As with the earlier “bakeoff” in which the seven contenders were presented to voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ makeup branch, and the recent Makeup and Hairstylists Guild awards, many notable members of the makeup arts community were on hand to support their fellow artisans.
Speaking about working on an otherworldly project as with Guardians, Rooker revealed that his process begins before sitting in the makeup chair. “I use everything that’s inside me and my imagination,” he stated. “That happens when I wake up the morning of, and I start getting ready for work. Driving in, I’m already in my mind, getting ready and preparing.”
Last year’s best makeup winner, Robin Mathews (Dallas Buyers Club), noted that “the competition this year was so intense and wonderful,” though she indicated that last year’s competition was equally challenging. “This year, I did makeup supervision on Wild with Reese Witherspoon with the same director as Dallas Buyers Club, Jean-Marc Vallée.” In 2007, Mathews had also created makeup for a similarly-themed film, Into the Wild, directed by Sean Penn.
Berger also pointed to the integration of prosthetic makeup and visual effects which has become commonplace on science-fiction and fantasy films, a reality that Berger embraced on 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2. “With visual effects, some stuff like Guardians of the Galaxy have intermixed digital augmentation as design,” he said. “It truly is the new magic trick. It’s great to see filmmakers like James Gunn want to use makeup. He loves it so much. There’s so many great filmmakers that want makeup, and so many actors that want makeup. It’s so encouraging and refreshing. It’s back to where it should be, where the makeup artists and hair stylists are important on the film. They’re not these annoying gnats flying around that producers are trying to swat, but a very important part of the team in filmmaking.” Berger has done three recent films with Mark Wahlberg – The Gambler, Ted 2 – coming out in June, and Daddy’s Home, which will be out for Thanksgiving, 2015. In April, Berger will start an action-adventure film, The Long Night, starring Wahlberg, to be directed by Peter Berg.
Winner for best makeup for 1988’s Beetlejuice, in addition to providing practical effects on blockbuster films including E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial and Splash, Robert Short is a regular attendee at Academy events, and reflected on the state of his craft. “It’s a whole new world due to the fact that a lot of what we used to do makeup effects-wise is now done with CGI,” he said. “It’s great that there’s still a use for prosthetics directly applied to actors that allows the actors to emote and become a character. I hope that that remains for quite a while even though the technology is catching up to where it may just end up in the near future just tracking marks on actors. I’m hoping that day doesn’t come very soon even though I know it’s on the horizon. But for now, this is a great showcase for what can be done with very minimal makeups and yet create a memorable character such as Steve Carell from Foxcatcher.”
In the event, each pair of artists illuminated in meticulous detail his or her contributions to the nominated films’ makeup and hair styling execution. Makeup/hair/prosthetic designer Frances Hannon noted the careful attention to all visual details of the final look of Ralph Fiennes, star of The Grand Budapest Hotel. “We decided that he should have a blond-toned wig which was fairly full,” she said, explaining that the wig partially blended into his own hair. “He loved blonde women, so we wanted him to have a blond tinge. Every day, Ralph was wigged, foundation, eyebrows, mascara, blusher – it was the full works. It was based on a 1930s Hollywood star, but in a very subtle way.”
Without access to Swinton in advance to prepare his concepts, Coulier found a woman with a similar look to spend time in his workshop to test the makeup. “We did various tests on various old-age stipple makeups around the eyes,” he said. “We really didn’t want to put prosthetics under her eyes. It’s such a great technique, the old age stipple on certain skins. If somebody is over 50, it works particularly well. We kept the prosthetic cheek piece really low under her cheekbone – Tilda has really wide cheekbones. We also didn’t want to add any material to the outside of her cheekbones to create that sallow look. Duncan Jarman and Stephen Murphy did an enormous amount of work on this makeup, and Josh Weston [uncredited in the film] sculpted the hand prosthetics for it. In combo with Fran’s beautiful wig, we stuck the prosthetics on and painted everything into her skin. Wes Anderson wanted loads of liver spots, and Julie Dartnell did the straight makeup – the lipstick and eyeshadow. The whole thing really came together. Once you were married with Milena Canonero’s sumptuous costume, it was a real striking character.” Of note, Hannon, Coulier, and Canonero all won Oscars on Feb. 22.
For Zoe Saldana’s character, Gamora, co-nominee David White created a thin silicone prosthetic forehead head and silicone cheeks, adhered with Telesis with Pros-Aide used in combination. “It gives a lineage and direction, very symmetrical,” White said of the appliances. “A biomechanical structure was sculpted in. She’s out there, but you can still relate to her. We tried lenses – you needed to relate to her, so we took off the lenses. What you see in those comic books can be too extreme for a movie. We had to tone things down. It’s got to work on that massive scale. It has to be really believable.” Additionally, Gamora wore a two-tone hair color to make her feel particularly contemporary.
Corso’s main challenge in creating the character of John DuPont with Carell was the fact that the comedian is currently widely known to the public. “You hear on every movie as a makeup artist, ‘Whatever you do, don’t lose the actor,’” Corso conveyed. “This is one of those amazingly rare opportunities where I had a conversation with the director and said, ‘I can’t picture Steve Carell in this movie when I read the script,’ and he said, ‘Steve Carell cannot be in this movie. John DuPont needs to be in this movie – the character of John DuPont. I hired Steve because I thought as an actor, he’s going to bring something interesting to the role, but it cannot be Carell at all.’ And I said, ‘Well, that makes me nervous. Any time we do a makeup on somebody, no matter how good the makeup is, the public, the press, is very quick to point out, ‘Wow, it’s a famous guy covered in prosthetics.’’
Fellow nominee on Foxcatcher was Corso’s key makeup artist, Dennis Liddiard. “When Bill called me and talked to me about the project and told me that I would primarily be taking care of Channing Tatum,” Liddiard recollected, “and I kind of knew the story from when this first happened and I remembered when the Schultz brothers had won the gold medals, I started to look at a lot of pictures of wrestlers, fighters, who live in the world of combat. One thing really jumped out to us when Bill Corso and I would talk about it: the cartilage in a wrestler’s nose starts to break down, the noses flatten out, the chins start to really protrude, the foreheads kind of protrude. They get this really flat profile. In talking to Bill, we decided to try and go after that look – to make it look like our movie stars had grown up in the world of combat, of fighting.”
Significantly, Corso has recently joined Engelman as a co-governor for the Academy’s makeup branch.