Posted in: Blumhouse, Exclusive, Interview, Movies, Sony | Tagged: Dajia Milan, exclusive, insidious, Insidious: The Red Door, Lin Shaye, Patrick Lambert, rose byrne, sony pictures, ty simpkins

Insidious: The Red Door Costume Designer on Her Self-Made Journey

Insidious: The Red Door costume designer Dajia Milan talks to Bleeding Cool about her success story and joining the horror franchise.

Dajia Milan is a rare success story in Hollywood as a self-made in the costuming world. Having her start in 2017's Sony's Rough Night and the Starz! series Power, she worked her way up in TV, eventually making her way to films. Shows she's also worked on include Prime Video's Dead Ringers, Showtime's Flatbush Misdemeanors, and FX's Pose. Milan spoke to Bleeding Cool about her latest project in Insidious: The Red Door, joining the Leigh Whannell horror franchise. The fifth film of the franchise, The Red Door, follows the Lamberts as they must go deeper into The Further than ever before to put their demons to rest once and for all. The film stars Patrick Wilson, who reprises his role as Josh Lambert and pulls double duty as director. Also returning are Rose Byrne, Andrew Astor, and Ty Simpkins, reprising their roles as the Lamberts: Renai, Foster, and Dalton, respectively.

Dajia Milan: From 'Insidious' Fan to The Red Door's Costume Designer

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about the 'Insidious' franchise?
Milan: I am such a big fan of horror. I watched every bit of all of the [franchise]. I was intrigued by the chance to join something I'd watched as a teenager. It's a thrilling experience, a full circle thing to grow up watching something and later being a part of it. It's interesting.

When you were doing 'The Red Door,' did you reference the previous films, or was it something you wanted a fresh take on?
It was a beautiful balance because I had to watch [Insidious] 'One' and 'Two' to dive in deeper to understand where these people can be ten years later. I didn't have to reference anything because we were building a new world. I had this balance between taking small tidbits from 'One' and 'Two' of who this family is and what the 'Third' is about and for 'The Red Door' is making it my own.

This is your third project as a costume designer, and you've been in the field for six years. Can you describe the experience of changing in that role and what you've learned over the years?
That journey was for me because I've always had to do everything independently; I didn't have mentors, close friends, or family working in the business. Everything was fresh and new for me. As I went along, I was observant, and that's my natural personality. I'm observant of my surroundings and what people are doing, learning from their mistakes and accomplishments, taking that information, trying to tweak it, and teaching myself how to run a department. It makes it an interesting story in the background because I've been able to do what most people have told me at an accelerated rate in this business with my age and what I'm doing. I've only been in it for those few short years, and I've been able to go from every step from being a production assistant to now, a department head. I went through every ladder and position within my department alone. It worked itself out to be accelerated to where I'm at today of department heading on big, amazing projects.

Did you feel like you had to wear many hats to get to the position era?
Absolutely. Like I said, I didn't have anybody to walk me through what I needed to do. I had to be my own agent, if you will, for a little while on my own, like a publicist's manager, and figure it all out by myself. It's working. I have a team now, but I'm always doing what I've been doing before, making sure I'm heavily involved in continuing to excel in my profession.

How do you describe the set that Patrick ran?
We had such an interesting, fun time on 'Insidious.' While we were all stressed about getting this movie done, I believed it to be such a short time frame because I'm so used to the TV world, which is a much longer timeframe. Everyone in the environment is pleasant. No bickering or fighting is going on. You know how things work in our business. I could focus on my department and not have to be surrounded by negativity. It was, "Let's make a great project together." That's what we did.

Does the horror genre provide a unique challenge for you compared to everything else you've done?
No, I'm one of those people that can figure it out as I go. I tackle every project separately because no job is the same, genre or not. Every job is going to have its flaws and issues within itself. Working in horror gave me another genre to work in and figure things out. Within that, hoping leads me into other genres that I would love to work in, like fantasy, more period, and things of that nature.

Was there any costume in the film that was challenging?
I had such a strong vision of what I wanted that I didn't find anything challenging. Creating the goals wasn't challenging, but it was new territory because I'd never done it. It was fun for me to do it and test myself. I worked on many goals that didn't quite make the edit, but it allowed me to gain that experience from doing all of that. I probably have more than 20 goals [laughs] designing, and I feel confident that I can continue doing that further than my career and only improve from here.

Were there any figures that inspired you to get into your field?
As a kid, I always knew I wanted to work in entertainment, particularly with clothing; I didn't play with the Barbie dolls. I had my mom purchase the clothes; I would dress them and put them in a box in the store for display. I always knew I would get into this, but I wondered in what capacity. I originally started out doing celebrity styling and fell into doing costumes. It also helped that I have a passion for cinema.

Every Saturday growing up was movie day, so my mom would always take us to see whatever was the latest in theaters. Being able to combine those two is a full-circle dream for me. I didn't have anyone that I looked up to as a kid, knowing that this was what I wanted to do, but it didn't happen until later. Learning about these roles, I didn't even know about costume designers. That was a thing until I became an adult, and I would say now for myself, the ones before me that I do look up are those like Edith Kähler, Catherine Martin, Colleen Atwood, and Sharon Davis. These are designers that I look up to and aspire to be one of the greats in my field. I'm hoping to be the "Beyoncé" of costume design at some point. That's my mission.

Sony's Insidious: The Red Door, which also stars Lin Shaye, Sinclair Daniel, and Hiam Abbass, is available on digital and comes out on Blu-ray and DVD on September 26.

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