Jany Temime was the costume designer for 2 Bond films, Skyfall and Spectre. In this interview for the podcast taped on (March 2018) I spoke to Jany about her favourite films growing up, how she got into Bond and everything in between. Below is a short transcription, for the full interview be sure to check out episode 07 of the podcast. (Podcast links at the bottom).
Hello Jany Temime, how did you get into costume design?
I always wanted to do costumes for films, so it was not a hard decision to take. Film was the only art form I liked, so I always wanted to work for film. And my way of working for film was to do costume for film because that’s what I could do. I couldn’t paint really beautiful murals.
From seven years old I was watching television. I grew up in Algeria in the middle of war, you know the French war, the independence war. We were locked at home and the only thing I could do was to watch Egyptian musicals. And they had all those super production of Egyptian musicals from the ’50s and ’60s.
They had all those huge musicals and all those dancers, and I grew up with that, watching that, and I loved it. I was also watching other films in black-and-white, but this was my life.
Image source: Industry Central
And after that?
Moved to Paris after that … and I kept on going to cinema, watching films. The only thing I wanted to do was to work in film and because my parents were in textile and I worked in textile. I could sew, I could do things. That was my way of expressing myself, so I just went into costume.
Can you remember the first film you saw in the cinema?
It was still in Paris, it was Ben Hur. I loved it. I saw it 12 times. I was completely in love with Charlton Heston. I didn’t think that anybody could be that sexy in leather.
And I did that film Hercules years after, and I said to The Rock, ‘ah, I have that obsession about men in leather skirts and I’m so happy that I can have you in a leather skirt’. And what I said to The Rock when I dressed him as Hercules.
Image source: ABC News
What kind of film are you most passionate about working on?
A good film. The older I become, and the more difficult I am in my choice. I really need to work on a good film, and I really need to work with a good director…. I keep on going back into good film and I keep on saying I refuse big blockbuster.
At the moment I’m doing a smaller film. I’m more and more agreed to do smaller films if I know that they are going to be good director and powerful film than doing big blockbuster.
Image source: Daily Record
On big blockbusters
I need to do the big blockbuster because that’s where the money is, but more and more attracted to go back to what my passion was, which was really working for the cinema and making a good film.
And usually nowadays the way the money goes in cinema, you have those blockbusters which are just action films and children’s films. […] it’s really hard to do costumes the way you want to do it with a lower budget because it costs much more than when I started…
So if you want to do your job correctly you attracting to big budget. But the big budget are not all the time the films you would like to do. But at the moment I’m really happy because I’m doing Judy, Judy Garland with Renee Zellweger. And it’s not a big budget, but it is a lovely film to do. I love it.
Image source: Daily Mail
How did you get to work on the James Bond movies?
I would never have done Bond if it were not Sam Mendes. He asked me, he’s somebody with whom I wanted to work. We wanted to work together. He was doing Bond, I did Bond. I always chose a director, and I want to stay like that. I was to stay somebody who loved cinema and do costume for film, but it has to be a good film.
Every single time I choose a project it was because I loved the script, I loved the people, or I loved the actor. I really did Hercules because I wanted to work with Brett Ratner, which I think is a talent. And I really thought The Rock playing Hercules is good.
Listen to the podcast
You can download the full interview with Jany Temime on episode 07 of the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher or Spotify. Or listen in the player below.
Leave A Comment