“Poker Face” Season 2 kicks off with “The Sport Is a Foot” (a double-entendre, after all), visitor starring Cynthia Erivo because the Kazinsky quintuplets. This tour de pressure not solely demanded a wardrobe merry-go-round from costume designer Leah Katznelson (“Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”), but additionally pushed detective Charlie Cale’s (Nathasha Lyonne) dependable BS detector into overdrive when fixing two murders.
Erivo, who shot the episode (written and directed by creator Rian Johnson) in 10 hectic days throughout her “Depraved” New York press tour, performs 4 sisters who starred as youngsters within the hit motion TV collection, “Child Cop Nights,” however have became wildly completely different folks. Amber, who sculpts portraitures and takes care of their sick mother; Delia, who manages an apple farm the place Charlie hides out; Bebe, who’s a free spirited DJ; and Cece, who’s a comparative lit professor. Erivo moreover portrays secret fifth sister, Felicity, a revered mixed-media artist, who now quietly lives off the grid in inventive solitude.
For Katznelson, the method started with placing collectively idea boards with Johnson based mostly on notes that he embedded in his script. “[The boards] delineated the variations of how we needed to articulate these characters based mostly on his blueprint,” she informed IndieWire. “ It was actually necessary that we differentiated every of the ladies of their silhouettes. After which I used to be in a position to share these with Cynthia as a means of short-cutting our very truncated becoming time. We solely had three hours collectively to craft all 5 characters, which isn’t quite a lot of time.” That crafting was largely dictated by everybody’s employment, a bit like a sociology experiment the place the designer and the actor picked aside the characters for signature cues (or maybe clues) from their backgrounds that will create an outlined look.
“I spoke to Cynthia earlier than she arrived, and I shared my boards along with her so she knew conceptually what the blueprint was for every of the characters,” Katznelson continued. “And we have been in settlement in regards to the route. She’s actually good at digesting inventive data in a short time, and he or she definitely helped me to provide a basis. However, by way of churning out 5 very completely different, advanced characters in actually three hours, I couldn’t ask for a greater accomplice. She’s inventive, open-minded, accessible, organized, every thing you need from an artist.”
Whereas the principle vibe of the present is ’70s-inspired Western noir, solely Amber absolutely embodies the interval by her curiosity in arts and crafts. Her garments mix earth tones with numerous purple, accentuated by a bead necklace.
Felicity, although, has two personas. After we first meet her, she’s dressed as a welder with an overdyed denim jumpsuit altered to look classic, with a yellow shirt beneath. Felicity’s extra flamboyant persona, in the meantime, could be very glam black leather-based with silver trim. “We needed her to have a downtown, punk toughness,” Katznelson added.
Cece wears a brown tweed go well with with a high-collared Victorian shirt, cameo, jewellery, and pearls. The toughest to outfit was the rebellious Bebe, as a result of Katznelson needed a recent search for the DJ. “She has a vaguely leopard animal print overlay that she wears like a mesh piece,” she mentioned. “And denims with chains. They have been cotton, like parachute type of cargo pants that had pocket particulars. Her character was all silver jewellery and silver {hardware}, leaning right into a toughness. However she additionally had worldly jewellery type of layered into it as nicely.”
Delia has the best, most sensible wardrobe, provided that she works at an apple farm. “Issues must be layered,” mentioned Katznelson. “There’s consolation. A classic brown workwear jacket. Her footwear is Blundstone, one thing she may scale a ladder in and have tread. And her beanie is a narrative level. So we needed to be sure that we picked a colour [green] that was particular sufficient for Charlie to notice.”
Nevertheless, the costume division wanted to make an identical units of each outfit for the photograph or stunt doubles to put on as the opposite sisters when taking pictures with Erivo, so she had somebody to play with. “We didn’t shoot this in continuity, so Cynthia was consistently having to commute,” added Katznelson. “Her means to try this seamlessly was admirable.”
However then the self-esteem of casting Enrivo in a number of roles makes this probably the most Johnson-esque episode of the complete season.
“I assume Rian has a really particular standpoint and his visible storytelling could be very detailed and stylized,” Katznelson mentioned. “And he has an actual imaginative and prescient when he’s placing these tableaus collectively. And I do assume that every of those [sisters] embodies a particular persona. He actually does take into consideration the finer factors. Like what’s the story behind the story, at the same time as you’re making clothes selections, too?”
“Poker Face” is streaming on Peacock.