Two-Time Emmy Nominee and Richmond Hill Resident, Helen Butler, Has Worked With Her Share of Interesting Characters – and loves them all.

Her mother told her that the coveted piece of fabric, hidden away in the family cedar chest, would be hers – one day. But the anxious fourth grader could wait no more. So one afternoon, while her mother was away, Helen went to the chest, pulled out the fabric, spread it on the floor and began to cut the pattern for a custom beach shift . “My mother always said if I was really serious about sewing—then I could have that piece of fabric,” she recalls, “I guess after that, she knew I really was!”

Part-time Richmond Hill resident, Helen Butler, was born and raised in Savannah, attending St. Vincent’s Academy and reveling in the joys of an upbringing that can only come from living in the south. After high school graduation, she attended the University of Georgia where her talents and life-long passion for costume design could finally be pursued. Even as a freshman, her sights were set on a career in costume design, a goal that prompted the young coed to ask for a highly desired position in the UGA theater assistantship program. This was something that was rarely, if ever, granted to new students.

“I remember my professor, Dr. Kessler, looked at me and asked what I did,” she laughs. I said,” I sew!” To that he replied,” We don’t have any seamstresses right now, you’re in!” The rest, as they say, is history.

Her skills and creativity were honed over the next four years and just two weeks from graduation, she landed her fi rst offi cial movie job as an assistant in the costume department. “I never even had a car in college and I was ending my lease on my apartment so when I heard about this job in Madison, Georgia, I jumped at the chance, grabbed my bike and made a hotel room—my home.”

She arrived on the set of the 1978 film, The Great Bank Hoax with Ned Beatty, Arthur Godfrey, and Burgess Meredith, and after just a few days the reality hit her. “I’m really doing this!” Once the shooting for the movie was wrapped, the producer called her back to assist with another film, Greased Lightening starring Richard Pryor.

“There I was,” she happily recalls, “…riding my bike everywhere and setting up a bed in the costume department, right there between the racks of clothes! I just couldn’t get enough of it!” Not long after her first two successful experiences, Helen joined a group of fellow UGA grads, also known as New Georgia, and moved to New York City. From actors to publicists, agents and producers, this band of talented newcomers spent the better part of the late 1970s supporting one another and establishing themselves in the movie-making biz.

For Helen, her experience in New York was a dream come true. “I remember being part of the first Jackie Chan movie that came to America,” she recalls. “There I was, flying in a helicopter under the Brooklyn Bridge, filming the Statue of Liberty and World Trade Towers. It was surreal to say the least!”

By 1989, Helen had come into her own, trading her supervisor title for that of costume designer. Every movie, the process follows much the same. Once hired, she was supplied the script, which gave her an opportunity to familiarize herself with the story and break it down before she met with the director. “They always want to know ‘how you see it’ even from the first meeting.” The next step is to work with a sketch artist, if Helen herself does not do the sketches, and then – the fabrics.

“I absolutely LOVE fabrics,” she says with a genuinely giddy sense. “I love the touch, the feel, the colors, I will buy samples and quarter-yards and then I feel like I can offi cially begin the design.” The schedule of the fi lm always dictates her timeline and she prefers to complete costumes for the lead actor or actress first to help set the tone for the rest.

In her most recent project, the film My One and Only starring Renee Zellweger, she took the character from an insecure person using whites and pastels to someone who has fully come into her own with the use of vivid, bold tones. Often, casting is last minute which means Helen has to move quickly, sometimes making costume changes in as little as one hour. But she seems to thrive on the challenge and recalls some of her best work was the product of tight demands.

“I once needed to make a costume for a character Bruce Dern was

playing,” she says. “His character was Southern, slightly sleazy and living in a rundown, decrepit house.” Drawing from her years of creative

inventiveness, Helen bought a seersucker suit from a thrift store, soaked it in tea and then placed it in the sun to dry. When Bruce appeared on set wearing his custom attire, both he and the producer said simply, “That’s brilliant.”

Of course one of the most memorable experiences was on the set of Alex Haley’s Queen, starring the then little-known actress, Halle Berry. “That shoot was very personal to me because it took place in Charleston, directly across the road from where my ancestors once had a plantation. How cool is that,” she exclaims. Halle Berry alone had 150 costumes in the movie, all of which Helen designed working with 36 “stitchers” in an enormous warehouse over six months of filming. “It was a far cry from those first movies and the tiny costume sections I once knew,” she states. It wasn’t until months later that she would realize just how special Queen would become to her.

“I remember I was in Plains, Georgia on the set of a Hallmark Hall of Fame Movie, To Dance with the White Dog, and I had a call from one of the UGA alums I first moved to New York with. He was a publicist in California at the time and I answered the phone and heard him say, that congratulations were in order. I had no idea what he was talking about!” Helen had received an Emmy Nomination—it was her first of two. “Of all the places I’ve been and lived and the many costumes I’ve designed I could not find anything to wear!” she says with a laugh.

Instead of opting for a ritzy number from Rodeo Drive or Saks on Fifth Avenue, she found herself back in Savannah shopping with her sister, real estate agent Cathy Butler-Gregory, and finding the perfect outfit at Fines. “I still remember it – a pantsuit adorned with Austrian crystals, I just loved it!” That evening, two of Helen’s best friends took home awards and she still remembers it as an absolutely fabulous night.

Helen actually did take something home with her from Queen – two huge sewing tables. As filming concluded, she found herself wondering what would happen to the huge, custom cutting tables they had beenusing. “I was told they would just be broken down and thrown away - so instead, I took them, and use them here in my home in Richmond Hill,” she states with the slightest hint of mischievousness.

Today, Helen Butler continues to follow her passion for costume design in movies as well as Broadway Plays, which are a far cry from the production schedule of Hollywood. “I remember doing this one play, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, with Mark Hamill and Polly Bergen, it was a dream come true,” said Butler. “But what was most surprising is that with a play, on opening night—my work is done! In movies, casting is still going on even once the movie has begun filming. So, the play difference was quite a shock!”

Though her love is definitely in films and plays, she also has an interest to teach all she knows to the up and coming next generation of designers. “My best advice is to get that first movie,” Helen says, “and then do the best you can and always ask to do more than what you’re assigned. The more people you know, the more work you’ll get.”

She also, along with her band of New Georgia graduates who first set out for the bright city lights, is helping to support the dreams of the next generation at the Franklin College of UGA by mentoring them on their experiences and what it takes to be a success in the industry. www.uga.edu/gm/artman/publish/0308newgeorgia. html. The group has even established The New Georgia Independent Artistic Achievement Award in Theater, a scholarship trust for aspiring UGA theater students.

“I love that! I love knowing that my work and stories can live beyond just me and my world,” Helen says with a passion that is as alive today as when she first pulled that fabric from her mother’s cedar chest. Now, after working costuming for more than 75 feature and television films, it seems the advice Helen’s mother had for her years ago has found its place.

“I remember growing up and even in college, mom was concerned that this would never be a ‘real job’ and wanted me to be a teacher,” she says with a sentimental smile. “She passed away before I graduated from college but I know she’s proud and hey, looks like teaching may be part of my journey after all!”

Find out more about Helen Butler at www.helenbutler.net.