Paul Tazewell on his ‘Wicked’ Oscar nomination and ‘touching hearts’ through costume design
When this year’s Oscar nominations were announced, Wicked costume designer Paul Tazewell was defying gravity thousands of feet in the air.
“I was actually on a plane coming from London, and I couldn’t get my wi-fi to work,” the Best Costume Design nominee tells Gold Derby (watch above). “I finally just gave up, and I dozed off for a bit. When I woke up, I was able to get on the wi-fi, and I saw all of the texts that had come through. I was so pleased!”
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Tazewell continues on, “To have an epic film like Wicked acknowledged by my peers, by other people in the film community, and to receive the love of fans, that is beautiful. It’s hugely life-changing. Touching hearts is why I do what I do. So I take that on with celebration and with great meaning.”
Tazewell previously contended for the Best Costume Design Oscar for West Side Story (2021), so Wicked marks his second career nomination. He’s also an Emmy winner for The Wiz Live! (2016) and a Tony champion for Hamilton (2016). “It’s just so meaningful to be acknowledged for this period of my life,” he says about his recent awards run. “It is a huge gift.”
After two decades as one of the most popular (pun intended) musicals on the Broadway stage, Universal Pictures’ Wicked Part 1 finally arrived in theaters in November 2024. (Part 2, officially titled Wicked: For Good, is due out in November 2025.) Cynthia Erivo plays Elphaba Thropp, aka the Wicked Witch of the West, and Ariana Grande takes on the role of Galinda Upland, aka Glinda the Good, in director Jon M. Chu‘s box office smash. Rounding out the cast are Jonathan Bailey as prince Fiyero Tigelaar, Michelle Yeoh as headmistress Madame Morrible, and Jeff Goldblum as the iconic Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Universal Pictures
Speaking about the character of Elphaba, Tazewell confirms that her textures were inspired by “mushrooms and fungus” and adds, “The intentionality of her design is inspired by who Cynthia Erivo is, and her love for clothing, and how she was going to play that role. We see Elphaba as someone who has fashion style of her own. It’s a very powerful image for her. Even in her individuality with her green skin, she also has developed a sense of style, and she makes very intentional choices about her clothing.”
The biggest challenge in creating Glinda’s pink bubble dress was “the engineering of the swirling shapes, and keeping them translucent,” Tazewell explains. He likens the dress to “a sculpture” and “an orb,” noting that “because light was able to pass through it, it emanated light in a magical way. So it was important for me that it feel as light as air when she moved through space … It couldn’t feel like it was pulling her down, or it would be the antithesis of what what we wanted.”
Universal Pictures
Tazewell and his team created “upwards of 1,500” different looks for Wicked, including all of the extras at Shiz University, Munchkinland, and Emerald City. This is the biggest project he has ever worked on, “partly because there are two films wrapped into one period of time … so yeah, it was pretty huge.”
Also in our exclusive video interview, Tazewell talks about how “the driving theme is individuality” for the Shiz University costumes, the “emotional moment” of Elphaba’s cape getting larger at the end of “Defying Gravity,” and what he hopes audiences most take away from the film. He also teases what he can about Wicked: For Good, saying, “You all will have an amazing continuing ride from where we left off.”
Watch an exclusive featurette on the Wicked costumes:
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