Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is up for an Oscar in Costume Design. Long-time designer Colleen Atwood is responsible for dressing our favorite characters in 1920s magical charm.
Costume design is one of those parts of movie-making that doesn’t always get its due diligence. One out of place button or incorrect t-shirt can throw off the balance of any well put-together scene. Thankfully, the crew of Fantastic Beasts were in great hands with veteran designer Colleen Atwood. She’s in the running to collect her fourth Oscar, thanks to the recent Academy Award nomination.
Atwood has a long variety of films on her resume, including Gattaca, Silence of the Lambs, The Mexican, and Big Fish. She’s been nominated for an Oscar 11 times, and won three for Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Alice in Wonderland. Deadline sat down to speak with Atwood about making costumes for Fantastic Beasts.
How ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Costume Designer Colleen Atwood Clothed A World, From Initial Sketch To Full Dress https://t.co/gbkLjH8WEk pic.twitter.com/jFaKtWmDzJ
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) February 14, 2017
Costume Magic
Atwood is very specific when it comes to the color of her costumes. Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) basically wears a long-ish blue coat throughout the whole movie, but Atwood explains why. “A lot of his creatures had sort of luminescent color, and I wanted him to have a sense of being one with them, but not standing out, like he’s in some neon outfit in the middle of the street.”
She and the crew decided on the bluish hue with some green and brown undertones. It also apparently photographs differently under certain lights.
Costume designers have to be acutely aware of how mobile the actors are, and making their costumes as comfortable and accommodating as possible. “We played with the shape of it a lot, that coat, because Eddie squats down on his case a lot,” Atwood says, “And he has a sideways gait to him that he evolved for Newt. It’s almost like an animal walk, in a way.”
Atwood also got to work with Johnny Depp once again, who had a bit part as Gellert Grindelwald. They’ve worked on several of Tim Burton’s movies together, like Edward Scissorhands and Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. She says Depp is the kind of actor who appreciates the minutiae she puts into her designs.
"It’s a really special thing to me as a costume designer, when an actor actually says, “Oh, wow. That pocket’s great. I can do this with it,” and they kind of discover their character as you’re discovering your costume. Johnny’s always been one of those people—it’s a comfort for both of us."
Next: Emma Watson Talks About What She Loves About Beauty and the Beast
To see more of Atwood’s designs, and even an original costume sketch, check out the full interview over at Deadline.