‘Eddington’ costume designer Anna Terrazas on working with Ari Aster

Ari Aster‘s “Eddington” takes the audience back to the early days of COVID for a story set in a small New Mexico town where two local leaders — conservative sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) and progressive mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) — clash over how to handle the pandemic in an escalating feud that turns horrifically violent. Like many characters in the movie, Joe and Ted are unbending in their philosophies; meanwhile, Joe’s wife Louise (Emma Stone) undergoes a metamorphosis as the pandemic leads her to confront her traumatic past and move forward with a new sense of purpose after falling under the sway of cult leader Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler).

Like all of Aster’s films, “Eddington” is meticulous in its craft, with a precise visual design that expresses the characters’ inner tensions before they even open their mouths. Key to the overall conception is the work by costume designer Anna Terrazas, who placed herself back in the mindset she lived in during the pandemic to find an approach to her characters’ clothes. “I did a huge amount of research on COVID and also tried to remember what happened to all of us during that time period,” Terrazas told IndieWire.

In terms of using clothes as a storytelling tool, Terrazas was particularly inspired by the character of Louise, who begins as someone who is hiding from the world but gradually becomes liberated by her encounter with the mysterious Vernon. “She starts as an introvert who never leaves the house, so I had this idea that she would always cover herself as protection from both the outside and from her mom and Joe, who are inside the house,” Terrazas said. “At the beginning, I wanted the only skin shown to be her neck and fingers — and sometimes she even covers her fingers.”

Because Louise is an artist, Terrazas worked closely with the production designer to make sure that her clothes were connected to her art — specifically, to the strange dolls she makes, which often wear pieces of her clothing. “We worked together to make sure Louise’s clothes and dolls had the same elements and textures,” Terrazas said. “If I found a nice sweater, I would share it with the art department and they could make a doll.”

Once Louise leaves the house and meets Vernon, her clothes start to become more revealing. “She wants to expose herself a little bit, to say, ‘This is who I am and this is where I feel confident,’” Terrazas said. “By the end, she’s in a pink dress, showing her skin, her arms, her tattoo.” Initially, Terrazas thought Vernon would, like Louise, dress like an introvert, but early attempts at costume design along these lines didn’t work for her or Aster.

“It just didn’t make sense,” Terrazas said, noting that when she went from thinking of Vernon as an introvert to thinking of him as an outsider, the character began to click. “He doesn’t belong to Eddington; he comes from the outside. And he brings the light to Louise, so he’s always dressed in white and his clothes are loose — he’s very comfortable with himself.” Terrazas tried to find textures that would subliminally convey the connection between Vernon and Louise, at one point giving him a crocheted shirt that matches clothes on Louise’s dolls. “I like to find relationships between the textures and colors.”

For the sheriff character, Terrazas worked closely with Joaquin Phoenix to create two looks: the professional image Joe presents when he’s out on the street working, and the private self he presents at home to Louise. “Joaquin had already gone to New Mexico to do his own research, meeting different sheriffs from different counties,” Terrazas said. Her own research revealed that each department had its own style of uniform, giving her and Phoenix a wide variety of concepts to choose from.

They landed on a white shirt and jeans with casual boots, which gave Phoenix what Terrazas called an “approachable” quality but also had a practical purpose: during the climactic action sequence, which takes place at night, Phoenix’s white shirt served as a spotlight that audiences could follow through the carnage, and the dirt and blood that marred it told its own story of destruction. “It was a really effective way of exposing the violence and really putting it in the audience’s face,” Terrazas said.

For the scenes in which Joe awkwardly tries to bond with Louise at home, Terrazas opted for a “Sunday best” look consisting of dress pants and patterned shirts. Initially, Aster feared that the ’80s-style vintage shirt Terrazas found for Phoenix was too outrageous, but eventually everyone fell in love with it and felt it showed a different side of Joe, who couldn’t really reveal himself in his sheriff’s uniform. “You never know how he feels in that,” Terrazas said. “It made sense for him to have a different sort of texture in his home environment.”

Out of respect for vegan Phoenix’s animal rights activism, Terrazas modified the costumes so that hats, which would typically contain leather inside, instead used cotton, and belts were made from vegan leather. In terms of boots, Phoenix was comfortable wearing leather provided it was vintage and not used specifically to make new clothes for him. “He said, ‘If you’re building something leather for me, no,” Terrazas said. “But if it had already been used and worn, fine.” Terrazas added that the proprietors of all the vintage shops in the area where they shot in New Mexico got to know her very well, as she constantly scoured their inventory for costumes.

Just as she researched sheriffs for Joaquin Phoenix’s character, Terrazas researched local mayors in New Mexico to find a look for Pedro Pascal’s Ted. “We ended up with a comfortable Western look because that’s how people dress there,” Terrazas said, adding that Ted had to be just a little more put together than the other characters. “He needs to be the face of Eddington whenever he goes out on the street.” Like Stone and Phoenix, Pascal was an active participant in the creation of his costumes, which is the way Terrazas prefers to work.

“We are giving the actors their second skin, so in every case I think it’s important to open a conversation with them,” Terrazas said. “I always make a presentation for them of my ideas and ask them to send me their ideas ahead of the fitting, so that we’re all on the right track. It’s really beautiful when you make a connection and you and the actors agree to the ideas, and you can see that they’re comfortable. The important thing is just to make them feel like they are the character they are playing, and that they’re part of the team.”

Terrazas noted that, while shooting, she wasn’t sure what the final product would look like, which made her all the more delighted when Aster showed her the final cut of the film. “I have to say, I loved it,” she said. “When you’re shooting, you don’t know how it’s going to be put together, but I’m very satisfied with this film. And very thankful.”