Yahoo News How ‘Mary & George’ Created a Look Fit for a King
There’s a sexier side to the story of King James I in D.C. Moore’s “Mary & George,” a psychological drama on Starz where the titular mother (Julianne Moore) and her son (Nicholas Galitzine) deceive, lie, and fornicate their way to becoming one of the most powerful families of the 17th century. The brilliance of the bingeable series is how it blends the history of the British royals with modern touches to craft a visual tapestry that’s equal parts eloquence and seduction. “When I read the scripts, what I loved was the tone,” said cinematographer Alexander Dynan. “It’s different than any other period piece and it felt like it could really appeal to a contemporary audience.”
Oliver Hermanus helmed the first three of the show’s seven episodes, and filmmakers drew inspiration from early conversations with the director. “Oliver builds these books of images, and in them, there were a lot of hints at what he wanted the show to become,” noted Dynan. “He had a very distinct vision for how the camera should move and has a really great sense for where the camera should go and how it should feel. He constantly communicated that and it was my job to interpret that back and make suggestions and tweaks.” Costume designer Annie Symons echoes a similar sentiment. “Oliver is a very visual director and had some fantastic visual references. None of which were particular period but they had to do with tone and mood and color,” she said to IndieWire.”
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The discussions resulted in the production team conceiving a period-authentic backdrop while still taking creative liberties. Hair and makeup designer Paul Gooch, for example, didn’t copy exact hairstyles of the era but used “the general shapes of the hairstyles” and “created detail with modern techniques not invented in the time of the story.”
In the videos below, watch how Dynan, Symons, and Gooch collaborated on the historic rags-to-riches story inspired by the true events found in Benjamin Woolley’s book “The King’s Assassin.”
The Cinematography of ‘Mary & George’
While shooting the first three episodes of “Mary & George,” cinematographer Alexander Dynan’s approach to the alluring imagery was to respond to the actors’ performances more than anything else. “The world is so full, the actors are so good, and there’s just so much to look at. So instead of thinking about how can we make the cinematography as loud as possible, we step back a little bit. I think that invites the audience in,” he told IndieWire. In preparation, importance was given to the “interior emotionality of the characters,” a perspective that influenced everything else onscreen. “While I love period dramas, there’s something different in what D.C. wrote. We talked a lot about how could we take the modern nature of the writing but still respect what a period piece is meant to be,” Dynan explained. What that meant on a technical level was pairing a digital camera with vintage anamorphic lenses to “marry the contemporary and the period” while also referencing Dutch painters, the work of Caravaggio, and camera obscura photography to ground the atheistic.
Important to visual storytelling was illuminating a character’s journey, especially George, who evolves emotionally as he gets closer to King James and lusts for power. “George’s character arc starts bubbly, where I lit with a lot warmer sources. I let a lot of those warm sources penetrate into the spaces. But in the later episodes, we start to get darker and richer and more contrasty,” Dynan noted. Helping to find those moments through lighting is a director who “works very instinctually” and gives the actors freedom. “My goal is to light the space, within reason, and then give them the ability to play. Ultimately, though, I think it’s a very naturalistic approach,” Dynan said. “I always tried to motivate things. So if the light came from the left, we’d make sure that there was a candle on the left or a fireplace on the left. It allowed us to motivate all the other tricks we had up our sleeves, like fireboxes and some LED solutions that worked well to continue what a candlelight flame felt like. The way that I find digital cinematography to be interesting is to continually add shape in the corners around the bottom to basically create depth and let things fall off.”
In the video above, watch Alexander Dynan share his motivation for the stirring visuals of “Mary & George.”
The Costumes of ‘Mary & George’
As Dynan painted with frame and light, costume designer Annie Symons constructed with color and silhouette. “Oliver had some fantastic visual references. They were to do with tone and mood and sexuality. We talked a lot about color. And then from that, I mapped out a whole journey of palettes,” she told IndieWire.
At the top of the designer’s list were George and Mary, both of whom manipulate their way into prominence. “She [Mary] starts off in these parched bone, moldy colors, where most of the color is stripped out. And then she gets married in green, which is the color of joy, new beginnings. And then when she’s in London, she wears these colors like bruises, dark aubergines, and blues. So she blends in the shadows,” Symons said. “And then when she’s made countess, she has this almost mutton-dressed-as-lamb Cinderella moment. Her silhouette should remain pretty much the same all the way through. And the form of those dresses, she’s like a little chess piece who walks her way through this game of court and power and love and destruction.” For George’s costume arc, he goes from wearing a “dirty pastry” that was deliberately made to “look slightly miserable” to more saturated hues. “Blue is the critical element. It’s a very sympathetic color,” Symons said. To attract the attention of King James, reds and revealing outfits gave way to “gunmetal gray satin” and a “leather gorget” for when George rubs elbows in Parliament. “That looks like a bit of armor to signal he’s now a man, he’s a warrior,” noted Symons.
For one of the more poignant moments following the death of Queen Anne (Trine Dyrholm), the costumes changed moods. “It was getting darker, it was getting heavier and harder. And so black wasn’t really a big thing for mourning at this period, but it did exist. People are shifting, powers are shifting. Things are getting a bit more jeopardous,” Symons mentioned. “And I think if you’re doing a long series where people are committing to watch, it’s very useful to have these dramatic visual markers along the way.”
Watch the video above to see how costume designer Annie Symons mended the emotional fabric of the characters in “Mary & George.”
The Hair and Makeup of ‘Mary & George’
Paul Gooch pursued hair and makeup that had a “sexy and sensual” feel to it, with the goal of being influenced by the era but adding his own spin. “Oliver had references that were very vogue with some of it having a period feel but others didn’t,” Gooch told IndieWire. “Once we got our eye into the period, you can run with it and invent what you like. So the sky was the limit in terms of the look.”
Like costumes, the hair and makeup teams created looks that accentuated the inner journey of George. “With makeup, you can start off by making a person flawless, which will make them look younger, albeit everything we do has to not read on camera, so it’s incredibly subtle. And then as he ages, you use less corrective makeup,” Gooch said about the look, which spans years. “And then the hair obviously helps. Nick [Galitzine] has a fantastic head of hair, but it’s difficult to change. So we had some little pieces made for his younger self at the back. And then once he goes to France and learns to be a gentleman, we lost those and made a quiff with his hair at the front. And then the longer hair for the older stuff, that goes a long way to giving them maturity and also showing the passage of time.”
Though Julianne Moore had her own stylist bringing the creative juices, Gooch and the rest of the department “talk constantly so there’s no surprises.” “In the early parts of the story, when [Mary] penniless, we went for very small, simple hairstyles. And as it’s a period piece, makeup is very natural because it wouldn’t have existed in reality,” Gooch explained. “But as she climbs the social ladder, we went for bigger and bigger hairdos. We kept things very simple because it doesn’t suit her to have all the fussiness of some of the other looks of that period.”
In the video above, watch how hair and makeup department head Paul Gooch weaved the intricate stylings behind “Mary & George.”
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