‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Costume Designer on Working With Martin Scorsese For the First Time
Costume designer Jacqueline West, a four-time Academy Award nominee, had several directors on her wish list. She had already worked alongside Denis Ville- neuve, Ben Affleck, Terrence Malick and Alejandro González Iñárritu. This year, she finally crossed Martin Scorsese’s name off the list.
West designed the costumes for Scorsese’s latest epic, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” creating the looks for stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro, plus a stellar supporting cast and extras. Set in early 20th-century Oklahoma, the drama centers on the Osage tribe and the fight for oil riches. West worked with local artisans, who “brought in pieces for us to copy or to use as prototypes.”
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West went from one mammoth task to another: After wrapping on the Scorsese film, it was back to “Dune: Part Two” and expanding the visual world of Villeneuve’s sequel.
This marks your first collaboration with Martin Scorsese. What was that experience like?
It was a high point in my career. He’s one of my favorite filmmakers. And the same for Bob. I’ve loved him since “The Godfather Part II.” My grandfather was Genovese and came to New York in that period and looked exactly like Robert De Niro did in that film. My second collaboration with Leo was on this. He really had something to do with Marty hiring me. Leo got the rights to this while we were working on “The Revenant,” and he loved how [production designer] Jack Fisk and I made that film look, and he was thinking of us. I told Leo, “Did you have something to do with me being on this movie?” and he said, “You came highly recommended.”
What was it like to work with Leo on this, and did he have input as far as costuming?
He didn’t. I’m a researcher and my background is art history. I love making things feel real, authenic and gritty. He knows that from “The Revenant.” I met with him before he came to Oklahoma for this, and there was one photo I had of a taxi driver sitting in a cab, waiting at a train station to pick up the wealthy Osage as they came back from their travels. He looked like Leo with this black cap, a broad tie and maybe a Sears suit, but Leo immediately responded to that. So until he marries Mollie, his look is lightly based on that cab driver. When he marries her, he can afford those bespoke suits. I had those made in Budapest and from United American Costume in Los Angeles.
How many suits did you have made for the film?
It was hundreds. I made all of Leo’s suits. We had to have at least three made of each for him and Robert. We had multiple of ties. But there is one jacket that has been used in a lot of the publicity stills, made from an Osage blanket. Marty loved the idea of that because it was this real blanket from the 1920s that we cut up and made into a jacket. But Leo’s a big guy, so we only managed to get one jacket from it.
We’re introduced to new characters in “Dune 2,” including Austin Butler, who plays Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen. What can you say about his look?
He’s a futuristic god. The Harkonnen world is a dark planet. I had to make him look like a gladiator and a prince in one. He had to be a fighter. So I was inspired by some H.R. Giger designs and my favorite Gothic medieval paintings.
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