Nutcracker special we talk to the film’s costume designer
Costume designer Jenny Beavan shares what it was like working on this year’s hottest festive film…
She’s the BAFTA-winning costume designer who was once jokingly called a “bag lady” by Stephen Fry – which resulted in him deleting his Twitter account – but it’s all water under the bridge for the two friends.
The 68-year-old has designed costumes for hit films including The King’s Speech and Mad Max: Fury Road, but for Jenny Beaven, turning her hand to fantasy in Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms opened up a new world of creativity. She tells us more...
When I got the job on The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, I was very excited because it was so different to what I’d worked on before – and I love a challenge. The story is set in these wonderful realms – the Land of Flowers, the Land of Snowflakes and the Land of Sweets – and that meant I could really get creative. But of course there was pressure too
– I had fond memories of seeing it on stage when I was a child, and I wanted to do it justice. With every film you’re a storyteller, so I studied the magical universe created by the lead character Clara’s [mackenzie Foy] mother and thought, “Where would all this have come from?” It must have come from her imagination. If you think about dreams, they’re often linked to things you’ve seen that day, so I based the costumes on little figures Clara’s mum might have had in her display cabinet.
I’m not very good at drawing, so I had a great artist called Darrell Warner to sketch out all the designs. I do like to dress up a mannequin though and play around with fabrics. That’s when I get my best ideas.
I had a team of 80 people and we had 10 weeks to make 150 costumes. We always make more costumes than are needed because they are often worn by stunt doubles. Thankfully, there were no complete disasters on set, but mackenzie Foy ended up being pulled on a sledge across an ice lake and her dress suffered.
helen mirren, who plays mother Ginger, was especially fond of the
“Helen Mirren wanted to come and help us sew!”
costumes – she even wanted to come and help sew! She knew exactly what she wanted and told us she was keen on wearing trousers, so I took that on board. It’s important to listen to the actors because often they have ideas that I’d never have thought of.
I’m incredibly proud of this film and, I have to admit, I think these costumes look pretty special.
✢ The nutcracker and the Four realms is in cinemas from 2 November w&h