The Cut: Sorry to Bother You’s Costume Designer on Dressing Tessa Thompson

Sorry to Bother You takes place in a world that is very much like our own — until it’s not. The problems roiling this alternative Oakland mirror the ones in many of our own cities (encroaching gentrification, rising home prices, people taking to the streets to call out injustices) filtered through director Boots Riley’s surreal vision. To tell a story in a world that is both fantastical and exceedingly familiar requires a keen attention to detail and a deep understanding of the source material. Below, costume designer Deirdra Govan talked to the Cut about how she dressed characters ranging from Tessa Thompson’s radical artist to Armie Hammer’s sinister, sarong-wearing CEO to Lakeith Stanfield, who plays a guy just trying to make things work without being crushed by late-stage capitalism.