In Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia, Teddy (Jesse Plemons) enlists his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) to help him kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), a CEO Teddy believes to be an alien. Ready for whatever trickery she has prepared, Teddy remains resolute opposite an opponent who is equally determined not to be broken.
Awards Buzz spoke with costume designer Jennifer Johnson and hair and make-up designer Torsten Witte about working with the actors to achieve a very specific and deliberate look, and how their existing relationship helped with that, particularly for Jesse as Teddy. Johnson shared:
“For Teddy’s hair, for my costume, it’s nothing without Teddy’s hair, what Torsten did. We had fittings in London and I had started my fittings in New York with Jesse, and it’s never complete until you go into hair and makeup. Having a shorthand with Torsten, I knew that we would cook up really great, and Torsten really brought home the costume.”
Witte explained how he had to go in a different direction than was originally presented to him for Plemons:
“I did know that Don has amazing, curly hair, I saw images of his hair – that’s Aidan. Then Yorgos told me that we should start letting his hair grow out to fit more of who they are. When I saw the images of Jesse from the fitting in New York before the film and Jesse came off a different project with a short crew cut, I just felt this was so not right. Yorgos, luckily, was very open for me to, at least in a camera test to show him, put some extensions in there so that we could have some change and some movement and he didn’t have that short hair. It escalated further and further, and there must have been over a thousand fine, fine glued-in extensions to become Teddy.”
Watch the video above to hear more about their impressive and very intentional collaboration.
Bugonia is currently available on VOD.
