Get On Up, which stars Chadwick Boseman as Godfather of Soul James Brown, is the perfect example of art imitating life. The film spans not just one or two but six historical decades, meaning the sartorial eye candy is extreme. We’re talking 60 different costumes — for the character of Brown alone.
We talked to Sharen Davis, the costume designer for Get On Up whose credits include Dreamgirls, The Help and Ray, to learn more about the film’s incredible clothes.
“To tell you the truth, at the beginning I wasn’t too sure I wanted to do it,” Davis says. “Since I’ve done [movies about African-American performers] before I didn’t know how I could make Get On Up different.”
Davis decided to shake things up by making her creations an homage to James Brown, rather than copies of what he actually wore.
“I didn’t want anyone to say, ‘Oh, he wore [that outfit] to that place,” she says. “Instead, I made his clothes to order, using inspiration from photos I had of him and his family.”
75 percent of the pieces Boseman wore in the film were custom-designed by Davis. However, she did try to create spot-on costumes for the concert pieces for authenticity purposes. Authenticity was a running theme on-set. According to Davis, she wasn’t Boseman’s costume designer — she was James Brown’s stylist. “Chadwick looks just like him,” she says. “Every morning I’d go into his trailer and say, ‘Good morning, Mr. Brown!’”
Just like Brown’s personality, the costumes in the film are larger-than-life. Boseman sported everything from huge padded shoulders, to a shiny silver cape, a head-to-toe pinstripe suit, a green velour tracksuit (lightyears ahead of Juicy’s time) and a revealing shimmery jumpsuit.
“I really loved the mudcloth shirt Brown wore when he sang ‘I’m Black, I’m Proud,’” Davis says. She was also a fan of the huge fur coat Boseman donned during scenes depicting the height of Brown’s career.
However, the outfits for the performing scenes gave her some trouble.
“You’d think that after Dreamgirls that would be so simple, but we did Dreamgirls in Los Angeles and we had lots of professional help,” Davis says. “We did Get On Up in Mississippi and I had no one, really. There wasn’t a tailor or anyone we could call in a crisis.” That’s why Davis saw this as the biggest challenge of her career.
“I accomplished a mission, she says. “Every time the trailer comes on, I start sobbing.”
Get On Up will be released in theaters August 1. Watch the trailer here!