Debra McGuire

Source: Tallinn Black Nights / Flickr

Debra McGuire

US costume designer Debra McGuire discussed her 35-year career during a talk at the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic event, which is part of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (POFF), where McGuire is also serving on the international competition jury. 

“We’ve been working together 31 years,” the Emmy-nominated costume designer said of Aniston, who she is presently dressing on the AppleTV series The Morning Show. “We have a language that doesn’t need to be spoken.”

The relationship began in 1994 on the TV series Friends, in which Aniston starred. Although now heralded for its fashion-forward aesthetics, McGuire said this was not the focus of her approach on the show. “I didn’t really care about the fashion for the first couple of years,” she revealed. “To me, it was really about just making beautiful pictures and that’s what I did.

“You have to remember these actors were so young and didn’t know much about fashion,” McGuire continued. “Jennifer was only 24, so they learned everything about fashion through those years of making Friends and making money so that they were able to buy expensive things.

“Eventually they became a little more sophisticated, but it was never a problem for them to say ‘Oh I don’t want to wear that, or I’d rather wear this. They did respect me.”

The costume designer said working on the sitcom pushed her limits “physically and artistically” due to the fast turnarounds. “There would be 75 wardrobe changes in a single 30-minute episode,” McGuire continued. “You can just imagine the intensity. I worked 24/7 on that job.”

Loving collaborations

On her frequent collaborations with Aniston and other actors, producers and directors, McGuire said she only works with people she loves.

“I worked for so many of the same people and have the same crews that I love to give the quality of life that I want,” she said. “I’ve turned down big projects, one very big project in particular, because it’s not a director I had any interest in working with… I heard he wasn’t a nice human being, and so I didn’t do that.”

Recalling her experiences on Superbad, McGuire said she had to fight with Judd Apatow, who produced the 2007 comedy, for Christopher Mintz-Plasse to wear the white vest, which has since become synonymous with the film.

“I wanted him in a vest, he didn’t want him in a vest, I was like, ‘he has to be in a vest’,” McGuire explained. “And of course, the vest is iconic now, because I had to push, sometimes you have to push, and I pushed.”

The costume designer’s work can next be seen in Apple’s upcoming action-comedy Mayday starring Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh. 

McGuire revealed it is one of the most expensive projects she has ever worked on, with a budget of $250m, according to the costume designer. “We had these space uniforms we had to create because the government wouldn’t give them to us,” she explained. “They cost $200,000 each, they were a fortune because it had to be so accurate.”

Instead, McGuire bought one of the suits and made other versions using metal 3D printing. “Sometimes, you just have to be super creative,” she stressed.

The Industry@Tallinn & Baltic event runs until November 21. 

Topics