For more than 40 years, Wynn P. Thomas has been working as a production designer on projects like Do the Right Thing and King Richard, winning Art Directors Guild Awards for Hidden Figures and Da 5 Bloods. 

He’s also spent many years in creative partnership with director Spike Lee. Ahead of the Feb. 10 ceremony for Thomas’ lifetime achievement award, he spoke to THR about one of their marquee collaborations: 1992’s Malcolm X. He describes the film — which stars Denzel Washington in the titular role (with Lee himself as Shorty, Malcolm’s closest friend in Boston) — in three visual acts. In the first, he treated Malcolm’s early “playful” years as a “huge 1940s Technicolor spectacle” to seduce the audience. He drained the color from act two, when Malcolm is imprisoned “and his life has been put on hold.” By act three, things are more positive. “I used mostly earth colors during this section, and the scale of the sets was closer to reality. And I tried not to use red, because I wanted to save that for the assassination.”

Thomas, who was the first African American production designer to join the ADG, sees his role as “the illustrator of the screenplay,” but when he’s not on set he turns his passions toward advocacy. He often speaks to students about job opportunities, and during his six terms as an Academy governor, he served as vp education and outreach. He says that in that time, the Academy expanded programs including those with the Institute of American Indian Arts, Howard University, the Bridge Lab at Columbia University (which engages underserved communities in New York), and FilmAid, reaching those in distressed communities around the world.

“Forty years ago, there were not too many people like myself working in this business,” he says. “I don’t think the doors are closed anymore, and I don’t think the barriers that were in place when I started are there anymore. There are some fantastic designers from a wide variety of communities doing great work. And the more visible they are, that will only encourage young people to seek work in the film business.”

This story first appeared in the Feb. 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

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