Glamour: It seems like the idea of layers and special meaning was really important to the character. Blending all those influences must have been a challenge, especially drawing on other cultures with the bindi. How did you toe that line? Detroit is fearless, but appropriation is such an issue these days.
KC: What I like about Detroit and her approach with these things is that it’s like reassessing and reusing the things that we usually look at these cultures with. With the bindis, we had put bindis on her hands, on her nails, she’d have a bindi. There were these cool pieces on her hands, and I think it’s her way of reapproaching it. It goes back to how cultures look at beauty, how they express themselves. I think it’s a way of recelebrating things in a new light. I think that was her mission. It’s not about misusing a culture’s influence, but it’s about recreating, re-exciting, recelebrating it in a new way. If anything, someone would look at her and go, "Oh that’s different, look at that." Or, "That’s kind of strange, and maybe does confuse me or frustrate me." But it’s not caring about what somebody thinks, and that’s always been her purpose.
Glamour: In terms of seeing things in a new light, the movie takes plausible ideas about things that are happening, like working conditions, and unionizing for wealth redistribution, and takes them to the next level. How did that translate through in the beauty choices?
KC: I think it’s a wake-up call for people, that everything this movie expresses is just an accentuated version of what we live with every day. It’s not far away. You can get caught up in all the glam and money, all the things the world thinks that we need, but those aren’t the things that we need. It’s insane where we are politically as a culture, as America right now. It is a satire, and it’s sort of shoved in your face what the world really is. This film reminds me of The Handmaid’s Tale, which is another show that makes you think, This could happen and it’s not that far off.
I hope in general, it breaks the mold of expectations with makeup and how people look. Go home and be a little more experimental and take more risks, that’s definitely a message. I hope any woman who sees this film goes, "Hey, I can do that, and it doesn’t matter how old I am or what I do." Be willing to take risks with yourself; be willing to push your own limits. Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone will absolutely be a case of learning and experience, and that’s the only way you grow as a person.
Peter Prato / Annapurna Pictures
