Her house is full to the brim with awards from her work on ‘The Tudors’ and she’s used to mingling with Hollywood royalty at the Oscars. Janice Butler caught up with Ireland’s most talented costume designer, Joan Bergin .
With the award season in full swing, you have been lucky enough to walk away with a few gongs yourself, but how important is it to you to be recognised in that way?
Joan Bergin: I think the overview is that these awards are very good for film-making in general – all the production designers, directors, documentary-makers and crew. These people are normally faceless and it’s great for them to be recognised. When you are in the States at these awards, people are really interested to hear what’s happening on the Irish film scene in a way that they may not if you’re an actor because more often than not, as an Irish actor, you’re being awarded for a film that was shot in another country. It’s ironic really because most of the gongs brought back to Ireland over the last few years have been brought back by film crew and in the celebrity culture that we live in, it isn’t always highlighted.
Do you have a particular award that’s close to your heart?
Nothing beats the first one – the first Emmy I got for The Tudors. The gang I was with said I knocked them down to get to the stage, I was like a Premier League footballer! I loved the opportunity to get up on that stage and use it as an opportunity to talk about the Irish film industry.
Where do you keep all your awards?
On the mantelpiece in my kitchen! Although my younger brother told me that it was beginning to look vulgar and that I should start using them as doorstops!
How does attending the Oscars compare with other awards ceremonies?
People would argue that there are too many award ceremonies but the Oscars is still the king of them all. I was there with My Left Foot, which was nominated for five awards, and as you arrive at the ceremony you begin to realise the enormity of the occasion and that it’s really like America’s royalty – it’s really quite wonderful! I remember on one occasion when I attended, I was sitting beside these huge stars and Kevin Costner turned around to me and asked me who I was, and after I told him, he turned around and gave me a hug and said ‘welcome to the family’. Once you’re in the Oscar family they assume you’ve deserved a reason to be there.
Which of this year’s list of costume design nominees do you think will take home the Oscar?
I think it would be just wonderful if Colleen Atwood won for her work in Alice in Wonderland – she is a tremendous talent. She was able to enhance every character in that movie with her costumes.
When you started out, did you have ambitions to work on big Hollywood projects?
No, not particularly –oddly enough, I wanted to be an actor at the start – like a lot of Irish people! But sometimes you can never tell what life has planned for you and I found success in a completely different field, but which was very welcome.
Would you always rather work on something that’s being filmed in Ireland?
I think you do need to work away. I remember being with Brenda Fricker on Home Alone 2 when they were filming one of the scenes in Central Park in New York and it was such a huge production, but I remember thinking we could do that in Ireland. But you do need to get out there and learn your craft. A lot of what I learned in the workshops in LA, I brought back to The Tudors, but I found to my delight that there were people every bit as gifted hidden here in Ireland, which enabled me to bring my team together. OK, it might have been one-tenth the size of a Hollywood team but it was good enough to win three Emmy Awards!
Lastly, I must ask you about your trademark look – where did your obsession with wearing hats come from?
This is kind of an inner secret but I often think that I wear cowboy hats when I’m working because when you’re discussing clothes with actors it’s highly personal and it’s almost like you present a different front to them and then that spilled over into the fact that if I look at my head now without a hat on, the proportions look all wrong!
Janice Butler
