Ariana DeBose, who takes on Rita Moreno’s Academy Award-winning role as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s new version on “West Side Story,” had a lot to think about when she put on the signature yellow dress with the bright red petticoat for the exuberant street dance number “America.”
On an awards season panel moderated by TheWrap’s Joe McGovern, DeBose described working on a movie musical in the same way one might describe that lacy petticoat: ‘It is a layer on a layer on layer,” she said during an animated discussion alongside the film’s costume designer Paul Tazewell and re-recording mixer Andy Nelson.
“I feel like I’m not only paying attention to how I’m going to dramatize the text, I’m paying attention to what lens we’re in, because it will affect the dance work that also affects how I utilize Paul’s costumes,’ DeBose said. “You know, ‘Can I do exactly what I want to with this skirt? Is there enough space within the shot to do it?’… How do I give more skirt but not, you know, show my underbum — is underbum even a word?” she asked with a giggle.
Besides the important “underbum” issue, DeBose said accommodating the sound requirements was also always on her mind. “Okay, I’m using this but I can’t let the skirt hit my chest because my mic is in my dress and it’s gonna mess up the sound. So you are doing many, many things at one time.”
DeBose said that in a sprawling number like “America,” the mic could capture the sound of the feet but the vocals had to be recorded separately. However, she noted that in softer solo moments, like the song “A Boy Like That,” “It’s my understanding they use all of our live tapes.”
“Yes, we did,” re-recording mixer Nelson confirmed with a twinkle in his eye.
DeBose responded with delight. “Thank you, Andy! That makes me feel so good, that’s huge for a vocalist. That’s a triumph. That’s a win right there.”
For his part, Tazewell was focused on color, not sound, especially for Anita’s dress in “America.”
“I presented to Steven (Spielberg) three choices, three different directions of color,” he said. “I knew that everyone coming to see ‘West Side Story’ potentially had seen the original film, or, you know, a revival of the Broadway musical, maybe even the original Broadway musical.
“There was a great love for the purple dress that Rita Moreno wears in the original film. And my task was to create a design that would hold that same kind of energy and that would live in the same way in people’s minds on Ariana DeBose as a Anita,” Tazewell continued. “It’s become the yellow dress with the red petticoat, the red being, her life force and energy, as well as the yellow. She is the center, you know, and a metaphor for the sun really for me. You know that everything is swirling around Anita.”
For the full video panel, click here.