So one thing, the wardrobe in the film has been talked about quite a bit. If you look at Miles, his character was clearly inspired by Tom Cruise in “Magnolia.” That’s not even a secret. Was your wardrobe inspired by anything specific? What was going through getting Derol’s clothes together?
Well, I wish I could take credit, but [costume designer] Jenny Eagan, there is not enough that can be said about Jenny’s work. It is incredible. She knows exactly what every character needs to bring them off of the page and onto the screen. I think, in the case of Derol, there overall was this beach bum kind of look. But I think, taking from the environment that we were in, which was this southern Grecian island look, I think a lot of materials and clothing were inspired by the locale. Then, we spiced it up a little bit. I wear a watch that was designed by a close friend of mine who has a company called Haven, and he designed this watch that’s like a nice chronograph watch, but it has a tie dye dial.
It’s the world’s first tie dye dial watch, I think. I wear that in the movie. Then I wear a pair of sunglasses that were designed by another friend of mine who has a company called Old Jewish Men. They make shirts and accessories all with this joke about OJM, old Jewish men style, and he makes wraparound style sunglasses that we put around my neck, that I’m wearing throughout the film. There were a couple of things that found their way in from the personal collection, but it was all curated and designed by Jenny.
You mentioned Derol is based on, at least in part, by someone Rian actually knows. How much of the backstory for the character did you and Rian talk about? Or was that left to you?
Well, Rian has talked in the press about Derol being inspired by Kato Kaelin, who I’ve always been fascinated by as a pop culture character, as somebody who has woven their way, in this really specific way, into our collective consciousness. The ubiquitous character of Kato Kaelin, especially when I was a kid, Kato was everywhere. So I think that was a big inspiration. I also think the idea of having a friend who you are that close with, under those circumstances, is obviously quite different from the other friendships in the movie. You know what I mean?
Right.
I think that kind of thing, where you have somebody who is around and not necessarily always part of “the experience,” that’s a very specific kind of relationship. Whether it’s the people that we went to college with or came up with in our jobs, there’s an ease there that doesn’t necessarily exist with every other friend that you have, even if you’re super close with them or you see them all the time. I think we drew from that. But by and large, those were conversations just like I’m having with you, just to paint the picture. It didn’t really have to go into the unknown. It was always couched in something that we could both connect on, which hopefully speaks to our actual friendship. The benefit of working with people that you already know and you like.
Did you feel the Netflix of it at all? The first one was essentially, more or less, an indie film that was acquired later. Then this one, you guys got a bigger budget, a Netflix movie. Did that change things at all from your experience shooting them, or was it still very much just a similar thing during production?
I got to say, I appreciate the question, but every set of Rian’s is like going home. Every vibe is, frankly, the same vibe that we had on “Brick,” that you’re with your friends and your family and the people that you already know, and spend a lot of time with even outside of production, and you’re back with them, really trying to do the same thing. Obviously, you might have a little bit more time, a little bit more money, a little bit more resources, but the vibe and the energy is really the same. Then, you have these new people who come in, and it’s like if you’ve ever met a cousin or an auntie or an uncle who lives abroad, and you’ve never really met them or spent time with them before, but they’re part of your family? That’s what it’s like when you have new cast and new crew come in.
The idea of having new partners, whether they’re new actors or a new studio that you’re working with, that’s the vibe that carries over. It’s the same vibe that you get when you show up and you see Steve [Yedlin] the cinematographer, Jaron [Presant] who’s also in the camera department, or Dale [Myrand] who’s a camera operator, these people you’ve seen for 20 years on movie sets. It’s like, that kind of environment is so contagious in terms of having camaraderie and having fellowship that anybody new who comes in, it’s like, great, join the team, join the club.
Glass Onion’s Noah Segan Tells Us Everything You Want To Know About Derol, Your Favorite New Knives Out Character [Exclusive Interview]
