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| Antony Ramos and Dominique Fishback in Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts. Ciara Whaley: 'I never wanted to take anyone out of the movie, because they're looking at the fashion so I think that's really why he stayed pretty muted' Photo: Jonathan Wenk © 2023 Paramount Pictures. Hasbro, Transformers and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro. ©2023 Hasbro |
The latest in the franchise, sees former soldier Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos) get more than he bargains for when he attempts to steal a car in order to get cash to help his sick younger brother Kris (Dean Scott Vasquez). The car, it turns out, is Transformer Mirage (voiced by Pete Davidson) and soon Noah finds himself joining him and the other Transformers, along with their Maximal counterparts, on a mission to Peru to save the world. Along the way, museum intern Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback) also becomes involved thanks to her knowledge of ancient culture.
All of this is a far cry from the world of fashion merchandising, which Whaley was on track for when she was in college. At the time, she was dating Rise Of The Beasts director Steven Caple Jr, who is now her husband.
Ciara recalls: “He was doing a filmmaking track and he needed someone to do costumes for his films, and I didn't know what that meant. I'm like, ‘Okay, I’ll do whatever you need me to do’.”
She adds: “He ended up coming out to LA to go to grad school for film. And I came after shortly after I graduated. I just started doing all of his short films, all of his friends' short films. I didn't know that was even a job yet, until I worked under this costume designer, Mimi Maxmen, who was looking for assistants.”
Maxmen is a renowned costume veteran whose work has appeared in more than 200 theatre, opera and dance productions as well as films including The Lightkeepers and Lucky Bastard.
Whaley says: “She's the one who showed me everything. I didn't know what a costume breakdown was. She had me and another girl just doing everything with her, all in pen, or a pencil and line paper. She took us to the costume houses for the first time. And when we were sitting there eating lunch one day, I just remember thinking, ‘Like, wow, this is a job’. And I started to think about all my favourite movies growing up, that made me think about fashion, like Clueless. I was like, ‘There was someone behind all these looks!’ I had never put two and two together.”
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| Ciara Whaley Photo: Courtesy of Ciara Whaley |
“I think that's how I was able to tackle bigger projects, especially something like Transformers. Coming from the indie film world, it is like, ‘Wait, how do you make that leap?’ But when you break everything down simply like you did from the beginning, it makes every project almost the same when you're starting out. And then you figure out the intricacies as you go.”
The intricacies in this case involved creating a wardrobe for Ramos and Fishback that reflected the period when the film is set.
Speaking about the looks she gave the character of Noah, Whaley says: “Steven wanted to create this hero with his character and to do that you kind of have to have someone that everyone can relate to. Noah’s of Puerto Rican descent, he's in Brooklyn, how do we make him universal, especially when everyone has their own idea of what 1994 is? So I stuck with a muted color palette just to make him relatable to a bigger audience. So we stuck with white washed jeans, and, white shirts. He's our action star too. He has a lot of action going on. And he's side by side with a lot of the Transformers. I never wanted to take anyone out of the movie, because they're looking at the fashion so I think that's really why he stayed pretty muted.”
Whaley admits she did take a few liberties with the “dusty suit” that we see Noah in near the start of the film as he tries to get a job.
“We went through some suits that were authentically from the 90s, that had the 90s lapels and the 90s fit. But it just looked so goofy on them. So I kind of had to take some liberties and have a more modern suit, but wanted to keep it in that sort of brown, dusty color that was around in the 90s. When you look around, and all the photos, everything looks so lived in. That's what I want to sort of capture even though it is a slightly more modern fit. You still get the idea that okay, he's not rich. He's not pulling in the dough.”
Noah’s look is in contrast to that of Elena’s, which features a lot more colour. Whaley says: “You start to think of who this girl is. She doesn't have her parents any longer. You don't really hear much of her story but you know, her dad passed away and she feels pretty independent.
“She's also not high up in her career, she doesn't have money to buy these things. But just because you don't have money to buy him doesn't mean you can't look a certain way. We got to have a little more fun with her character. I pulled a lot from The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, the Hilary Banks character (played by Karyn Parsons in the show). Yeah, that's where we came with the suspenders and the choker. I mean, props gave her a pager like we all were into how we can make her feel more Nineties.”
Although the fashions are period, it’s noticeable that the clothes are more appropriate - involving trousers and shirts - than they might have been in an adventure film made back in the Nineties.
Whaley laughs and says: “If that took place in 1994, she'd be in like a little bra top then like some Daisy Dukes, probably.”
And while the costumes might look simple, a lot of work goes into choosing fabrics that work on camera and can withstand the action that’s demanded of them.
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| Mirage and Noah. Ciara Whaley on Noah's jacket: 'It's a simple jacket - but we needed so many of those for the action... you start getting into all the multiples that you need. Is this one going to show water if there's any water scenes, or if he's going to be running on the floor, is it going to make noise? I love all those details' Photo: Cedric Dumler/Paramount Pictures |
Whaley explains: “The action is a huge thing. Like, for Anthony, he has a certain jacket that we created for him the first time that he tries to steal the Mirage character. It's a simple jacket - but we needed so many of those for the action. We needed to make a different one for the fire scenes that he's in because he and Dom were running through, doing their own simple stunts. We were like, ‘This fabric is flammable, we need to create something that's not flammable but also has the same effect’. So you start getting into all the multiples that you need. Is this one going to show water if there's any water scenes, or if he's going to be running on the floor, is it going to make noise? I love all those details and you really need a great team behind you to help make that possible.”
It’s not just individual character work that Whaley had to think about - there’s also a scene set against the backdrop of a traditional Peruvian street celebration.
“From day one, my question was, how many background characters are we going to have? At first, the numbers were 700 - it ended up being less than 700 but it was still just such a huge thing to tackle. We were in Montreal, and we started researching what these festivals mean, who takes part in them.We found out that there are two or three costume houses out there in Peru who supply costumes for people on a huge scale. They had so many costumes, they just keep the same ones every year.
“It was my job to research what each one meant, and how it looks alongside the others. The culture over there is just huge. I didn't ever want to disrespect anything. So it was just about combing through all the details and figuring out okay, why does this consume go here? I had to go beyond, ‘Oh, I love how this looks’.
“There's so many different tribes and Peru, Peru is so rich. I wanted to sort of go through all the different areas and sort of represent them in the festival. So some of the floats, it'll be you know, someone from the north or someone from the south. They might not necessarily be in a festival together but since it's our US audiences, I wanted to sort of give them just a little snippet. I've heard a lot of feedback from people in Peru, just messaging me on Instagram, and people we met while we work there, that are like, ‘Thank you for showing my country in this light and for making it look so beautiful’. And for me, that was like a huge weight off my shoulders.”
Given that they both started out together, this isn’t the first time that Whaley has worked alongside her husband Steven.
Considering his approach, Whaley says: “When it comes to what is put on screen, he is so particular, he has a vision, and he's also really collaborative. But me being his wife, he knows all of my weak spots, and I know all of his. So I feel like sometimes he's even harder on me, because he's like, ‘Okay, I know, I know how Ciara works, she thinks she has it in the bag on the first try, I want to see all 20 options’ - even though he usually picks the first one I showed him.
“It actually ended up being a strong suit that we had this working knowledge of each other, just because we were filming in Montreal, and they really had no idea why we were being so specific on, you know, the certain Jordans that Noah wears in the movie or why I needed things to be a little more authentic and why wasn't able to take as many creative liberties as we usually do on screen. Because they had no idea of the subtleties of New York in the 90s. That was our first time working with the crew who didn't have the same understanding that we did., so we were really able to have that shorthand with each other and that helped tremendously.”
Whaley also credits her line producer Duncan Henderson, who died last year, with giving her confidence in her own abilities.
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| Ciara Whaley on the character of Elena (Dominique Fishback): 'We got to have a little more fun with her character. I pulled a lot from The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, the Hilary Banks character' Photo: Jonathan Wenk - © 2023 Paramount Pictures. Hasbro, Transformers and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro. ©2023 Hasbro |
“He really gave me a shot,” she says. “I was just honest with Duncan, I'm like, ‘Is this something you think I can handle? Here's what I think I'll bring to the table.’ I never want Steven to be looked at in the light of, ‘Oh, I'm just bringing my wife along’. And Duncan and I had a lot of conversations. And he's like, ‘Ciara, you’ve got this. I've seen your work, you can do this’. Having him in my corner really gave me that extra boost that I think I needed to get over the edge.”
Whaley is also mindful of opening the door to others in the industry.
“Pulling in people that are new to the costume guild, it sort of feels like a win,” she says. “On the smaller films, I'm not able to hire as many people and I just know that there's so many people looking for a way in and big projects like this, not only look good on my CV, but on theirs too, especially when they're newer to the industry. And that feels good.”
When asked if there’s anything she’d particularly like to work on in the future, Whaley says: “There's this image I came across, on Tumblr a long time ago. It's sort of like this street worker who's wearing fish nets and like a leopard dress, just in 1970s, New York, smoking a cigarette at a bus stop. There’s something about that character that I'm drawn to - I saved it on my phone a while ago. I want something that just shows real people and maybe gritty circumstances, but to be able to show how beautiful it is. I just see the everyday person out there who is doing the work, whether it's glamorous or not, or legal or not, they're still out there.”
Whaley and Caple Jr recently had their first child, which has also changed the way that the costume designer views work.
“Whatever project is next, it definitely has to pique my interest in a very strong way, just to be able to leave her at home and go back out into the world,” she says. “So I'm definitely looking for something with some meat to it. It doesn't have to be a blockbuster, just something with a good team. I'm always looking for the next director with a vision that I can help bring alive.”
Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts is out in cinemas now
