Johnny Depp “feels his costumes more than looks at them”–costume designer Colleen Atwood talks about DARK SHADOWS

In a recent interview with MTV News, Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood described what it’s like to create costumes for Johnny Depp; Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows marks the eighth time they have worked together. “There’s a lot of trust there for both of us, so it’s a nice process,” Atwood said. “Johnny’s very open about what things are in the process, but he really lets people present things to him. He never really pushes at all. Sometimes he doesn’t even look in the mirror in his fittings. It’s so funny. It’s pretty amazing. People would be surprised, because I think they have this image of Johnny, because he’s so stylish always, but he really feels his costumes more than looks at them, and the movement and the feeling in them is really important.”

Regarding the special problems involved in designing costumes for the vampire Barnabas Collins, who cannot be exposed to sunlight, Atwood said, “He plays a vampire who wouldn’t normally go out in the daytime, but we wanted him to be able to have outings, so I did two or three different hat shapes and we tried them once he got his hair and makeup on. I also found these amazing hundred-year-old sunglasses, but they were too small … so I took them and had them copied. And the color of the sunglasses and the color of the hat and his costume coat, which was a really dark green, is one of our favorite combos we’ve come up with in our work together.”

The Zone thanks Theresa for sharing the Atwood interview; you can read more about Dark Shadows on the Zone’s News & Views forum.

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