To play a circus performer in the big-screen adaptation of Water for Elephants, Reese Witherspoon had to transform her chic modern style into a believable retro look, something she couldn’t have done without the expertise of wardrobe designer Jacqueline West.”In the 1930s, gowns were very revealing, ” says West. “The women of that era wore them without any underwear, so that’s what Reese did. She was very brave.” Witherspoon’s co-star Robert Pattinson also got into character with his unmentionables. “He loved that I had authentic 1930s underwear for him,” West remembers. “He said it helped transport him.”
BONUS! Win a one-of-a-kind reproduction of the red gown Witherspoon’s character wears! How to win the dress shown: Visit the InStyle Facebook page this Friday, April 22nd (the same day the movie hits theaters) at 3pm EST and be the first person to correctly answer a trivia question.
It’s the same interview from Criativa Magazine , just with some more new quotes (the Royal wedding and a couple more) and things are not “lost in translation” anymore
Emmanuel Itier: How was it with working all these wild animals, and has your conception of circuses changed while doing this movie in the sense of how they treat animals? Robert Pattinson: I don’t really know how circuses themselves treat animals. I know a lot of circuses get a bad name for it, but none of the animals we had were from circuses; they were all film animals and stuff. I know how hard it must be. It must be just ridiculous because it’s relentless…because of the amount of injuries the animals get and stuff. For instance, with the horses — to teach those horses the tricks that they needed to know, it took months and months and months and months. If one of them goes down, there’s no back-up or anything. It’s going to take another six months to train a horse. It’s so precarious, running a circus so much. But working with wild animals, for me, was one of the things which I thought made the job easier. Even before we started, I was thinking it’s like doing a job where you’re just working with babies all the time, because the babies are going to do their own thing and you just react to the baby. I mean, if you’ve got an elephant in the scene and the elephant is kind of doing whatever it wants, it’s so easy to play anything because you suddenly have a trunk in your face or something, and then you’ve got to just make something up. No one expects the scene to be totally perfect because everyone has accepted that these are wild animals, and whatever comes will come. It’s not all like, “The animal’s got to hit its mark!” It’s never going to be like that. It made it very a relaxing set, in a weird sort of way.
Christoph Waltz may be best known for his Oscar-winning turn in Inglorious Basterds, but he’s taking on another famous villain with his portrayal of August in Water For Elephants, which hits theaters Friday. We caught up with the Austrian-born actor at the film’s recent press day. He talks about uncovering the dark side in his characters, how Robert Pattinson handles his fame, and Reese Witherspoon’s impressive stunt work on set. Christoph also clears up what’s real and what’s rumor when it comes to his upcoming roles, and whether bringing a literary figure to life on the big screen is a special kind of challenge.
From Fablife: At the Water for Elephants premiere Sunday night we interviewed the lovely Donna Scott, who plays Barbara in the movie. Without revealing too many spoilers, Barbara is one of the racier ladies lurking in the circus tents, and gets it on with a very drunk Jacob (Robert Pattinson). Donna gave us the deets on what it’s like kissing the “lovely” actor and told us that “every scene with Rob is an infamous scene.” Don’t we know it, Donna! As for shooting that one scene where things get a little hot, heave and naked between Barbara and Jacob, she says, “Rob was more uncomfortable than I was!” Awwww, how sweet. Clip above.
There’s no denying Robert Pattinson has a certain something. Experts have tried to pinpoint the precise formula for his unique brand of awesome (unkempt hair + self-effacing personality = the man of our dreams?), but the magical recipe continues to allude. Being the benevolent blog that we are, we decided to aid the scientific community by asking someone who’s got loads of personal insight—”Water for Elephants” costume designer Jacqueline West.
You see, Jacqueline gave Rob his favorite pair of 1930s underpants (no really, read all about it), and we figured, who better than the woman who dressed him (figuratively at least!) to give us some dish. Jacqueline spoke to us about Rob’s cool style off set and how his physique was different than what she expected after seeing “Twilight.”
“You know, he’s very casual. He wears jeans and hoodies and tennis shoes, but he has a really, really nice style,” she said. “Everything is well selected, but he’s very casual. He is a jeans and T-shirt, sweatshirt kind of guy.” In other words, totally our type (hear that Rob?).
Jacqueline also added that Rob cleans up “nicely”, but that she prefers his “dirtied” up look in the flick.
“This movie, I used to tell friends, ‘he really dirties up well.’ We’ve all seen him…used to seeing him so scrubbed and clean in the ‘Twilight’ movies. It’s great to see him dirty and sweaty and dusty and really in working clothes,” she said (as if we needed another reason to go out and buy a ticket for the movie). “It was a nice transformation and it made him such a different person than the other films I’ve seen him in.”
Speaking off those other films, Jacqueline said that she watched “Twilight” to get a sense of Rob’s body shape but that it didn’t really do justice to his physique.
“I didn’t realize from the ‘Twilight’ movies how really manly he is. I didn’t realize until I really met Rob in person how really manly I could make his wardrobe and that he would be able to wear it so well,” she said. “I didn’t know how big he is. He’s really like a Gary Cooper or someone like that, he has incredible stature.”
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