Milla Jovovich explains the origins of her iconic The Fifth Element bandage costume. Visionary director Luc Besson left his fingerprint on sci-fi forever with his 1997 classic set in a wild dystopian future. The Fifth Element went on to be a big box office hit at the time, grossing $263 million worldwide.

But clearly the influence of The Fifth Element goes far beyond the impact it made at the box office when it was released in 1997. And a big reason for the movie’s enduring pop culture footprint is of course its heroine Leeloo, played by Jovovich, and her highly distinctive punk-sci-fi look. A bio-engineered super-being who holds the fate of humanity in her hands, Leeloo sports wild red hair and spends much of the movie running around in a costume that amounts to a few strategically-placed bandages. Indeed that bandage costume has become iconic itself, inspiring cosplayers to this very day.

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The Fifth Element was of course bound to have a distinctive look given the prodigious creative forces involved in its making. One of the most important of these creative forces in fact was fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier, who was hired by Besson to handle costumes for his visionary sci-fi epic. When it came to designing Leeloo’s look however, Jovovich herself offered a bit of input that went on to guide Gaultier’s work. Speaking recently to Vogue, the actress revealed the origins of Leeloo’s bandage costume and how her suggestion sparked Gaultier’s creation:

Something Luc and I had actually talked about before meeting with Jean Paul was like, "How do we shoot the birth scene of Leeloo?” She gets put together through this DNA splicing machine, and she's naked, but she can't be naked throughout the movie, so what do we do? And something that hit me was like being in a hospital for instance, they put like a robe on you that's open in the back so that they can reach in, and give you injections, and put tubes in you and things. So, you have to almost have as little as possible, but for the sake of modesty you have to cover up too. So how do we do that? And that's where the bandage idea came from. I said, "Listen, what about bandages?" Like you know, when people get wounded, they just put bandages to cover the necessary bits. Luc and Jean Paul talked about this bandage idea, and Jean Paul was just like, "Oh genius, I love it!"

Milla Jovovich as Leeloo in The Fifth Element

Clearly Jovovich’s Fifth Element bandage costume idea was a great one as the design remains one of the most-remembered aspects of Besson’s very busy and imaginative movie. And Jovovich indeed appreciates the impact Leeloo’s look continues to have on people nearly 30 years after the film’s release. “It's been amazing to see how much Leeloo has affected style, and how much fun people have with her character and embodying her spirit,” Jovovich said to Vogue.

Of course fans of The Fifth Element to this day still long for a sequel to the sci-fi classic. And indeed a sequel was reportedly planned at one time using a scrapped storyline from the original movie, but unfortunately the project never came to fruition. Now in a world positively bursting with streaming services and other outlets, it seems there should be a place for a Fifth Element revisit of some kind. And if there is any real market for a Fifth Element sequel or reboot out there, much of the credit must go to Jovovich’s portrayal of Leeloo and the enduring appeal of that character both in look and attitude. Surely without Jovovich’s performance, and Leeloo’s amazing character design, The Fifth Element would not be nearly as memorable as it is.

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Source: Vogue/YouTube