“Chucky” Costume Designer Catherine Ashton on Dressing the Show’s Characters [Interview]

While drafting the editorial on Glen and Glenda’s (Lachlan Watson) pronouns a few weeks ago, I realized that not only does each twin have a distinct identity, but that their visual coding specifically challenges traditional gender norms. Take something as simple as hair: Glenda’s short hair vs Glen’s long hair forces viewers to confront their assumptions about gender presentation (ie: short hair doesn’t = male; long hair doesn’t = female).

Reflecting on the introduction of the twins made me consider how invaluable hair and costuming has been on Chucky, so for this week’s editorial, I’m eschewing the traditional queer breakdown to dig into how the costumes contribute to the characters.

I wound up reaching out to the show’s costume designer Catherine Ashton to discuss her approach to work, dressing the twins, and those elaborate, opulent party outfits from season two’s stand-out episode, “Death on Denial.”

Bloody Disgusting: First off, tell me about your process: how do you approach a new job and how collaborative is it with other departments and the actors?

Catherine Ashton: When I first receive the script for a TV show or feature film, I read it many times to get the feel of the script. Doing this helps me breathe life into the characters. From there, I start pulling images for each character and create a mood board of looks. Once I have completed that, I sit down with the director, producers, and production designer, and we talk about each character, and together, we come up with a concept or look for the characters.

BD: Looking at Chucky specifically, were there any challenges or opportunities with the legacy characters? I’m curious if there were conversations about how to style characters to ensure continuity with the films.

CA: Since the 80s, I have been a huge Chucky fan, so I am very familiar with its legacy and the characters, so I was so excited to be able to dress them for the TV series. Of course, Don Mancini’s help and always being available to discuss the looks helped me keep their style true to their character.

Working with Don Mancini is an incredible experience. Don leaves you be (to be as creative as possible), which is a rarity. Some directors and producers micro-manage the costume designer to such an extent that the costume designer becomes stifled because they are too afraid to take a chance and step out of the box. Working with Don, I am never scared to take chances because he is so supportive and works with you to find the right look for the character.

BD: Let’s talk about Jennifer Tilly as Tiffany/herself. The character has worn some really extravagant pieces on the show. Do you approach this character differently than the others and do you have a favourite look from the show so far?

CA: Working with Jennifer Tilly is the greatest gift and privilege any costume designer can have because she is such a character actor. Jennifer’s willingness to push her character from glam to campy and back again allowed me so much freedom to go wild with her costumes. Jennifer is also fun to work with and very open to just about anything, which I love about her.

It isn’t easy to pick a favorite Jennifer/Tiffany costume because I love them all! Each outfit has a life of its own and a specific purpose depending on the script/episode they appear in.

Don Mancini’s characters are always unique in their appearance. So how they are dressed depends on how they are portrayed in the script. Regarding Jennifer/Tiffany, my approach to dressing her is always character script-driven.

BD: I’m also interested in how Glen and Glenda are styled because there’s obviously been some very deliberate choices regarding Glenda’s androgyny (L) and Glen’s femme outfits (R) . How did you settle on these looks?

CA: After much discussion with Don Mancini regarding Glen and Glenda’s look, I became inspired by my days in the 80s in London. The fashion on King’s road, worlds end, and my great love for ID magazine helped me find the right looks for Glen and Glenda. With my vision in place, I went shopping everywhere, and I mean everywhere. I had at least 15 racks of clothing ready for Lachlan’s fitting when they came in.

Don wanted Glen to represent the Glen doll’s likeness and the characters to mirror each other in their looks and colors. Keeping this in mind, I had Lachlan try different clothing styles to find the right looks for Glen and Glenda. It was an exciting process and a lot of fun collaborating with Lachlan. We both wanted to make sure that their respective looks would be true to their characters – with the overall understanding that Glenda is more glam and Glen, with their bondage pants circa the 1980s, more punk grunge.

BD: Walk us through the party outfits for ‘Death on Denial’ (episode 4). Obviously it’s a party, but also a Bound reunion filled with recognizable stars. How did you go about designing the looks for this very different episode?

SA: My process for deciding the character’s costumes for episode 2.04 was slightly different because most of the characters were playing themselves. I had to be true to who they are in real life, as well as their brand! 

Gina Gershon – Pulling together Gina’s look was a lot of fun because she wanted her costume to have that classic Greta Garbo style which I feel we accomplished.

Joe Pantoliano – I was nervous to phone Joey because I love him as an actor and didn’t want to go all fan girl on him. Joey was charming; we spoke many times about what he would wear and when I had my fitting with him, he made me laugh so hard I could barely catch my breath.

I wound up dressing Joey in a blue double-breasted Armani suit, got him a hat, and made his silk scarf. He loved it and wanted it all!

Sutton Stracke – As a big fan of the RHOBH housewives, I’m team Sutton (and she was a delight to work with!).

I wanted to capture Sutton’s authentic southern charm by keeping her bright, so I dressed her in this beautiful yellow dress which reminded me of southern daylilies.

Meg Tilly – First of all, it was so wonderful to work with Meg. As an actress and author, I have been a big fan of hers for years.

Meg appears in two episodes (2.04 and 2.05), so I had to come up with a party look and a death costume. For her party costume, I mirrored her dress to resemble Jennifer Tilly’s dress to support that sibling rivalry. Her “outfit to die in” was more Meg Tilly: comfortable and no-nonsense.

Jennifer Tilly – In episode 204, Tiffany is living in Jennifer Tilly’s body, so because of this, Tiffany needed to be as glamorous as possible, with many costume changes. In this episode, we went from classic Jennifer Tilly in a cherry dress to a moo moo style Pucci dress with a pink petal hat, ending in a dramatic sequin feather dress. All these costumes made Tiffany feel she was living her best Jennifer Tilly life, even though things seem to be spiraling out of control around her.

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