What a Costume Tells an Actor

A costume tells the audience who a character is before the character speaks: their class, their period, their taste, how much they care what others think. That is the part of costume design audiences notice.

These nine commentaries describe the other part. A costume changes how an actor stands and walks, how long they can work, and what the camera and effects departments can do. The accounts show costume decisions affecting performance, the look of a film’s world, and the production schedule.

§1 The fitting is a rehearsal

James Mangold explains why fittings matter on 3.10 to Yuma. They happen weeks before filming, and they are often the first time an actor wears what the character wears.

Shoes change a walk, a heavy coat changes posture, a gun belt changes how the hands rest. An actor discovers some of the physical character in the fitting room, not in the script. Mangold treats the fitting as part of the actor’s preparation, not only as a wardrobe task.

Actors can also use the fitting to make character decisions. Mangold describes one by Russell Crowe.

Dressing the outlaw in black told the audience to expect a conventional villain. Crowe’s performance then worked against that expectation. The costume set up a contrast the actor could exploit.

The L.A. Confidential commentary describes the same effect from the actor’s side.

The speaker goes on to describe how one character’s clothes communicated his elitism and sense of command. The costume supported the performance by showing qualities the actor could then play against or confirm.

§2 A costume can limit movement

Some costumes restrict the actor, and the restriction becomes part of the character. E. Elias Merhige describes Willem Dafoe’s costume in Shadow of the Vampire.

Merhige adds that the costume both limited Dafoe and gave him a frame in which to define the character through small gestures. A tight corset and heavy makeup removed many natural movements, so the ones that remained became distinctive.

Restriction can also become a physical burden. David Kalat describes the suit performer inside the original Godzilla costume.

A full creature suit limits how long a performer can work, how much they can see, and how quickly they can move. A schedule that ignores those limits puts the performer at risk. The Godzilla account shows that a costume can be a safety issue as well as a design one.

§3 Clothes that look lived-in

A costume can convince the audience that a film’s world is real. The Pelham One Two Three commentary praises the film’s ordinary clothes.

Clothes that look new from a costume department make a film look staged. Clothes that look worn, mismatched, and suited to the weather make the characters look like people with lives outside the scene. The commentary connects that detail to the film’s authenticity.

§4 Costumes as commentary

Costumes can also comment on characters. Peter Greenaway explains his approach to period dress in The Draughtsman’s Contract.

Greenaway’s costumes exaggerate the period rather than reproduce it. The layers of clothing and, as he notes elsewhere, the oversized wigs present the characters as vain and theatrical. The costume carries a judgment the dialogue does not have to state.

§5 Costumes and the rest of the production

Costume decisions also affect continuity. The Forrest Gump commentary describes the cross-country running sequence.

The running shots were filmed out of order, whenever the opportunity arose. The commentary describes a booklet that recorded what Forrest looked like, and who was with him, at each point in the run. A character whose appearance changes over the story needs that kind of record, or shots filmed months apart will not cut together.

Costumes that are damaged on camera create a different continuity problem. The Underworld Evolution filmmakers avoided it with visual effects.

A practical bullet hit destroys the costume it is filmed on, so the production needs several identical copies for every take and every later scene. Adding the blood digitally kept a single costume intact. The reason given is the wardrobe, not the look of the blood.

Costumes can also be designed for a technical process. The Tron commentary describes costumes built for the effects that would be added later.

The actors were filmed in black-and-white costumes on black sets. The lines on the costumes then became glowing circuitry in post-production. The costume design was part of the visual effects plan from the start.

§6 Questions for costume design

These accounts suggest five questions:

1. What will the actor learn in the fitting? The 3.10 to Yuma and L.A. Confidential accounts describe actors finding parts of their characters in costume.
2. How does the costume change movement? Shadow of the Vampire used restriction, and Godzilla shows its physical cost.
3. Does the clothing look owned? Pelham One Two Three made its characters believable with clothes that look like their own.
4. Should the costume comment on the character? The Draughtsman’s Contract exaggerated period dress to show vanity.
5. What do other departments need from it? Forrest Gump tracked wardrobe across an out-of-order shoot, Underworld Evolution protected its costumes with digital blood, and Tron designed its costumes for the effects process.

A costume is designed for the audience, but it is worn by the actor and used by the whole production. The best costume decisions account for all three.