Creating the character of Malkina takes a lot of leather and gold studs. Just ask designer Paula Thomas, who outfitted her for the movie (out Oct. 25).
Cameron Diaz may be best known for her sweet and sugary film roles — Charlie's Angels, There's Something About Mary, etc. — but her latest role as Malkina in Ridley Scott's The Counselor is a far cry from her usual MO. (Not just because she has sex with a car. And yes, that really does happen.)
Paula Thomas, the designer behind the label Thomas Wylde who was given the opportunity to dress Diaz for The Counselor, was initially surprised by the casting choice. "When Ridley [Scott] told me it was Cameron, I think I probably had the same reaction that a lot of people would have," she said. "Which is, I'm so used to seeing Cameron as this beautiful, funny, charming, sexy, amazing woman — which is exactly what she is in real life. And then I'm reading Malkina, who is a vicious, vindictive hunter, and I'm going, 'OK, how is this going to work?'"
That contradiction, though, appears to work. In the opening scene of The Counselor, we meet Malkina, and she is one of a kind, to say the least. She's got model looks, two pet cheetahs, and zero empathy for anyone around her. She's cold and calculating, with warning signs bubbling just up to the surface, but the people closest to her seem to miss that side of her completely.
"Malkina's character uses the wardrobe as a disguise, in a way, to throw you off the scent of what she's really doing, and what her real aim is. But I think that Thomas Wylde has a flavor of what Malkina is, as much as I really don't want to say that," Paula said with a laugh. "Because it's quite a dark, cold, and manipulating character, but it just worked."
Sketches of Malkina, by Paula Thomas
Paula Thomas
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