#Dune Costume Designer Jacqueline West On How To Make A Stillsuit [Interview]

Very Marlon Brando, right?

It’s very Marlon Brando. We based it on Kurtz and “Apocalypse Now.” It’s funny, I knew Francis then and I knew that when Marlon Brando showed up on “Apocalypse” a hundred pounds heavier than he last saw him, that was about all he could wear. It was perfect for a 400 pound Baron who is bald.

I knew he showed up differently than Francis expected, but I didn’t know that’s why he wore what he wore.

Yes. In fact, I knew Francis had a bit of a nervous breakdown when he saw Brando [Laughs]. I mean, he came in bald and weighed about 300 pounds. I realized that with a 400 pound man, and I talked to Denis about it, I said, “How will you suspend? How will he move around? How?” I needed to know how roomy I had to make that costume. Denis said, “He’s going to be hanging from suspenders, like in the book. I said, “Okay, I’m going to make it super long, so it cools on the floor when he sits down and there’s still fabric dangling many, many feet from beyond his feet when he’s lifted up.” I thought, how ominous that will be.

It’s funny, even though Coppola had a nervous breakdown about Brando, that whole look and costume is now iconic.

[Laugh] Yes. It is. It worked out, right? They stayed friends after. The only friend he didn’t have in that movie, I guess, was Dennis Hopper. It was a big war. He wouldn’t be in any scenes with Dennis. I never got to work with Marlon Brando and I was obsessed with him. My husband, when I met him he was just like him. In fact, he used to get stopped in San Francisco by people thinking it was Brando because he had a house there. I was always very obsessed with Marlon Brando, but I did this work with Dennis Hopper and I loved him.

How was he?

He was kind of a hippie. He was also an avid art collector of modern art and he had an incredible eye and aesthetic. He was kind of a renaissance man. He wanted to direct, act, paint, and be an art collector. But I think he was very… It was a time in Hollywood history when there were a lot of drugs, cocaine, weed, uppers, and downers all taken at once. And so, I think his personality back then was probably quite erratic. But when I worked with him, he was older and I found him so brilliant and captivating. One of the really smart actors I ever worked with. You know, like Picasso, they’re difficult.

Thank you for sharing that. How about the battle armor for “Dune”? That was new for you, right?

Well, that’s when I brought Bob Morgan on with me. As I told Denis in the beginning, this is a new genre for me. I really wanted somebody who made specialty costumes. And Bob had always worked with me as a supervisor. I thought it’s time to give him a bit of a jump in the industry. He knew how to get those made and who the best fabricators of those were.

Again, I relied on [concept artist] Keith Christensen and my medieval knowledge, like to come up with the Atreides armor. I based Atreides armor on the Templars because they were monks, warrior monks. They had very stripped down armor that was very unique. It was more highly articulated than a lot of medieval armor, but it had this real power about it. 

It’s very, quite unique. It’s simplified, but yet really powerful in the chest. We got Simon Brindle, who was another real sculptor artist, to come up with a prototype in Budapest of the armor. We looked at a lot of different medieval armor, but the Templar armor stood out. And so, he started with a torso, very simple torso, but with some real power in the chest. We used less pieces on the body, but that’s how that came about. Simon stood over that torso for months. I thought I’d never see a finished, complete set of armor, but it all came together the last week before we needed to send it off to get it duplicated, to the tune of about 300. He really came through for me, and I just love him to pieces.

“Dune” is now in theaters and on HBO Max.