“I could tell it was going to be something special for a lot of people,” the respected costume designer Ruth E. Carter tells me as we sit down at The Hollywood Reporter to record an episode of the ‘Awards Chatter’ podcast and begin discussing Ryan Coogler‘s Black Panther, for which she received the third best costume design Oscar nomination of her career, tying Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer for most overall Oscar noms for a black woman ever. “And when it did come out and everyone started dressing in their regalia [at screenings and on Halloween], I felt like people were really wanting to see something like this, that they really wanted to celebrate culture and they wanted to see themselves.” Adds the 58-year-old, who is best known for her 14 collaborations with Spike Lee over the last three decades, and who will receive the Career Achievement Award at the Costume Designers Guild Awards on Tuesday night, “It just hasn’t stopped. And I’m just so proud of it.”
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