How can actors collaborate with costume designers to fully bring a character to life and ground them in humanity onscreen? Hamnet’s Oscar-nominated Costume Designer Malgosia Turzanska answers this question and many more, alongside host and actor Robert Peterpaul, in How We Role’s insightful season 2 premiere.
Malgosia Turzanska was born and raised in Krakow, Poland. She has a BFA in Costume Design from DAMU in Prague, Czech Republic and an MFA in Costume Design from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her design credits include Season 1 of Stranger Things and the A24 horror films X and Pearl starring Mia Goth, which inspired many a Halloween costume over the past couple years.
She had a rousing 2026 awards season, designing Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams and a film adaptation of the book Hamnet directed by Chloé Zhao and starring Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as Agnes. Among other accolades, Hamnet earned 8 Academy Award nominations, marking her first Oscar nod.
This episode covers:
- Vital lessons that actors can learn from costume designers.
- What actors should have prepared for costume fittings.
- The ways texture and weight influence performances, from breath to movement.
- Why authentic compliments matter in the entertainment industry and much more.
Submit your questions for future episodes, and if you enjoyed this conversation, please share it with a friend and leave us a review!
Listen to How We Role on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you stream podcasts.
Episode Preview: Oscar-Nominee Malgosia Turzanska (‘Hamnet’): What Actors Can Learn from Costume Design
Malgosia Turzanska: Basically…I always sketch before, you know, before we start building the costumes. So I have something to share with…with the director, with the DP, and with the actors. And it just became very apparent that, and we talked about blood actually with Chloe and with Jesse. And so it just became very apparent that this is going to be the language of…of her, you know, of her costume arc. And then, you know, we start kind of vibrant, then it goes…when she starts having children, it goes more…I just tried to call it…the blood slows down. It is…it is more rusty, it’s just a little bit heavier.
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