Oscar-winning designer cut from Cruella after Disney row
RESPECTED British costume designer — and triple Academy Award winner — Jenny Beavan was lionised for the incredible clothes she created for the 2021 film Cruella.
Such was the buzz that people said the 101 Dalmatians origin story was worth seeing for her costumes alone; and few were surprised when she carried off the Oscar for best costume design last year.
However it can be revealed that she is not involved in plans for the sequel, Cruella 2. The film once again stars Emma Stone, but is set this time in the 1980s,
Disney have started asking other costume designers if they want to take on the job, with filming due to start next year.
The apparent snub comes a year after Beavan expressed her annoyance with Disney for releasing a range of Cruella clothes without consulting or compensating her.
It also follows her campaign for better pay for costume designers, which saw her wear a ‘protest’ outfit to the Oscars in March.
In an interview in June with industry bible Variety, Beavan said the first she knew about the ‘ Cruella collection’ was when a friend sent her an Instagram post from fashion brand Rag & Bone, promoting the Disney-licensed range.
Beavan said it came as a shock, even though her contract with the studio meant ‘you do basically sign your life away’.
Beavan was supported by the Costume Designers Guild, which criticised ‘unfair practices’ by studios: when they generate big bucks from the creative ideas of costume designers without compensating them financially.
CDG president Salvador Perez said: ‘Costume designers help create additional revenues and deserve to be compensated.’
The interview sparked discussions with executives at Disney. Beavan said earlier this year: ‘I had a bit of interplay with Disney . . . and I have kept it very, very polite. I have been really waiting to see how I can help in the most positive way.’
She was one of the most prominent supporters of the ‘Naked Without Us’ campaign, which noted that costume designers, overwhelmingly female, are paid 30 per cent less than production designers, who are mostly male.
The campaign, backed by actresses Helen Mirren and Sofia Coppola, inspired Beavan’s Oscars outfit. She had the words: ‘Naked without us’ and ‘I am woman hear me roar’ inscribed on the cuffs of her white shirt.
A spokesperson for Ms Beavan said: ‘It is too early to say at this stage if Jenny is on board for Cruella 2.’ Disney did not return requests for comment.
ADAM DRIVER (pictured right) suffered for his art on the set of his forthcoming film, White Noise. Driver, 38, plays middle-aged professor Jack Gladney in the picture, and had to wear a wig to make his hair look greyer and sparser than it is in real life. ‘We talked about the look, and
I don’t have receding hair, so we thought we would add that,’ he revealed.
‘We also had a back-up [prosthetic] stomach to create the look . . . but in the end we didn’t need the back-up stomach. It was just my weight. So that was uncomfortable,’ he said.