As with her Oscar-nominated colleagues cinematographer Jarin Blaschke and production designer Craig Lathrop, costume designer Linda Muir knows what to expect when working with an auteur such as Robert Eggers. Especially after landing her first Academy Award nomination for their fourth collaboration, the critical and box office smash, “Nosferatu.” And despite every project being a period film with at least a hint of the fantastical, Muir says that the most stylized costume she ever designed for Eggers was the red cloak the Witch wears in “The Witch,” their first movie together.
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“Robert’s belief is that we as an audience are grounded in reality,” Muir says. “And that what we’re watching, if you don’t have to think about, ‘Oh, that looks familiar,’ or ‘That doesn’t look right,’ or ‘That looks the same shirt that I wear,’ You know what I mean? If there’s none of that happening, if you really are truly submersed in the atmosphere, when the sort of worm turns and crazy stuff starts to happen, you’re in there. As an audience member, you are with it and you’re reacting to it and it’s perhaps more terrifying. You’re in the psychology of the character, you’re in the head of the character characters.”
The Canadian-born designer says her process always begins with the script. She makes copious notes before conferring with Eggers. And once those basic questions are answered, there is even more to consider. “So I start to think, ‘Well, who actually would do that in this household? And what would that mean? And what class are they in?’ And obviously, The Hardings [Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin] have much more than the Hutters [Nicholas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp].”
Her starting point isn’t the vampire in question, Count Orlok portrayed by Bill Skarsgård. Instead, it’s the townspeople of the seaside German village he is about to terrorize. Moreover, for the depiction to not be stereotypical, hokey, or, heavens forbid, incorrect Muir reached out to historians for their opinions. That authenticity is something Muir says Eggers is absolutely “relentless” about.
“This is Germany, so I want references that are not specifically French or English,” Muir states. “It’s not that I discount those, it’s that I need also to find German references. So, I send those missives out into the world. Then I start looking at other areas as we get deeper into prep, what I know to be in the script, a village inn with a Romani camp outside of it. Where exactly is that? Because I’ve been reading about Romania and Transylvania, and there are so many different counties, I’ve started to research this county looks different than that county. The footwear is different in this county, blah, blah, blah, blah. So Robert and I sit down and we figure out, ‘O.K., so what are the advantages of it being here? What are the advantages of it being there? Would that be a logical path? Could he actually travel that way?'”
For the individual looks, Muir started with Orlok’s obsession, Ellen, portrayed by Depp. That led to Anna’s character, played by Corrin. Overall, there was a lot of research on women’s wear at the time, but, as always, the character’s narrative arc was essential to their appearance.
“Ellen’s designs reflected her state of mind and her backstory much more than Anna’s were much more a statement of the period of her position of her husband, of the fact, how it links to the story that he can be as rich as he wants,” Muir notes. “Anna’s clothing represents all that’s precious and expensive and in that class at that time.”
Muir adds, “The process of the design is these waves, and there were so many costumes. I think Anna had, I’m going to say off the top of my head, I think she had about 12 different dresses and Ellen fewer.”
“Nosferatu” actually had several false starts in terms of the production moving forward. Muir says that extended prep time eased some of the trepidation about designing clothing for a character such as Orlok, who is essentially, the centerpiece of the film.
“I’d had more conversations with Robert about how you want Orlok to be reflected. How that inspiration would become visible in the clothing,” Muir states. She sent sketches “with a few fabric choices because I always start reaching out and hunting for fabrics very early in the process because I connect with them and that really helps me in terms of really nailing down what I want to see.”
Landing on the final Orlock look was certainly a relief.
“When I had a good portion of their story and their moments, their beats, I kind of wanted a break,” Muir admits. “And I’d been reading also simultaneously about the Hungarian men, this royalty, these Counts, these Astro Hazy clan from various years along the way, 300 years roughly before the 1838 timeframe of our main story.”
When speaking to any of Eggers’ family of cinematic artists, it’s clear they will be working with the filmmaker for decades to come. Not only does he value their collaboration (he verbalizes it often), but they completely understand his creative mindset. That connection isn’t always easy to find.
“I have certainly done fantasy,” Muir says. “I’ve certainly done stylized, and it’s fun and it can be hugely appropriate, but it isn’t necessarily appropriate for Robert’s approach. And I support that because I think I’m more likely to believe that this vampire is out there in the world that we’ve created.”
“Nosferatu” is still in theaters and available on digital download services
