In 'Opus,' Cult Leaders and Pop Stars Are One in the Same

Is it a coincidence that Charles Manson, one of the most notorious cult leaders in history, aspired to be a rock star? As Mark Anthony Green’s Opus sees it, it’s not.

The A24 horror film, released in theaters in March, follows budding journalist Ariel Ecton (Ayo Edebiri) as she’s invited, alongside a group of other media professionals, to the estate of Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich), a legendary pop star who disappeared from the public eye 30 years ago. They are led under the guise that they’ll be listening to Moretti’s comeback album, Caesar’s Revenge, but the group quickly learns not everything is as it seems on the remote Utah commune where he’s been hiding.

The directorial debut from Green, a.k.a. MAG, explores the cult of celebrity. The fictional Moretti, therefore, needed to rival musical icons like David Bowie and Elton John in style and charisma but have a compound that fell somewhere between Waco and Prince’s Paisley Park. MAG tapped stylist/costume designer Shirley Kurata (Everything Everywhere All At Once) to help craft the looks for the singer and his followers, known as the Levelists,, while production designer Robert Pyzocha (Joker, The Whale) was tasked with building out Moretti’s mysterious community.

Pyzocha sought out La Mesita Ranch Estate in Santa Fe, New Mexico as the primary filming location, seeing how it resembled the sites he researched and how it housed different buildings that would meet a group’s “belief rituals, meditation practice, and isolation needs.”

Kurata, meanwhile, looked for inspiration in both real cults as well as celebrities and their fandoms. Above all, though, she was thrilled to collaborate with MAG, who worked in fashion as a GQ editor for 13 years before transitioning to film. “I love it when I get a script where I can play with fashion,” Kurata tells Marie Claire over Zoom.

Here, Kurata and Pyzocha explain how they tackled fame, artistry, and a messiah complex in the highly stylized film.

Marie Claire: It seemed you were inspired by icons like David Bowie, Elton John, and Prince, but what elements from their style were you looking at to craft the wardrobe?

Costume Designer Shirley Kurata: They all love something ostentatious, a little bit garish, or very showy. So I knew I had to add some element in his wardrobe, but I didn't want it to reflect too much of any specific musician. In an ideal world, we would've custom-made all of [Moretti’s] outfits, but I didn't have the time or the money. I did for a good amount, but I had to take shortcuts, so some of my shortcuts were buying existing suits and then adding panels, fabrics, and appliques, or tweaking the collar. I thought that was a cool way to create this new silhouette, but then add these elements that showed that he was a peacock.

When you study [someone like] Michael Jackson in the earlier days to his later years, their style evolves, and so that evolution was important to show. But there is always that element of something that looks custom-made. I know sometimes Elton John works with designers, but I think a lot of them—Prince, Michael Jackson—had a personal tailor, but they weren't famous clothing designers. I thought that was something that Moretti would do too. At this point, there’s probably someone on the compound making the clothes for him.

MC: Almost all of his suits have silver applique and matching gloves. Why were those the throughlines you landed on?

SK: [The applique is] influenced by Liberace. He always had these amazing costumes with appliques, so I thought that was a cool touch to his wardrobe. The gloves served a couple of purposes. It was really cold when we were shooting, so it was helpful for John to stay warm. But also, it gives the outfit much more of an element of wealth. Usually, people who wear gloves are not doing physical labor, so it sets his status as the leader. I thought it was a cool touch to his style because then he would wear the rings on top of his gloves.

MC: What specifically was on your mood board? Were there any memorable looks you were referencing?

SK: I really loved Brian Eno's costume during his glam rock phase when he was performing with Bowie. He had some amazing costumes. Bowie, hands down had some of the most amazing costumes—the Ziggy Stardust looks, anything that was a little bit futuristic, the ones that were the crazy shapes that he wore. Brian Eno wore this one that had this crazy collar and it had feathers coming out, which I loved.

In the first few fittings with John, we experimented because there were some costumes that we felt didn't reflect the present Moretti. They reflected the younger Moretti. So we were like, Okay, let's use these instead for flashbacks, and we had to figure out what the present Moretti would be like in terms of silhouette and what he would wear.

MC: Was John Malkovich always game to wear the platform heels?

SK: We always wanted to put him in platform boots and John was totally down to do that. I had asked him, ‘Are you sure you can do this? Can you walk in it?’ And he said that, back in the day, he would wear platform boots as a kid, so he was fine with it. I found those crazy Rick Owens platform boots and he's wearing them in one of the dinner scenes when he’s on the floor talking to everyone. We also had him in a classic black platform boot.

One of the things that John personally suggested was experimenting with pants. He mentioned, ‘Well, what if I'm wearing a sarong?’ to MAG. I thought that was a great idea to add that element to his blazers with all the embellishments on it, so for a couple of scenes, I had some custom-made sarongs. They're a combination of trousers with a skirt panel over. I thought that was a great idea: a little bit culty, but also very fashionable and had that spiritual aspect of a cult leader.

MC: Why did the estate in New Mexico feel like the right aesthetic for the place where Moretti would have set up and lived with his cult?

Production Designer Robert Pyzocha: La Mesita Ranch Estate is located in the Pojoaque Pueblo, about 40 minutes north of Santa Fe. The property is owned and operated by the Pojoaque Pueblo. MAG and I toured the 144-acre estate and immediately felt that it had the right level of grandeur and decadence to embody Moretti’s vision of an earthly paradise for his devoted followers. The architecture on the site is a fusion of Southwestern Spanish colonial architecture mixed with a Pueblo revival style. The austere simplicity of the Pueblo adobe interiors worked beautifully for the cult’s ascetic life of making art and practicing the tenets of Level.

MC: Did you research cults and their compounds while designing the Levelist’s community?

RP: I researched a range of radical organizations and quasi-religious sects that exhibited extreme cultish behavior. One of the groups that I found fascinating and endlessly intriguing is the Aum Shinrikyo cult from Saitama, Japan. I found many similarities between Moretti and the founder, Shoko Asahara. Shoko was an accomplished musician who often wore lilac-colored tunics along with his devoted followers during meditations at communal concerts. There are many pictures of him magically levitating above the stage during shows. He was the ultimate doomsday showman with the liner notes to back it up.

Shoko was also very similar to Charles Manson, another stealthily gifted guitarist with raw talent and a festering messiah complex. He, like Moretti, also had an entourage of radical groupies willing to execute orders upon command. These three men came out of a period during the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s when the boundaries between counterculture, madness, and violence became dangerously blurred.

I was highly inspired by Shoko’s use of the color lilac, and I really wanted to paint all of the Moretti compound buildings a lilac color. MAG loved the idea of the compound having a distinct identity, but this particular color had too many associations with Paisley Park, Prince’s home and studio. Turns out that Elton John also had a thing for the lilac color, as did the cult members of Warren Jeff’s the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. MAG was highly conscious of Moretti living in his own reality and did not want to make any direct allusions to other well-known celebrity musicians.

I also studied the Rajneesh Movement at Big Muddy Ranch in Oregon; this cult also aimed to create a utopia in the desert. It was here that the aesthetic of hand-dying everyday work garments orange, red, maroon, and pink clothes became a distinct uniform for the faithful followers of the Bagwan.

MC: How did you decide what the Levelists should be wearing?

SK: That was an initial conversation with MAG because he had it scripted that they were all in robes, but he told me, ‘That's just a marker. They don't have to be in literal robes or all matching. We can do what we think is right, but I think it would probably be best to have it all be one color, but they're in their own outfits.’ I thought that was a better way to approach it too because you could also see the different characters within the world.

MC: How much dye did you use?

SK: We hired an ager/dyer, [Colleen Fox], and I don't know how many bottles of dye she went through, but there was a lot. It is multiple dips, multiple washings, so it was weeks of over-dying. We tried to find some things that were already in blue, but a lot had to get over-dyed. It’s interesting because when you deal with indigo, there are so many different shades. You have to match the right shade of a shirt with pants, but sometimes they don't work together, and you have to play around with the shades.

Indigo was originally in the script and I think that color is great because it reflected the dedication that the Levelists had to the craft. Indigo dye is the same thing. It's a craft. It felt like that was a great element in what the Levelists wore and their tenets of being connected to the arts, but also dedication and commitment.

RP: The production design utilized the same indigo consistently. Upon arrival to Moretti’s compound, all the guests are given blue ceramic ceremonial vases to mark their welcome to the compound, which ultimately become symbolic death vessels. We created a functioning ceramic studio with indigo blue aprons for the young Levelists ceramic workshops. The marionette puppet stage is also painted an indigo blue color with gold oyster shells along the proscenium arch. This design feature is also maintained in the listening room where the speaker stacks are indigo blue to match the intricate indigo blue calligraphy itineraries on baby lamb skins. I asked my long-time collaborator Chisato Uno to create special itineraries with floating oyster pearls adorning the baby lamb skins. In Moretti’s world, there is no limit to creative potential, however destructive they might become.

MC: Did you do any research into what cult members wear?

SK: Yes, I did. I watched documentaries, and, for the most part, aside from a few fringe ones, they wore their own clothes. In Wild Wild Country, [the documentary about the Rajneeshes], it was more color-coded and I thought that was a good reference. You still could identify them as a cult, but they're all wearing their own clothes.

It felt like if you put them in some sort of robe, it removed you from the whole story to take it into more of a sci-fi thing. It seemed more human to have them dressed in regular clothes.

MC: How were you thinking about the aesthetics of celebrity homes or famous estates like Graceland and the Neverland Ranch, or how we often perceive them?

RP: This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be next to Moretti to hear and witness his 13th studio album Caesar’s Request. It had to feel real. From a production design standpoint, I could have amped up the interiors with excessive decorative appointments to scream ‘celebrity,’ but, I didn’t want it to feel like Mariah Carey’s dressing room.

I decided on an adobe modern minimalist aesthetic for each of the guest rooms. All the guest rooms were painted Moretti orange, except for Ariel’s, which is light blue. She has been selected to write the history of the Level faith, so I used the color blue to align her with the Indigo blue of the Levelists wardrobe colorway. It’s a subtle hint that goes unnoticed, but it’s a strategic color choice to allude to what’s coming.

I removed all the existing furniture from the premises and we purchased low modern couches for all the guest rooms. Animal skins were on the beds, floor, and furniture. In the film, we later find out that there is a black slaughter shed on site where the animal skins were processed, along with Moretti’s invited guest, Bill Lotto [played by Mark Sivertsen]. So it gets a bit creepy if you start to make all the animal skin connections.

MC: What was it like toeing between designing a wardrobe for a pop icon and a cult leader, or did you find that those things weren’t all that different?

SK: In theory, it is really not that different because they're both usually people who like to be center stage, who like all the attention and the adoration. So, it makes sense that that's the path that would be created for him or that he would create. But, in terms of costume design, it was pretty challenging to figure out that balance of, What is realistic and what seems natural and not too forced.

For his performance, I wanted him to wear something a little bit more modern and not like, Okay, this looks like a costume that he wore in 1988. So I thought it would be cool to have something [with] a little bit of sci-fi influence. Prior to this, I was a big fan of the fashion designers threeASFOUR and reached out to them to see if they would be interested in collaborating, and they were totally down. They're the ones that made the custom silver look for him.

MC: How was the space for the listening party conceived? Was it at all intended to look like a music video?

JP: Moretti’s listening session was conceived as a circular space. However, we later chose to do it in the riding stable at La Mesita. I designed a 60’ by 60’ stage for the center of the stable and painted it bright orange. In each of the four corners, I had indigo speaker stacks as if it were a massive EDM sound system installation. John requested pivoting chairs for his choreographed vignettes with the guests, so I sourced some modern high-back lounge chairs from the local community college. It was always conceived to be staged in a circular arrangement and shot in a circular format. However, the height and size of the riding stable made the volume of the playing space feel like it was floating in a much larger arena.

MC: There are a lot of eerie yet fun details, like the blue lobster in the dinner party scene, the oysters the Levelists shuck, Moretti’s wax figure at his museum. Did you have a favorite?

RP: My favorite set was the orange yurt where the levelists pined for pearls in the deserted landscape. We cast about 450 plaster oyster shells in rubber molds. That wasn’t nearly enough, so my art director Jurasama Arunchai, my production assistant, and I went out in the snow and brought hundreds of rocks into the yurt to fill in the purple garbage cans, so it appeared that were thousands of shells.

My second favorite set was the puppet show. We created a rat-pack media scrum with marionettes inside the children’s activity room. MAG and I had some downtime while we waited for a production waiver to fall into place during the actors strike, so I banged out some quick rat sketches. MAG said, ‘Cool, do it,’ so I just went for it. I made a rat head out of clay and then used tracing paper dipped in aqua resin for each of the puppets. For the facial warts on the rat heads, I used black pepper. My friend Misha Sturtevant runs a Broadway costume shop in Manhattan and volunteered to fabricate the puppet outfits. Then, the rat parts were shipped out to Albuquerque where they were fuzzed up and strung for performance. The puppet show happened somehow, but the whole time, I think the producers had it on the chopping block due primarily to the tight shooting schedule. So at least one positive thing came out of the actors's strike: We were graced with a bit of time to make rats.

MC: Moretti’s childhood home has been turned into a museum, The Rhinestone Chalet, on the compound and it’s a stark contrast from the main building in many ways. What did you hope to convey about who he is in that scene?

RP: The Rhinestone Chalet was shot in downtown Albuquerque. Visual effects 3D-scanned the entire house and digitally inserted the Rhinestone chalet into the Moretti Compound at La Mesita Ranch. We selected this two-story Victorian home in Albuquerque to construct a narrative of Moretti being from the Midwest and growing up in a conservative, middle-income neighborhood. He kept his house as his own reliquary of artifacts from his childhood and the wild touring years on the road.

I painted the exterior of the Rhinestone Chalet some really awful, putrid color combinations, thinking it would feel awful and old. Much to my surprise, the actual homeowners loved the color combinations and kept it! I created an exterior plaque to identify the house and found a painted wood reindeer at a thrift store for just $7 that I couldn’t pass, so the deer guarded the entrance to the Rhinestone Chalet. I added a climbable steel trellis on the side of the house to the attic for the stunt fight in the attic where Ariel is hiding in the bathroom. But the bathroom was built as a stage set in a maintenance shed at La Mesita Ranch north of Santa Fe.

MC: What was it like as a costume designer working on a project helmed by someone so connected to the fashion world?

SK: It was really helpful because having such a short prep time, once we got casting, I would be like, ‘Okay, so how do you see this character dress?’ Most directors would be like, ‘Okay, I see him in a leather jacket,’ but MAG would be like, ‘I see him in a Belstaff leather jacket.’ He knew his brands and it was so helpful being able to understand his vision of the character.

Also, he had a lot of connections. We were shooting in New Mexico, and there are hardly any higher-end boutiques there. We had to reach out to designers to see if they would loan or lend some pieces, and he was good friends with John Elliott and Todd Snyder, so they were able to give us some pieces. Then my styling background, I reached out to many different brands. [Because of] my connection with Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte, I was able to reach out to them to have them loan a dress for Juliette Lewis. And then Prada, of course, who dressed Ayo [Edebiri]. Later on, when Ayo is getting interviewed as a writer, Phillip Lim loaned some looks, The Frankie Shop, she’s also wearing Coach. It was really helpful to have these connections and reach out to them because my budget was really limited and it really allowed for the movie to look the way I wanted it to.

MC: Ayo Edebiri has become a fashion It Girl. What was it like working with her?

SK: Amazing. She has a great sense of style, but she also knows how to build a character with what she's wearing. Initially, we wanted to go with more of a Black Ivy style. So she's wearing a Bode sweater vest, and we see her at her house in a Spelman College sweatshirt—a little bit preppy, bookish. That way it would be a big contrast to the makeover: There she iis elegant and in Prada. Then, in the final scene, she's definitely still put together, but it's much more expensive and polished. It was a great way to tell the story, like the three parts: right before the compound, during, and then after.