# How Hollywood Costume Designer Whitney Anne Adams Styles Book Adaptations

An episode of [It Was A Book First](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896902131), 19 Aug 2026, 1 h 09 min.

Audio: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/e612f4b0-e4ef-4318-b82d-0005c3cb8c12.mp3

This week, costume designer Whitney Anne Adams joins Sophie and Rudi to discuss how she approaches book-to-screen adaptations. Whitney, who hosts the “Tales From a Costume Designer” podcast, worked on Baz Luhrman’s 2013 adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel “The Great Gatsby” as well as “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat,” a 2024 film based on Edward Kelsey Moore’s 2013 novel. Before their chat, Sophie shares some recent beach read recommendations (00:01:18) and Rudi discusses two new movies that treat sex and romance very differently: Greg Arakki’s “I Want Your Sex” and Will Gluck’s “One Night Only” (00:07:01). Those films inspire a brief discussion about the current state of rom-coms in theaters and on streaming (00:15:13). Then Whitney joins the show to discuss how costume designers bring books to life on screen (00:22:00). Whitney details what it was like to work on a big-budget production like “The Great Gatsby” (00:25:24), including making a spreadsheet of every visual reference in the book and screenplay, designing a period piece for a modern audience, getting to attend the table read with stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire, and playing a small part in helping create an enduring Leo meme (00:41:45). Then they discuss the smaller scale production of “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat” (00:46:23), which required creating looks across different decades. Whitney also shares what it was like to work on “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” a video game adaptation sequel with a rabid fan base. (00:58:05). Finally, she shares a recommendation for a book she’d like to see get adapted for the screen — so she can design the costumes (01:05:50). Next week we’re discussing “Tony,” director Matt Johnson’s Anthony Bourdain biopic for A24 that stars Dominic Sessa and adapts a portion of the beloved chef and TV host’s 2000 memoir “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.” It Was A Book First is the podcast about new book-to-screen adaptations. Subscribe now to get new episodes delivered weekly on Wednesdays. Follow us on Instagram: @itwasabookfirstpod TikTok: @itwasabookfirst YouTube: @itwasabookfirstpodcast Email: itwasabookfirst@gmail.com Hosts and producers: Sophie Vershbow and Rudi Greenberg Guest: Whitney Anne Adams Editing: Rudi Greenberg Social media: Sophie Vershbow Music: Cliff Blum and John Connelly; music production: Kevin Pons Logo: Trisha Louise Prieto Website: Kevin Pfab

## Transcript

Sophie Vershbow (00:10)
I'm Sophie and I love books.
Rudi Greenberg (00:12)
I'm Rudy and I love movies, and this is It Was a Book First, the podcast about new book to screen adaptations. Today we're exploring the art of costuming with costume designer Whitney Ann Adams, who has worked on several book to screen adaptations, including Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby.
Whitney, who hosts the Tales from a Costume Designer podcast, will join us for a wide-ranging chat on the thought and care that goes into bringing the looks from a book to life on screen.
Sophie Vershbow (00:38)
If you're new here, Rudi and I are culture reporters, and on this podcast, we discuss the page-to-screen adaptations that everyone's talking about, along with the craft and business behind adapting a book.
Rudi Greenberg (00:49)
it's been a minute since we've talked about what we've been watching and reading, not for the podcast. And also, we're recording this a little early, and today's a special day. Happy birthday, Sophie!
Sophie Vershbow (01:02)
Thank you. I am thirty seven today. Very exciting. A very monumental age, I'm sure.
Rudi Greenberg (01:10)
Thank you for recording a pod on your birthday.
Sophie Vershbow (01:13)
my God, you asked me to come in and talk about what I just read on vacation. So, you know, twist my arm.
Rudi Greenberg (01:18)
Yeah, so Sophie you just spent a couple of weeks at the beach, right? So
Sophie Vershbow (01:21)
Mm-hmm.
Rudi Greenberg (01:22)
I'd love to hear like what were some of your your favorite beach reads? I think you didn't do any podcast reading on the beach, right? This was all just for pleasure.
Sophie Vershbow (01:28)
I did no, yeah.
I did no podcast reading. And I will say it has honestly been really fun to read a lot of stuff that I might not have read or things that I've reread, but it has kind of put my personal reading a little bit on the back burner. And so it was really fun to just sort of like dive headfirst into a bunch of things that I had no reason to read other than my own want to read those books. So
I got through six books in my two weeks away. I completely
Rudi Greenberg (01:54)
Nice.
Sophie Vershbow (01:54)
blame my parents, my boyfriend, and all my friends and their children for distracting me. This is actually like way below each vacation pace for me, but
Rudi Greenberg (02:03)
My God, I'm so sorry that you had to spend time with your loved ones instead of time with your your loved books.
Sophie Vershbow (02:06)
I know. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it was it was a little tough for me, but I I did have a great time. so yes, I read six books, three of which I am gonna talk about today because I really, really love them. And also I think they will have application to this. So the first
is my favorite of the bunch, which is Good
Rudi Greenberg (02:24)
Okay.
Sophie Vershbow (02:25)
People by
Patima Sabit. I hope I pronounced her name correctly. It is a thriller. So I actually walked into Mitchell's, the bookstore on Nantucket, and asked the person, I said, Hey, I just read a dense literary fiction novel and I need a thriller, but one for smart people who always guess the ending before they tell us. And she literally just pointed across the store and said, That one. And I just picked it up without asking any other questions and bought
this is one of those books that I am not going to talk too much about the plot on because it is almost like a Roshamon story where you are constantly
Rudi Greenberg (02:57)
Sure.
Sophie Vershbow (02:57)
going back and forth and questioning what you think you know. But it unravels sort of like a documentary. It's written in short, very, very short passages from different people being interviewed, from, you know, detectives and local people at the scene of the mystery to members of the community, members of the family. And
It is a book that has like really stayed with me. It is one that I think would be nearly impossible to adapt. And I would be so afraid for them to take away the amount of nuance in this book
Rudi Greenberg (03:32)
Hm.
Sophie Vershbow (03:32)
that just completely changes what you think it's going to be. But I just want to recommend this one to people as a book. It's called Good People. It is, I honestly think of a more of a mystery than a thriller, but it is
Rudi Greenberg (03:44)
Okay.
Sophie Vershbow (03:45)
it really stuck with me. My mom just finished it and loved it. My dad is reading it now. I think.
Anyone would love this book. the next
Rudi Greenberg (03:49)
Nice. Okay, cool.
Sophie Vershbow (03:52)
one is Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I've Cried About by Isabel Clee. So this is a different millennial woman on the internet with a rescue dog named Simon,
who unfortunately just passed. I am one of the many people on the internet who was just simply devastated. I will say, reading this book in the wake of Simon passing was especially emotional.
Isabel, for anyone who doesn't know, is one of the internet's like foremost dog rescue advocates. She fosters dogs constantly and is just such an advocate for dog rescue and fostering. She's amazing. And this book is really the story of her 20s. It's a my
Rudi Greenberg (04:30)
Mm.
Sophie Vershbow (04:31)
coming of age memoir, and it is so beautifully done. She's really, really honest about her emotions and her participation, you know, good and bad, in the different parts of her life and
If you are like me and you love dogs, and especially if you are involved in dog rescue, you are going to cry like one trillion times while reading this. And I will say that this has already been optioned by Universal into a TV show,
Rudi Greenberg (04:56)
wow.
Sophie Vershbow (04:57)
which Isabel is going to be executive producing. And
Rudi Greenberg (05:00)
Very cool.
Sophie Vershbow (05:00)
I am really, really curious to see how this comes to life. I think it really has a lot of potential.
Rudi Greenberg (05:06)
Cool. Well excited to talk about that, hopefully in the future if it gets made.
Sophie Vershbow (05:10)
Yeah. And then I will say one more, which is a book called The Antidote by Karen Russell, which is the aforementioned very dense literary fiction book I was reading when I went
Rudi Greenberg (05:20)
Ha ha ha
Sophie Vershbow (05:21)
looking for good people. This is actually a book that I will say I did not love reading the entire thing. Her writing is very dense. It is beautiful. It is exquisite, but it is it is a lot. And the book takes a little while to get off the ground. It is about the Dust Bowl out,
Out west and really about the relationship between the local Polish community who are immigrants who came over from Poland in the last couple of generations and the native population on the ground. By the end of this book, I was so blown away with how she brings it all together. And it is, it is a magical realist book, and it feels like magical how it all comes together. And the the central message of this book is so.
Powerful that I can't not recommend it. I think it's beautifully done,
Rudi Greenberg (06:08)
Mm-hmm.
Sophie Vershbow (06:09)
but I will just warn people, I think it takes a beat. And this is one that I really hope this gets adapted. I think it will be. I think it has
Rudi Greenberg (06:18)
Okay.
Sophie Vershbow (06:19)
huge potential to be a beautiful prestige movie filmed in the plains of America. And I think it has so much potential to sort of be like the way that there are such different books.
But like Killers of the Flower Moon was brought
Rudi Greenberg (06:37)
Mm-hmm.
Sophie Vershbow (06:37)
to life in such a beautiful and moving way.
Rudi Greenberg (06:39)
Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (06:40)
I could see this, even though they're very different projects, sort
Rudi Greenberg (06:43)
Sure.
Sophie Vershbow (06:44)
of being brought to life on screen in the same way. So I I really hope we see like a big prestige adaptation of this book one day.
Rudi Greenberg (06:51)
Cool.
Those are great recs. If you're still, you know, planning maybe for a Labor Day beach trip, you should pick those up and read them while you're at the beach. now I am gonna talk about two movies that are not adaptations, but they are related. So they're two comedies with very different attitudes on and views of sex and relationships. And both of them featured songs from Robyn's new album, Sex Essential, in their trailers. So that's that's one thing they have in common.
the first one is I Want Your Sex. This is kind of a small indie. It's the first film in more than a decade from director Greg Araki, who's a pioneer of the new queer cinema movement. It stars Olivia Wilde, who is really on a heater this summer between this and The Invite. And she's playing a boundary-pushing contemporary artist who starts a sub and dom relationship with her new assistant, played by
Sophie Vershbow (07:48)
She's
Rudi Greenberg (07:49)
Cooper Hoffman.
Who's I mean, they're both great in this, but Cooper Hoffman, he's in his twenties. He's so good.
Sophie Vershbow (07:54)
He's having a moment. He's everywhere all over my feeds right now.
Rudi Greenberg (07:57)
Yeah. I mean, he is just like, I I I have conflicting feelings about Nepo babies, but Cooper Hoffman is one who I'm like, don't care because
Sophie Vershbow (08:04)
Don't we all? Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (08:06)
he's so good. His dad was so his dad, of course, was Philip Seymour Hoffman, incredible character actor. and Cooper Hoffman, I think, has it.
He is really, really good in this, so is Olivia Wilde. The scenes they're in together, which is a lot of the film, are great. This is a bold, bright, quirky, very frank film about sex, about relationships, about power dynamics. It's very fun. It's very explicit. at times it didn't like totally hold together for me. There were a few things that like I just didn't love without kind of spoiling the.
The movie, but I do think it's worth a watch. It's got a great supporting cast. It's got speaking of Nepo babies, Mason Gooding, who is Cuba Gooding Jr.'s son, Chase Wonders, who you may know from the studio, David Diggs from, of course, Hamilton, and Charlie X. Maybe you've heard of her. She has a very small role in in this movie as well. she's like just in so many things. I watched another movie that she starred in over the weekend called Eurjpcja
Sophie Vershbow (09:08)
What's
all the pop girls going into the movies now? Like we're about to have Billie Eilish and the Beljar.
Rudi Greenberg (09:10)
Well, she's especially yeah, she
I think Charlie XDX just like loves movies. And so she's been in a lot of movies this year, along with her own, the The Moment, which is kind of a mockumentary about her life post brat. So I I recommend I Want Your Sex. I think it should be on streaming soon if it's not already and and is worth worth the watch. On the other end of the spectrum, we have one night only, aka the sex purge. So
This is
Sophie Vershbow (09:40)
I'm so fascinated
by this movie despite not having seen it nor intending to see it.
Rudi Greenberg (09:45)
I think you should. I actually do recommend that you see it and I'll I'll talk a little bit about why. So this is the new film from Will Gluck, the director of Anyone But You, which was the Sydney Sweeney, Glenn Powell, rom com from a couple of years ago that did pretty well. I think was a bad movie, but did well. Will Gluck also directed Easy A, which kind of made Emma Stone a star. So he's done he's done good stuff in the past. and this is about people trying to find love.
On the one night a year that single people are allowed to have sex. Because we live in a fascist society where sex has been outlawed. Now, I bring this up for two reasons. One, because it just came out as of this recording and it ties in with I want your sex, but also because near the end of our chat with Whitney, that you'll you'll hear after this, you'll hear me express some optimism about this movie and the hope that not only will it be good, but people will go to see it, and it will maybe help.
Bring back rom-coms. Unfortunately, it is not good, and people did not see it. it does have two things going for it: Monica Babaro and Callum Turner, who are both very attractive, very charming,
Sophie Vershbow (10:56)
So attractive.
Rudi Greenberg (10:57)
very funny, and do have chemistry. But the movie itself is like really a mess. It's lightly pro-fascist. It's shot like an infomercial. It like explains why sex is outlawed.
And how it works. You basically everyone has like biotrackers embedded into their wrists that can like detect. There's a great scene where like Nicholas Braun has a cameo and kind of explains how they work. because he like works with the company that's doing something involved in these bio biotrackers. but it doesn't really explore that enough. And Roxana Hadadi from Vulture, who is on our recent Cape Fear episode, wrote a great piece in Vulture about how one night only is.
Maybe like the darkest film of the year. Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (11:39)
It's so funny. It's so it's so good. Please go
read it. You don't have to have seen the movie to appreciate it. It's it's so good.
Rudi Greenberg (11:48)
And like the thing about One Night Only and why I think it's interesting to talk about is because it is inspiring a lot of takes. Like it seems like not a lot of people saw this movie, yet everyone kind of has an opinion about it, particularly
Sophie Vershbow (11:59)
Mm-hmm.
Rudi Greenberg (12:00)
if you find out, even if you somehow didn't see the trailer or saw the trailer a million times like I did in front of almost every movie for a couple months. You maybe
Sophie Vershbow (12:07)
Mm-hmm.
Rudi Greenberg (12:08)
didn't even understand what the concept was, but the concept really is like
Sophie Vershbow (12:11)
What?
Rudi Greenberg (12:12)
sex is outlawed. There I've heard a lot of that where people are like, that's what this is about. yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (12:16)
What? How could you have avoided
this trailer? I've seen it one trillion times.
Rudi Greenberg (12:18)
I know. I know.
But the concept really is that sex is outlawed unless you're married. And there is this one night where from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. it's a free-for-all. You can do whatever you want.
Sophie Vershbow (12:31)
I do think it's rude that it's only twelve hours. Like give people a day.
Rudi Greenberg (12:35)
Well, I mean, this is a this is a fascist society where we've decided that sex is outlawed and it's like everyone seems okay with it. I mean, there's definitely like
signs up that say like repeal in the resist font. And there is, you know,
Sophie Vershbow (12:49)
Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (12:50)
like there's you know, graffiti, but it's like no one's really like pushing back. And I think that's what's so dark about this film is that we've just like s slid in into this world and like accepted it. And I think there's a really interesting concept about exploring our current state of affairs through that lens that this movie could have done, but it really
Doesn't and
Sophie Vershbow (13:15)
Rudi from everything I've read, because the director's been asked a lot of questions, like he wasn't interested in that. Like he seems
Rudi Greenberg (13:20)
Right. Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (13:21)
to be incredibly annoyed by people trying to get to the bottom of like the details of how this happened.
Rudi Greenberg (13:24)
Yes. He he had some
quote about like how he has like pages and pages of feedback about like there's no nudity in this movie. So there's like pages and pages of feedback about how Gen Z doesn't want to see nudity in films. And so they cut a lot of nudity out of it.
Sophie Vershbow (13:39)
Which is the most re the
most messed up part is like the movie about only having sex for a night in the regressive society can't have sex because we are a regressive society.
Rudi Greenberg (13:45)
Yes. Well,
I I mean, spoiler for one night out, because I'm just gonna say this, but
Sophie Vershbow (13:49)
How?
Rudi Greenberg (13:51)
there there isn't the only like there isn't really any sex in this movie. And and there's think
Sophie Vershbow (13:56)
These people don't have sex? You've gotta be kidding me.
Rudi Greenberg (14:01)
Look,
there is some funny stuff in One Night Only. It had moments where I was like, look, I enjoyed watching this. Like I had a good time. It's not like
Sophie Vershbow (14:09)
Sure.
Rudi Greenberg (14:10)
I didn't enjoy going to the movies and engaging with this with this film. I like rom-coms, but
Sophie Vershbow (14:16)
Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (14:17)
it's bad. And it's not
Sophie Vershbow (14:20)
Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (14:20)
it like it's the kind of movie that it's the kind of movie that is made for people who talk in the theater during a movie.
Sophie Vershbow (14:27)
Mm
Rudi Greenberg (14:28)
And then stare at their phones the entire
time, which happened throughout my screening. And like normally I'd be annoyed about that, but I was just like, whatever, this movie's bad. I don't really care. And look, if that's what people want to do, whatever. You'll watch it on Peacock in in a couple of weeks when it's when it's on Peacock. But
Sophie Vershbow (14:43)
Yeah, I'm
the problem here. Like I am the person who needs the exact information on how we got here. I'm like, I need to
see a list
Rudi Greenberg (14:49)
Right.
Sophie Vershbow (14:50)
of rules. I need to know what is allowed. I want the
Rudi Greenberg (14:52)
Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (14:52)
details of our dystopian society and do not care about these two people's love story.
Rudi Greenberg (14:55)
There are little flashes
of that. And like that's when I think it's at its most interesting. And it the other problem is it keeps Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner apart for way too much of the movie. And it's best when they're together. I mean, that's what the point of this
Sophie Vershbow (15:10)
Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (15:10)
is. It's it's supposed to be a rom-com. And I I I kind of wanted to talk a little bit about rom-coms with you, Sophie, because it is a genre that is dying or at least has changed. You know, this used to be something that.
Obviously, the Nora Efron movies, the Nancy Meyer movies, Sandra Bullock, Kate Hudson, like these were the kind of films that we grew up with a generation before us
Sophie Vershbow (15:36)
Mm-hmm.
Rudi Greenberg (15:36)
grew up with. They followed similar formats. Often you had a meet cute, they got together, they broke up, or something took them apart, and then they came back together in the end. And they weren't super high concept like this one was. They were fun, they were enjoyable, they were reliable.
kind of cinematic experiences. And I'm kind of thinking that they've sort of moved to TV and gotten a little more dramatic, right? Like we talked about off campus, you know, back
Sophie Vershbow (16:06)
Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (16:07)
in back in July. And off campus is kind of a rom-com TV show. It's a little more dramatic, but there's elements of it.
Sophie Vershbow (16:16)
Think that you're identifying something in what's getting adapted very genuinely. You know, as rom coms have had kind of a major cultural identity going on in terms of screen in books, there's nothing more popular than well, sorry, the only thing more popular than rom coms like romantic right now. So rom
Rudi Greenberg (16:33)
Right, right.
Sophie Vershbow (16:34)
coms have had this massive boom in the publishing industry. And because of that, you have a lot more source material to draw from. And it's also
Rudi Greenberg (16:43)
Sure.
Sophie Vershbow (16:43)
a new generation of rom coms that are talking about things like sexual trauma, sexual identity, all of these things that these kind of rom coms of the past just weren't going into.
Rudi Greenberg (16:55)
Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (16:56)
I mean
We have, you know, high concept at the time, or was sort of like, okay, I'm going to Seattle to like find this guy who I'm on the radio of, which is psychotic,
Rudi Greenberg (17:06)
Right.
Sophie Vershbow (17:07)
or like this guy is emailing me and I don't know who he
Rudi Greenberg (17:09)
Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (17:10)
is, and he owns a competing bookstore. But now we're dealing with right. Well, to be very honest,
Rudi Greenberg (17:12)
Or I work at a newspaper or a magazine. That was just literally if you were in a rom com, you often Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (17:18)
I have often said that I rom coms were way more influential on my career than my love life. I mean, like, why am I in this job?
And so I I think that you have so much more rich source material and character development from these books. And that is a lot of what we're seeing
Rudi Greenberg (17:33)
Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (17:34)
get developed. And so
Rudi Greenberg (17:36)
Right.
Sophie Vershbow (17:36)
it's interesting to me that we're often not getting that as much on the screen and seeing more of these flops.
Rudi Greenberg (17:42)
Mm-hmm.
Sophie Vershbow (17:43)
Not that we haven't had any, but we're seeing
Rudi Greenberg (17:45)
Right.
Sophie Vershbow (17:45)
l more of these flops. I think it's a lot less common that we all go to the screen and fall in love with two characters the same way we
Rudi Greenberg (17:51)
Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (17:52)
have with sort of like a heated rivalry or something. And I
Rudi Greenberg (17:54)
Right. Instead
Sophie Vershbow (17:55)
Kinda don't get it. Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (17:55)
you watch it at home. Yeah. Well,
it's like I I was thinking about this too with like nobody wants this. The Kristen Bell and what's his name? Seth Cohen. Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (18:06)
Seth Cohen. Adam Brody.
Rudi Greenberg (18:09)
The Kristen Bell and Adam Brody Netflix series, which is very much in the tradition of rom-coms. It's kind of an opposites,
Sophie Vershbow (18:17)
Totally.
Rudi Greenberg (18:18)
you know, attract sort of story. And these things have really moved you know, the two all the boys.
movies on Netflix. I don't know if you've watched those, but I think those are based on books, if I'm not mistaken. And and those
Sophie Vershbow (18:28)
Yeah, those are bucks. Yeah, why a buck?
Rudi Greenberg (18:30)
are like kind of teen, you know, rom coms. And I I just it's I don't know why this doesn't work in a theater anymore. Yeah. Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (18:38)
It's streaming. It's not even just TV, it's streaming. It's just much less
that we like go to a theater for this. I wonder too, Rudi To me, like I think a lot of movie experiences right now are around like the Odyssey, like the big thing where we can justify, I'm gonna pay $20 because I need to visually see
Rudi Greenberg (18:51)
Yes. They're an event. Yes. Yep.
Sophie Vershbow (18:56)
this in a larger screen. Whereas I do think a lot of romance
Rudi Greenberg (19:00)
Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (19:00)
related media is a little bit more intimate. It's a little more more like, sure, I can just watch these people on my TV or whatever.
Rudi Greenberg (19:04)
Mm-hmm. But these
are also great things to watch with an audience. I mean, comedy in general, right,
Sophie Vershbow (19:10)
As a group. I agree with you.
Rudi Greenberg (19:13)
doesn't do as well in theaters as it used to. It's it's moved to these like half-hour, you know, dramedy type shows. Like we just, that's, that's kind of where we've moved as a culture. And I really did hope that One Night Only would help bring it back a little bit. And it unfortunately did not.
And I think it's maybe a good
Sophie Vershbow (19:34)
I think you're
Rudi Greenberg (19:34)
thing because it's high concept. And I don't really want high concept.
Sophie Vershbow (19:37)
I think your point to
Yeah, I think your point too, Rudi is that this to the high concept point is that when it's simple, it works because like the movie is so good. So you actually like like I will say, like, You've Got Mail is objectively one of my favorite movies. Every single
Rudi Greenberg (19:51)
Mm-hmm.
Sophie Vershbow (19:51)
time I watch it, I have to physically shut off the part of my brain that says, This man is a psycho. This is the most messed up shit I have
Rudi Greenberg (19:59)
Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (19:59)
ever seen. But I do not care. And I am able to do that because it is one of the great films of our time.
But when a movie is not good, it is excruciating when it's simple and when there's not so much in there. And I don't know why we like can't fully get there a lot of the time.
Rudi Greenberg (20:17)
Yeah. So anyway, don't don't
go see One Night Only unless you're just curious. And then I would say watch it because like it is entertaining at least. And and it and it there's a lot to talk about. Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (20:26)
That is like meant to be dreamed on Peacock. Like
Rudi Greenberg (20:29)
There's a lot to talk about. And I think that's what's like kind of compelling about it. But I do would recommend I Want Your Sex, which I think is entertaining and is an example of, you know, the kind of rom-com that we do still get. Like it's not really a rom-com, but like we do get these quirky indie relationship comedies that
Still
do exist. And, you know, also go see the invite, which is Olivia Wilde's other film that is one of my favorites of the year and is is really good.
Sophie Vershbow (20:54)
And I will
just leave us on the last note that I watched Troy with my family on vacation. And first of all, despite the fact that it is still like a large part of my sexual awakening, it is not a good movie. So sorry to the Troy defenders. Also, so different than the Iliad. And so I don't want
Rudi Greenberg (21:11)
Mm.
Sophie Vershbow (21:11)
to hear anyone complaining about this current Odyssey adaptation because it's quote unquote woke and different when the Iliad when Troy did all that back in 2004 or whatever, and all of you are quiet.
That's all I'm gonna say.
Rudi Greenberg (21:25)
Fair. so programming note, next week we are discussing Tony, A24's new film about Anthony Bourdain, that is loosely based on his memoir Kitchen Confidential and covers his early years as a chef. quick reminder to like, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcast. You can follow us on Instagram, it was a book first pod, TikTok, it was a book.
First, watch the episode on YouTube. It was a book first podcast, or visit our website at itwasabookfirst.com. Now let's go to our conversation with costume designer Whitney Ann Adams.
Rudi Greenberg (22:07)
we are thrilled to welcome costume designer Whitney Ann Adams to it was a book first. Whitney, we are so excited to have you here.
Whitney Anne Adams (22:18)
so excited to be here. This is one of my favorite topics to talk about.
Rudi Greenberg (22:23)
So Whitney, you have worked on a ton of movies, but specifically you've worked on a couple of projects that are either direct book adaptations or you've also worked on some video game adaptations and sequels to movies. And I want to hear a little bit before we dive into the specifics of talking about how you bring a book to life on screen. Tell us a little bit about your career, how you got into costuming and and kind of how you got to where you are now.
Whitney Anne Adams (22:53)
So funny, I never thought costume design would be my path. I remember I was like a total sports jock
Sophie Vershbow (22:58)
Same.
Whitney Anne Adams (22:59)
growing up. I was like captain of my golf team. I worked at a country club. I taught junior golf. Like I was, that was my whole life. That and basketball and sports, sports, sports. And then I did drama. I loved the world, but I had horrible stage fright. And I hated being on stage, but I like loved being a part of it. And
Sophie Vershbow (23:17)
Mm-hmm.
Whitney Anne Adams (23:17)
then I got to college and I took, you know, chemistry. I thought I was gonna be pre-med. I wanted to be a surgeon. I took chemistry, calculus,
And my one fun class was intro to theater design. Well, I switched my major two weeks in because I discovered that,
Sophie Vershbow (23:28)
My god.
Whitney Anne Adams (23:31)
this is what I meant to do with my life, and I just sort of knew.
Rudi Greenberg (23:33)
I bet your parents were thrilled.
Sophie Vershbow (23:35)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (23:37)
They were like, well, okay. I gave them like a whole PowerPoint presentation about I'm changing my major and I know this is
Sophie Vershbow (23:41)
Wait, I'm reasonable.
Whitney Anne Adams (23:44)
gonna be a hard career, but I'm this is what I meant to do. And you know, I've never been so sure of something in my life, and I think I had no reason to be so sure, but sometimes you just sort of know and it's like this is it, and I've never looked back since. I know.
Sophie Vershbow (23:56)
my god, good gut, good gut feeling for something.
Whitney Anne Adams (24:00)
I know. I'd always loved movies and theater and and figuring out, I can be a part of this.
From behind the scenes and I don't have to be on stage and I love to close. I mean, you know, spoiler alert, my favorite movie is the Moulin Rouge and and Baslerman and Catherine
Sophie Vershbow (24:15)
Mm.
Whitney Anne Adams (24:15)
Martin are two of, you know, now people I've worked with for many, many years. But Mulin Rouge was a huge p part of me becoming in love with costume design and looking back at how much I was obsessed with that movie in high school, it like led to this.
Rudi Greenberg (24:29)
Well what drew you to thinking that like you could do this as a career? 'Cause it's one thing to like watch Moulin Rouge
Sophie Vershbow (24:37)
Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (24:37)
and be like, I really like the costumes. It's another thing to be like, I can make those.
Whitney Anne Adams (24:42)
I know, I don't really know. I had no sewing experience. I remember I took one sewing class
Sophie Vershbow (24:47)
I love it.
Whitney Anne Adams (24:48)
in second grade and I I can't tell you I wasn't really interested in fashion. I wore sweatpants and track pants in high school because I was all basketball and golf all the time. So it's so odd. I was not interested in any of that stuff until college. And I'm still I love clothes and I love fashion as as art, but I'm not
trendy. I'm a very classic dresser and so I really love it for storytelling. I think that's what attracted me to this is is using clothes to tell a story. And that's why costume design is really in my my lane.
Sophie Vershbow (25:23)
That's amazing. And you you've already mentioned Baz Lurhman And you know, one of the reasons that we were so excited to talk to you is that you worked on the Great Gatsby adaptation that came out in, I think it's 2014. And I should say,
Whitney Anne Adams (25:35)
Yes. Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (25:36)
Whitney, I also worked on the adaptation, but it is because I worked at Scribner at the time, which is the original publisher of
Whitney Anne Adams (25:42)
my god, really?
Sophie Vershbow (25:44)
The Great Gatsby. And so I remember when this came out, there was a screening, I want to say at the Paris Theater, but
That is one of those memories I might have invented. It was in Midtown. And I remember going to like a publishing screening, and you know, we were assistants, and so we were all excited. We got free popcorn and we were excited about this at Scribner when it came out. I mean, the book sold bajillions of copies
Whitney Anne Adams (26:10)
Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (26:10)
no matter what. And then it sold bajillion and one copies. So everyone was very happy at the time.
Whitney Anne Adams (26:17)
I love that so much. I remember
I bought the like our poster copy of the book. I had to have
Rudi Greenberg (26:21)
Ha ha ha.
Sophie Vershbow (26:22)
Yep.
Whitney Anne Adams (26:23)
that for my mantle, you know?
Sophie Vershbow (26:25)
I can see
that movie tie in, I could like sketch it from memory.
Whitney Anne Adams (26:27)
Yes. The
amount of copies of Great Gatsby I have is probably six or seven different copies from different time periods. It's really interesting.
Rudi Greenberg (26:37)
Wha why do you have so many different
copies? Are there differences between them or did you just kind of want to assemble a collection?
Whitney Anne Adams (26:43)
I wanted the dif
I wanted to assemble a collection because it means so much to me now. It was like a huge part of my life. And so I loved getting the different colors the covers and also as part of my podcast, I'm doing a dive I haven't done it yet, I'm in the middle of it, is is doing
Sophie Vershbow (26:58)
Have one.
Whitney Anne Adams (26:59)
an essay comparing both Gatsby versions to each other.
Rudi Greenberg (27:03)
okay, cool. Yes. And we should we
Sophie Vershbow (27:04)
Amazing.
Rudi Greenberg (27:05)
should mention that Whitney hosts a podcast called Tales from a Costume Designer. And you should go listen to that when
Sophie Vershbow (27:11)
Check it out.
Rudi Greenberg (27:11)
you're done listening to
Whitney Anne Adams (27:13)
Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (27:14)
this. so Whitney was working on the Great Gatsby movie, which was directed by Boz Lerman, as we mentioned, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Toby McGuire, forget who the woman was,
Sophie Vershbow (27:25)
Carrie Mulligan.
Rudi Greenberg (27:26)
Carrie Mulligan.
Whitney Anne Adams (27:26)
Caramel again. Mm-hmm.
Rudi Greenberg (27:28)
was that kind of your first
Big sort of break in some ways. You were the what what was your role on that movie and and where did that come in your career?
Whitney Anne Adams (27:36)
Yes. Technically,
my my technical title was Costume Design Assistant, which really doesn't exist
Rudi Greenberg (27:44)
Okay.
Whitney Anne Adams (27:44)
in American movie making. It's more cause
Rudi Greenberg (27:46)
interesting.
Whitney Anne Adams (27:47)
it's they're Australian, and so we made the movie mostly in Australia. So Costume Design
Rudi Greenberg (27:50)
Mm-hmm. Fun.
Whitney Anne Adams (27:52)
Assistant is sort
Sophie Vershbow (27:52)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (27:53)
of this like, you're not an ACD, but I was doing A C D work, but I'm not I'm
Rudi Greenberg (27:58)
huh.
Whitney Anne Adams (27:58)
more I have more responsibilities than a production assistant. So it's like this weird nebulous. I just did
Sophie Vershbow (28:03)
It seems different on
every project from what I can tell from talking to people. Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (28:05)
Exactly. I consider
Rudi Greenberg (28:06)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (28:08)
myself sort of the second assistant costume designer.
Rudi Greenberg (28:10)
Okay.
Whitney Anne Adams (28:11)
So I was not the first, but I was there doing all sorts of design related everything, like making an entire spreadsheet, breaking down the visual references and the book to the screenplay.
Sophie Vershbow (28:20)
Yeah, so tell us a little bit about
that. How you you get this gig. How do you
Whitney Anne Adams (28:24)
Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (28:24)
prepare? How do you take some source material? As I'm showing,
Whitney Anne Adams (28:28)
Yes, yes.
Sophie Vershbow (28:29)
I'm holding up for our audio listeners a copy of the Great Gatsby, which just casually happens to be in my home. how do you take that and start to invent that for the screen?
Whitney Anne Adams (28:40)
So I think one of my very first jobs was here's the book, pull out every visual reference so we can make sure we have it. And whether we use it or not, at least we know what it is and we
Sophie Vershbow (28:50)
Mm-hmm.
Whitney Anne Adams (28:51)
know that it's in there. So I literally come through the book. I w I think I read it probably 40 times, just
Rudi Greenberg (28:57)
Wow.
Whitney Anne Adams (28:58)
pulling
Sophie Vershbow (28:58)
You see.
Whitney Anne Adams (28:58)
every single visual reference out, even if it's
not like a color or a shape. It's this happened or they're they're wrinkled or they're sweaty or just like literally every single thing, putting it into a spreadsheet by character. So each tab on my XL spreadsheet was a different character with, you know, I think green was the book
quote and then blue was the screenplay quote and seeing where they overlapped and seeing just wanted to make sure we had the information. So if we wanted to keep
Sophie Vershbow (29:27)
Mm-hmm.
Whitney Anne Adams (29:27)
it, we keep it if we wanted to jettison it 'cause it didn't work. Like I think we changed a lot of Myrtle's costumes from what is mentioned in the book because it didn't work for Isla Fisher's coloring. But it was helpful to have it as a vibe. I think what I mostly took from this is what of the character are we trying to capture? Who is this character in the book and how do we adapt it to the person who's playing it?
and what it's gonna visually look like in the movie.
Rudi Greenberg (29:51)
Mm. You were like a human AI before there was AI in a lot of ways.
Whitney Anne Adams (29:54)
Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (29:54)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (29:57)
But what I love is the act of doing it just made me sort of think about these characters. I loved sort of going through and pulling them out and and really identifying piece by piece. I think if I were to have some say program trawl all that out, it could do it instantly, but I would lose the process of it, which
Rudi Greenberg (30:15)
Absolutely.
Whitney Anne Adams (30:17)
was so important. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yep.
Sophie Vershbow (30:16)
I mean, you're speaking to people who very much are on the same page as you about that. But
yeah, absolutely. And I think what you've said about vibe is so right. We were just discussing the new show off campus, the new romance show.
Whitney Anne Adams (30:31)
Mm. Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (30:32)
And, you know, that's a show that was taken 10 plus years into the future, but the vibe of how they describe like the main girl, like they still capture it so well in her clothing in a way that.
feels timeless. And so I'm
Whitney Anne Adams (30:46)
Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (30:47)
curious how much does time period and accuracy and that kind of stuff, you know, contribute to the vibe and something, you know, Gatsby is synonymous with the 1920s. How
Whitney Anne Adams (30:58)
Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (30:58)
does that play in?
Whitney Anne Adams (31:00)
Well and also so much of it comes down to director, right? So you
look at the the Redford Gatsby and you look at our Gatsby and they could not be further apart. I think for us too, the important thing though was to do a as faithful of as an adaptation as we could. I think we're far more faithful than the Redford version is, and that's to everyone's taste. yes, our visuals are very different and very much a mixture of modern.
Like we're we're making the skirts higher, we're making the heels higher, you know, we're we're doing all these little tweaks to make a 2013 audience feel like what it would have been like to be there. So
Sophie Vershbow (31:41)
Mm.
Whitney Anne Adams (31:42)
so much of our little tweaks were to make the modern audience understand what was going on and feel like they were a part of it. Whereas I I think what we were also keyed into is making sure it was faithful. But you have to jettison a lot of stuff because you only have two, two and a half hours.
so I remember one of my favorite parts of the job was we had like a workshop of we had all the main actors come in and we read the script, just sitting in this giant room with all of us. So I'm sitting behind Leonardo DiCaprio, there's Toby, there's I like we're all sitting there reading through the script just to be like, have we captured it? Have we, you know, what do we need to keep?
What do we need to jettison? I mean, there were so many rounds of revisions to make sure that we captured the story correctly with the little time that we had.
Rudi Greenberg (32:28)
Whitney, you know, you're operating in this really interesting place on Great Gatsby where you are not necessarily the person like making the decision that, like, okay, this is exactly what we're gonna do. You're working with a costume designer. With is it that would we just call them a costume designer? Would we call them a lead costume designer? Anything specifically? Okay. So you're you're you're trying to
Whitney Anne Adams (32:45)
Yeah. Yes. She's yeah, Catherine Martin was the costume designer, in charge of everything.
Rudi Greenberg (32:52)
execute both her vision.
And then also the director, Boz Lerman's vision. and then also, I don't know if Boz wrote this or not, but also the writer of the screenplay, also the book, like you're trying to balance all of this sort of what I how I often describe it with talking about a book, like the baggage of everything, right?
Sophie Vershbow (33:12)
Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (33:14)
And then also
Whitney Anne Adams (33:14)
Yes.
Rudi Greenberg (33:15)
these different perspectives from the other creatives that you're working with on this project. So I'm curious, like.
How did you try to balance all of that as you're kind of in this role where it sounds like you're providing a lot of the raw material, if you will, that is going to eventually lead to what we see on screen?
Whitney Anne Adams (33:39)
It's a lot of research. I think too, because we were tweaking the twenties so much and we use the whole decade as a canvas, so Jordan is is much more like nineteen twenty-nine, nineteen twenty-eight, like more fashion forward, and Daisy is stuck in like the late teens. And so using storytelling in that way to sort of be more elastic with our time period. But it was like all started with research. We wanted as much research as possible so we could bend the rules where we wanted
Rudi Greenberg (34:04)
Mm.
Whitney Anne Adams (34:04)
to bend the rules.
Sophie Vershbow (34:04)
Mm.
Whitney Anne Adams (34:05)
So it's just about knowing the foundation of all that stuff. So it was like gathering
So many photos. Okay, so the pink suit is the biggest costume in the whole bookslash movie. And you have to do the pink suit. So where is the historical precedent? What advertisements, what photos, what kind of pink suit, what color was it? So doing all that digging, so then we can make an informed decision. But then you also get like Leo's coloring. What pink is gonna look good on his body and what shape? And also it's supposed to be super hot. So like maybe it's a linen, and as it like, you know, they sit in the plaza, it gets more and more wrinkled and
he, you know, gets more undone. And so all these like little details, how do we just sort of like,
Rudi Greenberg (34:44)
Right.
Whitney Anne Adams (34:45)
you know, turn up the storytelling in that way?
Rudi Greenberg (34:47)
So
some of it is like
Sophie Vershbow (34:48)
I love that.
Rudi Greenberg (34:50)
literally taking words from the book and interpreting them not just in like, okay, they describe a specific pink suit. And so now you have that as kind of like the baseline. It's also thinking about the historical time period, how it plays in that scene. And then also I assume how Baz likes to make his movies, which are very in your face.
Whitney Anne Adams (35:15)
Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (35:15)
It seems like
too you're really talking about the costumes being like living, breathing characters
Rudi Greenberg (35:19)
Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (35:20)
in it, which I I love what you're saying about, you know, like he would be nervous seeing Daisy for the that that's the moment, right? When he wears the pink suit when he sees Daisy.
Whitney Anne Adams (35:28)
He wears it at
the end, like at the plaza, the big like blow up. That's the big but that's
Sophie Vershbow (35:32)
yes. Okay, okay.
Whitney Anne Adams (35:34)
the suit you're talking about when he first sees Daisy, that is also in the book. Very specific silver shirt, like white suit and
Sophie Vershbow (35:42)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (35:43)
the gold tie. That is ve another very, very, very specifically described suit. So we were looking
Sophie Vershbow (35:48)
And like it
Whitney Anne Adams (35:48)
for the right gold, the right, you know, silver shirt.
Sophie Vershbow (35:51)
I love that.
like it rains at one point, like it would wringle. He would be nervous and be sweating and it would show through And I think something
Whitney Anne Adams (35:56)
Yes. And soaked and you'd see the lining and yeah. Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (36:00)
that, Rudy, you were maybe about to allude to is I'm really curious, you know, when I think of Great Gatsby, it's a story of opulence. You know, even I
Rudi Greenberg (36:08)
Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (36:09)
can picture, I've seen the Baz Lerman movie a few times. I can picture him throwing like luxury fabrics down at Daisy. Like it's not just.
their costumes. And I'm curious about, you know, it I'm sure a decent amount of effects were used in the movie to make it look a certain well, like this sh the the area. But I'm guessing
Rudi Greenberg (36:31)
Machine.
Sophie Vershbow (36:32)
that the costumes were a place to like really ground that opulence. And I'm curious like how you go about something like that. Because you know it's so much easier in your imagination. Like I can picture those those parties.
So clearly in my head. How do you how do you do that on the screen?
Whitney Anne Adams (36:50)
Scale is massive and so we built everything. Everything was made from scratch.
Sophie Vershbow (36:54)
Wow.
Whitney Anne Adams (36:54)
And so like that's a huge undertaking. And so also I was responsible for buying every single fabric for the movie. So I
Sophie Vershbow (37:01)
my god.
Whitney Anne Adams (37:02)
I see I have a swatch from every single fabric from the movie. I eventually want to make myself a little tapestry crazy quilt of all of them.
Rudi Greenberg (37:09)
you should.
Sophie Vershbow (37:09)
that'd be so cool.
Whitney Anne Adams (37:11)
But it was just a lot, and it was constantly like, okay.
we're using maybe some more modern styling fabric, but
Sophie Vershbow (37:18)
Mm.
Whitney Anne Adams (37:18)
with this nineteen twenties perfectly twenties shape. And so
again, you have that mixture of period and modern. So, yes, the period is correct, but the fabric is just a little bit more something that an audience will understand. But trying to get the assembly line and just getting all of that going. It helps that Baz and and Catherine are married, and so they just have this like.
Sophie Vershbow (37:40)
Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (37:40)
Sure.
Whitney Anne Adams (37:41)
super tight communication and Baz cowrote the script and and so they're they were living breathing it for like six years.
Sophie Vershbow (37:48)
you said this with like the heels a little higher, the headlines a little shorter. I if I'm remembering the movie right, there was also like Jay Z music and stuff inserted. And so I it made me think
Whitney Anne Adams (37:57)
Yes, yes. Yep.
Rudi Greenberg (37:58)
Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (37:59)
like, was that all sort of like
The music so it would feel like raci or the hemlines, because like the fashion back then was scandalous, but to us, like a 1920s dress is the most conservative
Whitney Anne Adams (38:08)
Yes. So not scandalous.
Sophie Vershbow (38:11)
thing I've seen on New York City today. So w was
Whitney Anne Adams (38:13)
Exactly.
Sophie Vershbow (38:15)
that the point behind it?
Whitney Anne Adams (38:16)
Absolutely. That was for us to feel like, this is edgy. And especially all of that jazz, all of the music, that
Sophie Vershbow (38:21)
Mm.
Whitney Anne Adams (38:22)
was such a a new frontier. And so we wanted to really have that feeling come across. And also filming it in three D was another level. Yeah, we filmed it in three D. Yeah. But Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (38:32)
Right. I forgot about my god, I saw it in 3D.
Rudi Greenberg (38:32)
my God, that's right.
That was the everything has to be in 3D era.
Whitney Anne Adams (38:43)
The the way that Baz
Sophie Vershbow (38:44)
Well.
Whitney Anne Adams (38:44)
described it, so there's only two copies of the Hitchcock Dial for Murder in the original 3D. And so Baz brought one of them to New York. And so there was a little screening with Baz, CM, Toby, Leo, and we watched Dial for Murder and we saw how 3D was used for this little drama. And he's like, This is this is the type of 3D that we're going for.
we're we're bringing the audience into it and made me understand what we were doing. It was not like Jaws three D, you know, which I love so much, but it was that's yeah,
Sophie Vershbow (39:12)
Yeah. Sharknado ten.
Whitney Anne Adams (39:16)
we're not doing we're not doing that. So it was like how do we pull the audience in with this new dimension?
Rudi Greenberg (39:24)
How much, Whitney, did you use the prior adaptations as a framework? Because there are several different great
Whitney Anne Adams (39:32)
There's many
Rudi Greenberg (39:33)
Gadsby movies. There's a silent film from the 20s. There's one from the 40s. There's, of course, kind of the most famous prior to this adaptation, with Robert Redford and and Mia Farrow. There's some some TV movies. There's a modern adaptation called G, like.
Were you watching all of these and trying to see what they did and how you could take bits of it and maybe ignore other parts of it? Or did you want to create something completely brand new?
Whitney Anne Adams (40:03)
Yeah, we purposely didn't look at a single one. So we never
Rudi Greenberg (40:06)
Wow.
Whitney Anne Adams (40:07)
ever looked at any of it. We sort of put it in a vault and locked it away
Rudi Greenberg (40:11)
Mm-hmm.
Whitney Anne Adams (40:12)
because we just didn't even want to be influenced whatsoever by anything. I had seen, you know, the the Redford Gatsby a long time previously.
Rudi Greenberg (40:19)
Mm-hmm.
Whitney Anne Adams (40:19)
So I didn't watch it again until after our movie had come out as sort of a
Rudi Greenberg (40:23)
Okay, okay.
Whitney Anne Adams (40:24)
a comparison. So we were s we were so locked in. Yeah. Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (40:25)
They're so different stylistically, I mean.
Rudi Greenberg (40:26)
They are. I think of him in that white suit, I think, from
yeah, from that's that's the enduring image I have from from that one.
Whitney Anne Adams (40:34)
Exactly. And that's
from the book as well. And so I think that's
Rudi Greenberg (40:38)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (40:38)
maybe our closest crossover. But
Sophie Vershbow (40:41)
Say too, it's
even the book has sort of been like readapted. So when I worked at Scribner, it was still copyrighted to Scribner. And since
Whitney Anne Adams (40:48)
Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (40:49)
then, the copyright has expired. And so the copy I'm holding is from when I worked at Random House. This is a modern library copy, which is their classics imprint. And so this has, yeah, this has a
Whitney Anne Adams (40:59)
Yeah, I've never seen that cover.
Sophie Vershbow (41:01)
different, and I think I have the classic one somewhere on my shelf, but this has a different introduction. So when that
Copyright expired, basically all the most of the major publishers have like a classics house in there somewhere for reprints. And they basically all rush to put out a new edition with a cool new intro and, you know, something to to market it. And so it's really one of those stories. Like I think it's so interesting stylistically, like, how do you inter reinterpret the cover visually? It's like one of those stories that keeps just reinventing itself.
Rudi Greenberg (41:34)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (41:35)
Especially with that
iconic cover, right? But then also I
Sophie Vershbow (41:38)
Yep.
Whitney Anne Adams (41:38)
feel like we made a really iconic poster and so it's it's
Sophie Vershbow (41:41)
yeah. Well, it's a meme.
Whitney Anne Adams (41:42)
it's such a meme.
Rudi Greenberg (41:43)
I I so I was I was gonna ask, like,
how do you feel about helping in a small way to create one of the three enduring Leonardo DiCaprio memes? I mean, there are basically
Sophie Vershbow (41:53)
Ha ha ha.
Rudi Greenberg (41:54)
like three movie stills
Whitney Anne Adams (41:55)
Yes.
Rudi Greenberg (41:56)
that have endured. There's you know, once upon a time in Hollywood, the pointing at the pointing at the at the screen. There's the yes, the Django and Chain the other one that I'm thinking of, and then of course
Whitney Anne Adams (42:02)
There's the Django Unchained one, right? Yes. Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (42:06)
the Gatsby with the, you know, with the drink.
Sophie Vershbow (42:07)
I was thinking of him running around with the
water, being hit by a water gun, laughing.
Whitney Anne Adams (42:12)
yeah,
that one is also his his, you know, hanging
Sophie Vershbow (42:14)
Four.
Whitney Anne Adams (42:15)
out real time. I do love that I've I'm a tiny little part of that. Another fun thing is that I was the one who hand carried all of his suits to Australia.
Rudi Greenberg (42:25)
wow.
Whitney Anne Adams (42:26)
So all of those were in my bag. the Academy Museum in LA just had a color exhibit on last year and they had the pink suit in on display. I was like, the last
Rudi Greenberg (42:33)
that's so cool.
Sophie Vershbow (42:34)
My boy.
Whitney Anne Adams (42:35)
time I saw that, it was in my luggage.
Sophie Vershbow (42:37)
Ha ha ha ha.
Rudi Greenberg (42:37)
Well, let's talk a little
bit about that. Cause you talked about being responsible for, you know, acquiring every every piece of fabric that,
you know, ended up on screen. So th I don't think people don't always think about the scale when they're thinking about a movie of like how much
Sophie Vershbow (42:57)
Say yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (42:58)
goes into the craft behind it. And particularly with something like Gatsby, where you were having this like lavish
Sophie Vershbow (43:06)
The extras.
Rudi Greenberg (43:06)
Lavish parties,
all the extras, like there's a lot that goes into that. I doubt you have a number on like how many yards of fabric were used to make
Whitney Anne Adams (43:15)
yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (43:16)
this movie, but like yeah, like what do you can you
Sophie Vershbow (43:17)
How many people did you dress? I
Whitney Anne Adams (43:19)
god.
Rudi Greenberg (43:19)
talk about scale at all?
Whitney Anne Adams (43:21)
Definitely over a thousand for the parties. And, you know, all of our men's suiting was made by Brooks Brothers in Indonesia.
Rudi Greenberg (43:28)
Mm.
Whitney Anne Adams (43:28)
So they made all of our back with our designs, but they made it in their
Rudi Greenberg (43:31)
Yeah, yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (43:31)
Yeah, no court.
Whitney Anne Adams (43:32)
factory for us, especially because Brooks Brothers was Fitzgerald's, you know, where he went to buy his suits, we had that little connection,
Rudi Greenberg (43:38)
sure, sure. Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (43:40)
which was really important to us. And then our tailoring department in at Fox Studios, they made all of our women's wear. And they just had to last through the party scenes. So some of the
We're
flying, falling. I will say, right before I came here to do this movie I'm on right now, I went to the Warner Brothers archive because I had never been to visit my old friends, the Gatsby costumes. And so
Rudi Greenberg (44:03)
Gotta gotta get there while you still can.
Sophie Vershbow (44:04)
my god. Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (44:06)
I saw a couple, because I was also, in addition to everything else, I was doing Carrie Mulligan's Fit Model during the movie. So I got to wear all of her clothes.
Sophie Vershbow (44:13)
my god.
Rudi Greenberg (44:13)
That's so fun.
Whitney Anne Adams (44:15)
I got to wear the the beaded her party dress. I got to put that on. It's so heavy.
Sophie Vershbow (44:17)
God, that's amazing.
Whitney Anne Adams (44:20)
But
I got to visit some of our like things we had made for Daisy that didn't end up being for Daisy
Rudi Greenberg (44:25)
Uh-huh.
Whitney Anne Adams (44:25)
went to a background and so those were still in the archive that I just saw fi you know, fifteen years later. 'Cause we filmed it in twenty
Rudi Greenberg (44:31)
So that
Whitney Anne Adams (44:31)
eleven.
Rudi Greenberg (44:32)
that brings up a really good question for me, which is like, what happens to all the costumes after because you
Sophie Vershbow (44:36)
my God, what?
Rudi Greenberg (44:37)
make I mean, obviously you you alluded to the fact that these aren't necessarily made to last. They're just made to last through shooting, but
Whitney Anne Adams (44:45)
Yes.
Rudi Greenberg (44:46)
there are pieces that I assume could be worn by someone, you know, what what
Whitney Anne Adams (44:49)
Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (44:50)
happens?
Whitney Anne Adams (44:50)
So it's been rented out for fifteen years. So all of the background costumes went to Warner Brothers and they have a special Gatsby
collection in their rental
Sophie Vershbow (44:58)
Cool.
Whitney Anne Adams (44:59)
house. And so so
Rudi Greenberg (45:00)
That's awesome.
Whitney Anne Adams (45:00)
many I mean, I think a bunch was just featured in Spider Noir this year. So it
Rudi Greenberg (45:05)
wow, okay.
Whitney Anne Adams (45:06)
just has been yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (45:06)
Do studios cross rent from each other or is it
like mostly within?
Rudi Greenberg (45:10)
I'm sure.
Whitney Anne Adams (45:11)
Yeah, you you can pull from e anywhere. Like I'm currently doing
Sophie Vershbow (45:14)
Cool.
Whitney Anne Adams (45:14)
a Warner Brothers movie. I'm pulling at Warner Brothers, but I also can pull at Universal. I can pull at all the different rental houses because they all have different stuff. And so I think all the principal costumes, you know, were specialty archived. You know, you're not gonna
Rudi Greenberg (45:28)
Uh-huh.
Sophie Vershbow (45:28)
Mm-hmm.
Whitney Anne Adams (45:29)
just put Leo's tucks into the rental house.
Sophie Vershbow (45:31)
No. Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (45:32)
That's like for the archive purpose it only. But all the a bunch of the background stuff ended up in this special collection. And I will
One funny anecdote from filming our first day of the party scene, you know, we've been working for months and months and months to like get all these costumes on camera and I'm like tying everyone's bow tie and getting all the ladies ready and I put my three D glasses on to go sit at the monitor. And our our temp music to dance for all the dancing scenes was Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO.
Sophie Vershbow (46:02)
What?
Whitney Anne Adams (46:02)
So they're all
Rudi Greenberg (46:03)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (46:03)
dancing to LMFAO and I'm crying because seeing everyone dancing together after all of this work and so every time I hear that song I get a little misty-eyed.
Rudi Greenberg (46:15)
you know, we we've been talking about you working on this big budget, lavish, crazy production. but it's not the only book to screen adaptation that you've worked on and
And I don't know if this was a smaller scale or not, but the
Whitney Anne Adams (46:30)
yes.
Rudi Greenberg (46:31)
twenty twenty four film The Supremes at Earl's All You Can Eat, that it is a mouthful of a title. Now
Whitney Anne Adams (46:35)
Mouthful of a title.
Sophie Vershbow (46:36)
Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (46:38)
that you were the costume designer on, right?
Whitney Anne Adams (46:40)
Yeah. Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (46:41)
So tell me, tell us a little bit about how you approached that, which is also based on a book. Is the book called The Supremes at Earls All You Can Eat? Yeah. Okay.
Whitney Anne Adams (46:51)
Yeah, it's
actually the title of the book, which is I think how we ended up with that mouthful of a of a title. It confused everybody because they're like, is it about the Supremes? I was like, it's not. It's about three best friends who call themselves the Supremes, like the Supremes. So
Rudi Greenberg (47:04)
okay, okay.
Whitney Anne Adams (47:06)
I remember I got the interview and so I read the book, and then I read the script and I was like, these are so different, like wildly
Rudi Greenberg (47:12)
Okay.
Whitney Anne Adams (47:13)
different. I mean, the framework was totally changed for the movie.
Rudi Greenberg (47:16)
Mm.
Whitney Anne Adams (47:17)
A hundred percent the right call.
Sophie Vershbow (47:18)
Mm-hmm.
Whitney Anne Adams (47:19)
but it was really interesting to go to quite a drastically different adaptation. And there's this whole thing about ghosts in the book that is beautiful and I love it, but it does not work for inner monologues and and adapting it into into a movie.
Sophie Vershbow (47:35)
In in a situation like this, and I'm sure it's a different project to project, but was it important in that case for you as a costume designer on the project to reference the book in the same way as you would on a project like Gatsby, where it's really specifically bringing a book to the screen?
Whitney Anne Adams (47:53)
I think for me it was a really big hit within the community that that read it and I wanted to pay homage to these characters
Sophie Vershbow (48:00)
Mm-hmm.
Whitney Anne Adams (48:01)
and I think I wanted to capture their essence, but not there's a lot of there's a ton of specific clothing references in the book. So
Sophie Vershbow (48:09)
Mm-hmm.
Whitney Anne Adams (48:09)
many of them didn't end up being the right thing on my actors. I definitely tried them. I think I did the same thing. I pulled every visual reference out of the book and the screenplay and had my little spreadsheet. I just copied my Gatsby spreadsheet and
Sophie Vershbow (48:22)
Nice.
Whitney Anne Adams (48:23)
brought it over to this one. I had to dig it out after over almost a decade of of sitting dormant. Yes. I'm like, I already did this. Let me pull this out.
Sophie Vershbow (48:27)
We love repurposing a document that's already been formatted. Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (48:33)
And it was interesting to see, okay, I don't know if that's gonna work on my actor's body. You know, I
Sophie Vershbow (48:39)
Mm-hmm.
Whitney Anne Adams (48:39)
pulled it all out and I did pull a bunch of these specific pieces. Like one of the three best friends, they mentioned her white go-go boots a million times, but I was like, I don't think I get who that character is.
And let me try to r make her that in a different way and use a different piece. So all
Sophie Vershbow (48:56)
Mm-hmm.
Whitney Anne Adams (48:57)
of those references in the book were super helpful to like create the visual character in my mind. But I'm like, how do I adapt that to not only my, you know, actors' body type and their coloring and and everything, how you know, how do I still capture that person, but also how the actor is playing the character. So you have to sort of walk this.
Tightrope because you also don't want them to stray too far from the characters that all of the audience members fell in love with.
Rudi Greenberg (49:24)
Did you feel like because the movie took liberties with the source material that it also allowed you to take more liberties with the costuming?
Whitney Anne Adams (49:34)
Definitely. I felt like I had a lot of freedom. Also, I had an amazing director who also helped with edits on the script and and you know co-wrote it with Gina Price Bywitt. Tina Maybury is my director's name, and she was amazing. And she really gave me carte blanche a lot of the time to do what
Rudi Greenberg (49:50)
Nice.
Whitney Anne Adams (49:51)
felt right and what felt like the character. But there was a couple of things that really told me who these characters were. Like our main female lead.
of one of the best friends. She her blind grandmother made her clothes and she didn't care. She wore it because she loved her grandmother. And so just how do I have a really, really ugly dress on screen that also isn't so ugly, it's distracting. That was that was one of the
Rudi Greenberg (50:15)
Mm.
Whitney Anne Adams (50:15)
hardest costumes to do because she's in it for like a huge chunk of the intro of the movie. Something that looks like a blind person made it and looks, and all of her friends are like that.
dress is so ugly. basically called it virginity insurance.
Sophie Vershbow (50:31)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (50:33)
And so, you know, finding out what what is that? What actually is that?
Sophie Vershbow (50:37)
I never thought about it before like that, you know, of course, in some cases challenging, you have different properties, but in a lot of cases, the book is actually additional information for you to go on. Like, you
Whitney Anne Adams (50:46)
Yes. yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (50:48)
know, I think we all all of us work in various creative fields. And sometimes when you have just open ending can be the most stressful. And so more specificity, more details, more things to pull from can actually really it sounds like be a gift to a costume designer.
Whitney Anne Adams (51:04)
It was wonderful because it gave me a direction. I'm like, who who are these women? Who are these people? Who are all the characters in the book? And it just gave me a jumping off point to start the discussion
Sophie Vershbow (51:14)
Mm.
Whitney Anne Adams (51:15)
and then also looking for images. The the movie took place from in nineteen fifty, nineteen sixty eight, nineteen seventy seven, and nineteen ninety nine. So four very distinct decades.
Sophie Vershbow (51:24)
Yeah. So just
there we go.
Whitney Anne Adams (51:26)
Have
it, you know, just every every time period. So I had to create four different clothing stocks, and how do I track these characters over those, you know, four decades and make sure they stayed
Rudi Greenberg (51:35)
Right, right.
Sophie Vershbow (51:36)
Mm.
Whitney Anne Adams (51:37)
the same, and you know, two different actors are playing each character. And so having the through line between their young versions and their
adult versions, and how do we carry their color palette? How do we carry their shapes
Rudi Greenberg (51:47)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (51:48)
and make sure that the color palette and the shapes work on both bodies?
Of the two actors, and so there's like a lot of challenges on this one.
Sophie Vershbow (51:57)
I never thought of that before you said it. The fact that the body type of the actor and the way the costumes are described can be at odds.
Whitney Anne Adams (52:08)
Totally. And a lot of them were at odds
on this one. So it was how do I capture that essence but make it work on this person's body? Or
Sophie Vershbow (52:15)
Mm.
Whitney Anne Adams (52:16)
you know, ever everyone is beautiful in in all shapes and sizes. So it's just,
Sophie Vershbow (52:21)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (52:21)
the way they wrote this in the book, that doesn't quite work with their proportions or this
Sophie Vershbow (52:24)
Mm-hmm.
Whitney Anne Adams (52:25)
doesn't quite work this way and just making sure that everyone feels correct and and feels right.
Rudi Greenberg (52:32)
Then you're also tracking like the evolution not only of style through decades,
Whitney Anne Adams (52:36)
Yes.
Rudi Greenberg (52:37)
but also individual style of these characters. And you, like
Sophie Vershbow (52:42)
Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (52:42)
you said, you want to remain true to, you know, the sixties or seventies version of them, but they might have evolved in the nineties version of them and dress
Sophie Vershbow (52:50)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (52:50)
Right.
Rudi Greenberg (52:51)
a little bit differently as a result. And that is like a really interesting challenge, I imagine.
Whitney Anne Adams (52:56)
Yeah, like how did that thirty, forty years what w how are they still the same person? How how have they evolved? And for the the woman who wore her blind grandmother's dress,
Sophie Vershbow (53:05)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (53:05)
it was her just going into bold and wacky prints and colors, but then also she finds out she has cancer and she's slowly dying of cancer. So her bold, wacky prints became more and more muted as she got sicker and sicker. So there's like a color story on top of everything else too that's happening. So by the time we get to the end of the movie, she's in these gray, sad
Muted tones.
Rudi Greenberg (53:26)
It's
it's one of those things that if you're doing your job well, the audience maybe doesn't even really notice. But once you
Whitney Anne Adams (53:33)
Yes.
Rudi Greenberg (53:34)
start talking about it, you realize how much thought and preparation and how much storytelling
Sophie Vershbow (53:40)
Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (53:41)
is is happening just through the clothes that the characters wear.
Whitney Anne Adams (53:46)
Cause you don't want the
audience to think about it. You want it to just be. You want it to like exist and feel correct. And I think an audience can tell when something feels wrong or they can't really put their finger on it or or sort of feel like, why does this feel off to me? But if it all
feels right, they don't notice us. And that's like a good thing and a bad thing, because then we don't always get the recognition that we deserve or the pay that we deserve. you know, a
Rudi Greenberg (54:10)
Mm.
Whitney Anne Adams (54:11)
lot of a lot of times we're like, it's just clothes.
And and
that's the biggest the hardest thing about this job. It's like it's not just clothes.
Rudi Greenberg (54:19)
Do you
have a hard time when you're watching a movie or a TV show, not thinking about how the costumes came together and like the cr I know sometimes when I'm like watching something for the podcast, for example, versus I'm just watching it because I want to watch it, I do take a little bit more of like a critical lens where I'm like thinking about the mechanics behind it. Is
Sophie Vershbow (54:41)
Mm-hmm.
Rudi Greenberg (54:41)
it the same for you where like it's hard for you to take costume designer Whitney?
like and put her aside and just watch it as like a person.
Whitney Anne Adams (54:50)
Yeah, my brain doesn't turn off. I do find it's more helpful to see something in the cinema. I'm more likely
Rudi Greenberg (54:55)
Course.
Whitney Anne Adams (54:56)
to go on the ride if I'm in a movie theater. So I try to see as many movies in
Sophie Vershbow (55:00)
Mm. Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (55:01)
a theater as possible. You know, I just moved to LA last year and so there's so many great old movie screenings and this. So even if I'm seeing something from decades ago, I want to go to a cinema and see it.
Rudi Greenberg (55:11)
Yeah.
I'd I feel like I'd love to hear your hot takes on the costumes in the Odyssey because I know there's been a lot of talk about that not being specific, but no.
Whitney Anne Adams (55:20)
Lotta lot of hot takes. I
Sophie Vershbow (55:23)
Historical
Whitney Anne Adams (55:23)
will say,
Sophie Vershbow (55:23)
accuracy.
Whitney Anne Adams (55:24)
I will say, my my blanket soapbox statement for all of this is if you want to see historical accuracy, go to a museum. This is storytelling. This is
Rudi Greenberg (55:34)
How I feel.
Whitney Anne Adams (55:36)
this is
Sophie Vershbow (55:36)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (55:37)
you know, it's using clothing, it's using every design element to tell a story.
Sophie Vershbow (55:42)
I I think what you said about vibe is is really right. It's about capturing the mood of it, not having it be archival necessarily. And I I do find it really interesting when we get in debates. I think, you know, like the JFK show was a really great example of that, where, you know, how much is just buying the exact same thing and how much is reinterpretation? And
It's so specific. I mean, I I will say Whitney and I share a very close friend who is a costume designer. And an example that always sticks out, and I I'm not saying this example is a joke. It really sticks out in my head is that she was sourcing archival photography to learn what prostitutes in the 1970s were. And it
Whitney Anne Adams (56:25)
Uh-huh.
Sophie Vershbow (56:25)
was like, no, we can't dress them like prostitutes now or like prostitutes in pretty women. It wouldn't look like New York in the 1970s. This is what, and so it was figuring out, you know.
I don't think a lot of the fabrics still exist that were being
Rudi Greenberg (56:39)
Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (56:39)
worn in that exact situation. What is
Whitney Anne Adams (56:41)
That they don't.
Sophie Vershbow (56:42)
that right now to capture that vibe and the specificity that you all chase in this storytelling, whether it's a specific time period or just a character or book from a book is really extraordinary. It's been really fun for me to know you and to know our friend and just hear more about how it happens because it is so involved.
Whitney Anne Adams (57:05)
So and it's different changes, right? So if you made a Gatsby today,
Sophie Vershbow (57:09)
yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (57:09)
it'd be totally different. Cause a a you know 2026, 2027 audience is totally different. Yeah, now it's time. Seriously. And like
Rudi Greenberg (57:11)
Yeah. I know I was gonna say we're probably gonna get one in the next ten years, would be my guess.
Sophie Vershbow (57:13)
We probably do, honestly. Yeah. We're like,
Whitney Anne Adams (57:19)
every movie I do, it i you have to think about the audience that's going to see it now because that's it affects yeah. Yes, I think so. Probably, probably. Yes, yes. Yes, exactly.
Sophie Vershbow (57:24)
It's gonna be an Emerald Finel Gatsby, isn't it? I just thought about it. It is.
Rudi Greenberg (57:29)
It'll be gen it'll be gender flipped. Gatsby will be a woman. And Nick will be a woman too.
Sophie Vershbow (57:35)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (57:36)
Like everything is
context. You're like who's seeing it, who's watching it. Yeah, what fabrics
Sophie Vershbow (57:40)
Totally.
Whitney Anne Adams (57:40)
exist. You know, I'm I'm currently doing a 1940s movie and you know, it's a horror movie that needs multiples and the fabrics, you know, trying to find dead stock 40s fabrics doesn't really exist.
Rudi Greenberg (57:51)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (57:52)
It's too it's too long ago. And so you it is. Yeah, it is.
Rudi Greenberg (57:54)
Is it more fun though to do something like that versus like a modern thing? Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (57:57)
Ha ha.
Whitney Anne Adams (57:59)
I love I love doing period. It's one of my favorite things. I also love doing horror movies, so this is a nice combo of the two.
Rudi Greenberg (58:05)
Yeah. Well,
speaking of horror movies and adaptations of a different kind, you did the costumes on Five Nights at Freddy's Two, which if you're listening to this and don't know what that is, that is a sequel to an adaptation of a video game, starring Josh Hutcherson. And, you know, was a huge hit. and I'm curious, you know, while we talk about books on this podcast, we do talk about adaptation in
In many different forms, because that's what we're interested in. And I think this video game thing is obviously a huge thing right now, right? We're getting more and
Whitney Anne Adams (58:40)
Yes.
Rudi Greenberg (58:40)
more of these video game adaptations, but you're coming at something like Five Nights at Freddy's 2 in two ways. You have the source material, but you also have a a one, the first movie to base things on. Right. So how does that work where you're like
Whitney Anne Adams (58:52)
Yes. Right. Which I didn't design. So you know, two layers.
Rudi Greenberg (58:57)
not only looking back at what they did in the first movie, but also
what the source material of the game was like.
Whitney Anne Adams (59:04)
Exactly. I ha really had to dive in. I knew nothing about the franchise before I got this job and I I'm friends with the designer who did the first one and so, you know, I was so excited to take her characters into their evolution. But it was definitely trying to give myself a boot camp because there's a huge fan base. They care so deeply about these characters and where they go and what they're wearing and and so it was
you know, finding out I'm not playing those games 'cause they're too scary for me. Can't do a jumpstair game.
But I did, you know, bought every single official book, you know, and character
Rudi Greenberg (59:40)
Mm-hmm.
Whitney Anne Adams (59:40)
descriptions who are like, What's the lore? The lore doesn't make a ton of sense. There's a lot of contradictory stuff.
Sophie Vershbow (59:45)
Were there like novelizations
or were they like guidebooks?
Whitney Anne Adams (59:49)
There's like graphic novels, and then there's like
Sophie Vershbow (59:51)
Okay.
Whitney Anne Adams (59:51)
character encyclopedia of all
the different characters and all the games, and then I'm digging
Sophie Vershbow (59:56)
Got it.
Whitney Anne Adams (59:56)
through Reddit, going through every single Reddit page, and then seeing people's cosplays, because that we have a scene in the movie where we have you know middle schoolers doing cosplay of these characters. I had to make 200 handmade cosplay costumes, and so I
Sophie Vershbow (1:00:12)
Well
Whitney Anne Adams (1:00:12)
used a lot of the fans' own cosplay as my reference.
And so I'm digging through
Rudi Greenberg (1:00:16)
That's fun.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:00:17)
getting all of that. And then also I just had the the first movie on a loop in my office. So it was always playing in the background. Yeah, it's just
Sophie Vershbow (1:00:22)
Nice. Yeah, he just like couldn't pay attention.
Rudi Greenberg (1:00:23)
Mm.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:00:27)
like it's there and then I can just, you know, see what the clothes are. But like, you know, the characters have evolved. It's a year and a half later. And, you know, the
Sophie Vershbow (1:00:33)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:00:34)
the sister is growing up and and who is she now? But also it takes place in two thousand two. So the two thousand two of it all. And then there's a flashback to the eighties. So I had both eighties and
The funny thing was I'm you know, I went to high school in two thousand two so I used all my high school yearbooks as reference
Sophie Vershbow (1:00:49)
Nice.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:00:50)
for these
Rudi Greenberg (1:00:50)
I love that.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:00:51)
young people. I was like, man, this makes me feel real old right now
Rudi Greenberg (1:00:54)
Ha ha
ha
Sophie Vershbow (1:00:55)
Whitney, was there
like a really rabid fan base for that? I'm always curious what it's like
Whitney Anne Adams (1:01:00)
Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (1:01:01)
to design for a rabid fan base. I've only experienced it a bit at publishers with like big sci-fi books
Whitney Anne Adams (1:01:07)
wow, yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (1:01:08)
from the social media angle. What's that like for you?
Whitney Anne Adams (1:01:12)
Well, we had people trying to break into our office and we had
Sophie Vershbow (1:01:15)
Great. Wonderful. Hmm.
Rudi Greenberg (1:01:15)
My God.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:01:17)
some of our background actors were taking pictures of my costume fitting space and it was in the middle of like cosplay time, so we had stuff everywhere. It was it was like it felt very violating, especially because it's it was
Sophie Vershbow (1:01:29)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:01:29)
not looking tidy 'cause we were in the middle of five million costume builds.
So it just anyone who's like taking and then they posted it on Twitter and it just felt really icky. And
Sophie Vershbow (1:01:42)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:01:42)
so that part was hard. But then when the movie came out, just seeing all the fans like react to all of my posts and my beh you know, I love to do detailed breakdowns of why I chose the costume that I chose and where things come from and and all of the little like Easter eggs in the costumes. That's what I love to do. And so getting all the fans
to, you know, their love and support and their, you know, feeling seen in the cosplay, like that made all of the kind of hard hard bits worth it.
Rudi Greenberg (1:02:11)
That's so cool. Was this like the
Sophie Vershbow (1:02:12)
Yeah, that's awesome.
Rudi Greenberg (1:02:13)
biggest production that you've worked on as the main costume designer? Yeah. Sure.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:02:17)
I'd say, yeah. And this one I'm currently on is also about
the same scale. So it's like nice to be doing some bigger things and, you know, gearing up, up, up, which has been really, really fun. I love working on things of all sizes, but it's nice to have some more support and and especially doing period is one of my favorite things to do.
Rudi Greenberg (1:02:38)
Well,
in horror too, I mean, so much of horror films are like the outfits. And, you know, you think about yeah, but I mean you
Whitney Anne Adams (1:02:46)
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Sophie Vershbow (1:02:46)
Art projects, they're doing art projects.
Rudi Greenberg (1:02:49)
think about like Freddy, Jason, Ghostface, like these are our iconic characters because of both the costume design and the creature design.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:02:59)
Yes. Mm-hmm.
Rudi Greenberg (1:03:00)
And that's such a crucial thing to
to be part of. Like that must have been cool to to get to kind of add to that lineage.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:03:09)
absolutely. And one of my favorite designs I've ever done was this movie called Freaky that unfortunately came out in twenty twenty. Yeah, yeah. And getting to
Rudi Greenberg (1:03:14)
Uh-huh. yeah. With with Vince Fawn, right? Yeah, that's a good movie.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:03:19)
create like the the butcher costume, you know,
Rudi Greenberg (1:03:22)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:03:22)
the the red jacket and that whole thing and seeing people cosplay it everywhere. Like, you know, having my little slice
Sophie Vershbow (1:03:27)
cool. That's awesome.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:03:28)
of yeah, I love I love seeing that and having a little part. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Rudi Greenberg (1:03:31)
Is that Catherine Newton, right? Yeah, Catherine
Newton and Vince Vaughn body swap essentially, horror comedy. Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:03:37)
Yes. Yeah, exactly. Our working title
was Freaky Friday the thirteenth, but then Disney sued us or tried to sue us and we're like, Okay, we'll drop the thirteenth part.
Rudi Greenberg (1:03:43)
Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. It's a it that's a I remember that
Sophie Vershbow (1:03:46)
Mm-hmm.
Rudi Greenberg (1:03:48)
as a good pandemic watch. That was a fun one. that's interesting too, 'cause that's one where your your it's a original story, but like also it does have a little like you just mentioned, there is kind of a
Whitney Anne Adams (1:04:01)
Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (1:04:01)
little bit of like IP in there, even if it's not really IP that you're working off of. And also you're dressing I was I was just gonna say you're dressing
Whitney Anne Adams (1:04:06)
absolutely. I like a lot of my stuff.
Rudi Greenberg (1:04:10)
like, you know,
A man as if he's now being dressed by a a teenage girl and and vice versa,
Whitney Anne Adams (1:04:15)
Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (1:04:16)
right?
Whitney Anne Adams (1:04:17)
Exactly. And there's always
The great thing costume design is that you're always referencing something else because everything has been done before, right? We there's no
Sophie Vershbow (1:04:24)
Mm-hmm.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:04:24)
new ideas anymore. And so there's always reinterpretations of everything. And so my that red leather jacket look for, you know, the butcher in Millie's body is is a combination of Sandy at the end of Grease and James Dean and Rebel Without a Cause. And so it's like a weird combo of those two. And also you're thinking, all of my stuff is about how.
It's grounded, right? Okay, so
there's the serial killer in this teenage girl's body. What is he going to pick to wear? And, you know, I was starting to think about right?
Sophie Vershbow (1:04:55)
What a question. I love that.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:04:57)
What like what would he choose? Well, he's right. I
Sophie Vershbow (1:04:59)
Like what would he like a juicy crack suit? I don't know.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:05:02)
was like, well, nothing too feminine because that would feel weird for him. And so going with these like wide leg, high waisted denim jeans felt, you know, he's he's a serial killer who I think steals trucker's clothing and kills mechanics and stuff. So
more of like the the strong structured structured jacket. Also I gotta think about stunts. So there's so many
Sophie Vershbow (1:05:22)
Mm.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:05:22)
stunts happening. It has to be
Rudi Greenberg (1:05:22)
Sure.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:05:23)
long sleeve. It has to have enough room to like conceal padding. So every costume is so multi purpose and like what's gonna show blood? Do I wanna show blood or or is it gonna wipe off or can I wash it? And a million questions each garment, each costume is like a million questions.
Rudi Greenberg (1:05:41)
Well, Whitney, this has been a really great conversation. And we
Sophie Vershbow (1:05:44)
Thank you so much.
Rudi Greenberg (1:05:45)
are so happy that you you joined and got to tell us all about all of this.
we ask every guest this question, which is what book do you wish had an adaptation but doesn't? But for you, we're gonna put a little twist on it, which is what book do you want to design costumes for that hasn't been adapted?
Whitney Anne Adams (1:06:07)
It's such a tough question because there's okay, so I'm a big book hound. I think I have six bookshelves in my house that are full of books, but I also have two that are just rom-com books.
Sophie Vershbow (1:06:18)
Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:06:19)
I love a rom-com. I've been I've have never done one. I really want to do one one
Rudi Greenberg (1:06:23)
wow.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:06:23)
day. one of my favorites is called Part of Your World. And it's like a modern day, but I just like love
Sophie Vershbow (1:06:29)
It up.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:06:29)
again, I love a story so much that.
I would wanna do that story. I just wanna be a part of that storytelling, even if it's not specifically like a period or this or that. Yeah, I love her. And so
Sophie Vershbow (1:06:38)
Happy Jimenez. She's wonderful.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:06:42)
I'm like, I would do I would it's one of my favorite books, I would do that one, I think.
Rudi Greenberg (1:06:46)
Why why that one in particular? Is that a also a Little Mermaid reference?
Whitney Anne Adams (1:06:54)
It's just a sweet story. I'm such a sappy, romantic at heart and so
Rudi Greenberg (1:06:59)
Uh-huh.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:06:59)
I think it it's a movie I wanna see. I think that's
Rudi Greenberg (1:07:02)
Okay.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:07:03)
why I'd wanna do it, 'cause I would want it to exist. And so
Rudi Greenberg (1:07:06)
Do you have a
in your mind, do you have a visual like this is how I would I would bring this to life from a costume perspective? Yeah.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:07:13)
totally. I think again,
contemporary is so hard in its own way because then you're dealing with what brands would they wear, where would they get it? How
Rudi Greenberg (1:07:20)
Mm-hmm.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:07:21)
how long have they had their clothes? How aged is it? Are they brand new? And I think the thing about our characters are our two lead characters are so different. They come from two different worlds. And so I think,
Sophie Vershbow (1:07:31)
Right.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:07:32)
you know, making sure that you have this like they start off really, really far apart and by the time you get to the end of the movie that there's a there's a connection there and that they're they feel like they belong together.
clothing wise. I feel
Sophie Vershbow (1:07:43)
Love a
Whitney Anne Adams (1:07:44)
like that's all the hardest tightrope to walk contemporary wise is trying to bring those together. And also a lot of people have opinions about contemporary clothes. So it's a it's a tough world. Yes, yes, exactly. Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (1:07:53)
It's like a slow burn romance through fashion, which I love.
Rudi Greenberg (1:07:57)
I love it. Well, hopefully
that new Will Gluck rom com rom com one night only can do really well and bring rom coms back so that you can make that
Whitney Anne Adams (1:08:06)
I know please we need it.
Rudi Greenberg (1:08:07)
make that a reality. Yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (1:08:08)
We're manifesting for you.
Rudi Greenberg (1:08:10)
Or or you just need to find another story that has a hockey player and a romance in it and then it'll appear on a streaming service.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:08:15)
I know. I was telling their one of my favorites
is Beach Reed and they're filming that up in Canada right now. And because I'm not Canadian, I was like, damn it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sophie Vershbow (1:08:21)
Yes.
Rudi Greenberg (1:08:24)
Is that is that the new Emily Henry? Okay, that's what I thought. Yeah. And
Sophie Vershbow (1:08:27)
Yes.
Rudi Greenberg (1:08:28)
I think she's maybe adapting this one herself, like writing it instead
Whitney Anne Adams (1:08:31)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Rudi Greenberg (1:08:32)
of having someone else write it. cool. Well, Whitney, thank you so much for taking
Sophie Vershbow (1:08:36)
Thank you.
Rudi Greenberg (1:08:38)
out the time and for joining us.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:08:40)
Thank you so much for having me. This was such a blast. I love talking
Sophie Vershbow (1:08:42)
You're so welcome.
Whitney Anne Adams (1:08:43)
about all these things.

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