we going to
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  change? What are we going to keep?
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  And it yeah, I really think you can kind of see that in the work
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  in season 2. And it's interesting.
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  I know you and I, before we started chatting, we were
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  talking about, you know, Oscar season, Emmy season and I one of
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  the through lines of all of the Oscar nominated costume
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  designers from last season is that they had worked with their
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  respective directors over and over and over for decades.
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  And you that just that kind of relationship that you know, you
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  you then you know personally, you think about and start to
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  build is, is so precious and so fruitful.
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  So yeah, it, it, we, I, I, I think, you know, I consider him
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  a friend, but also I am a trusted colleague and really
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  inspired by him. Yeah, that relationship, I mean,
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  like you talked about, is really one that's built on trust for
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  all these designers and, you know, similarly for you and the
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  team of Twisted Metal as well. And I assume that trust must
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  have played a big part going into Season 2.
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  I know there must have been a conversation like, hey, Liz,
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  last season we had Sweet Tooth. That was huge.
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  This season we have like, you know, 10-15 different
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  characters. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  Well, OK, let's get to some of the characters, but we'll start
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  with John and Quiet first. The first season, to me felt a
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  little bit more like a roadshow. You know, these are characters
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  that are kind of brought together.
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  They're on the road. They don't really know who they
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  are. They're running from something
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  or running towards something and just kind of putting to, you
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  know, of course we have some great moments like the high CT
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  shirt, which I still love. But coming into Season 2, John
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  and Quiet, they feel like they have so much more resolve and a
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  but better understanding of who they are.
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  And I think they're really shows in their costumes.
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  You could feel a subtle upgrade. I mean, John's is a little bit
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  more, you know, stronger, but Quiets is it's it's subtle, but
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  it's there. It feels upgraded.
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  And you could tell that you all took like a second look at this.
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  Would you say that's true? I think that's really astute,
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  and one of the main conversations that we had going
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  into Season 2 was about, you know, OK, some time has passed.
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  They've been apart, but they've both grown into themselves in a
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  way, and quiet. I think that the first major
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  kind of visual signifier of this is that everybody's silhouettes
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  kind of slimmed down a little bit.
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  And you know, we knew that because we're we're thinking of
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  these as real people in their world.
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  But we you can't escape the video game character of it all.
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  And so I think that necessitates a continuity of look.
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  So that's, you know, it it that kind of motivated John.
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  And also conversations with Anthony where, you know, he 100%
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  was like, yeah, I don't want to feel like John is a clothes
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  horse. I want to feel like he has what
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  he feels best in and then, you know, moves forward.
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  So he kind of kept his, his usual T-shirt, vest, cargo pant,
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  Nike look. And for quiet, we really, we, we
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  reconceived the jacket from her brother and I mean frankly
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  remade it and all, but with an eye towards quiet as opposed to
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  an eye towards her brother. And we used the fact that she
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  was living with the dolls and doll face was literally sitting
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  at a sewing machine, you know, to help us think about the ways
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  in which it might have been torn.
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  That she's kind of, you know, she has bullet casings off the
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  front of it, but also her metal shoulder.
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  Piece, which I love by the way. I don't know what it is about a
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  metal pauldron. I was like, yes, that it did
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  everything. I love that.
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  And you know, we used, we wanted to something that Steffi and I
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  had talked about as well as thinking about quiet heritage
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  and that she's Mexican and, you know, bringing Mexican art
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  historical motifs and this whole lineage and Mexican art of tin
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  arts and tin floral motifs and bringing that surface relief to
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  the shoulder design. And then just this big back
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  piece of embroidery and scrolling and this kind of regal
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  feel to her. And we switched the fabrication.
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  We used a silk velvet as opposed to a Poly velvet.
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  I mean, everything was re thought of and I think it made
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  sense for the character. And also it was a chance for us
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  to kind of like get into it more from a design perspective.
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  And yeah, I'm really, I, I think quiet, you know, her, her whole
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  kind of closet, so to speak throughout the show I'm really
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  proud of. Yeah.
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  And to that point then, would you say that the cast of Twisted
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  Metal is quite collaborative when it comes to the costumes?
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  It's interesting because you know what, what are the things
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  about comedy that I'm sure you when you talk to other and, and
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  and sort of like larger than life characters, is that the
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  costume is only going to work insofar as the characterization
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  is matching it and feels confident in it.
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  You know, So, you know, I, if I was to put something on Lisa
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  Gilroy is vermin that she didn't feel like she was right.
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  I, it's, you know, then then it's not the right costume no
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  matter what MJ and I had been like cooking up over the
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  offseason, so to speak. So I, I think especially with
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  John and quiet where we knew they would have their kind of
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  main silhouettes, main looks and not divert so much from that and
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  we've already spent time with them.
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  I 1000% had a ton of conversations with them.
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  It The funny thing is, you know in television you then have like
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  no time for fittings though. So it's like all.
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  It's more it's more trust, you know, and image sharing and then
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  you know, and just and a bunch of options and then you know
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  when they come in the week before or whatever it is, in
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  some cases the night before, you know, that's when you're kind of
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  crafting and building and and working together for it all.
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  But then on the other hand, you have characters like vermin,
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  like Raven, in some cases also Calypso, where they're coming in
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  fresh. You know, you haven't
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  established you are you as the designer bringing the tone of
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  the show into the fitting room and then you're kind of asking
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  them and feeling them out for, OK, well, what are your choices
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  going to be? And how can I provide you a
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  costume that works, maybe is funny or maybe is very serious,
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  but that can kind of augment what you're doing so well.
• 15:26
  Yeah, it's different tactics, but it's all I, I, I find in, I
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  mean, like across the board. But I feel especially
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  self-conscious about comedy, you know, to make sure the tone of
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  the look is me is helping the tone of the performance.
• 15:42
  Right. Well, I could confidently see
• 15:44
  say it definitely worked because there's a scene that I just was
• 15:48
  so excited for the moment we've all been waiting for, which is
• 15:51
  when the tournament finally begins.
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  But not just a tournament. It's when everyone pulls their
• 15:55
  car into Eclipse's garage and you get to see everyone kind of
• 15:58
  line up like a typical, like video game, like pick your
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  character type moment. I just take me back to that
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  moment. There must have been a moment
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  where you all just kind of looked around and been like,
• 16:08
  like, they're all here. This is crazy.
• 16:10
  It's like an Avengers Assemble moment.
• 16:13
  I mean, it was really exciting. The way our stages were set up
• 16:18
  in Toronto was that there were a huge building of offices where
• 16:23
  the art department was, and then there were a huge set of sound
• 16:27
  stages where a lot of the, you know, prop lockups were and,
• 16:32
  and, and stages, of course. And then there was a building
• 16:34
  that was on the floor level were the cars and special effects,
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  and then also on the floor with some costume.
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  But then above the cars and special effects were the costume
• 16:49
  was the costume department. So we were in, I mean breathing
• 16:52
  in the fumes. But we, we.
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  Got there. Like, all right, we're going to
• 16:57
  be high the whole time. It's going to be great, great
• 16:59
  for the show. But it actually was like a it
• 17:04
  was like the best building. It was like a hive of you could
• 17:07
  you walk in and you literally see what's happening with Axel's
• 17:10
  rig and with the Beetles and you see the cars being built and
• 17:14
  modded. And then you can kind of use
• 17:17
  that information to go upstairs into the costume department
• 17:20
  where, you know, we're all cooking our our brew.
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  And right across the way from that was that hanger space where
• 17:29
  all of the, you know, that entry scene.
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  So I think that feeling was especially triumphant.
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  You know, everybody's dressed, all the cars are done, they're
• 17:39
  all lined up together. And it just felt like a real
• 17:42
  moment. And it was great that it was so
• 17:44
  nearby because I think a lot of the costume department came in
• 17:46
  and a lot of the car team came in and yeah, it really felt
• 17:52
  great. And it felt great that there
• 17:54
  were no issues. You know right, There's a lot of
• 17:58
  room for error with this type of show ready.
• 18:01
  With that hammer and a drill like.
• 18:04
  You know. Get that harness back together.
• 18:07
  But no, everybody was good, yeah.
• 18:11
  It's such AI mean. I literally got like chills when
• 18:14
  I saw Mr. Grimm pull into this garage.
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  I was like suddenly I was like 5 years old again, you know?
• 18:19
  I was like, this is so cool. I love this.
• 18:23
  Well, let's talk about some of these new characters.
• 18:25
  We have quite a few of them. I I think though, the one that I
• 18:28
  didn't realize I was going to love as much as I did was doll
• 18:31
  face. Because like you said, I mean,
• 18:33
  this is a person who's sewing in camp and clearly has a great eye
• 18:37
  for costume. I mean, this if any, if you were
• 18:40
  a character in the show, you would be doll face is how I saw
• 18:43
  it. I'm like, this is such a fun
• 18:45
  character. So let's start with Doll face.
• 18:47
  Tell me a little bit about her costume.
• 18:49
  Doll face is so interesting because it was a real narrative
• 18:55
  leap from her origin story in the games, and there have been a
• 18:59
  few, but the most immediate, like immediately we knew that
• 19:07
  unlike in the games, her mask was not going to be welded to
• 19:10
  her face and the mask was going to come off.
• 19:12
  And the masks, they were just part of the armor and we were so
• 19:19
  busy with the with with the the textiles of the movie that are
• 19:24
  incredible. Prop designer Emily Hyde
• 19:28
  basically took on the doll face mask and the dolls masks.
• 19:33
  I was like, I'll do sweet tooth. You get do the dolls, you know,
• 19:36
  that's do the mask, you get the helmet on Grimm.
• 19:39
  I'll do you know, so so apart from the masks, I knew that, you
• 19:45
  know, starting fresh narratively from the games.
• 19:50
  We still needed kind of a through line of style.
• 19:53
  You know, I I needed kind of something that was motivating
• 19:56
  dollface and the dolls stylistically.
• 20:00
  So it didn't feel like, oh, I'm just making my own clothes and
• 20:03
  I'm all over the place. And, you know, this feels a
• 20:05
  little crafty and so. Obviously military style,
• 20:12
  militant gear, army style, let's say, was a huge motivator of
• 20:18
  this troop of women and one man who kind of like cuddled
• 20:23
  together in strength. And so I knew that, you know,
• 20:26
  doll faced to some extent needed to feel Generalesque.
• 20:29
  So and then beyond that, I came up with this kind of mantra for
• 20:38
  her that she was always repositioning and
• 20:42
  recontextualizing and construction, constructing
• 20:46
  menswear into shapes that fit her.
• 20:50
  So, you know, things that you probably don't even maybe are
• 20:53
  able to see, but we definitely did is all the pieces of her
• 20:57
  Cape, of her vest, her trousers are all made from men's costume
• 21:04
  pattern pieces that are re put together.
• 21:07
  And I think the one kind of moment where maybe it's more
• 21:11
  apparent is in her fight with Sweet Tooth and Diesel City,
• 21:15
  she's wearing this kind of Navy coat and you see the innards of
• 21:18
  a suit. You see like the shoulder pads
• 21:21
  and the front facings and the lapel, but it's kind of re put
• 21:26
  together in a way. So you see the process in the
• 21:29
  final product and, and I just, I loved that for her.
• 21:35
  And also meeting Tiana for the first time was very inspiring.
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  She's really charismatic, of course, and also just like
• 21:46
  really loves clothes and wears clothes really well.
• 21:49
  And then that kind of through line carried her through to the
• 21:53
  tournament look where we knew she would be on an ATV.
• 21:58
  And because of, you know, she's very exposed.
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  It's like Grim on the motorcycle.
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  There's, you know, 4 windows and a I kept.
• 22:06
  Thinking about that, I was like, Are you sure you want to leave
• 22:08
  the car? I know, but what, and then what
• 22:13
  happened is the stunt, you know, stunt team was like, she has to
• 22:16
  wear all these pads like she, you know, you're going to
• 22:18
  whatever you do for her, she needs to be padded up.
• 22:22
  And so I was like, well, why don't we make that the costume?
• 22:25
  You know, why wouldn't dollface have to wear pads too?
• 22:28
  You know, and so all the padding that, you know, was kind of, you
• 22:34
  know, what we needed to incorporate was then part of
• 22:37
  what she was wearing. And I had our incredible crafts
• 22:40
  team, you know, kind of like cover with a metal foil and give
• 22:44
  it a little bit more geometry and dimension.
• 22:48
  But it's real like ATV padding, Moto padding, basically that,
• 22:53
  you know, we stuck onto her moo glare like, you know, we went
• 23:00
  for it. Her knee pads.
• 23:03
  I mean, you know, we just kind of like as doll face does bring
• 23:06
  the process to the surface essentially.
• 23:09
  And you could that way you're always reminded of her kind of
• 23:12
  design mind. And and I was so glad they had a
• 23:19
  shot of a sewing machine. So I was like, nobody's got to
• 23:22
  wonder how it needed this happen.
• 23:24
  Right, thank. You.
• 23:27
  Yeah. So that was Dolphins.
• 23:30
  That's so funny. So that leads me to a question I
• 23:33
  actually want to ask you. I didn't get to ask you last
• 23:35
  time around. How did stunts play a role in
• 23:38
  your process on Twisted Metal? It must have been kind of a
• 23:42
  sticky situation, I imagine. Yeah, stunts are real.
• 23:45
  And also what I learned on this show, driving double S are real,
• 23:49
  you know, and they're different. It's a different group.
• 23:52
  I've never thought about that. Yeah, because and they I mean
• 23:57
  Anthony's driving double season 1 and season 2 is like NASCAR
• 24:01
  famous, you know, like they really flew in.
• 24:05
  We we had like the best female driver in the lower for eight
• 24:09
  states come up like flew people in to drive.
• 24:14
  And, and then on top of it, there was often, especially as
• 24:18
  we got to the tournament, a driving unit and then a main
• 24:21
  unit sometimes also, you know, stunt unit.
• 24:24
  And so the way that affects me is that the multiplicity of
• 24:30
  costumes that are needed are, you know, can can, you know, I
• 24:36
  hate to have that informed design decisions because then we
• 24:40
  don't have time to do what we really want to do because we
• 24:43
  have to make so many. But I, you know, I think
• 24:48
  honestly, it really it wasn't anything I wasn't used to from
• 24:52
  my previous work. But and I think I because of my
• 24:56
  previous work, I was able to approach it a little bit more
• 24:59
  prudently sometimes and really understand, you know, there were
• 25:02
  times where we'd have a stunt double for sweet tooth.
• 25:05
  But I know Joe is doing everything you.
• 25:07
  Know. Dunt double like I you know, and
• 25:12
  and so you know, you make decisions and choices to kind of
• 25:15
  just help, help what you see on screen, you know, and but it it
• 25:22
  was a challenge because every single thing was touched by more
• 25:28
  than one area of our department. You know, there wasn't a lot
• 25:31
  that fell out of the stores necessarily.
• 25:33
  We made a lot of stuff. We augmented a lot of stuff
• 25:36
  there. I think at one point we're
• 25:38
  employing every tailor in the Greater Toronto Area.
• 25:41
  Like. Literally like this person's
• 25:43
  stuff was here, this person's stuff, our own amazing Draper.
• 25:47
  Angela was up to her eyeball. So it was just a lot of
• 25:51
  coordination. And I credit my incredible
• 25:54
  assistant costume designers, Christine and Chelsea.
• 25:59
  And also I just want to say we had some incredible shoppers and
• 26:03
  buyers on the show. I'm sure who you've talked to,
• 26:06
  we had Chris Hargadin, Laura Montgomery of What We Do in the
• 26:10
  Shadow shopping for us. And Laura, that's crazy.
• 26:14
  And. She I can't even it was like
• 26:17
  they were donating their time. I I think it, but I don't know,
• 26:21
  I mean, she both of them are just so knowledgeable and this
• 26:25
  show is so fun and nuts that like, sure, I'll come in and you
• 26:30
  know. It's a Twisted Metal tournament,
• 26:32
  so yeah, literally like. Come on, you guys are in
• 26:35
  Toronto. Of course, like, come on down.
• 26:37
  And I'm just, I'm grateful for that, like generosity of spirit
• 26:42
  between costume designers and something that, you know, to pay
• 26:47
  forward. And and also, I mean, we were
• 26:49
  just so fortunate to have so many incredible eyes out in the
• 26:55
  world for us. So yeah, the team is what made
• 26:59
  the stunts happen, I guess is the conclusion.
• 27:02
  Yeah. Oh, that is.
• 27:03
  That's so cool. And I really love this idea of
• 27:05
  all these costume designers to come together to and help make
• 27:08
  this, you know, I have to come together.
• 27:11
  That's cool. Yeah, I have to say that I think
• 27:16
  that is something that Canadian designers have really taught me
• 27:20
  more than American designers. And there's something to be
• 27:24
  learned, I think. Not to say that there aren't
• 27:26
  incredibly generous, you know, like designers in the US that
• 27:30
  would help you in a heartbeat, but there's a community in
• 27:34
  Canada where it's it it's so UN, you know, and then Chris left us
• 27:41
  had to leave us texted me like, oh, I gotta go.
• 27:44
  I'm like, go, man. And Little the business working
• 27:46
  on The Last Airbender. You know.
• 27:49
  Do your thing, Laura, go get that, you know, CDG nom like I,
• 27:54
  you know, it taught it's it was a real take away from the my
• 27:58
  second season experience of like, yeah, hell yeah.
• 28:01
  You know, it was, yeah. That's beautiful.
• 28:06
  Well, we have a few more characters I want to ask you
• 28:08
  about because each of them had their own incredible design
• 28:12
  through line. So there's so much to talk to
• 28:14
  you about in this season. I I was putting all my notes
• 28:18
  together this morning. I'm like great so much.
• 28:21
  Let's start with Raven. I love Raven because I consider
• 28:26
  myself like gothy person myself. So this one, I really was
• 28:30
  getting like a little bit of the craft in there.
• 28:33
  I don't know, just so much fun stuff to play with with Raven.
• 28:36
  I imagine this must have been a fun character to kind of dive
• 28:39
  into the research on. It really was.
• 28:41
  And I think as soon as we knew that we weren't going to have
• 28:43
  Nevada and that the kind of narrative on her character had
• 28:49
  changed and that we were able to divert from the kind of, you
• 28:53
  know, more like Raven light version of Season 1 into
• 28:59
  something that was really more game focused and more, you know,
• 29:04
  just more layered and, you know, nuanced and idiosyncratic.
• 29:10
  We we just kind of went with it and we, I think ultimately we
• 29:17
  landed on a, a version like suited goth version.
• 29:22
  You know, she's like running the city.
• 29:25
  She's like, we were, you know, like, you know, Patty,
• 29:29
  incredible. Actress.
• 29:32
  She's great and everything and another incredible collaborator.
• 29:37
  You know, we just kind of, you know, she's like business goth
• 29:41
  sometimes and you know a little Victorian touches and John
• 29:48
  Fluevog shoes are all over the second season.
• 29:51
  You know, great Canadian shoe company also has like a bit of
• 29:54
  like a Cirque design to everything he does.
• 29:57
  So really lent itself to the kind of to the ethos of the
• 30:01
  show. But I loved moving Patty
• 30:05
  through, you know, the sort of like her business identity.
• 30:09
  And then when she gets to the tournament, it's more kind of
• 30:12
  suited. I mean, it's more jump suited
• 30:15
  and like ready to kind of go, but very accessorized and shows
• 30:19
  off her figure and her you know, she knows what she has and she
• 30:23
  knows how to use it kind of a thing.
• 30:26
  And and then, you know, in the prom episode, her kind of that's
• 30:31
  where we really get peak craft. I feel for for Raven and yeah,
• 30:36
  it was great to to play in that world because it's also so
• 30:39
  rooted in the 90s and in the early 2000s, you know, So plenty
• 30:44
  of references to draw from. Yeah, such a such a fun
• 30:47
  character. So a character that appears in
• 30:50
  Season 2 I was very excited for, but I had no idea of what this
• 30:53
  was going to look like. I'm of course talking about
• 30:55
  Axel. This is a character I remember,
• 30:59
  you know, seeing in a game and not even really understanding
• 31:01
  what I was looking at. So going into the season, I was
• 31:05
  a little like, all right, you know, give it your best shot, I
• 31:08
  guess. And it really comes through.
• 31:10
  I it's tell me about Axel's jeans.
• 31:13
  He has he has a little bit of a Jean story going on here.
• 31:16
  He really does. And you know, that character
• 31:20
  like the earliest conversations and zooms I was on, you know,
• 31:24
  well before we started Prep were about his rig.
• 31:27
  And it was really just for me to listen, obviously to listen and
• 31:31
  understand what needed to happen for hands and feet.
• 31:35
  And then also. You're like, I have questions.
• 31:37
  Yeah. Questions.
• 31:41
  And you know, that rig was real. It really did what it did.
• 31:44
  And watching it kind of get craned around was so funny.
• 31:48
  It was pretty slow in person move like 5 feet in real life
• 31:54
  if. Nothing you know, but.
• 31:58
  You saw the gears. I feel like I was on the set of
• 32:01
  Hook or something, you know, Willy Wonka or like some like
• 32:04
  real 90s where everything's working in front of you or like,
• 32:08
  you know, Tim Burton Batman or something.
• 32:12
  But the jeans, we tried a lot of jeans.
• 32:15
  And actually, you know, if you would have asked me prior to
• 32:20
  working in prep on the show, I've been like, oh, he's got to
• 32:24
  be wearing like leaves or Wrangler or Levi's, you know, or
• 32:27
  we're going to build them, you know, or maybe it's a Japanese
• 32:30
  denim. And, you know, like, it just
• 32:32
  felt very clear to me that the jeans had to be some kind of
• 32:35
  iconic brand or iconic, you know, lineage.
• 32:39
  And to be honest, we we bought a lot of jeans, a lot of different
• 32:44
  types. He tried, we had multiple
• 32:46
  fittings where he'd be like, OK, I'm I'm gonna, I'm done trying
• 32:49
  jeans today. Promise I'll come back.
• 32:52
  But I need didn't think about it for a minute.
• 32:54
  I'm like, cool. Yeah, come back.
• 32:57
  You know, and and we, it's not like we bought more.
• 33:00
  You know, it was just like, OK, that was 25 pairs of jeans.
• 33:04
  Let me just you. Know it's like you're done today
• 33:08
  he. Ended up in like an off Canadian
• 33:13
  brand of Jean and it was like a not, I mean, I, I hate to say
• 33:18
  this about any brand, but I mean it was like nothing anybody has
• 33:21
  ever heard of. It's nothing where I can be
• 33:23
  like, well, we put him in the most iconic American demo Levi's
• 33:27
  for hundreds of years. It's not what happened.
• 33:30
  And I think it's because it was all about fit and his body.
• 33:35
  And then I mean, we ended up over dyeing them, processing
• 33:39
  that, you know, making sure it was like the right blue and
• 33:43
  totally distressed and, you know, XY and Z.
• 33:46
  But it was so about the fit on his muscular body, you know, and
• 33:52
  the silhouette of him in the rig and something that you register
• 33:58
  and then kind of goes away. You know, it was really he is so
• 34:02
  that character is so about like waist up.
• 34:05
  And then when you see him in a wide, you know, it's very rarely
• 34:08
  like a three quarter of him. And so you just had to be like,
• 34:12
  those are the jeans from the video game.
• 34:14
  I'm good, keep it moving. And like, that's that's what we
• 34:18
  accomplished. And it was never something that
• 34:20
  I thought it was going to be. But it just goes to show you it
• 34:23
  was a lesson for me. Like, you know, and the project
• 34:27
  I had previously done was with a project for Amazon called the
• 34:31
  Bondsman with Kevin Bacon. And that was like a Gene Palooza
• 34:35
  too. And but that was only Levi's,
• 34:37
  only Wranglers. You know, we kept a very iconic
• 34:40
  Americana denim and so to move off of that into this like, you
• 34:44
  know, I you know, something you maybe is that Marshalls or
• 34:47
  something but like heresy, but it worked and you know, you just
• 34:52
  have to keep it open and fitting sometimes.
• 34:54
  Yeah, I mean, and you're serving the story at the end of the day.
• 34:58
  And it worked for the character and it, you know, no one thought
• 35:00
  I think about it. It just worked when you see him
• 35:03
  on screen for the first time. Yeah.
• 35:05
  So I was very excited to see Mr. Grimm because he is just such a
• 35:09
  cool, spooky character. Even aside from the helmet,
• 35:14
  which you talked about a little bit earlier.
• 35:15
  Just seeing like the detail on his back and whatnot.
• 35:18
  I mean, this is someone who spends a lot of time in
• 35:20
  graveyards. I don't know, a little spooky, a
• 35:23
  little bondagey. There's a lot going on there.
• 35:25
  And I love just every time I get to see him, I'm always like
• 35:28
  trying to peek around on his jacket when he's on the bike.
• 35:32
  Yeah, he looks so good. Yeah, You know, we made him from
• 35:37
  the ground up and Jitterbug did Jeff Churchill.
• 35:44
  Jitterbug did his boots, who also did Sweet Tooth Boots, you
• 35:48
  know, and he's an icon in the industry, also Canadian.
• 35:53
  And I mean, he did Jessica Jones boots.
• 35:55
  I've been working with Jeff for years.
• 35:57
  So he, yeah, I mean, you know, we looked at a lot of knowing
• 36:04
  that he came from a asylum and now he's a Moto guy and his
• 36:09
  father was like an evil Knievel type performance, you know,
• 36:13
  motorcyclist. There was like a theatricality
• 36:16
  there and a bondage, you know, sort of pseudosexual thing there
• 36:21
  and a very dark, you know, a graveyard robbing thing there
• 36:29
  and also his asylum suit. We looked at a lot of old
• 36:36
  vintage, like Houdini type bondage jumpsuits and vintage
• 36:44
  straight jackets and kind of melded the whole thing together.
• 36:50
  And you know, Richard was so, so great to work with.
• 36:55
  It's actually my second time working with him.
• 36:57
  He was so jazzed. He came in for a million
• 37:00
  fittings and try ONS and, and I, you know, we, we ended up making
• 37:05
  choices like cutting up the back of his jacket.
• 37:07
  So when he was on, you know, the bike, it kind of flared out.
• 37:11
  And I loved that character, the design, every part of it, every
• 37:17
  step of the way to me felt very kind of like in my pocket, in my
• 37:21
  wheelhouse. And and yeah, one of my
• 37:25
  favourites for sure. Yeah, and also, it's like such a
• 37:28
  staple, too, to that Twisted Metal universe that really just
• 37:31
  kind of brought the whole thing into focus to it.
• 37:33
  Like I said, it like kind of gave you chills when you saw
• 37:36
  him. And it just felt.
• 37:37
  So we saw the costume, like, yeah, that's him.
• 37:39
  That's how I would imagine he looked like.
• 37:41
  So it was a lot of fun. And the final character I want
• 37:44
  to ask you about is Calypso, who is really the brains behind this
• 37:49
  entire tournament. I really, while he's kind of a
• 37:53
  creepy evil guy, I do love that he loves his black suit with the
• 37:57
  red tie, though. It's just I love that he is
• 37:59
  committed to his bit. He's.
• 38:02
  Committed to his bit. I mean, you know, I like, and
• 38:06
  this is another challenge of the shows.
• 38:08
  There's a lot of black, like a lot of characters in black that
• 38:12
  were all I mean by nature of the game, slightly goth, leaning in
• 38:17
  different. Way.
• 38:19
  Dark, it's. Yeah.
• 38:21
  And then on top of them, they had to be dirty and worn in.
• 38:23
  So that darkens it sometimes. Sometimes that helps lighten it,
• 38:26
  you know? But so first of all, Anthony
• 38:34
  Kerrigan is like, he is so, so fun.
• 38:39
  And his performance, I mean, really, again, there's like a
• 38:44
  theatricality there that felt like, OK, this suit for I'm
• 38:49
  feeling like definitely the slim silhouette from the game.
• 38:53
  He you know, I think one of the things that we took lessons that
• 38:56
  we took from season 1 into season 2 via sweet tooth is that
• 39:02
  it's OK to lean all the way in and then keep it there and just
• 39:07
  let the, the lunacy Dr. Drive through, you know, not but not
• 39:13
  to you know, pardon the pun, but like I, you know, so so when you
• 39:19
  have a clown in polka dot red, like red polka dot pants and
• 39:24
  like it's don't you know, we can put Calypso in slim black suits
• 39:30
  with red ties and get the texture in there, get the Sheen,
• 39:34
  you know, get a nice silhouette for him in the performance in
• 39:38
  the, you know, final episodes, we change.
• 39:40
  I took a lot of notes from a more recent collection of Sarah
• 39:48
  Burton did with Alexander McQueen where she brought the
• 39:51
  collar up and frames his face a little bit.
• 39:53
  And our fabulous cutters, Drapers nailed it and brought a
• 39:59
  little silver in there and you know.
• 40:03
  And gave him just a real kind of nice presence without giving him
• 40:07
  a Cape or without giving me. And actually one of my favorite
• 40:12
  costumes for Calypso is at the tail end.
• 40:14
  I think it's in the finale. It's a it's a in the flashback
• 40:18
  scene, the flashback to the 90, like pre apocalypse.
• 40:26
  You see Calypso in like the working world.
• 40:32
  And I won't say anymore for people who haven't watched the
• 40:34
  finale yet, but his version of what he wore in real life,
• 40:40
  walking the streets of, you know, LA actually is was so
• 40:46
  pitch perfect out. And yeah.
• 40:48
  And he just wears clothes and loves clothes so much.
• 40:51
  So everybody was just, I think everybody came to the project,
• 40:56
  like flew in from LA to Toronto just excited to be in this crazy
• 41:01
  sandbox. Yeah, give it to me.
• 41:03
  Like, give me easy choices. Give me the the fun.
• 41:06
  And then like, let's dial it back here and blow it up here.
• 41:10
  And. And I'm game.
• 41:11
  And that that was really great. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's that's
• 41:14
  one of the reasons why I love just shows so much.
• 41:16
  It's so refreshing to just see like creative people come
• 41:18
  together and be like, let's just have fun with this.
• 41:20
  I'm like, people are going to like it or they won't, but most
• 41:23
  likely they will. Like it's.
• 41:25
  It's just good fun. Let's blow some shit up.
• 41:27
  Literally. Yeah.
• 41:30
  Which Speaking of, I wanted to ask you before I let you go.
• 41:34
  You know, we've kind of talked about this before, but I can't
• 41:36
  stand an apocalypse show where everyone feels like they're
• 41:39
  wearing brand new clothes. And with Twisted Metal, you
• 41:43
  could really tell that's just everything's very aged in.
• 41:46
  Everyone's wearing these pieces through the end of their life.
• 41:50
  There's also lots of blood and and all sorts of things going
• 41:53
  on, so tell me about the breakdown process on Twisted
• 41:56
  Metal and how crucial that was to you and your crew.
• 42:00
  It was like the most important step, you know, nothing left to
• 42:06
  the shop without going through the breakdown room.
• 42:08
  And our lead breakdown artist, Emma Doyle, and then we had him,
• 42:15
  you know, tons of folks in with her and we had incredible
• 42:19
  textile painters. And again, you know, should be
• 42:23
  moving things all over the Greater Toronto Area to get it
• 42:26
  done. And yeah, they worked so hard
• 42:34
  and I hope I, I just, I, I know, and I also simultaneously hope
• 42:40
  that they feel the fruits of their labor on screen, because
• 42:43
  it was, that is, I can't think about that part of the
• 42:47
  department without thinking about the tremendous amount of
• 42:49
  work of handwork of like real physical labor coupled with like
• 42:58
  artistry, you know, and it's I learned a lot from season 1
• 43:04
  about textile choices and, you know, all, you know, things I
• 43:09
  thought I knew, but then I really knew, you know, to move
• 43:13
  away as much as possible from synthetic and get more into
• 43:17
  natural things and, you know, color tones that would support
• 43:23
  being able to see dirt and grime and everything.
• 43:26
  And we also have incredible costume craft maker who helped
• 43:30
  us tremendously. Milena, she's an icon.
• 43:33
  I can't believe she agreed to do the show.
• 43:37
  And the, the sort of like, you know, it, the hive, the beehive
• 43:42
  of like the different rooms and everybody just, you know,
• 43:45
  believing in the work and working so hard.
• 43:47
  I mean, it was, yeah, it was a, it was stressful for sure, too.
• 43:52
  You know, just knowing that everything had to pass through
• 43:55
  that breakdown room. Not one thing didn't.
• 43:58
  And yeah, just a huge, huge amount of Labor.
• 44:03
  And I'm indebted to them, truly. Yeah, well, everyone on this
• 44:07
  show absolutely killed it. So, I mean, I wish I could
• 44:09
  interview every single person on this crew.
• 44:13
  That brings us to the end of talking about Season 2.
• 44:16
  So Liz, I mean, you've now brought two seasons of Twisted
• 44:19
  Metal to life, each packed with a ton of imaginative characters,
• 44:24
  all with their own personalities and costumes.
• 44:26
  So when you look back, what stands out to you about this
• 44:29
  experience and just how are you feeling looking back on these
• 44:31
  two seasons of this really incredible and successful show?
• 44:36
  I feel very proud of the work of really kind of everybody in my
• 44:43
  department going out on a creative limb and all trusting
• 44:46
  each other to make some kind of out-of-the-box choices and, and
• 44:51
  trusting the showrunners and the actors and the the whole group
• 44:54
  that we were going to that we were all on the same wavelength.
• 44:59
  And I feel very proud that the fan base that not only like the
• 45:06
  new fan base, but also the fan base that has been with the game
• 45:11
  for all these years and been with the series of games for all
• 45:14
  these years, feel like seen and heard.
• 45:18
  Because I, you know, I think you and I have talked about this
• 45:20
  before. Playing video games can be a
• 45:22
  very personal experience and very formative in people's
• 45:26
  childhoods, very, you know, personal in their adulthoods.
• 45:30
  Of course, you know, it's just kind of a it can be a social
• 45:34
  scene, but it can also be just like a de stress moment and you
• 45:39
  enter into those worlds. You're, you know, yourself by
• 45:42
  yourself. And so to have someone come
• 45:44
  along and be like these characters are new and loved.
• 45:47
  I'm not going to bring them to life.
• 45:48
  And I hope I hope you dig it. Really, you know, I dig it.
• 45:53
  I hope you dig it. And it's, you know, we can
• 45:57
  agree, disagree on certain choices, but I in, you know, one
• 46:01
  thing I can stand 10 toes on is that I like, I know we respected
• 46:06
  the material and took it seriously and paid attention to
• 46:12
  every choice and always hope to make sure that we were doing the
• 46:16
  material justice. So even with a clown, you know,
• 46:23
  with the fighting a guy with an umbilical cord, the side of the
• 46:27
  road, you know, took that. Seriously.
• 46:32
  You know, and that's just something I, I, I'm going to,
• 46:35
  you know, use and bring to my work going forward.
• 46:37
  And I, you know, I love, I love when I see that on screen, you
• 46:41
  know, from other designers as well.
• 46:42
  So, yeah, proud of it, hopeful for another season.
• 46:48
  And I'm, I'm glad, you know, people enjoy watching it.
• 46:52
  Yeah, well, as your friend, I feel just proud of you.
• 46:54
  Also in your entire career. It's it's it's really so good.
• 46:58
  I'm so glad I got to see you. Costume is anger.
• 47:01
  Elizabeth Festola, thank you so much for being here.
• 47:03
  Please don't let this be another two years before I get to talk
• 47:06
  to you about the Twisted Metal. Thank you so much for being
• 47:12
  here, Liz. Spencer.
• 47:15
  The Costume House with Spencer Williams is a production of The
• 47:18
  Art of Costume. This episode was hosted,
• 47:20
  produced and edited by Spencer Williams.
• 47:22
  To discover more conversations with the designer shaping film,
• 47:25
  television and theater, visit theartofcostume.com or follow us
• 47:30
  on social media at The Art of Costume.
• 47:32
  And don't forget to connect with me on Instagram at Host Spencer.
• 47:35
  If you enjoy this conversation, be sure to follow and subscribe
• 47:38
  wherever you listen to podcasts or watch on YouTube, and stay
• 47:42
  tuned for more episodes celebrating the designers
• 47:44
  shaping today's most captivating films, television series, and
• 47:47
  stage plays.