![]() ![]() Barrett said when she first met Peele to discuss Us, the synergy between their ideas was palpable she was hired that same day. It makes sense that a costume designer whose own creative process is so cerebral would be a natural fit for a movie by Jordan Peele- a modern-day master of suspense who imbues the tiniest of details with meaning. She realized she needed to become a “method designer,” employing tactics similar to those of method actors, to better understand a film’s anatomy. By the time she was hired as the lead costume designer on The Matrix (1999), her first big-budget Hollywood film, Barrett had learned there was a kind of science to costume design. In her early days designing for theater, Barrett had operated off gut instinct, feeling her way through what characters would wear. The Australian-born designer began developing this analytical approach to her craft while working as a wardrobe designer on Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom (1992) and as the costume designer on Romeo + Juliet (1996). “You’re trying to work out why people did things, where they lived and why they lived there, and what happened to them,” Barrett said. The costume designer must be a psychologist who investigates the material world the characters inhabit in order to pull their deepest motivations to the surface. The idea was that, she’s almost as red as Red.”Īccording to Barrett, every film is rooted in a distinct psychology. “Along the way, that light is continually flickering … She’s getting more and more and more covered in blood. “I wanted her to be the lantern that led her family,” Barrett told me recently, after she had seen the completed film for the first time. Best known for her work on The Matrix, Barrett thought carefully about the decision to have Adelaide wear white. Every detail about the outfits used in the film-including the doppelgängers’ instantly iconic jumpsuit uniform-was meticulously planned by the movie’s costume designer, Kym Barrett. Observant viewers might notice the many ways in which Us uses clothing to tell the story of the Wilsons and the uprising of the Tethered. In other words, Adelaide’s outfit functions as a window into her true identity. As the existential showdown with Red neared, Adelaide’s clothes took on the same color as Red’s jumpsuit, signaling the duo’s deep and violent connection. In a final sequence, Peele flashes back to Adelaide’s childhood, revealing that the protagonist herself is actually a Tethered-as a girl, she kidnapped and traded places with the real Adelaide, who grew up in the subterranean world of the Tethered to become Red. ![]() For those paying attention, one visual clue hints at the big twist to come: Adelaide’s white T-shirt and hooded cardigan are absolutely covered in blood. Finally, Adelaide manages to stab Red in the stomach-before snapping her neck with the golden handcuffs Adelaide has been trapped wearing for most of the movie.ĭespite this victory, something feels off. Wielding a pair of gold scissors, Red slices at Adelaide with moves to rival any slasher-film villain. Adelaide and her family spent much of the movie killing off their murderous counterparts, but those clashes were merely a prelude to this fight to the death.Īrmed with a fire poker, Adelaide swings at Red, trying to destroy this shadow figure who has haunted her since she was a girl. The protagonist, Adelaide Wilson (played by Lupita Nyong’o), faces off against her jumpsuited doppelgänger, Red (also played by Nyong’o), in an underground chamber inhabited by clones known as the Tethered. ![]() Near the end of Jordan Peele’s Us, viewers finally witness the confrontation the entire story has been building toward. This story contains major spoilers for Us. ![]()
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