“When the Palisades Fire tore through Pacific Palisades last year, it didn’t just destroy Colleen Atwood’s home. It melted three of her Academy Awards and badly damaged a fourth — a surreal, devastating footnote to one of the most decorated careers in Hollywood costume design. A costume designer whose work has helped define the look”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
A costume designer whose work has helped define the look of modern studio filmmaking, Atwood has collaborated for decades with such filmmakers as Tim Burton, Rob Marshall and Jonathan Demme, creating looks for films including Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha, Alice in Wonderland and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Then came the fire. The blaze consumed her beloved Aderno Way house, along with almost everything inside it. In the aftermath, Atwood was left with a single scorched statuette that she affectionately refers to as her “crispy critter.”
Her loss was personal, but of course it was also part of something much larger. The twin Palisades and Eaton fires destroyed more than 12,000 properties across Los Angeles, upending the lives of thousands of residents — famous and infamous alike — including the homes of Mel Gibson, Billy Crystal, Jeff Bridges, Rosie O’Donnell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Miles Teller, Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton, Diane Warren, Anna Faris, Eugene Levy, Anthony Hopkins, Joshua Jackson and Ricki Lake, among many others.
Along the way, the fires spawned their own shorthand. One burned Oscar image briefly went viral online — an AI fake, it turned out — but Atwood’s damage was the real thing. And not all Oscars, it turns out, are created equal, with older statues made from softer alloys melting faster than the bronze versions cast more recently.
A year later, all of Atwood’s Academy Awards have been replaced, but she is far from recovered. On the eve of the one year anniversary of the LA wildfires, The Hollywood Reporter checked in with Atwood to find out how she’s doing and what’s become of her hardware.
How are you doing a year later?
It’s still depressing. I’m in the rebuilding process now with my house. I have plans and I’m trying to figure out what materials to use. It’s daunting. I am used to doing a lot of different things but I’ve never built a house. The financial side of it is scary, too, because it hasn’t been a great year for the industry. I’m OK but so many others have been impacted by the changes within our business. You can try to look forward but there’s not a lot of comfort coming your way.
What is most worrisome?
City officials say that they are going to expedite this or that, in terms of helping with permits and the rebuilding process. But it doesn’t feel like it’s moving all that fast. There’s been the first wave of people who have really gotten on it, and they are permitted or at least close. But there are others of us who have had to jump through more hoops. The permitting process is going to hit all at once, and that will be overwhelming for the City of Los Angeles. Then to find out about how the fire started, and that we didn’t have water in the reservoir is…it’s like the emperor’s new clothes. As an honest taxpayer, you pay taxes all your life only to find out that there’s no water in the well. There are so many things you discover that bring up anger and frustration, and that’s beyond the day-to-day of life. I’ve been living in the same place for the last year and I just found out that the house is going on the market so I have to move again.
How long did you live in the house on Aderno Way?
I moved there in 1994. I moved so much for my work that I’m not a person who wanted to move into a house just to flip it and move on. I’m not that person.
You’ve created many iconic moments on screen with your work. Did you lose any of your archive?
I lost a certain amount of it but I have a storage unit in it [San Fernando Valley] so it wasn’t totally destroyed. I had some personal documentation, photographs, presents from different jobs, all of that is gone. But my archive survived which is great.
And the awards? I saw that you brought your Oscar to the Vogue World: Hollywood launch event at Chateau Marmont…
I did. My crispy critter.
What happened to it? Did the Academy replace it?
They did. The Academy replaced the statues and they were the first to do so. The Academy and BAFTA were both really great when I reached out, and the Emmys were replaced as well. The Costume Designers Guild Awards have been slightly different as they haven’t been replaced. Three of my Oscars totally melted. But the Academy changed to a foundry before I won for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them so they were solid metal. It’s the only award that didn’t melt.
Hearing that makes me think of that AI photo of a charred Oscar that went viral after the fires. What do you make of awards now or did the fires change your view on material possessions?
I didn’t see the AI one, I only heard about it in the first month or so after the fires. I was so in shock that I wasn’t really dealing with things like that. I was just dealing with the whole sense of loss and all of the paperwork. I did grab a few things — my dog, computer, family photos and an overnight bag — but I didn’t think my house was going to burn down. I had a lot of beautiful art, photographic art that I’d collected over the years and I didn’t take any of it. Losing all of it had a big impact on me because I had gotten used to living with these beautiful things around me. Suddenly, I had nothing.
People asked me if I took my Oscars but I didn’t think my house would burn down so they weren’t the first things I grabbed. But after I lost them, I realized the amazing power of the Oscar and how many people still value what it stands for. It made me really happy that I had some, and that the Academy came forward to help support us, along with the guilds and the Motion Picture & Television Fund. I found the support very moving. There are so many tragedies happening in the world that the Palisades Fire seems to have faded after a year. What matters now is the interest on loans and how hard the rebuild is on people. It would be great to have a better system for helping to understand it all.
You have chosen to stay and rebuild. Why?
I ran the numbers with some financial experts and in order to get the investment back out of the house, it’s the best plan. In the end, it’s about protecting the trust for my daughter who has special needs so that it can support her when I’m gone. The loss of my place is huge to me. I lived there a long time, but I’m excited about the challenge of rebuilding and what it can be. I also think the Palisades will come back, in a gradual way. I miss the wonderfulness of the original houses and how the Palisades was like a village. It will come back but perhaps in a more business-oriented way.
What’s shocking to think about is how you experienced such tragedy and it came as you had such an incredible year with the releases of some high-profile projects you worked on with One Battle After Another, Kiss of the Spider Woman and Wednesday. How are you looking back on this year, personally and professionally?
Professionally, it was one of the greatest years I’ve had in my life. The second I read One Battle After Another, I knew it was a seminal film. I loved getting to work on Kiss of the Spider Woman because it is this classic beautiful musical about a time and place that really matters in this world. Continuing on with Wednesday was very fun, with its great cast and directors we worked with. I also got to do “The Dead Dance” music video with Lady Gaga that we shot in Mexico City. It’s not my usual thing but to be noticed for that was like, wow. I feel so grateful. I’m grateful for the industry, for all the artists I get to work with, and for my team. It wasn’t a typical year for me and I don’t think it was a good year for anybody. But it was a year that really uplifted me and made me happy for what we do. I’m a believer. I believe movies will still keep getting made. I know we’re going to have to fight for it, but it’s an important fight.
Is there anything you wish people knew or something you hope people learn about what happened?
It’s really important as we move forward in time that we learn the absolute importance of city government and accountability. It’s a big deal.
This story appeared in the Jan. 2 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.