How ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ Artisans Used Lab Coats, a Piano Melody and More to Build Elizabeth Zott

Brie Larson’s Elizabeth Zott is a woman who does not conform to society’s expectations. In AppleTV+’s “Lessons in Chemistry,” Larson plays a brilliant young woman who dreams of becoming a chemist in 1950s America, a time when society believed a woman’s place was in the home and not in a science laboratory. She eventually makes it to the Hastings Research Institute to fulfill her life’s ambition, despite her male colleagues rebuffing her with comments about her need to smile more.

Although she remains level-headed and emotionless for the most part, there is an evolution in her character, albeit subtle. Thanks to a skilled team of artisans, Elizabeth’s journey as a woman who defied the rules of society is reflected in her wardrobe, makeup and the show’s music.

Costume designer Mirren Gordon-Crozier takes Elizabeth from lab technician to cooking show host of “Supper at Six,” choosing dusty, muted tones for the character when she’s in scientist mode. “I used teal, salmon pink and sober colors that had a certain brightness when light shone on them,” says the costume designer, noting that she didn’t use too much pink because Elizabeth isn’t typically pastel. woman.

While in the lab, Elizabeth falls in love with Calvin (Lewis Pullman), so Gordon-Crozier subtly softened her look a bit. “She starts wearing beige and cream colors. When she is in Hastings she wears this beautiful linen circle skirt and a cream top to show that she cares more about her appearance.”

Yet Elizabeth was always busy with her work, and unlike other women of the time, she was not one to care much about matching her shoes, bags and gloves, so Gordon-Crozier worked piece by piece

items together to represent that. She often chose warm fabrics, such as linen and twill, for Elizabeth’s wardrobe, saying: “Knitwear was very important as it added texture and depth to her costumes.”

As the show progresses, Gordon-Crozier also gets creative with Elizabeth’s lab coats. “She cooks in a lab coat because she thinks an apron is nonsense. The lab coat covers more surfaces and has pockets,” says the designer. “We started with a couture situation where each episode is a different lab coat. She starts to enjoy it and is no longer so oppressed by her fashion.”

When the audience first sees Elizabeth, it is in a flash forward as she cuts to the “Supper at Six” tape dressed in her “signature green,” which is her signature color throughout the series.

Gordon-Crozier explains: “I wanted to make that color iconic from the start. I also made sure the back was interesting, with buttons down the back, a V-neck, and she is wearing cigarette pants. She puts on her lab coat with matching royal green silk trim.”

Makeup head Miho Suzuki reflected on that same journey with Elizabeth, explaining, “I took advantage of Brie’s natural look as much as I could. I barely used foundation so you could see her texture more than anything else.

When Calvin dies, Suzuki lets Larson’s emotions and performance shine, paring down the look even further by using no makeup at all. And after Elizabeth becomes a mother, she adds a little bit of eyeliner and a touch of foundation.

By the time Elizabeth became a TV show host, Suzuki found her makeup an interesting way to develop the character. “She ended up in this position and had no plans for it. She’s not interested in being the center of attention, but she’s open to it

to it,” says Suzuki. However, when Elizabeth gets a TV makeover, the results are big hair, false eyelashes, blue eye shadow and pink lipstick. “It’s really not who she is. It showed this moment how uncomfortable she is with being seen as the woman humans created. So she decides, “If I’m going to do this, I’m going to look like myself.”

With that, Elizabeth returns to her lab coat and simple makeup – but a little more than usual. It’s a look she feels comfortable enough with to be in front of the camera.

When it came to Elizabeth’s theme music, composer Carlos Rafael Rivera went through a process of trial and error. Working closely with showrunner Sarah Adina Smith, he initially offered a guitar, but Smith thought it didn’t feel right. He says, “The hardest thing to discover was what the heart of the story was, and that turned out to be through Calvin.”

Rivera used Calvin as his starting point to bring out Elizabeth’s humanity, explaining, “She’s a beautiful person, but you have to go through so many layers to get to who she is.” He used Calvin’s theme to represent her feelings for him, and the melody could be heard every time she was near the character. The composer eventually settled on using a piano-oriented score, supplemented with an orchestra and synthesizers. With the synths he wanted to imitate the glass tubes of the scientific laboratory.

“There’s something we all universally connect to when we hear a piano that seems to work. But it’s not just any piano; it is a vibraphone because of the times we are in now,” Rivera says. “You want to have an instrument that puts you in the spot.”