“My journey is very serendipitous,” says costume designer Marci Rodgers. “I came out of the fitting room, thinking out loud and I said, ‘You know, I’m gonna design a movie on Emmett Till…’ and six years later Chinonye approached me and asked me to look at the script.”
Chinoye Chukwu brings together the true story of civil rights activist Mamie Till-Mobley, played by Danielle Deadwyler, for Till. After the brutal lynching of her son Emmett (Jalyn Hall), Till-Mobley embarks on a relentless pursuit of justice and becomes a key member of the civil rights movement.
“This project was very spiritual for me,” says Rodgers. “I knew that I had to set aside my emotions and feelings as a Black woman, and I had to make sure this was not about me. This was about Mamie first, and Emmett, and the story that we were intending to tell.”
The most important aspect of design for Rodgers was accuracy. “One of our additional conversations, which excited me was that [Chukwu] was very adamant about the costumes having their own character and texture,” says Rodgers. With that direction, she was able to link the design to each character’s personal journey.
Another important thing to remember, Rodgers says, was “just making sure that I was sensitive to the matter of how Mamie would be projected throughout and how we use color to tell the story.” Yellow was a color reserved for scenes with Emmett Till, not just in the costume design but also in the production design, lighting, and other craft areas. “Even when we get to the end of the movie,” she says, “you see Emmett with yellow in his costume, and he’s covered in a yellow light.”
The reason behind the use of yellow for Emmett relies in color theory and the emotions the color evokes. “It emits happiness, it emits hope,” says Rodgers, “and I thought it was brilliant because we don’t know much about Emmett, other than what’s been publicized and the photos, but to assign such a color was strategic because it still leads people after the film to hope.”
Although Rodgers was able to keep her personal feelings removed from her work, there was one moment that really hit her. “Having to recreate the costume for the prosthetic doll that was in the casket… that was hard, because it felt like I was preparing to bury my son,” she says. “I don’t think it hit me until that moment… [but] seeing it in the casket makes it realer. It hits you.”
Above all else, Rodgers says she was honored that Chukwu chose her to be the costume designer for the film. “I’m thankful to be the one that was chosen to actually tell the story through costume design, on behalf of Mamie, Emmett, Alma and Chicago.”
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