Costume Designer Atwood: “The Oscar is a blessing and a curse”

Ms. Atwood, this is your third time designing the costumes for the Fantastic Beasts series. The films are set in the Harry Potter universe, albeit well before the young wizard was born – did you know the books before working on the films?

Yes, of course. I read them to my daughter and we watched the Harry Potter movies at the cinema when she was growing up. That being said, I wasn’t much of a Harry Potter expert, I didn’t yet know the many small details of the universe when I was asked to do the costume design. But it was great fun to work with because JK Rowling created such great characters that children of all backgrounds can relate to.

Rowling also wrote the screenplays for the Fantastic Beasts film series. Did you consult with her for your costume and design ideas, or did you have a free hand?

I usually make the styling decisions in close consultation with actors and directors, so the writers never have much to do with that. Our inspiration for the designs comes from JK Rowling’s vision for the world she created. But she’s not personally present at the fitting because she has too many other things to do. If something bothered her about my design, she would definitely let me know.

Speaking of working with the actors, lead actor Eddie Redmayne praised the many details on his costume, like the many hidden pockets that you don’t see in the film at the end.

The idea was that Eddie’s character, Newt Scamander, travels with all these little critters that hide in his stuff. So I created pockets in the coat and vest for these little friends to live in. Of course, you can also just pretend to pull a little platypus-shaped niffler out of your coat for the appropriate scene in front of the camera, but it helps in gameplay if the bag is actually there.

At first glance, their clothing designs reveal a lot about a film character – when Jude Law as the magician Dumbledore and Mads Mikkelsen as his opponent Grindelwald sit opposite each other in a café, Law in warm light grey, Mikkelsen in dark anthracite tones. The colors connect the two, but also show that they now represent opposing positions. How do you develop such schemes?

The late Dumbledore was always very fond of dark purple tones, I wanted to avoid that. So I looked for an inviting color for the character and found it in this soft gray which I emphasized with luxurious fabrics like cashmere. Jude Law should feel comfortable in it and at the same time radiate the impression of simple elegance. And when I give him ties and those little accessories, I like to go into the teal to accentuate his eyes a little more. But that’s not a design trick to underline the movie character, I just want to emphasize the beauty of this man.

And for Mikkelsen?

I was interested in him as a reference to a picture by Gustave Moreau that I filed in one of my sketchbooks: a young man in an elegant coat who exudes something statesmanlike. I used this image to make him more approachable. You also have to work with him and focus on that succinct face. And Mads Mikkelsen is a very physical actor, he works a lot with precise, deliberate movements in his acting. Accordingly, the costume had to offer such freedom of movement without degenerating into flapping.