{"id":551189,"date":"2026-07-20T21:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T21:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/551189\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T21:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T21:27:11","slug":"ellen-mirojnick-talks-the-odyssey-costume-design-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/551189\/","title":{"rendered":"Ellen Mirojnick Talks ‘The Odyssey’ Costume Design Approach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d<\/a> it takes Odysseus 10 years to make it home after the Trojan War. For costume designer<\/a> Ellen Mirojnick, her journey with Christopher Nolan\u2019s film<\/a> adaptation was much shorter, but no less epic.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was less than two years ago \u2014 September 2024 \u2014 when Nolan and his producer-wife Emma Thomas called Mirojnick about the film, which follows their collaboration on \u201cOppenheimer.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u201cI hadn\u2019t seen them in a bit,\u201d says Mirojnick. \u201cHe put down the script, and it was \u2018The Odyssey.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA few hours later, Mirojnick had an understanding of Nolan\u2019s vision for the film<\/a>, which was just about to be greenlit for production.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cKnowing what Chris has done over the course of his filmmaking career, it was clear that he was very intent on the idea of realism, and not fantasy,\u201d Mirojnick says. \u201cOnce that word \u2018realism\u2019 comes down, it changes the game entirely,\u201d she adds. \u201cIt sets the tone of the film in a way that is quite challenging, and quite exhilarating at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUnlike \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d wasn\u2019t meant to be a period piece; although there is an awareness of when the story is taking place, it doesn\u2019t live within a specific historical period. \u201cThe process was from the inside out,\u201d says Mirojnick. \u201cI began with the text, then I moved through history, and wound up in myth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCommitting to the idea of myth, she instead focused on conveying the \u201ctimeless\u201d feeling and emotion of the characters, imbued with the \u201cessence\u201d of the ancient time period. \u201cYou\u2019re not doing a museum-worthy representation, but an interpretation of the text,\u201d she adds. \u201c\u200aYou create a new mythology that\u2019s based in reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Matt<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMatt Damon (center) is Odysseus in \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMelinda Sue Gordon<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd at the root of that myth: Odysseus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u200aWhat makes him compelling from a costume perspective is that he\u2019s never static,\u201d she says of the story\u2019s hero, portrayed onscreen by Matt Damon. \u201cMost epic heroes arrive and they\u2019re done. They\u2019re visually complete. But Odysseus deteriorates, he reconstructs, he disguises, he adapts, he transforms, and he survives. \u200aSo his costume language therefore had to become evolutionary, without you actually noticing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe design challenge for Mirojnick was to allow audiences to feel Odysseus\u2019 erosion over the course of his journey, without losing the core of what defined him.\u00a0She sums up her overall approach with a surprising word given the complexity of his voyage: simplicity. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u200aWhat that simplicity enabled me to do was actually create a silhouette that could become anything,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201c\u200aThe combination of leather and bronze and linen enabled us to create many different silhouettes and shapes with those fabrics. We see the strength and his vulnerability, his weaknesses and his deterioration \u2014 particularly when the armor comes off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d Mirojnick had to dress armies of men \u2014 both for active battle and for the suitors waiting to wed Penelope in Odysseus\u2019 absence back in Ithaca \u2014 along with a lineup of goddesses including Athena, Calypso and Circe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"L<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMatt Damon is Odysseus and Zendaya is Athena in \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMelinda Sue Gordon<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u200aThe one thing that [Nolan] was very clear about in these \u2018goddesses,\u2019 is that they are independent,\u201d says Mirojnick. \u201cThey live in a human world taking care of themselves, and they must be self-sufficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Athena, portrayed by Zendaya with little dialogue throughout the film, she wanted to convey a sense of strategy and intelligence. \u201cShe\u2019s the unseen hand through this,\u201d says Mirojnick. Athena\u2019s costumes were fabricated in linen, with layers \u201cthat we could make into any different form depending on the world that she entered,\u201d she adds. \u201cEvery bit of the draping could be done in a way to make you feel, more than looking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBack in Ithaca, Mirojnick also focused on draping for Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway. She didn\u2019t want the queen\u2019s design language to rely on spectacle, \u201cbecause she is a very quiet strategist,\u201d says Mirojnick. \u201c\u200aShe\u2019s not moving in the way that the others physically move. She\u2019s a still, strategic, very powerful woman who has a plan \u2014 and you\u2019re never to know what that plan is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRestraint\u201d \u2014 and again, simplicity \u2014 defined Mirojnick\u2019s vision for Penelope\u2019s wardrobe, through which she hoped to convey a sense of memory, ritual, control, and passage of time. The character wears the jewel-tone colors reflecting the House of Ithaca, often rendered in dual tones. \u201cHer relationship to fabric was sacred, because she sits at the loom. There is a power, but a very quiet power, that we needed to relay, and so we did it through texture and draping.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"L<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMia Goth is Melantho and Anne Hathaway is Penelope in \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMelinda Sue Gordon<\/p>\n

\n\tFor one of the pivotal final scenes, when Penelope offers to marry any suitor able to string Odysseus\u2019 bow and fire an arrow through a precise target, Mirojnick designed a teal dress with a tight silhouette that reflected the character\u2019s strategic resolve. \u201cHer collar is protective. Her draping is very precise. It is her armor,\u201d adds Mirojnick.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe hall of suitors was outfitted with a \u201ccollage\u201d of men who traveled from all over to win Penelope\u2019s hand in marriage. And the most distinct of them is Antinous, the film\u2019s villain, played by Robert Pattinson.\u00a0\u201c\u200aWorking with Robert is such a joy, and he always brings so much to the table in hopes of creating his character immediately,\u201d says Mirojnick.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u200a[Antinous] indulged himself in excess and in want, and in deserving and taking,\u201d she continues. \u201cAnd so \u2018excess\u2019 was the root word that we used in designing all of the suitors. It was a time that was to become dark very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Robert<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRobert Pattinson is Antinous in \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMelinda Sue Gordon<\/p>\n

\n\tStretching across settings and characters \u2014 land and sea; god and human \u2014 Mirojnick likened her process to designing for \u201cseven different films.\u201d The film shot in various rugged and isolated locations \u2014 a challenge that ultimately worked in favor of the costume design, which was mostly done on-site and over the course of production.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe wanted to have things that felt like they were just ripped from the earth,\u201d says Mirojnick, who hired a crew of cutters, fitters, and makers for each of their different filming locations. \u201c\u200aWe did everything on location with very little resources. So the challenge was enormous, but so gratifying and so fulfilling,\u201d she adds. \u201cIt still just boggles my mind. I look at the film and go, \u2018this is like a fever dream.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile all of Penelope\u2019s suitors linger in Ithaca hoping to marry Penelope, Mirojnick\u2019s hope is that she was able to marry the magnitude of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d with a sense of intimacy. And if viewers don\u2019t register the costumes, even better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u200aMy goal is for you not to notice the costumes within this landscape, which is so powerful on so many different levels,\u201d she adds. \u201cI\u2019ve seen the film now twice, and I don\u2019t really think that you notice the costumes that much. And I\u2019m very pleased about that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d it takes Odysseus 10 years to make it home after the Trojan War. For costume…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[113953,146,878,85,46],"class_list":["post-551189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-costume-designer","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}