{"id":1177005,"date":"2024-11-19T05:52:26","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T13:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/?p=1177005"},"modified":"2024-11-19T05:52:29","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T13:52:29","slug":"gladiator-ii-jancy-yates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/gladiator-ii-jancy-yates\/","title":{"rendered":"Gladiator II Costume Designer Janty Yates on Dressing Denzel Washington \u2014 and Ping-Pong"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Janty Yates looked for inspiration for the costumes in 2000\u2019s Gladiator<\/em> and the upcoming Gladiator II<\/em>, she didn\u2019t need to pore through books or films to reconstruct the clothing of the Roman Empire: She could just visit modern-day Rome, where monuments and museums retain a close connection to the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou just walk down any street. Trajan\u2019s Column is just filled with legionaries, and generals, and peasants, and you can just get virtually everything off that,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The column, which commemorates Roman Emperor Trajan\u2019s victories, was completed in A.D. 113, fairly close to the time when Gladiator<\/em> and its sequel, set a generation later, take place. Nearly 100 feet high, it includes 2,662 figures in the dress of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yates\u2019 emphasis on going straight to the source is one of the qualities that has made her director Ridley Scott\u2019s go-to costume designer since Gladiator<\/em>. He hired her after she worked on one of his son Jake Scott\u2019s films, Plunkett & Macleane<\/em>, in 1999, and Gladiator<\/em> won her the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The British designer started out in fashion, and broke into film with 1981\u2019s Quest for Fire<\/em>, a prehistoric adventure that required her to cut pieces of fur for a cast playing some of the earliest humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has worked on 16 Ridley Scott films, including Hannibal<\/em>, The Martian, Prometheus, Alien: Covenant <\/em>and the recent House of Gucci<\/em> and Napoleon. <\/em>She was especially excited about Gladiator II<\/em> because it reunites her with Denzel Washington, with whom she worked on 2007\u2019s American Gangster<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says that one key to costume design is making sure that actors are very happy with their costumes: \u201cI always say, happy actors, happy performance, happiness all around,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019s also very accustomed to navigating disagreements between actors and directors about how a character should look, joking, \u201cI\u2019m the ping-pong ball.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gladiator

Janty Yates receives SCAD\u2019s Lifetime Achievement in Costume Design Award during the SCAD Lacoste Film Festival. Courtesy of SCAD.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She recalls that Washington was especially exacting about his look for Gladiator II<\/em>. The two-time Oscar winner plays Macrinus, a character Yates describes as \u201cvery ambitious, and very quite mean, actually.\u201d She detailed one particularly long fitting at Washington\u2019s home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe wanted this jewelry and that jewelry, and he didn\u2019t care how much it cost because he\u2019d pay for it. And so I was just throwing jewelry onto the outfits on the floor. It went on for five hours<\/em>. And then he said, \u2018Oh, forget what I said about jewelry. I like your jewelry, it\u2019s fine,\u2019\u201d says Yates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new film follows young gladiator Lucius (Paul Mescal) as he is forced to fight in the Colosseum \u2014 another monument that remains standing in modern-day Rome \u2014 and stand up to tyrants including Emperor Geta (Joseph Quinn). The cast also includes Pedro Pascal and Connie Nielsen, returning as Lucilla from the first Gladiator.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also Read:<\/strong> Who Is Denzel Washington’s Gladiator II Character, Macrinus?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yates calls Nielsen \u201ca joy \u2014 and for me, she\u2019s a clotheshorse.\u201d Yates aimed for a \u201cvery, very simple\u201d look at first, inspired by designers like Halston, who was known for minimalist, elegant designs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought it was genius\u2026 and it was a perfect look, but Ridley didn\u2019t like it. He wanted more and more detail. A lot more embroidery, a lot more of this, a lot more of that. So it\u2019s fine. We just went back. You can never guarantee that what you think is right is going to be what he likes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Challenges of Gladiator II<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Connie Nielsen plays Lucilla in <\/em>Gladiator II. Paramount Pictures.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gladiator II<\/em> was an especially hard film to finish because it was interrupted by the strikes last year. But some things were easier than on the first Gladiator<\/em>, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were up at two or three in the morning, every morning, fitting 3,000 extras on the first one. Now we only had, maximum, probably 500 or 600.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another advantage: Roman style didn\u2019t shift too dramatically from the time period of Gladiator <\/em>to the time of Gladiator II<\/em>: \u201cYou know, fashions didn\u2019t change that much over 20 years,\u201d she says. \u201cNot like now.\u201d That meant she could re-use much of the knowledge she accrued in her research for Gladiator<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, for the new film she worked with David Crossman, an expert on military costumes with whom she most recently worked on last year\u2019s Napoleon<\/em>: \u200b\u200b\u201dHe looked after all the gladiators and praetorians and all the Roman legionnaires,\u201d she says. He also worked on Mescal\u2019s costumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo that was a huge weight off my shoulders, really, because I\u2019d done them all in the first one. And so I was able to possibly spend a lot more time on Lucilla\u2019s clothing, on Denzel\u2019s clothing\u2026 We had lots of dancing girls and all sorts of characters that Ridley likes to put into his movies to work on. We were not short of work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janty Yates\u2019 Advice to Costume Designers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0MovieMaker<\/em> spoke with Yates at the SCAD Lacoste Film Festival, held by the Savannah College of Art and Design<\/a>, at the school\u2019s campus in the medieval French village of Lacoste. SCAD students focus on fields from fashion to film, and Yates imparted her experience with both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yates, who received SCAD\u2019s Lifetime Achievement in Costume Design Award during the festival, gave the students some frank advice that applies to all careers in the arts: \u201cDesigners sleep under their cutting tables when they don\u2019t have anywhere else to sleep,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She advised them \u201cto be very willing\u201d to do what they need to do to break into the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the first couple of years, do it. Say yes to everything. Run everywhere. Do as much drawing as you can. \u2026 Just always be there, willing to learn. And also be willing to not earn a lot of money. Give yourself periods of time trying to save up, give yourself a period of time to pay for the next job, et cetera. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s not very cheerful advice, but it does work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also suggested that even when money is tight, beginners should assemble collections of clothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would, in your own way, create your own collection,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you can, create one or two, if not three collections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gladiator II arrives in theaters Friday, from Paramount Pictures.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Main image: Denzel Washington as Macrinus in <\/em>Gladiator II. Paramount Pictures.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Janty Yates looked for inspiration for the costumes in 2000\u2019s Gladiator and the upcoming Gladiator II, she didn\u2019t need […]","protected":false},"author":1641,"featured_media":1177007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"disable_comments":false,"tpd_featured_posts_arr":"","hide_featured_img_single_post":false,"msn_featured_video":[],"_msn_custom_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41543],"tags":[],"feeds":[],"class_list":["post-1177005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview"],"primary_category":{"term_id":41543,"name":"Interview","slug":"interview","taxonomy":"category","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/category\/interview\/"},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=284,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GL2_29680RC2.jpg","fimg_url_thumb":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=284,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GL2_29680RC2.jpg","featured_img_medium":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=669,height=444,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GL2_29680RC2.jpg","author_name":"Tim Molloy","author_avatar":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=100,height=100,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/IMG_1078.jpg","author_link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/author\/tim-molloy\/","post_categories":["Interview"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Gladiator II Costume Designer Janty Yates on Dressing Denzel Washington \u2014 and Ping-Pong","url":"http:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/gladiator-ii-jancy-yates\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/gladiator-ii-jancy-yates\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=284,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GL2_29680RC2.jpg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=2560,height=1700,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GL2_29680RC2-scaled.jpg"},"articleSection":"Interview","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tim Molloy"}],"creator":["Tim Molloy"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"MovieMaker Magazine","logo":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mm_site_logo-2.svg"},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2024-11-19T13:52:26Z","datePublished":"2024-11-19T13:52:26Z","dateModified":"2024-11-19T13:52:29Z"},"rendered":"