After becoming not just the first Black person ever to win for costume designer, but also the most nominated Black woman in Oscars history last month, the legendary Ruth E. Carter, who is also the most awarded in the history of the awards, is opening up about the honor and where her dreams began.
Last month, the 65-year-old award-winning costume designer received the nomination for Best Costumes by the Academy Awards for her work on Ryan Coogler’s trailblazing vampire flick, “Sinners.” During a recent appearance on “Good Morning America,” she shared what she would tell her younger herself.
“I would thank her, and I would say, ‘You listen to your voice,’” said Carter. “That’s the advice I give to young people, to keep going and listen to that inner voice inside of you telling you that you want to do this, and you want to be good at it.”
Carter, whose career spans over three decades and includes major Black culture staples, including Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing,” and “Malcom X,” Ava Du Vernay’s “Selma,” and both of the “Black Panther” films —for which she’s already won two costume designer Academy Awards, added how she didn’t initially set out to be a “Black costume designer.”
“I set out to be a great costume designer, and I had such good support along the way,” she explained.
Carter, who sat down for the interview just a day after the Super Bowl and amid the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, also shared that her career as a costume designer reminds her of that of an athlete.
“There’s a lot of training, a lot of preparation, a lot of study, a lot of research, a lot of sacrifice,” she said. “You don’t always go out on a Saturday night. You know, sometimes you sacrifice friendships.”
All that said, she added, “But when you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.”
The 98th annual Academy Awards will take place Sunday, March 15, at the Dolby Digital Theatre and will be broadcast live on ABC beginning at 7 p.m. ET.
