Marjorie McCown has spent her entire professional life in the story-telling business, though she started out on the visual side of the craft. She spent more than twenty-five years in Hollywood working as a key member of the costume design teams for a string of successful movies that includes Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, The Firm, A Bronx Tale, Wag the Dog, The Aviator, Hairspray, Angels and Demons, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. McCown has a BA in theater from the University of Virginia and an AAS in fashion design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. She lives in Southern California. Her latest novel is Star Struck and she recently talked about it with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog.
What was your inspiration for Star Struck?
I'm forever grateful that I was able to make a good living in the privileged Hollywood film industry, and I worked with famous actors who were paid fortunes for appearing on screen. But those experiences made me even more aware of the economic disparities within Los Angeles, which is definitely a city of extremes. It's home to some of the wealthiest people on the planet but also a city where 45,000 people live unsheltered on its streets. We'd often be shooting in downtown LA (where Joey's current movie is filming when Star Struck begins) and the movie we'd be making cost tens of millions of dollars. Often the costume budget alone was millions of dollars. Yet there'd be homeless encampments within sight of our shooting location.
That's why I decided to write about a company making a movie set in the glamorous golden age of Hollywood that's shooting near a homeless enclave in downtown LA. Of course, crime and homicide are the focus of the story—it is a murder mystery, after all—but those plot points are triggered by events that happen because of the specific location where the book begins.
In Final Cut, it seemed like Marcus Pray had to be based on someone (or several someones). In Star Struck, there were two characters, at opposite ends of the spectrum, that seem that way: Andrew de Rossi and Gillian Best, who seem to be stand-ins for real people. Are they inspired by people with whom you’ve worked or heard about during your career?
Andrew de Rossi is loosely based on Leonardo DiCaprio. De Rossi is a respected actor as well as a bona fide movie star. He's also a philanthropist, championing many important social causes, such as climate change and childhood hunger. Those are qualities he shares with Leo DiCaprio.
Gillian Best is a different matter. She's not based on anyone I've worked with. I've borrowed qualities for her from people I've observed in the realm of politics, but not anyone I know personally. I also think of Gillian as a modern-day Norma Desmond, the reclusive (and somewhat mad) silent film star played so brilliantly by Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. Gillian has the same kind of narcissistic obsession with her fame and image as Ms. Desmond, and her self-absorption, coupled with her lack of empathy, makes her dangerous. She's capable of unspeakable cruelty because other people fall into only two categories for her—they're either useful or expendable. She is the center of the universe, and her wishes must be fulfilled at any cost.
How did the novel evolve and change as you wrote and revised it? Are there any characters, scenes, or stories that were lost in the process that you wish had made it to the published version?
I didn't lose anything I felt was important to the story. But as I got deeper into the writing process, there was a shift in the plot's focus that surprised me. The story begins in downtown L.A., where my main character, customer Joey Jessop, is working on a movie. She encounters a troubled girl in a bodega across from the movie's base camp who asks Joey for help. But Joey isn't able to respond to her plea, and the girl is subsequently hit by a car and killed. In the aftermath of the girl's death, Joey feels guilty that she didn't give her assistance, and she becomes determined to find out more about the girl's circumstances.
The plot then expands to reveal a corrupt conspiracy involving powerful people in Hollywood, some of whom Joey is working with on this movie. It becomes clear the conspiracy has long roots that have remained hidden for years, connecting the people involved to criminal and morally reprehensible acts.
I sometimes felt that I was discovering those secrets in real-time (along with Joey) as I wrote parts of the book. Even though I'd outlined the plot beforehand, the story took me in directions I hadn't anticipated. The process of writing became more spontaneous and organic, leading to a murder on the page that I hadn't planned but helped complete the story as it unfolded.
In Star Struck, Joey is working on a film that takes place during the "Golden Age" of Hollywood. Have you worked on a film set during this period? If so, how was the experience?
I worked on The Aviator, the Howard Hughes biopic directed by Martin Scorsese that spanned the period between 1914-1947. Much of the film takes place in Hollywood during the decades Hughes was a film producer, from the late 1920s through the mid-50s.
It was a big job, quite exciting and fun because we dressed everyone who appeared in the film—from stars to background players—in gorgeous period costumes. And many of the scenes, like the Cocoanut Grove nightclub circa 1927, the huge premiere of the movie Hell's Angels in 1930, and the back lots of movie studios in the 1940s were all high glamour Hollywood fashion that showcased the costumes very beautifully. In fact, The Aviator won the Oscar for best costume design that year.
Is there a contemporary film set during Hollywood’s "Golden Age" that is your favorite in terms of costume design? Is there a film made in the 1930s-1940s that is your favorite in terms of representing that period?
The best costume design in a 21st-century film that's set during Hollywood's "Golden Age" (in my humble opinion) is The Aviator and not just because I was the assistant costume designer. As I said earlier, the costumes won the Oscar and deservedly so. Sandy Powell was the costume designer, and she was brilliant. In fact, our entire costume department was top-notch, and we had lots of resources both in terms of talent and budget to realize director Martin Scorsese's vision of the ultimate in Hollywood glamour. In terms of a film made in the 30s and 40s that most beautifully represents the period, I have to go with The Women, with costumes designed by Adrian (whom I'll be talking about more in my answer to the next question.) The film is set within the creme de la creme of New York City high society in 1939, and even shot in black and white, the array of sumptuous gowns, smart-looking suits, and dresses worn by those wealthy women is sensationally imaginative and exceptional!
And within the context of all that high fashion glamour, Adrian manages to cleverly sketch out the personalities and quirks of each of the main characters. The movie really is a must-see for anybody even slightly interested in period fashion and costume design.
Do you have any favorite costume designers from that time? A favorite film that they worked on?
There are so many wonderful costume designers from that era in Hollywood, but the standout for me is Adrian, who was head costume designer for MGM from 1928-1941. He was so renowned for his talent and the dazzling quality of his designs that he was known professionally by just one name. He was especially famous for his evening gowns, and he designed for the biggest stars of his day, including Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, Norma Shearer, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, and Joan Crawford.
He was also quite prolific, creating costume designs for more than 200 movies in the course of his career. His filmography is stunning: it's hard to believe one person is responsible for the variety, inventiveness, and sheer volume of work that he produced.
Some of my personal favorites among the movies that show the breadth of Adrian's talent are Grand Hotel, Anna Karenina, The Great Ziegfeld, Marie Antoinette, The Women, The Wizard of Oz—yes, Adrian is responsible for Dorothy's Ruby Slippers—The Philadelphia Story, Pride and Prejudice, and Two-Faced Woman.
What’s currently on your nightstand?
Gathering Mist by Margaret Mizushima, Farewell, Amethystine by Walter Mosley, French Quarter Fright Night by Ellen Byron, The Waiting by Michael Connolly, Spirit Crossing by William Kent Krueger, and Murder on the Page by Daryl Wood Gerber.
What is the last piece of art (music, movies, TV, more traditional art forms) that you’ve experienced or that has impacted you?
Klute, the 1971 psychological thriller directed by Alan J. Pakula starring Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland. I hadn't seen the movie for over 30 years, but I watched it a couple of weeks ago on TCM and had a very different experience from the last time I'd seen it. This 50-year-old movie gave me a fresh perspective on the structure and mechanics of storytelling.
There are no special effects, no car chases, no explosions, and not even a lot of dialogue, but this is one of the most suspenseful and scary movies I've ever seen, and it's a real masterclass in the art of filmmaking. The economy of every aspect of the movie—from the stark yet beautiful cinematography by Gordon Willis to the brilliant use of the soundtrack by David Small, which has very little actual music, but implements percussion and eerie vocals—each element pushes the story forward, steadily ramping up tension until the explosive (figuratively, not literally) climax. At the end of the movie, I felt both drained and satisfied as a viewer and inspired as a writer.
What are you working on now?
I've just begun working on a new mystery novel (and my hope is that it will become a series) that's once again centered on the Hollywood movie industry but with a somewhat different focus than my two previous books. The new book features two main characters, a man and a woman, who are good friends but not romantically involved. They both work in film production, although they have very different jobs. I'm outlining the book right now before I begin writing, and I don't even have a working title to share. But I'm having fun with it, and of course, I hope it will be fun for readers, too.
In the 2nd entry in the Hollywood Mystery series, Marjorie McCown takes readers back on the set to follow Joey Jessup as she does her best to get the job done, on time and under budget, while also identifying another murderer.
As in last year’s Final Cut, McCown takes readers behind the curtain and illustrates how some of the magic seen on movie screens is actually accomplished. She also provides enough information for those unfamiliar with the controlled chaos of a movie set to understand the methods in the madness (or recognize that some of how things are done is simply mad!) while also continuing to provide knowing "winks" to those in the industry who will recognize them. She also shows how, since each production is a new collection of professionals gathered to create a project, it is truly the people who make the difference between a functional and dysfunctional workplace during a shoot.
Star Struck is also another compelling mystery with just enough twists, turns, and Macguffins to keep readers guessing until the end. It will also leave readers wondering where McCown will take us next and what’s next in store for Joey Jessup!