Catherine Martin opens up about making movies with Baz Luhrmann at Brisbane speaking event

Delighting fans at an event in Brisbane, Oscar-winning designer Catherine Martin opened up about making movies with husband Baz Luhrmann and unexpectedly living on the Gold Coast

Acclaimed costume designer Catherine Martin never expected to be living in Queensland for two years, but she couldn’t be happier.

The four-time Academy Award winner recently worked on husband Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis movie on the Gold Coast, where the famous couple has been enjoying an extended stay due to Covid delays on the big budget biopic.

Delighting audiences at a one-off speaking event at Brisbane Powerhouse on Wednesday night, Martin said: “If someone had said to me after living in New York for nine years that I was coming to the Gold Coast and I’d be here for two years I may be a little less happy. But I love the Gold Coast. Miami Beach all the way. I’m totally into it.”

Catherine Martin at Brisbane Powerhouse, New Farm, Wednesday, June 23, 2021 – Picture: Richard Walker

Martin spoke at the sold out Q&A event, presented by Brisbane Fashion Month and Screen Queensland, about her career in fashion and film.

She said twenty years on from Moulin Rouge!, for which she won two Oscars in 2002, the pandemic had reinvigorated her creativity alongside Luhrmann, her long-time collaborative partner.

“I’m enjoying it more today than I think I ever have,” she said.

“My husband is in constant evolution. If he could keep editing the movie while it’s in the cinema he would. His creativity is boundless.”

“He is intensely visual and he’ll have an opinion on everything from the shoelaces … to how Elvis’ jumpsuit should fit.”

“As I’ve gotten older in our collaboration I’ve realised it will be what it will be. I just have to be part of the process.”

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Catherine Martin and director Baz Luhrmann arrive at the 81st Annual Academy Awards held at Kodak Theatre on February 22, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Martin won another two Oscars for The Great Gatsby in 2014 and said the four trophies were now temporarily in a storage unit at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

“Nothing prepares you for it (winning an Oscar),” she said of her first award in 2002.

“They kept saying, ‘We need to receipt you’. I was like, ‘Receipt? I don’t even have a piece of paper’.

“You’re so discombobulated and then I realised they wanted to re-seat me.”

Alison Kubler stepped in to host the event after the unfolding Covid outbreak in Sydney meant original host, Vogue editor Edwina McCann, was unable to travel to Queensland.

Martin was joined by local fashion designer Leigh Buchanan, who recently worked with her on Elvis.

Guests at the sold out event included local fashion designers Lydia Pearson and Gail Sorronda, as well as Lady Mayoress Nina Schrinner, artist Michael Zavros and Queensland Ballet artistic director Li Cunxin.

Through the partnership with Screen Queensland. emerging designers, who have worked across Thirteen Lives, Young Rock and The Wilds, were also given the chance to meet with Martin.