Miss Congeniality fans know all too well that April 25 is the perfect date. So does Miss Congeniality costume designer Susie DeSanto, who created, curated, and sourced the film’s iconic looks for Sandra Bullock’s lovably tough FBI agent, Gracie Hart.
April 25th also marks the start of the film’s 25th anniversary celebrations (it was originally released on December 22, 2000), which is both appropriate and totally surreal, especially for DeSanto.
“I can’t believe it’s 25 years,” says DeSanto, who was also the costume designer on 13 Going on 30, One Fine Day, Hope Floats, and most recently, Hulu’s Good American Family. “It’s so funny because I remember so much of it like it was yesterday. It was such a vibrant experience.”
The film shot mainly in Austin, Texas, and DeSanto tells Glamour there was approximately eight weeks to prep before filming commenced. “Since we weren’t in L.A., I had to have full-time shoppers and pullers sending me stuff all the time because you just don’t have the resources that you do in New York or Los Angeles,” DeSanto says.
It was the costume designer’s second time working with Bullock (their first film was 1998’s Hope Floats), and she has nothing but praise for the Oscar winner. “She’s got such range, and she’s proven that over and over again,” she says. “But her comedic stuff in Miss Congeniality…she was the right person with the right material at the right time in her career, and that’s when it all comes together.”
However, DeSanto adds that it was Bullock’s demeanor off-screen that also helped the film work so well. “Everybody really got along,” she says. “It was a very relaxed and fun set. Everybody was super supportive, and that all came from Sandy. She set the bar, so everybody was like, Okay, this is what we’re doing behavior wise. And so, it was really fun.”
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