When she was a freshman in college, Juliana Hoffpauir caught a screening of Richard Linklater’s pivotal Slacker at a small arthouse theater in Kansas. While for many, the cult film shone a light on a deeply thoughtful but otherwise unmotivated subculture of young adults idling across Austin, Hoffpauir felt simply homesick. 

“There was the Drag, and I went to St. Austin [Catholic Church] on the Drag,” Hoffpauir said. “It was like my life flashing before my eyes.” When she looks back on the memory now, Hoffpauir considers the screening the start of a true full circle story. She recently led the costume and design work on Linklater’s newest film, Hit Man, which the director cowrote with starring actor and fellow Texan Glen Powell. The film, which had a limited theatrical release and is set to premiere on Netflix this Friday, is based on a Texas Monthly story by Skip Hollandsworth about Houston’s deadliest “murderer” for hire. Because the film relies heavily on disguises to portray the many iterations of its main character, the costume work is especially crucial.

Hoffpauir’s career in film took a lot of turns before it landed her on the set of a Linklater production. A native Austinite, she took classes at longtime local studio kidsActing before landing a gig as an extra in the 1989 Lonesome Dove miniseries as a teenager. Spending time on set opened her eyes to all the different kinds of jobs it takes to get a production off the ground. 

“I wanted to be a part of it,” Hoffpauir said. “I didn’t know in what way, but I knew I wanted it. It reminded me a lot of the theater—people coming together to make a story, and as a team.” After leaving Austin to study theater and film at the University of Kansas, Hoffpauir moved to Telluride, Colorado, to work as an arts reporter. A short stint in Brooklyn (and an attempt to launch an NYC theater company) later, Hoffpauir found herself back in Austin, eager to work in the local film scene. But in 2002, Austin’s film sector wasn’t exactly rife with opportunities, and she soon made the decision to move to New Orleans, where she could get her foot in the door in a props department. 

While working on set, it hit Hoffpauir: “I was thinking, you know, ‘I really need to be in costumes. I know the power of clothes and the transformative effect they can have.’ ” Hoffpauir’s mom has owned the Garden Room boutique, a women’s clothing store in Austin, for 45 years. Shifting to costume and design work seemed to be the right call. Soon Hoffpauir was getting more and more opportunities and calls for work—with many of the jobs, including 2018’s The Iron Orchard and 2021’s 12 Mighty Orphans, based back in her home state. Hoffpauir calls moving back to Austin “just part of the plan.” That the plan would come together around a new Linklater project—well, that was just fate. 

Hoffpauir landed the job to do costume work for Hit Man in part because Linklater’s longtime costume designer, Kari Perkins, wasn’t available and recommended Hoffpauir in her stead. While it’s the biggest movie she’s led styling for so far, it involved a lot of the things Hoffpauir has come to know as standard for a project: shopping and endless alterations broken up by flashes of creative inspiration. 

While some actors conveniently “walk right into their costumes,” Hoffpauir said tailoring was particularly necessary for Powell, who cycles in and out of disguises throughout the film. “There were fixes to be done for everything you see on-screen,” she said.

Asked about her favorite Hit Man costume, Hoffpauir didn’t miss a beat. “I was out shopping one weekend and went to this vintage store called Blue Dream, in New Orleans, and I came across the jacket. And I was like, ‘Oh my God, this jacket is so weird.’ ” The mod, burnt orange look was perfect for a character Powell described repeatedly as “just a big weirdo” to Hoffpauir when the two discussed how to outfit him during shooting.

“He really knew these characters. It was a very unique experience working on this film because of that reason—because he is the actor and the cowriter, so he was able to visualize things a certain way and communicate that,” Hoffpauir said. The collaboration—as they’re not always known to do—went both ways. When trying to decide how best to disguise one of Powell’s hit men, Hoffpauir grew intrigued by a uniform shirt a set worker was wearing. The shirt was from Austin-based window-washing company Pink’s, known for its funny branding and attractive young workers. 

“I was like, ‘Glen, what if you’re a window washer,’ ” Hoffpauir said. “I called up Pink’s and they sent us a shirt and a pink quick-dry towel, and [Powell] has that in his back pocket.”

Finding playful ways to reflect the people and communities around her in her work is what it’s all about for Hoffpauir. “I mean, really, it’s all about play,” she said. “And pretend. We’re really out here just playing pretend.”