Paul Taswell

You know, because that's why, you know, everything in this world needed to be bespoke.

I mean, it was all created specifically for this world.

Something happened just to my design brain when John M. Chu said that he was casting Cynthia Erivo.

And this is after looking at a number of different alphabets, and I was actually privy to some of those audition tapes just to see where his mind was.

but to then see that he was thinking of putting Cynthia in that role.

One, I had already worked with Cynthia in Harriet, and I knew her range.

I mean, I knew, you know, I fully understood her connection to clothing, how she develops a character, but I knew that she would be able to go to a place that would use the agility of wearing trousers as a means of...

athletic expression and power.

The ability to move allowed for her to navigate the world in a way that was more expansive than being in a skirt and jacket all the time, which is how I set her up.

I mean, she enters into the world of Shiz dressed in black, you know, and that was another part of the equation was,

Why does she wear black?

And there are many conversations that John M. Chu and I had, the director, around how do we define why she is wearing black?

And I made the decision that, well, she lost her mother very early in life.

She was in mourning, so she wore that color, you know, signifying mourning, and then to adopt that as a way to pull herself apart from the rest of the community, which we see, you know, presented, you know, when she's a little girl and, you know, how the other children in the neighborhood make fun of her.

And that holding on to that armoring that's created by wearing black, it felt real in a way because, you know, you think about high school students or young students who dress in black or in a very goth way to make themselves feel special or to, you know, create a separation from the rest of, you know, those bullies that might be hurting them.

You know, just to create some significance in their personality.

Thank you for mentioning that.

I mean, that was, again, another element is that she's side by side with Glinda, Glinda.

who is always dressed in pink or in light tones, and they are often very feminine in feminine fabrics, light, airy, elegant, beautiful, those things that are desirable, I made the decision that there had to be balance.

And then it just continues to expand.