Alexandra Byrne - Details

Biography

Alexandra Byrne's extensive design background for period productions on the stage, film and television made her ideal for Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001) .. "I think clothes are the biggest indicator of character," she says, "and in Corelli they must also indicate the passage of time, since we don't have seasonal changes. In reality, the clothes would've been exposed to strong sunlight and so bleached out to become part of the landscape."
Ms. Byrne has received two Academy Award nominations, the first for Kenneth Branagh's 1997 film Hamlet (1996) -- which also brought a BAFTA nomination -- and the second for her extravagant creations for Elizabeth (1998), the Queen's costumes worn by Cate Blanchett being especially memorable.
The designer came to Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001) via its original director, Roger Michell, for whom she has worked twice, on Buddha of Suburbia, The (1993) and Persuasion (1994). She received her first BAFTAs for these films.
Among Byrne's numerous stage credits are several mounted by Roger Michell at the Royal Shakespeare Company: Two Shakespearean Actors, Some Americans Abroad, (also done at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre, for which she received a Tony nomination), Hamlet and Temptation. She designed costumes for Branagh's Life of Napoleon at the Albery Theatre.
Byrne began her career with the Royal Shakespeare Company.