Interviews
Kristy Fuchs (Key Wardrobe)
Turtle Bay: How did you become involved with Gotham
Cafe?
Kristy Fuchs: Julie (the producer) and I have a mutual friend. He knew
that I had worked at the Warner Bros. costume dept so thought I would be able
to help
out on the production.
Turtle Bay: Are you a fan of Stephen King?
Kristy Fuchs: Oh yeah. HUGE! I've read pretty much all of his books
and seen most of his movies. I'm a big horror movie
fan so getting to work on something like this was
awesome for me.
Turtle Bay: What does a Costumer do on a production?
Kristy Fuchs: Basically, our job was to get all of the different
cast members into their correct costumes for the
scene, on time. We also took Polaroids in order to
keep track of continuity. These photos were really
helpful to have, since a lot of the scenes required
blood to be on the clothes and we needed to make sure
that the blood spatters looked the same in all the
scenes.
Turtle Bay: The producer asked you to create
costumes that were very faithful to the story and you
delivered! Tell us about the different touches for
each character Steve, Diane, Guy and Humboldt that
were particular to King's story.
Kristy Fuchs: I would have to give full credit for that to Kathy
Pillsbury, the costume designer. I had read the story,
but she hadn't and so I loaned my book to her. She was
able to, in a matter of weeks, grasp who these
characters really were. And she added in little
details that readers of the book will definitely
appreciate. She truly is a genius...
My basic job was just keeping everything together on
the set. But I DID make one small contribution to
Guy's costume. For the scenes in his apartment, he
needed to be in ratty, old boxers and a t-shirt. His
t-shirt wasn't disgusting enough, so I painted on some
food stains and made some sweat stains in the armpits
by dipping it in Dt Coke of all things! So that was my
lovely contribution to the costume design process.
After filming, I had Cullen sign the shirt, and it's
now proudly hanging on the wall in my living room!
Turtle Bay: How did you get started in this business?
Kristy Fuchs: Pure luck! A few years back I had applied to every
studio in town. Warner Bros picked my resume out of
pile and I got hired on as an office floater on the
lot. It just happened that my first assignment there
was in the Costume Dept. I ended up working there for
almost a year before moving on to other things. It was
great experience!
Turtle Bay: What were some of the memorable things for you about working on Gotham Cafe?
Kristy Fuchs: Oh jeez, where do I start? I LOVED seeing all the
special effects and how they worked. The make-up
process was very fascinating to me. I also got to be an extra in a few scenes
so that was
really cool. Although I was kinda nervous cause I'm not an actress! haha
My favorite part, probably, was watching Cullen (Guy)
become the character. He was a quiet, soft-spoken guy
off camera, but as soon as it was time, he turned on
the switch and became a raving psycho. It rocked! And
on the last night, when we were shooting late into the
night he tried to lighten up the mood by doing silly
things. He was supposed to burst through the kitchen
door waving his butcher knife above his head. But
instead he kept surprising us by coming out with
waving different things around. First a fire extinguisher, then a guitar and the grand finale:
Kevin, our Humboldt!! Very funny...
"Lunch at the Gotham Café" © Stephen
King
Used by permission. All rights reserved