INTERVIEW: PAUL TAZEWELL - OSCAR NOMINATED COSTUME DESIGNER FOR WICKED DISCUSSES CREATING THE WORLD OF OZ. - #SKETCHTOSCREEN SERIES PART ONE

Today's Sketch to screen Panel for 2024's movies (L to R) Oscar Nominated Costume designers Janty Yates and David Crossman for Gladiator II, Arianne Phillips for A Complete Unknown, Lisy Christl for Conclave, Linda Muir for Nosferatu and Paul Tazewell for Wicked.

Every year, the day before the Oscars, UCLA host a Sketch to Screen series moderated by Deborah Nadoolman Landis. It's a chance to hear the Oscar nominated costume designers speak to their experience of working on the movies nominated, a sneak into the world they created, the thought process behind it, and the time (or lack there of) that they had. 

When a movie is created, one of the first things that brings it to life is the wardrobe the characters wear. The clothes they inhabit speak so much to who they are and the world in which they inhabit. It can express their aspirations, where they've come from, where they're going and just how they identify, before even a first word of the script is uttered.

This couldn't be more true than with Jon Chu's screen adaptation of Wicked. With its huge fan base and spectacular set, the costumes were designed to match. 

Here Paul Tazewell talks about his experience working on Wicked. How he navigated bringing the world from stage to screen; what his worst moment on set was, as well as his biggest win. 

Photo credit: Wicked Instagram
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NAVIGATING WICKED FROM STAGE TO SCREEN.

​When I was asked to design the costumes for Wicked, first, I was delighted and then I went to Susan (Hilferty, costume designer for Wicked's stage production) out of respect, to get her blessing. I knew there was going to be some element that needed to honour what she had created. ​

 
We sat down for dinner and we went through that whole process. If you think about Hamilton, to have someone else design that for screen it would be hard. And what I realized, it’s a different experience. And that’s what you know as a theatre designer. 
 
When I was asked to design West Side Story for Steven Spielberg, it was similar. To have this beloved piece, from the 60s, that everyone loved. I loved it, it’s one of my favorite films. And one of my favorite designs, by Irene Sharrif and the way she uses color to underscore what is happening and I embraced that as I was designing my production of West Side Story but from a different brand.

​I’m going to see design differently. We all see design in different ways. And I wanted to inspire the same feelings that I got from seeing the original film and then thinking about Wicked that’s the exact same thing. I am hopefully tapping into this huge fan base of Wicked from the experience of the Broadway show and acknowledging that, but replacing that with a different visual and it can feel nostalgic, but not a copy of it, and that’s manipulated how I was going to connect the world. And because it’s Jon Chu (director), he has his own point of view on how he sees the world of Wicked, it became easier to imagine a different world. If it was the same director it would be more difficult. But with someone who was tasking us with creating a brand and vision of what Oz could possibly be, it was much easier. 
 

Photo credit: Wicked Instagram ​

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In terms of shifting from stage to Broadway, from broad brush strokes to minute details, on shifting from stage to screen, how did he accomplish that?

Tazewell says, "As theatre designers, you’re always trying to manage scale. You design for Broadway, you’re always thinking of detail at a certain scale, versus how you design for a big opera, versus how you design for a Broadway show, so I think you’re always managing that in a different way than you do for film.

But for film I knew that, and this was from multiple meetings with Jon and the production designer, we wanted it to be very immersive, we wanted it to draw the audience in, to believe that this place could possibly exist. In order to do that we had to create rules than governed this whole world. That the design, and each of those rules if you design into the corners and into the themes of all the clothes, really understand what is the potential about the way, about how they design their clothing, how they identify themselves, how they identify themselves in different ways. And we had to decide that so that we could then move forward and design the actual production. But we needed to have a consistent feel the whole way through. So that the audience could launch into it and for the ride. And have that be as consistent as possible. 
 

Asked what Tazewell's worst moment on set, then an "I did it!" moment?

The worst moment was being accused of holding up shooting because our leading lady, didn't...wasn’t feeling comfortable. ​

She didn’t show up on time?
 

Erm, she was on time..yea..

 "OK was that the pink lady?"

"Who do you have?" Tazewell says, not answering the question.. with a smile. 

"OK...and your 'I won!' moment?"

Oh gosh that was all the way through, but probably, it was the ‘pink lady’ coming out in the pink dress for the first time..