5 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of "The Beguiled"
This post contains spoilers for The Beguiled.
If you're a Sofia Coppola fan, then The Beguiled has pretty much everything you could ever require in a Sofia Coppola movie - Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, female leads, an enigmatic script, and, of course, sumptuous costumes. This latter element comes courtesy of Stacey Battat, who previously worked with Sofia on her features Somewhere and The Bling Ring. Because The Beguiled is set during the Civil War, Battat turned to the archives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for inspiration and research. Here, Battat discusses some of the movie's major looks and how she conveyed different characters' personalities through their wardrobes.
1. Miss Martha's looks are meant to convey that she's the only one in charge. "She wore less color than everyone else," says Battat of Nicole Kidman's character. "That was the first thing, and it was important to Sofia that she always had a high neck. There was also a silhouette of a vest in one of her tops, in a black and white striped material. I thought there was something buttoned-up and masculine about that. That [vest] is a silhouette that people did wear at that time - I didn’t make it up - but there’s something to our eye that makes it seem masculine, which I liked for her.
2. Edwina's black and white finale dress was partially designed to appeal to modern viewers. "Black and white, or black and ivory, was a color combination that they did wear," says Battat of one of Kirsten Dunst's ball gowns. "Edwina was from the city so we felt like she would be more sophisticated. It’s something that’s appealing to a modern eye too. There’s something chic about it, and I wanted her to feel chic to us but also within the confines of Civil War style. Though if it really was in the Civil War, it would probably be more embellished than it was."
3. Alicia's clothes have a backstory. "I like to think of her as someone whose mother shops for her but she’s still naughty," explains Battat of Elle Fanning's character. "She wants to wear sluttier clothes but she’s not allowed. Her mother still thinks of her as a little girl in pink and lavender. But she did definitely have some buttons unbuttoned, which she wouldn’t have had. It’s like you’re hanging out with your sisters, why do you need to have it buttoned up all the way? She did also wear her hair a little bit loose, which wouldn’t have been something that was common back then. Most women would wear their hair up. She was the wild, free-spirited one."
4. McBurney's pants were more complicated to put together than any of the women's dresses. "There were probably 10 pairs of Colin’s pants," says Battat. "There were three pairs of [the ones Miss Martha] cut off. Then there’s the pair that he shows up in that’s sewn together, because they mend his uniform when he comes to dinner. Then they get cut again. Then he is one-legged. So Colin had a lot of pants! When Colin came for a fitting, we talked about which leg he felt more comfortable with being the one that would eventually get cut off. [Ager and dyer Julia Gombert] put the holes in the pants, then put some paint on just as a preliminary distress. We wanted the blood to look wet, so we added additional blood and dirt on set right before he shot it. Colin also kept his leg folded up [during shooting]; we folded it up with a contraption that tied around his waist and hooked around his foot. It was my first time making something like that. You’re like, 'Oh, I never thought I’d be making a rig to hold up someone’s leg, but here I am.'"
5. Colin also had special green-screen leg warmers in case the leg had to be digitally removed. "I made him these socks out of CGI material," explains Battat. "There’s the CGI green and the CGI blue, and then there was a black one. The idea was that when we figured out what we were doing, we would switch out the sock in case we needed to have his leg down. There was a lot of 'We’re shooting outside, is the green too complicated to remove?' We had all three colors, but in the end, he just had his leg tied up."
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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