Film Students Meet Pirates of the Caribbean Costume Designer

Film majors and enthusiasts alike sat in Reeves theater Monday Sept. 26 to hear from Suzy Freeman, who succeeded in making a career in the grueling film industry.

Freeman currently works as a costume supervisor on movie sets and in her 10 year career has worked on projects such as Pirates of the Caribbean and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Her life, however, was not always so exciting.

Growing up in a small English town, she had dreams of becoming a film star.

“Where I grew up in the north of England we didn’t go to the cinema,” Freeman said “But we had incredible television and I saw every John Wayne western, every Humphrey Bogart movie; all of the classics.”

Despite dropping out of high school and leaving home at 18, Freeman was able to get a job working in an advertising agency until 1989 when England experienced a major economic crisis.

The firm she was working for collapsed and she lost everything, including her house and company car. This set-back launched an opportunity that would spark Freeman’s lifelong passion.

A friend tipped Freeman off to a job opportunity working for Paramount Pictures while they were on location locally in Yorkshire.

“[They were making] Wuthering Heights and they wanted somebody to go out and find extras,” Freeman said. “I got in touch with the production company and said ‘what do you need?’ They gave me a creative description of the people they were looking for and that’s what I did. I spent between four and five months working for Paramount Pictures organizing and selecting [a] crowd for the assistant directors. I got the lowest pay, but I made it work.”

Working on Wuthering Heights was Freeman’s first taste of what a job in film could be like, and from then on she was hooked.

“When I landed on that set I thought ‘this is it, I’m here, this is me’ this is what I always wanted in my life but nobody told me this existed,” Freeman said.

“Nobody told me that somebody without a college education could do what I was doing.”

Freeman spent the next three years working as an assistant to the director on various film sets. She began to scope out what other jobs people had, wondering if she wanted theirs. She decided she needed to get into the creative side of the business; costuming was the most natural choice.

“My mother and my grandmother were both tailors,” Freeman said. “Costume is in my blood but I didn’t even know it.” Freeman decided that instead of using her previously established film contacts to find a job in costuming, she needed to learn more about the craft. At 26 years of age, she was accepted into the Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts (RADA)  in London and began her education in costuming. Even though she felt awkward being one of the oldest students, she was able to adapt.

“It’s never too late to start again, remodel yourself and move on to do something that you passionately want to do,” Freeman explained.

“I was very blessed to be accepted [to RADA]. They take 20 people a year in costume design and that’s it, so I was blown away,” she said.

After she graduated the RADA, she was able to reconnect with her film contacts and begin work in the film industry again, this time in the costume department.

She advised the students in the audience to pursue their dream careers, but to also keep an open mind about other careers are available in that field.

“It’s up to you to use education to your advantage. Within three months of graduating I got my first job in costume, but it was a toss-up,” Freeman said. “You may have aspirations to be a director or a costume designer, but the best thing to do is have a go at it all. You have to know how everything works.”

Freeman decided she needed to move to a big city, because Wuthering Heights being conveniently close in Yorkshire wasn’t going to happen twice.

She moved to London and went to work for one of the founders of Working Title Films where she worked for over a year, both in the office and on the movie set. Although office work wasn’t what she had intended to do, she learned much from the experience.

“I kept my head low and did what they asked me to do, but I listened,” Freeman said. “I learned more about financing of movies during that time and it’s carried me through the whole twenty years of my career.”

Freeman also warned the audience about the perils of having your first job in the industry but to never have a sore demeanor about it.

“The jobs you start with can be demeaning, but what sells you in this business is always being upbeat and happy and [having] a can-do attitude. It will get you anywhere. That is the key to being successful,” she said.

After working in various costuming jobs, Freeman is currently working as a costume supervisor.

She explains that she works with the costume designer by putting her ideas into motion.

“I have to employ a crew that is specific to her needs,” she said. “If we are working on a contemporary movie, it’s a little less complicated. If we’re doing the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, with one-hundred years of costume history, wow we have a huge department.”

Although she says that her job can be stressful at times because of all the conditions, her job is not without its perks and exciting moments.

“I was invited to the penthouse suite of the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills to put together a costume fitting for Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones when he played Captain Jack Sparrow’s father,” she said.

She continued saying, “Now if someone told me that when I was 20, that in 10 years time you are going to be in the penthouse suite of the Four Seasons dressing one of the most famous rock stars in the world as a pirate [I would have said] yeah, right. But I did, and it was wonderful.”

Freeman ended with a final piece of advice for the students who aspire to be in the film industry sharing with them what she loves about her job.

“You get to wear whatever you want to and get to be who you are. The more eccentric you are the more people will love you. You don’t have to conform. How many industries will offer you that?”

“If you get even the slightest opportunity to get into it even at the lowest level, go for it. Just go for it and if you love it, stick with it. Because there is no other job on the planet that gives you that kind of an opportunity unless you want to be a film star,” Freeman said.

Mia Glatter can be reached at mia.glatter@spartans.ut.edu.