The Story Behind the Dramatic Transformations of Don’t Look Up’s Star-Studded Cast
Who would have guessed that 2021’s most star-studded film would be an allegorical climate change comedy? The idea might seem outlandish on paper, but director Adam McKay’s timely feature, Don’t Look Up, comments on the environmental crisis in a way that’s wholly original. As its academic protagonists, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, attempt to inform the populace about the comet hurtling towards the earth, they’re forced to deal with clueless politicians, soulless bureaucrats, and a media more interested in ratings than serving the public good. The antics onscreen reflect the contradictions of the current cultural moment thanks to both McKay’s sharp script and a cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Jonah Hill, and Meryl Streep.
As they confront the apocalypse, each familiar face has been dramatically transformed. Lawrence gets a red dye job and an undercut to play a nonconformist grad student, DiCaprio’s movie star s good looks are hidden beneath wire-framed glasses and tweed blazers, and Chalamet dons an epic mullet. The makeovers add to the feeling that the world we’re witnessing is just slightly off-kilter—one where Grande’s vocals can still top the charts, but without the aid of her famous ponytail. For costume designer Susan Matheson, creating the film’s distinctive mood meant exploring one of her favorite archetypes. “That characters I love are always going to be gritty outsiders,” she says. “Someone who is a bit of an iconoclast and doesn’t follow the same path as everyone else. I get very excited whenever there is any character like that, but here, we had several.”
Having collaborated regularly with McKay since 2006’s Talladega Nights, Matheson has seen the director move from creating iconic comedies to Academy Award-winning satires. Before their partnership, Matheson specialized in costumes for dramas like Crazy/Beautiful and Friday Night Lights. “I was known for doing gritty, realistic movies, so when I first got the call from Adam, I was shocked,” says Matheson. “Before Talledega, I hadn’t done a comedy, and I felt like it was such a different world, but in the end, it worked out pretty well.”
Matheson would infuse the NASCAR-focused film with references to Americana—Wonderbread patches on racing uniforms, the Old Spice logo splashed on jackets—keeping the focus on the story’s humor rather than outfitting the characters in zany outfits to hammer the point home. “In a lot of comedies, the costumes are over the top, so you know the moment is meant to be funny before anything is said,” explains Matheson. “Adam’s whole point was that you don’t want to signal the scene is funny in advance; you want to let things unfold until that audience realizes the joke. It was important to him that we ground everything in reality.”
