{"id":315732,"date":"2025-11-27T00:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T00:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/315732\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T00:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T00:03:08","slug":"how-the-sinners-costume-designer-helped-wunmi-mosaku-shape-the-movies-secret-mvp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/315732\/","title":{"rendered":"How the ‘Sinners’ Costume Designer Helped Wunmi Mosaku Shape the Movie’s Secret MVP"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Sinners<\/a> sets a course to bring genre into awards season<\/a>, actress Wunmi Mosaku and Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter, a frequent Ryan Coogler<\/a> collaborator, discussed amplifying the filmmaker\u2019s vision through aesthetic and decorative choices.<\/p>\n

Mosaku\u2019s character, Annie, plays a pivotal role in the fight to vanquish the vampire invasion of her town; she\u2019s determined to protect those she loves, especially her estranged partner Smoke (Michael B. Jordan). Using her Hoodoo practice and deep ancestral magic, Annie is the film\u2019s MVP, supporting the brawn and violence of twin brothers Smoke and Stack\u2019s defense against undead supernatural supremacy in the South.<\/p>\n

Carter shared with Deadline<\/a> how Annie\u2019s strength, as described in Coogler\u2019s screenplay, was a key inspiration in crafting looks for the character. \u201cThe whole vision in mind is starting with the script \u2026 Someone like Annie, who is a root worker\u2014she is a person who is a community hub. People during that time needed someone like her in the community because she was the healer, and they didn\u2019t go to the doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter\u2019s work deeply influenced Mosaku\u2019s take on the character; seeing the designer at work was like \u201cwatching an alchemist,\u201d Mosaku said. \u201cEvery time I stepped into [Carter\u2019s] studio, Annie became more and more real to me, and she became more and more tangible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Annie\u2019s role in her community was always at the forefront, Carter emphasized. \u201cYou have to know what lives on the clothes; there\u2019s all this representation in the clothing, and for someone like Annie, we connect to what she needs to survive and how it lives in the clothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cWe looked at these root workers in cinema\u2026 and how it\u2019s represented. We\u2019ve seen that; we\u2019ve done that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making Annie her own version of what could have been a familiar character type was important. \u201cWe were talking about a headtie at one point, almost like presenting this Hoodoo queen,\u201d Mosaku added. \u201cBut then when we took the head wrap off, it was like, \u2018Oh, this is who she is.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very important to not make her this saint but to make her a spiritual force, a feminine woman, a mothering soul, but also independent,\u201d Carter said. \u201cLet\u2019s make her a real woman and make it about empowering the women in our lives, the strong women who nurture the community, and not such a mystical character that is so far away from us being able to relate to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Sinners sets a course to bring genre into awards season, actress Wunmi Mosaku and Oscar-winning costume designer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206,21959,162269],"class_list":{"0":"post-315732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-sinners","11":"tag-wunmi-mosaku"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}