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Casting Call: Alexander McQueen

Sarah Burton began her career in the industry as an intern for McQueen's fashion brand before becoming the designer's personal assistant. Burton worked her way up the ranks to head of womenswear, where she worked alongside McQueen for 10 years. Following McQueen's death in 2010, she succeeded him as creative director. Cate Blanchett was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Carol this year, playing a sophisticated older woman who has an affair with a department store clerk. Blanchett's stylishness and proven talent make her a good choice to play Burton, one of McQueen's most important colleagues.

 

 

McQueen's mother, Joyce, was one of the most important relationships in the designer's life, and her death from cancer nine days before McQueen's own was a devastating blow. English actress Charlotte Rampling was one of the stars of director Andrew Haigh's most recent film, 45 Years, for which she earned an Academy Award nomination. The 70-year-old actress is a perfect fit for McQueen's mother.

 

 

McQueen famously designed David Bowie's costumes for his 1996 and 1997 tours, as well as the iconic jacket on the cover of the artist's 1997 album Earthling. Gary Oldman would be a good choice to play the English pop singer during this phase in his ever-changing look.

 

 

Stephen Wight played McQueen in James Phillips's play of the same name last year in London. The 35-year-old Brit might be a new face for American audiences, but his stint on the West End as a man whose public persona seems so disparate from his private one garnered him rave reviews. Not to mention that, with McQueen's signature close cropped hair and goatee, Wight is the spitting image of the late designer.

 

 

In 2000, McQueen married documentary filmmaker George Forsyth on a yacht in Ibiza. The two remained together until McQueen's death, and Forsyth himself died of a painkiller overdose three months later. In 2013 Ben Foster played William S. Burroughs in Kill Your Darlings and this year is starring in The Program as Lance Armstrong, proving his ability to play characters taken from real life. This SAG Award-winning actor would bring his talent and impressive range to McQueen's long-time romantic partner.

 

 

Legendary fashion magazine editor and wearer of hats Isabella "Issy" Blow was a longtime friend of McQueen's, and is credited with discovering the young designer and jump-starting his career. Blow's status as a fashion icon and important industry figure waned towards the end of her life, and, after struggling with bipolar disorder, she too committed suicide in 2007 at age 48. While Blow and McQueen were close friends and confidantes throughout most of their respective careers, they are rumored to have had a falling out when Blow was left out of a deal that sold McQueen's fashion brand to Gucci. London-born actress Olivia Williams displays the same confidence and elegance that defined Blow.