camille, you ve worked on some incredible films. i d like you to talk me through your creative process. where do you start does it start with a script, a conversation? usually, it starts with the script, but then i really always like talking to the director. you know, he or she. and for me, it s always, like, figuring out what their aesthetic is. what they like, what they don t like. you know, and just figuring out all those sort of things. and then, also, start with the actor. like, really. i always go through and look at, like, all the looks that that actor has. for me, i m always thinking, what haven t they had? what can i create for them that s going to be something different so.that s going to put a stamp on this movie that s not going to look the same as every other movie? and, like, even looking at a director, like, what does his body of work look like, or she s look like? what does it look like? what do their movies look like? for me, do they shoot close up or do they shoot f
tight most of the time, or do they shoot wides? all of those things, to me, i think about when i m designing the hair. that s a lot of preparation and research. they laugh oof! 0k. um.let s talk about the logistics involved, because i understand, camille, when you travel, you have, like, 50 boxes of equipment that you go with. i mean, tell me about that. oh, boy! it sjust.it sjust a lot of, like. i m a person, you never know what you re going to need. you know what i m saying. mm hm. so i d just rather bring everything and the kitchen sink. so, you know, i bring everything. like, i bring everything i can think of. then when you re travelling to different countries, 0k, then i need this kind of, you know, this kind of curling iron for this kind of electricity, or this one, or that one. and huge converters. like, i have converters that. i love my guys, i love my guys in berlin, my.my transpo guys. they made me these converters. they are bulletproof, baby! wow! like, you will not blow up
when the film first came out, when did you realise how big a deal black panther was? well, i m just going to start from this. originally, i didn t want to do black panther. why not? zerina gasps no, i m just telling the truth. i wanted to do avengers. because in my mind, i wanted to do the biggest movie in marvel. mm hm. and then, when i started exploring it, and i remember sam jackson said to me, i was like, what do you think about black panther? he goes, camille, that s going to be the biggest movie marvel ever had! i said, you think so? he goes, girl, you better go over there and do that movie! so. they laugh over there? yes. you better go do that movie! and, you know, it s something that s changed my life. and i ll tell you, i didn t really understand until, i guess, when it came out and the publicist called me from disney, and she goes, camille, can you please, like, answer your instagram and look at your instagram? and i said, forwhat? she goes, could you just
camille, family also played a crucial role in your career choices. you re a third generation hairstylist. did that mean spending a lot of time in the salon as a young kid? 0h, definitely. being a third generation hairstylist is, you know, one of the things i m most proud of. i have a big family, lots of hair stylists. and, like, when i go into a salon and ijust smell it, it makes me happy. like, i love the smell of perms! i love the smells of relaxers. and. relaxers? oh, yeah! like, i love all the smells of the salon cos it s familiar to me. it s totally familiar. and, you know, always, we had to work in the salon. so you had to sweep hair, take rollers down. you had to earn you getting your hair done. so, at the end of the day, that s when we would, our cousins, we would shampoo each other s hair and get ready to get in the chair. that was the moment! well, now i do everybody s hair, but we still. that s what we do. we get together and i do everybody s hair. so. that s beautiful. yeah
that they grow when they work on movies with me. so that s what s most important. when you look back at your personal journeys, you ve both had no connections, and you came to hollywood and you made it. what do you owe your success to, zerina? i d say my patience. um.being a young black girl coming up into these very new spaces, often i was the only black girl, and i had to really learn how to manoeuvre in these spaces. ididn t. you know, i thought i had to speak a certain way and look a certain way. and when i got rid of that and when i let that go, um. and i decided to sort ofjust be my genuine self, let my little accent come out, my little maryland twang. i love it. you know? i love it! and that. itjust let down a guard and it allowed me to really learn and connect with people in a very different way. yeah. camille, what do you owe your success do? some of the same, some of the very much same things. when i really started loving camille and just being my authentic self and, like, sp