The people behind The Death of Robin Hood, including hair designer Sean Flannigan and costume designer Lorna Mugan, wanted to make sure Hugh Jackman was unrecognizable as Robin Hood. But of course, director Michael Sarnosky’s (The Pig, A Quiet Place: Day One) vision for Robin Hood is much darker than most film adaptations.
“It was really rough and rugged and really earthy in a weird way. And I’ve never seen him with hair that long and completely silver,” Flanigan told Variety of Jackman’s transformation. “Once you put all the costumes and beards together, you have Robin Hood.”
Sarnoski’s interpretation of the 17th-century ballad primarily follows Robin Hood as he struggles with a life filled with murder, a stark contrast to his famous image as a hero. After barely surviving the battle, Robin Hood meets Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer), a healer who has come to combat Robin Hood’s role in the death of his family.
Mugan, who spent about eight weeks designing the costumes before production began, explains how Sarnoski wanted to follow Robin Hood in three parts, with The Revenant and Virgin Springs providing rich inspiration for its brutality: “He… Since he’s a hermit (at first), we wanted him to come out of the landscape and become part of it and be camouflaged. He’s a creature of that landscape, so we did that by layering these skins, all of which are ethically sourced and vintage and faux.
Robin Hood’s clothing in the first half of the film was made from materials that his character would have found in the wild at the time, including a fur coat that weighed approximately 200 pounds. “It was very medieval, so it was things he found in the landscape, things he stole from villages. So everything was hand-sourced and hand-made. Everything is in their costumes,” Mugan says.
The second half of the film follows Robin Hood’s complicated journey to finding healing and peace. “Later, when he moved to the monastery, they gave him linen and purified and brought back some of his childhood texture that was still in his costume,” says Mugan. “This place is full of alchemy, so we wanted to add some symbolism to his nightshirt and the way he stitched it, and that was reflected in the set design.”
Aidan Monaghan
Jackman’s silver hair throughout the movie is very distinctive. Flannigan and head of make-up, Pamela Westmore, decided on a silver-gray shade to “age up” and “take Hugh away from Hugh’s look.”
For practical purposes, the hair department had three versions of the silver wig available. One was muddy and bloody, one was kept clean, and the other was used for photo shoots and stunt work (although Flannigan points out that Jackman did most of the stunts himself).
Flanigan explains the different options for styling Jackman’s wig. “We tried it all down, tied in the back, in a low braid, and we all came to the same conclusion. We looked at different options and liked the halfback, so we pulled it in the back. There was no elastic. We just tied everything together with the leather in the back.”
Practical considerations and cross-functional collaboration were especially important in The Death of Robin Hood. The film was shot on location over 30 days in the middle of Ireland’s harsh winter and features extensive fight choreography, bloody deaths, fires and muddy landscapes.
“His hair was long, and it hung back most of the time. His cape and costume were very rough, and because of the weather, his hair started to get tangled a lot,” Flannigan says. “I was in every take behind Hugh, brushing[his hair]re-braiding it to keep it textured, to keep it in place…Thankfully, I only had to look after him, because if I had to do the rest of the cast too, I would have thought, ‘No way!'”
Flannigan, who has worked with Jackman over the past few years on films such as “Deadpool and the Wolverine,” “Son Saint Bleu” and “The Sheep Detective,” describes Jackman as a “collaborative” artist because of his theater background.
“They trust the team’s process and include us in the thought process, rather than the studio saying, ‘This is what we want,'” he says. “We’re playing really well back and forth.”
Mugan echoes Flannigan’s opinion of Hugh’s work ethic under harsh weather conditions, including the set being exposed to rain without cover. “There was nothing he refused to do or wear…He was stronger than most of us at work!”
“The Death of Robin Hood” is currently being released in theaters by A24.
