DESIGNED COSTUMES FOR 'SCARFACE', ALSO PRODUCTION DESIGNER ON 'SINGING DETECTIVE'
Patricia Norris, the costume designer for Brian De Palma's Scarface, passed away February 20 of natural causes, Variety reported today. She was 83. Norris was nominated for Oscars six times in her lifetime. She worked regularly with David Lynch, and was both the production designer and the costume designer on Keith Gordon's 2003 film adaptation of The Singing Detective. A year ago, around the time of her Oscar nomination for costume design on Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave, Norris told The Film Experience's Nathaniel R that on Scarface, De Palma and producer Martin Bregman "knew exactly what they wanted." She added that Michelle Pfeiffer helped make the costumes iconic. "She's a beautiful girl and it was perfect for the character."Norris is quoted several times about the making of Scarface in Ken Tucker's 2008 book, Scarface Nation:
ON FILMING IN MIAMI, AMIDST THREATS FROM LOCAL COMMUNITY
"I did think they'd have killed us if we'd stayed in Miami. There were members of the community who hated us because they thought we were doing a pro-Castro movie, which was absurd, but their anger was very serious. And then there were real drug people around. Colombians who came on the set. The day a fellow sat down in the chair next to me, and crossed his legs, and I saw a gun strapped to his ankle, I knew I wanted to get back to Los Angeles. Thank God we did, within two weeks."
ON STAR AL PACINO
"Pacino was very nice. I had been told he was going to stay in character and all that, so I was prepared for it." Tucker writes that Pacino spoke to Norris with his Cuban accent, even through his wardrobe fittings.
REGARDING THE TENSION, EGO CLASHES ON THE SET OF 'SCARFACE'
"Let me put it this way. After Scarface, I almost didn't want to work in the movies again. You're making a movie that's not about nice people, being made by people many of whom aren't nice people... It was tense, pretty distant. I don't like being condescended to. I worked with David Lynch for over twenty-five years because he was a nice person and an artist, and he appreciates the artistry other people bring to their work.
"I didn't get that feeling with De Palma. He was tense a lot of the time; he could be cold and rude, dismissive. I don't think he liked clothes. I shouldn't say that-- the only clothes he was interested in were the women's clothes, Michelle's clothes. He and Marty Bregman both. They wanted a lot of input in how she should look-- it was more than a little creepy, if you ask me. I'd overhear them arguing about how she should be dressed, how sexy, how much skin they wanted her to show."
Updated: Thursday, March 5, 2015 11:58 PM CST
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