Tuesday, January 26, 2016
How Tina Fey got Sarah Palin's bolero for SNL
EW.com: To help Fey pull off another famous impression for Saturday’s telecast, the costume department knew they had to find the beaded bolero that Palin wore while endorsing Donald Trump on Jan. 19. Unfortunately, the $695 jacket sold out after Palin’s appearance. So SNL had to take matters into their own hands.
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4 comments:
I have to hand it to the costume shop that delivered that jacket in such a short amount of time. Particularly as a piece of clothing that is so unique and bizarre in the components that make up it, I certainly would think that it would take more time to turn around an accurate recreation. This is a prime example of the reactionary aspect of art and satire, where a bit’s proximity in time to the event that it’s reacting to is crucial to the humor, or more generally, the impact of the bit. That time crunch is also fairly unexpected at times as well, so it’s a testament to having your ducks in a row at all times so that when you get the call, you can get right to work on delivering what you’ve been asked to deliver. SNL naturally operates that way on a regular basis, so I’m sure they’re used to it, but surely that makes it no less impressive, or no less of an example to look to.
It always comes down to the costume if you are trying to make an accurate representation of a person. We see Tina Fay impersonating Sarah Palin quite a lot these days, and she does a damn good job of it. But to pull off a impersonation like this one, the costume shop was going to have to find that jacket. Now… it’s never easy to make a replica of something with this much detail, but judging from what the original looks like I would say they did a pretty good job. I can’t even imagine how many metal fixings are on the jacket but I assume it is thousands. I am lucky to say that I go to a school where something like this could be happening five doors down the hall from me. CMU has very talented costume designers, and I would not be surprised to find myself reading an article about how one of them has replicated an article of clothing for an SNL skit in the future.
It really is the costume that makes the character in this case. Tina Fey has done many successful impersonations of Sarah Palin, but to really nail this one and make it funny they were absolutely going to need her clothing to be right- especially if said clothing had already made an appearance in the media. And I have to say, they got it down pat. Watching the clip, her jacket was an almost perfect match for Sarah Palin's store-bought version...and what is really impressive is that they made it within such a short deadline! SNL has always worked very quickly to produce their weekly show, and they outdid themselves with this jacket. I wonder how long it took them to make it, and how much the end cost came out to be. Was it more expensive than the already very pricy jacket? Either way, it looked great and really helped to nail the impersonation. I'm so glad they were willing to go the extra mile to make Sarah Palin come to life.
This is so wonderful and such a testament to the thorough work of costume people all over the place. It is true that the costume is often what makes the whole impersonation, so I definitely admire their tenacity. So many people have seen the video of Sarah Palin endorsing Trump now that it may have been totally ruined without the jacket. I really would like to know a lot more about that process though. How long did it take them to make it? Who is the person who makes the executive decision on how much time/labor is able to go into these things? What is their usual process for recreating people's outfits for impersonations? I assume it's just purchasing a look alike, but I would love to know more about all of it than the article says.
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