Creating the Look of “WAR”: Tara McDonald on Wealth, Status & Sienna Miller’s Signature Style

A dark, polished divorce drama set across London penthouses and the moody echelons of the city’s most expensive law firms, HBO’s new series WAR sets just the right tone to ring in autumn. The unhappy couple at the center of a venomous separation are actress Carla Duval (Sienna Miller) and her unfaithful ex, Morgan Henderson (Dominic West). Morgan is introduced as a slick mogul, the type who’s hard to pin down in terms of either the full extent of his wealth or what he does, exactly, to get it, but those details are secondary to his determination to keep what he considers rightfully his. Aware through dubious means of Morgan’s extramarital activity, Carla is ready to battle for an equitable settlement. 

Surrounding the former couple’s maelstrom is the rivalry between their respective law firms. Carla is with Taylor & Byrne, a modern outfit housed in a light-filled office where the youthful staff struggle to outdo one another in demonstration of their ambition. On the other side is Cathcarts & Sons, a dark, moody bastion of hard-nosed old money that will stop at very little to keep their client whole. Though Morgan clearly has the highest net worth of anyone involved, romantically or legally, in this split, wealth oozes through the series’ plush settings and well-groomed characters. Leading the hair and makeup design for this polished world is the Emmy Award winner Tara McDonald, whose many credits include Wednesday and Black Mirror.

Carla was a key character for McDonald, who demonstrated the contrast between her private life and the publicity around her divorce across the actress’s distinct looks. The two law firms were also a focal point for hair and makeup design, with the difference between the offices driven home by the contrast in McDonald’s styling of their associates. Here, McDonald talks about working with Miller’s signature boho mien, developing a range of looks for the show’s many lawyers, and maintaining a consistent on-screen sense of wealth.

How did you develop the subtle differences between Carla’s looks for different settings?

When we very first see her, she’s at a press junket. She’s beautifully made up, she’s very groomed, she’s on duty. We also get a little snippet of her returning home, which we see a lot more of as the show progresses. We see different sides to Carla. We have a no-makeup makeup look. We jump from appearances to being at home, being upset, to putting her face on, to going out to Taylor & Byrne. So I was trying to find different looks for her—the aim was to keep it all quite believable.

And we have Sienna Miller, who has an instantly recognizable sense of style and beauty, playing Carla. When you were looking for inspiration, did you look to any looks from Miller’s own life?

Sienna’s very natural, and when you see her out and about in a lot of paparazzi pictures, she’s always very casual. We incorporated that into her everyday look. She was saying it was quite interesting, because in other parts she’s played, she’s never played with her own look. I think this is the first time we’ve actually seen her on screen looking like Sienna Miller.

Was Miller involved in developing her spectrum of looks for the show?

She was, for a little bit in the beginning, but she really relaxed into it, and she was very comfortable letting us create the character. We always discussed it with her and took her input, but she was quite easygoing. I worked very closely with Matthew [Price], the costume designer. But she gave us quite a lot of freedom, actually.

Besides Carla, was there another character whose journey was also told through their hair and makeup, and how it changed on screen?

Nina Sosanya, who played [Cathcart’s senior partner Beatrice, or Queen Bea], is a really natural person, and her character is quite a formidable, strong woman. We tried various looks with wigs, and we settled on one. She also wanted a little bit of gray incorporated to give her that feeling of being a bit more senior, a bit more authoritative. And interestingly, we’d also decided to use some pale green contact lenses, which you don’t always get to see, because a lot of WAR is shot quite dark and moody, especially at Cathcarts. She wanted to look totally different from how she’s ever looked before, and I think we really achieved that.

How much did the settings shape how you set up the looks for the show?

We’ve got Taylor & Byrne, we’ve got Cathcarts & Sons. Part of my brief was to make them look very different. One is a really old-fashioned establishment, and all the people that work there are very old-school British, probably from very wealthy families. They had a very classic look. And that was all shot very dark and moody. Then the opposing law firm, Taylor & Byrne, looked much more modern and younger.

We definitely saw more emphasis on individuality at Taylor & Byrne.

We did very current looks; it was shot much brighter, and it was in a light, modern office, so that did reflect on how we did the hair and makeup. With Phoebe Fox’s character, Serena, she was quite classic, but in a more modern, younger way. Emma Laird, who played Molly, we went with her curls, her youthfulness, and her quirkiness, and gave her quite a bit of makeup, which made her quite modern. And then, there was Nora, played by Akiya Henry. That was a lot of discussion, and then we settled on the little Afro wig for her. Again, letting them be modern and themselves was important, so we could differentiate between the two very different [firms].

Were there any characters among the men who took some time to figure out where to make them land in terms of their looks?

Dominic is a scruffy kind of guy. He doesn’t think too much about how he looks. I just want him to look sophisticated and wealthy. It’s a funny one with really, really wealthy people. It’s subconscious; they have this look, and it’s just about finding that. To create this character, it’s got to be really subtle. So with him, we colored his hair a little bit, just to make him look a bit more expensive. We made sure his nails were immaculate. We gave him a bit of a glow, so he looked like he’d been on his yacht somewhere in the summer.  

Did you draw inspiration from any real-life men in particular?

Nobody in particular, just lots of research on wealthy socialite types. Lots of scrolling through the internet, looking up glossy magazines, and trying to observe how really wealthy people look, without making it too obvious.

Was there anything else key to conveying that?

It was all about skincare, because this was a really wealthy world. Everyone had to look expensive.

New episodes of War air every Thursday on HBO.

Featured image:  Sienna Miller. Photograph by Miya Mizuno/Sky/HBO