How Costume Designer Amanda Cárcamo Helped Bring Netflix’s ‘Man on Fire’ To Life

Picture via Amanda Cárcamo on Instagram and Netflix

Costume designer Amanda Cárcamo creates a lived-in reality in Man on Fire. As John Creasy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) seeks answers and revenge in Rio de Janeiro, every character and costume calls for authenticity. The series is a grounded action thriller, so if even one extra hits a false note, the reality breaks.

A big part of Cárcamo’s role in grounding the series involved turning Mexico City into Rio de Janeiro. It was a rewarding task for the costume designer. “There are projects that just take your heart,” Cárcamo told What’s On Netflix. “This is one of them because it was magic, how we reunited all these nationalities and the visuals we were going for. It was so long, but at the same time, it went by so fast. When I see the pictures, it’s like, wow, we made it through to the end.”

Cárcamo, who previously designed costumes for Like Water for Chocolate and contributed to Roma, recently spoke with the site about her rewarding experience on Man on Fire.

How was it creating Brazil in Mexico City through costume?

I’m Mexican. I live in Mexico City, but we’re Latin. It’s Latin America and we have these feelings and similarities, but I had to really think of taking my head out of Mexico and going into Brazil. There was a lot of research into what’s going on in Brazil, like regular people, high-class people and the favela people that might relate to our favelas, but the weather’s different. The coloring is a bit different. Even though we have the same style, we had to really work on the reality of the favelas right now.

MAN ON FIRE. (L to R) Billie Boullet as Poe Rayburn and Pamela Germano as Marina Melo in Episode 106 of Man on Fire. Cr. Juan Rosas/Netflix © 2024

What kind of research did that require? Were you looking at films, shows, and the news?

Everything, even music. What are they listening to? What are they wearing? I saw old movies, classic movies. Watching the Instagram accounts of these guys, because they have the favela, they have their fashion and lots of hairdos and stuff. You could see the wardrobe and the pieces and the reality.

Cidade de Deus (City of God) is the movie that I watched again. I love that movie and you can see the favelas, but the favelas are not from right now. The favelas are from the time the movie was shot.

So, it was having those references that take you to this warm weather, because even though we have sun in Mexico City and whatnot, we’re not in Rio de Janeiro. It’s the beach, you have the sweat, and the colors of the skin and how the colors of the clothing react differently depending on all the shades of all the people that you have in Brazil.

In Mexico, like Mexico City, they’re my color. And in Brazil, you have blondes and you have all the shades and see how the color works for them and how it worked for our main character.

How’d you want colors to tell John Creasy’s story in Man on Fire?

We started in the States in this very dark side of our main character. All the colors were gray, very neutral, very American and very wintery. With Yahya, it was important at the beginning to really think about a silhouette for him, not take out the colors, make it gray and stuff and make him really in a down mood. It was always about having a silhouette that you could see. We had to work on that.

And then we slowly started introducing colors, depending on the story. So he comes from the States, lands in Brazil. We had that silhouette that was also very important for our first director, Steven Caple Jr. 

Then you have to create Rio de Janeiro through costumes. Where do both you and Creasy go from there?

In Brazil, people have more colors and dress more lightly. They wear shorts or flip-flops. You have all the flip-flops in the world in Brazil. It’s important to know the brands. Know which ones the favela guys are wearing, which flip-flops are the good ones. They’re really expensive and can show off.

We put Creasy in some colors that you’ve never seen before. He puts a T-shirt on his head, because that was referenced from pictures. I worked with a team in Brazil at the same time. I would share my references and they would send me others and say, “Hey, this is what’s going on right now, this is what they’re selling in the favela, and this is what the kids are wearing.”

MAN ON FIRE. (L to R) Bruno Suzano as Beto, Daniel Xavier as Bacca, Iago Xavier as Vico, Reinaldo Junior as Duda, and Alice Braga as Valeria Melo in Episode 104 of Man on Fire. Cr. Juan Rosas/Netflix © 2024

What else stood out from the photos from the crew in Brazil?

Some pictures, I thought, “Oh my God, maybe this is too over the top.” There were these really big chains with lots of diamonds. It’s something that everybody knows who they are. In Mexico, we have some chains and whatnot, but there it is booming. I was like, wow, I love that. I was introducing those elements to our mood board.

In the favela, they have this love, the way they move and the music they listen to and how you are just walking in the street. And then there’s the guy with no T-shirt and then the girl with the little tiny, tiny shorts and the little little bikini and they’re just walking around. The cariocas from Rio de Janeiro – it’s this vibe we had to put in there.

It was so much fun. Arriving in Brazil, I was seeing the real people and walking through the markets and the favela and it’s like, wow, yeah, we got it. It’s just so amazing.

Costume designers often say how rewarding it is to work with crews all over the world. When you’re on a project like Man on Fire, is that one of the great joys of the gig?

Well, I really love my job because you’re never really in your comfort zone. You have to work with what you’re getting. You have to get through the different language or the different vision or the different tastes. You never get bored and you learn every day. 

It’s something that I always tell my assistants and all my crew. Now I’m older but I always want to learn. The new generations sometimes have something [set] in their mind. It’s like, no guys, you have to learn that every project, every scene, every actor teaches something.

Working with these young costume designers, you never get old at heart. You’re always renewing your mind and ambition and listening to new music and seeing what they’re wearing. It’s always looking for something new, what’s going on, or how to reinterpret it.

How is life as a costume designer in Mexico City at the moment?

It’s a hard moment in the industry here in Mexico, in the States, and everywhere. We’re not doing as much stuff as we were doing. For me, oh my God, what am I going to do if I stop doing what I love? This is what I know how to do. I’ve been working for 25 years in this department. The only thing that I know I can do well or that I put my heart into is this. 

So, be grateful every day that I’ve been given the opportunity to work so many years. I want to continue. I want to see where this new type of work is going to take me and all the rest of the crew, because everybody’s struggling in the industry.

How do you get through it? How do you think others can make it through, too?

I talk to my colleagues and see how we can help each other, because there’s less work, so we have to keep it with us. It’s like, “Oh, I have this 1950s project. Hey, can I have a few pieces? We don’t have as much money.” It’s helping each other so we can remain having some jobs and keeping the industry between us. 

When I started doing this, everybody helped each other because there weren’t many people doing this. I think we have to reunite as a family. With cinema, films, TV shows – we are a family that needs all the pieces to come together to make something. 

Sometimes people forget, but I’m nothing without my team, nothing. I don’t exist as well if there’s not a good production designer or the director that takes the actors where they have to go. It’s so important, every little piece, that we have to be very grateful and help each other more and not like, “Oh, move, it’s mine.” We have to stop that.

That doesn’t work. We have to, as a community, come together and try to keep our workplace and the things we love to do because it’s getting harder and harder right now.

With all those pieces you mentioned, you and your crew alone have to deal with so many moving pieces to create costumes – especially at a scale like Man on Fire. 

Every day on all shows, and Man on Fire is not the exception, things change in our workplace. You have a list of what we’re going to see [in a scene] and then it changes. We’re going to have 20 background actors, but now it’s 50 because of the space. Okay, let’s see, what do we have? Let’s age this. We have this time, we have to do it, we have to go and run and get that and move the pieces.

Now they’re in a prison, for example. Okay, we have this but we need more pieces. We have more background actors. Let’s go aging again. Maybe they change a cast member or they arrive and they’re like, “Oh, I don’t want to wear that anymore.” So, you have to reinvent, be assertive, and get them in the mood and make it happen. Always cheer the team on.