Meet the Mastermind Behind Wonka’s Weird, Wonderful, and Wholly Edible Chocolates

How much about the chocolates was in the Wonka script?

I had the title and description—for instance, the Silver Lining was filled with condensed thunderclouds and liquid sunlight. And the action it does—it makes you go, “Huh!” At the start, that was all I had. At that point, I didn’t know about any other production design elements, so I had to just use my imagination.

Where did you find inspiration?

From the character Willy Wonka himself. He’s very literal—in the original film, he was mixing something and was like, “That needs a kick” and put a trainer inside, or he said, “It needs some heat” and put a coat inside. I knew it had to be what it says. The Silver Lining needed real silver and to be really bold. And understanding the emotions behind the scenes helped as well. The Silver Lining was in a sweet scene, so that was reflected in the golds and silvers. For an evil scene, I would think of using blacks and reds and navy blues.

How did you figure out what director Paul King was looking for?

The first time I met Paul was the first time he saw my chocolates. It was very nerve-wracking because I didn’t know what he wanted, and I’m not sure he really knew what he wanted either. I made around 8 to 10 chocolates and 5 varieties of each chocolate for him, all quite different. At this stage, I didn’t know if Willy Wonka would be wacky or emotional or very simple and classic. I watched carefully what Paul gravitated to and eventually got a really good grasp of his style for Wonka: balanced, friendly, kind, magical, colorful, whimsical, and humorous.