So we found several [coats] in this costume house, and I remember there was one that I was like, Oh, this is beautiful. It’s really a beautiful piece of design. We took that one and we fitted it, and Adrien loved it and we had this great moment for it.
And then we got closer to shooting that scene, and suddenly there was a stunt double [involved], because it was originally scripted that he was going to get pushed to the ground. I was like, Oh God, we’ve only got one [coat]. But I remembered that there were multiples of a slightly different design back in that costume house. So I called them up and they sent over a matching pair of a slightly different design, and we ended up using that.
I remember Adrien was a bit like, “This isn’t the same one.” I explained to him, “No, but we’ve got a stunt double, so I need to have the repeat, otherwise we’re going to shoot ourselves in the foot.” And he said, “Okay, I understand.” So he wore this slightly less-good one, and then we never used the stunt. But that happens. At least he does wear a rubber mac, and it’s still a great rubber mac, and it’s still from the right period.
I can only imagine what the other one looked like.
Exactly—it was even better. There was another mac that we used on Erzsébet towards the end. She wears it in the last scenes at the Van Buren mansion. It was a very late ’50s, with a really modern cut, and it was reversible— it’s got buttons both ways and there’s a lighter side and a darker side. And we always used the darker side, but I really loved that she wore it kind of open. We discussed it a lot with Felicity [Jones], that she’d wear it open at the collar, so you could see that there are these buttons inside that tell you it’s reversible, because it just felt modern and practical. It felt like everything I think a sort of modernist person—someone that had been trained at the Bauhaus—would be really akin to and would choose.
Yeah, you can imagine them sort of being like, “Huh! Look, that’s nifty!”
Yeah, exactly. “I like this! It makes so much sense. I’ve got two coats in one.” I suppose the thriftiness of it, as well, is something that really drew me to some pieces.
Courtesy of A24
Did you have a favorite look of László’s? One that you were just really glad made the final cut and you liked how it looked in the film?
I mean, to be honest, I think everything made the final cut. It’s a long movie.
That’s true. It is a long movie.
I don’t think we lost anything—nothing that I can really think of now. I mean, my favorite has to be between the gray sweater and that rubber mac. It really fills me up when I see that scene with all the bureaucrats and those brown gabardines all around and then just this black, very dramatic and modern mac.. It’s like this guy is in the future somehow. He’s not living in the past. There’s almost these two time periods colliding there—which I suppose [reflects the clash of] all of the architecture that everybody was used to and this great modernist vision. For me, the costumes in that moment really visually describe that.
You’re right, there’s something futuristic about him as sort of a visionary creative, which is maybe why watching him now I’m like, I would like to own that and wear it.
Well, maybe we can find a way.
I feel like I need to go to Berlin and visit that costume house now.
It’s extraordinary. Because of what’s been spoken about online, I’ve had them pull all the sweaters just to see what we can do, because I really would love to do something. I don’t know what it is yet, but these pieces—especially that gray sweater—deserve a new lease on life. Other people deserve to have one. So, yeah, watch this space.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
