Sandro Miller’s homage to Diane Arbus’ “Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey,” from 1967:
Sandro Miller, photographer: “The original is haunting. One has fear, one a gleam in her eye, enjoying the moment. John switched between them in seconds. Of course, we shot him twice, which is where the digital stuff comes in. Also, it was a cloudy day in the (original) photo, and so there is no hard lights on anything.”
Angela Finney, set designer: “The bricks are reclaimed from Pilsen and stained to get them the right darkness. Every splatter and crack in the street, we made sure they were exactly as they were in the Arbus picture. The set was about 10-by-10, just enough to suggest a street. And the background looked like plaster, so we did a plaster backdrop.”
Randy Wilder, hair and makeup artist: “I am an identical twin myself, and I know how important when you are growing up as a twin that you show your little idiosyncrasies, so I wanted to make sure we respected both identities. Mean one and sweet one, I called them. I used the same wig for both but cut it slightly different. Wigs are hard to find, and John has a large head, which means you have to find one tight enough so that it doesn’t look like a wig. But Melissa Veal, the great wig-maker at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, had our wig. And then she also ended up making us our Hemingway beard and the Che Guevara facial hair.”
John Malkovich, actor: “This was one of my favorites. It’s childish to think of me doing it, but it’s also somewhat perfect for me. It’s like that Malcolm Gladwell book ‘Blink’ — meaning, all decisions are made in the moment, and your decision may be wrong, and you may have to re-examine it, but basically, be comfortable with it. So I looked at the photo, and it was pretty clear what was going on in their heads, what part of their expressions leaped out and what seemed to recede. Basically, you notice how different the girls are, but then just as important is how similar they seem to be. That’s how I approached that one.”
Leslie Pace, costume designer: “This was one of the simpler ones for me. For the Hemingway, we had to hire a knitter to make the sweater. And for the Mick Jagger, we had to add this sheen to a beautiful coat to give it the right texture. But this: The challenge was finding the right fabric and headband, and I found the right general pattern and brought it to this amazing seamstress, who meticulously tweaked a dress pattern for John’s body. Also, I have a collection of stuff at this point, so I found two tights with the perfect textures.”
—Christopher Borrelli
