MOMI Hosts ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ Screening and Panel With Costume Designer Mary Zophres

The Coen brothers have done it again with their new Netflix hit “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.”

Instead of a traditional single plot film, this piece is a collection of five short stories, presented as a book of Old West tales. Taking nearly twenty-five years for them to write, each story differs in style and mood.

After a screening of the film on Thursday, November 29, a Q&A session took place with the movie’s costume designer, Mary Zophres.  The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is Zophres’ fourteenth consecutive film working with Joel and Ethan Coen as costume designer. Some of her most well-known past films include Coen brother collaborations Fargo, The Big Lebowski and True Grit, as well as other big budget films, such as Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, La La Land, and Interstellar. Having not just one, but several BAFTA’s and Academy Awards, Zophres’ skill and expertise is apparent on the big and little screen.

The interview begins with an emotional recount of how Zophres began working as lead costume designer on the film Fargo. “Richard [Hornung] was my mentor and a great, great teacher and a great, great man. He was ill when they were about to do Fargo and [when] he realized that he couldn’t do Fargo, he recommended me for the project and so it was very bittersweet for me,” recounts Zophres tearfully.

The first source of her inspiration is the script. “They’re incredibly evocative and they read like a novel to me. They read like no other scripts I’ve ever read,” says Zophres.   Extensive research had to be done to fit the time period as well as custom manufacturing for many of the characters’ costumes, often times making multiple copies for stunt doubles and your average wear and tear. Costume boards for each character were created to track each costume from inspiration to materialization.

Discovering the stylistic approach for each story is itself a challenge. “We had certain references from certain films. We knew from the beginning that they were each stylistically completely different and they each had their own set of references.”  The first story, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, is described by Zophres as “very heightened,” and “almost like a loony toon.” Despite the outrageous violence, the inspiration for this tale is more Hollywood and comes from Marlene Dietrich’s western, Destry Rides Again.

Sixteen of the custom-made pieces and Zophres’ costume boards are currently on display at The Museum of the Moving Picture. For more information visit here.