Ruth E. Carter has worked in the film industry for over three decades as a costume designer, with more than forty films on her resume. She has garnered two Oscar nominations for Best Costume Design for Spike Lee’s Malcolm X and Steven Spielberg’s Amistad as well as an Emmy nomination for the reboot of Roots.
More recently, Ruth has done costume work on films like Lee Daniels’ The Butler and Ava Duvernay’s Selma and now she has brought her talents to Marvel’s latest film, Black Panther.
She spoke to Flickering Myth’s Tai Freligh recently at WonderCon about designing the costumes for the various tribes as well as the thought behind achieving a blend of tribal and high-tech and the role of jewelry in the movie.
You can view the full interview below.
After the events of Captain America: Civil War, King T’Challa returnsohome to the reclusive, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to serve as his country’s new leader. However, T’Challa soon finds that he is challenged for the throne from factions within his own country. When two foes conspire to destroy Wakanda, the hero known as Black Panther must team up with C.I.A. agent Everett K. Ross and members of the Dora Milaje, Wakandan special forces, to prevent Wakanda from being dragged into a world war.
Black Panther sees Ryan Coogler (Creed) directing Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa alongside Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Forest Whitaker as Zuri, Daniel Kaluuya as W’Kabi, Angela Bassett as Ramonda, Florence Kasumba as Ayo, Martin Freeman as Everett Ross, Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Sterling K. Brown as N’Jobu, John Kani as King T’Chaka and Nabiyah Be as Linda.
Tai Freligh is a Los Angeles-based writer and can be found on Twitter.