Dolemite Is My Name’s Oscar-Shortlisted Makeup & Hairstyling Team on Capturing an Era

“There was a lot of collaboration among us,” says Vera Steimberg, who was the co-department makeup head on the collaboration between Eddie Murphy and Netflix on Dolemite Is My Name. The film itself recounts the historical collaboration of self-produced blaxploitation movie icon Rudy Ray Moore, who produced the original Dolemite, then “four-walled” it—exhibiting it himself—until it was eventually picked up by a distributor for expansion into both more movie screens, eventual video,

Best of 2019: Joker’s Makeup Designer on Creating the Clown Prince of Chaos

*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019. Happy Holidays!

It’s hard to think of a more iconic look from the world of comic books than the Joker — Batman’s most nefarious adversary. Nicki Ledermann was all too aware of this when she was approached to design the makeup for Joker, director Todd Phillips’ new feature that offers up the origin as to how Arthur Fleck,

Best of 2019: Makeup Designer Burton LeBlanc on Creating Misery in the Colonies in The Handmaid’s Tale

*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019. Happy Holidays!

In Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the radioactive Colonies are more felt than described. We’re told it’s where all Gilead’s undesirables, the childless handmaids, the criminals, the sick and insane, are sent to die. In Hulu’s adaptation of Atwood’s novel, however, the Colonies became one of the show’s most fecund sources of misery in season two. As Maria Elena Fernandez described in a piece for Vulture, 

How Robert De Niro’s Makeup Team Traversed 50-Years in The Irishman

In describing The Irishman, Martin Scorsese’s latest feature, one word that keeps popping up is “epic.” And deservedly so. A sweeping three-and-a-half-hour saga, The Irishman explores the true-life story of Frank Sheeran, an organized crime figure and close confidant of Jimmy Hoffa, who rose to the top of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Ultimately, he betrayed his boss, orchestrating Hoffa’s disappearance and demise. Robert De Niro plays Sheeran. Al Pacino costars as Hoffa.

Joker’s Makeup Designer on Creating the Clown Prince of Chaos

It’s hard to think of a more iconic look from the world of comic books than the Joker — Batman’s most nefarious adversary. Nicki Ledermann was all too aware of this when she was approached to design the makeup for Joker, director Todd Phillips’ new feature that offers up the origin as to how Arthur Fleck, a failed comedian, came to be this ominous creature.

“To be honest,

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s Emmy-Nominated Hair & Makeup Team on Reimagining the 1950s

Amy Sherman-Palladino’s 1950s-era follow-up to Gilmore Girls, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, has been a hit for Amazon, beloved by viewers and a heavyweight at last year’s Emmys. In its second season, the show further explores Midge’s (Rachel Brosnahan) uptown-downtown life as a budding comedian, moderately dutiful daughter, and young single mother getting back into dating. Set in an era that just preceded Manhattan’s most idolized decades,

The Art of Racing in the Rain‘s Makeup Department Head on Working With Dogs, Kids, & More

Director Simon Curtis’s The Art of Racing in the Rain is based on Garth Stein’s beloved novel. Curtis (Goodbye Christopher Robin) and screenwriter Mark Bomback (War of the Planet of the Apes) have adapted the film, about a race car driver, his philosophical dog (yes, you read that correctly), and the growing family they both love. The film stars Milo Ventimiglia as Formula One race car driver Denny Swift,

Creating the Look for Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood

It’s Quentin Tarantino’s dream vision of 1969 Hollywood. So it is only appropriate that working on Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood was a dream come true for makeup department head Heba Thorisdottir.

“Every day of this movie was epic,” says Thorisdottir. “This was everything that I love about LA. When the actors were driving down Hollywood Boulevard, I remembered the first time that I came to Hollywood.

Bringing the Beautiful Beasts of Crawl to Life

It didn’t take much to convince Adrien Morot to sign on for the new feature Crawl. The producers had him at “alligator.”

When the makeup effects artist heard that the thriller involved a family of deadly reptiles terrorizing a small Florida town flooded by a hurricane, he immediately wanted in.

“I was like, ‘Holy crap, Yes,’” says Morot. “I was five years old when Jaws came out.

Getting a Mutant Makeover With Dark Phoenix‘s Makeup Department Head

Dark Phoenix is the last film in the nearly two-decade-old X-Men franchise. Yet by dropping X-Men from the title, co-writer/director Simon Kinberg, one of the franchise’s most tenured creatives, put the focus squarely on Jean Grey (Sophie Turner). The film is centered on a space rescue mission gone horribly awry, and the resultant transformation of Jean Grey from an already potent member of the X-men into the titular cosmic force with nearly unimaginable powers.

The Handmaid’s Tale Makeup Designer on Creating Misery in the Colonies

In Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the radioactive Colonies are more felt than described. We’re told it’s where all Gilead’s undesirables, the childless handmaids, the criminals, the sick and insane, are sent to die. In Hulu’s adaptation of Atwood’s novel, however, the Colonies became one of the show’s most fecund sources of misery in season two. As Maria Elena Fernandez described in a piece for Vulture, The Handmaid’s Tales creators did something brilliant when they set out to create the location—the asked Atwood what she had in mind when she wrote about them.

Fosse/Verdon Hair Designer Perfects Art of the Comb-Over for Sam Rockwell

Director-choreographer Bob Fosse had nearly everything an auteur could desire in 1973. That was the year he became the only person in history to win one Oscar (Cabaret), four Emmys (Liza with a Z), and two Tonys (Pippin) inside of a year. He also had a gifted wife in the person of four-time Tony-winning dancer/muse/collaborator Gwen Verdon. But as portrayed by Oscar-winner Sam Rockwell in Fosse/Verdon (premiering Tuesday,

Pet Sematary‘s Makeup Designer on Creating Death From Life

It’s always risky adapting a beloved novel for the big screen. It’s even riskier when that novel has already been adapted in a beloved film. Yet this is precisely what directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer took on with their Pet Sematary reboot. Director Mary Lambert’s iconic 1989 film version of one of Stephen King‘s most wrenchingly unsettling novels gave the world some of the most disturbing sequences of any film that decade.

Off With Their Wigs! Mary Queen of Scots‘s Hair & Makeup Genius Jenny Shircore

*In the run-up to this Sunday’s Oscars telecast, we’re sharing some of our favorite interviews with nominees. 

This holiday season we’ve been graced with not one but two incredible examples of hair and makeup mastery. The first came in Yorgos Lanthimos’ hilarious The Favourite, which captures the lunacy at court (and in the bedroom) of Queen Anne (a sensational Olivia Colman), who close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) goes to war,

Oscar Watch: Suspiria’s Prosthetic Makeup Artist on Turning Tilda Swinton into an Old Man

The original horror film Suspiria, made by Dario Argento in 1977, was wild and colorful, and the palette of Luca Guadagnino’s version of the story conveys quickly that this is not a remake. The dance company at the center of the story, next to the Berlin Wall, is bleakly lunatic, as are the street scenes of 1970s Berlin outside, where RAF protests hold sway and it is always raining.

Oscar Watch: BlacKkKlansman Hair and Makeup Designers on the Impact of Appearances

BlacKkKlansman was one of the most stirring films of the year with a chilling portrayal of hatred. In typical Spike Lee fashion, it was also funky, cool, and completely enthralling. The true story of dangerous prejudices and brave efforts to fight back was rooted in appearance. Some of the most monstrous of the characters masqueraded in a façade of normalcy.

“As far as the Klansmen, I wanted some of them to look like normal people and clean-cut,” makeup department head Martha Melendez said.

Off With Their Wigs! Mary Queen of Scots‘s Hair & Makeup Genius Jenny Shircore

This holiday season we’ve been graced with not one but two incredible examples of hair and makeup mastery. The first came in Yorgos Lanthimos’ hilarious The Favourite, which captures the lunacy at court (and in the bedroom) of Queen Anne (a sensational Olivia Colman), who close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) goes to war, so to speak, with a new servant Abigail (Emma Stone) over the queen’s affection.

Makeup Designer Donald Mowat on The Darkest Minds‘ Subtle Sorcery

With a three-decade career in the film industry, you’d think makeup designer Donald Mowat has seen it all. The Emmy winner has worked on projects from The Fighter to Planet of the Apes, and we’ve already had the chance to discuss his masterful work on Blade Runner 2049 and Stronger. However, there are genres that have eluded Mowat for decades, and now he is making an effort to turn over every stone–and is having a great time doing it.

Good Skin and the ‘Western Squint’ Give Godless a Natural Look

Since the dawn of cinema, and on radio before it, lawless battles of good and evil on a new frontier have captured audiences. Then, Godless offered something entirely new in the grief-stricken community of La Belle, New Mexico. A town with a nearly all-female population, following a town tragedy, becomes caught in the crossfire of rival outlaws and they prove to be even stronger than their male aggressors. Godless makeup designer Tarra Day has worked on all manner of Westerns including Appaloosa,

Deadpool 2‘s Makeup Designer Bill Corso on Creating Wade’s Brutal Face

Makeup designer Bill Corso earned an Emmy Award nomination for crafting jowls and big ears for Bryan Cranston so he could look like President Lyndon Johnson in All the Way. But more often, Corso traffics in the realm of the fantastical as he does with Deadpool 2. Re-teaming with star Ryan Reynolds, Corso devised the hideous skin of cancer patient/medical experiment/mercenary Wade Wilson, whose mottled face appears in close-up during movie’s opening sequence.