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there's always been makeup effects in my

way the other every time you see a trick

of some sort on the screen like a

monster or somebody had to design it

make it up make it work and throughout

the years it's evolved along the cinema

creative people like to go beyond the

real into the surreal and into the

imaginative when you go beyond the real

world and show an audience something

beyond what they can imagine that's a

pretty exciting and fantastic thing

there is an enormous power of a human

being in a mask and it goes way back

into our ancient history because the

humanity is in there but you can't quite

tell what it's feeling and it has the

shield against you I mean if you can

find something that where you look in

the mirror and you go that's it you know

I mean that's the beauty of prosthetics

growing up I was obsessed with makeup

effects and in fact I remember and my

bar mitzva I was sawed in half of the

chainsaw

you know I think a lot of people don't

think about the fact that when you watch

mainstream movies there are makeup

effects peppered throughout a lot of

those films you have something as simple

as out of the kit makeups you have

prosthetics that can either age someone

make them fat make them look like a

creature then you also get into a whole

other aspect which is fake bodies

animatronics puppetry fake animals a

fake beagle from underdog we've done

everything from bodies being

electrocuted in The Green Mile to a fat

suit on Mike Myers for Austin Powers so

every single film offers a different

challenge and a new challenge I've been

friends with Richard Taylor from Wetty

forever

and when they were doing Lord of the

Rings I'd go and visit and they were so

like immersed in that world you know

what would happen was Richard Taylor had

been approached about doing Narnia he

was in the middle of King Kong and he

said listen you should call K&B talk to

Howard to talk to Greg

those guys would certainly be up for the

challenge if nothing else we had six

months to prep and I was off with a

crude to New Zealand for nine months

Narnia we were responsible for building

an army actually two armies of warring

creatures and I'll tell you I've worked

on a lot of big projects in the 25 years

I've done this and nothing has been as

big as Narnia nothing you deal with a

movie like Chronicles of Narnia and

there's a hundred people in faun makeup

sent our makeup Seder makeup it was such

a daunting overwhelming task the genius

of great makeup obviously is you don't

really guy you can't really tell I mean

my wife would come to set and like get

really close to me and stare at it like

she had never but she was looking at me

for the first time you don't know where

it stops and where I started you really

start to enter that Narnian world that

fantasy world when you start putting on

this

Mieke we had cast james really late in

the game which was making me nervous I

needed so I need an X amount of time to

get James his makeup and designed out

and on so I was terrified like I was

losing sleep up until that point it was

the very first thing we shot was mr.

Tumnus for us but finally once Andrew

said that's it we nailed I was like huh

thank goodness in fact you know you

shoot for nine months it's sort of more

commonplace to see somebody in makeup

and see somebody not in makeup but it is

funny being in the middle of a field in

the Czech Republic with all these guys

with like centaur hoods on and they lift

it up and they start smoking and it's

very fellini-esque

I have three kids and they love the

books and they were just excited the

fact that I got called in to do this

that was really Cocos up until this

point there's nothing they could see

that I've worked on at all which is kind

of sad well you know proud of the work

you're doing but you can really can't

sorry guys you can't go see hostile the

animals in Narnia just captured my heart

you know and for for that to transcend

that bridge of reality for us so that we

can relate to it on a heart level as

another entity is I think amazing from

that of course nominations for the

BAFTAs and for the Oscars and we're all

that land it just was the best

experience I could ever wish for

I really enjoy working with Michael he's

great visionary and I think that he's

he's a demanding director as every other

director that I've ever worked with is

they want the best the challenge of

Michael Bay is that electricity as much

stuff real in front of the cameras

humanly possible we actually meet I

think about 160 bodies on that movie all

told from the room where all the body is

getting educated with all the different

TV screens and then there was the pod

room where we had 40 different bodies

and different stages of development the

idea really was where you're growing

human bodies so we wanted to be able to

see how these bodies were created from

the inside out

and we had bodies that were literally

just like a heart and a beating

circulatory system in a human shape

inside a sealed plastic bag filled with

water and we made partially clear

intestines hearts and things like that

that we actually put inside that so what

you basically had was a completely

see-through body and then the last

minute we had to actually add in some

movement which we couldn't quite figure

out how to do that in a sealed plastic

bag but we ran stuff through the

umbilicals to make it look like they

were sucking their thumbs and things

like that everything had to be lit from

below you know I mean if it was just lit

from above you would have never seen any

of the details like we wanted everything

to look translucent the only way you can

tell if it's translucent is if there's

light shining through it so we have

these plastic bins with lights in them

and then we'd sit the bodies on them and

then we'd have to fill the plastic

containers with water

so basically we're submerging them and

then we'd bleed all the air out and then

screw the caps on then where the tube

suck the rest of the air out so that we

didn't have bubbles it was like giant

breast implants with bodies inside of

transformers what our assignment was and

that was to come up with the frenzied

puppet which had six different names

before we started doing it because the

script was have top secret at the time

and we had to figure out a way how to

make this computer design

puppet that when you design stuff on a

computer it's not really taken into

account a lot of things for the real

world so there are parts that would fold

in on itself that would just disappear

in the design and in the animatics that

we had actually made function in real

life so we started talking about it and

I said well you know what if this is a

big CGI movie anyway

we could get a lot more life out of this

puppet if we made it a rod puppet so

basically you're built you're taking

rods out of the corners of the elbows

out of the back of the head so that you

have puppeteers in the shot that can

actually get more dramatic movement in a

larger range of movement so we got on

set Michael saw that it instantly was

like wow I can shoot you use this for a

lot more shots and I can shoot this and

I could shoot that and I can do a lot

more with it and it gave him a tool we

had a remote-control cable operated

frenzied puppet and they used it a lot

in the film and it's actually cut

directly from CG shots to our puppet in

there really ultimately our job is you

got to provide the director with as as

many tools as you can you know the

directors the directors the painter and

you got to give him the paint and the

brush and then maybe if you got a

palette knife maybe he found this all of

a sudden if you're giving the director

more tools for him to do a better job

then he can paint a better picture

I know Darabont for years had been

planning to do the mist he'd written the

script and it was on again off again for

at least 10 15 years initially the film

was was a higher budgeted movie but a

lot of studio people were concerned

about the end of the film which was a

very strong ending a very bold ending

which a lot of people myself included

respect Frank for sticking to his

creative guns this was a movie he wanted

to make and he finally got the chance to

do it but it was on a very limited

budget when we shot that whole film in

36 days that was part of

the pleasure of this particular exercise

for me I said that as a goal as well

which is doing an impossible schedule

with that benefit of enormous funds

rather than pretending you're making a

low-budget horror movie and spending a

lot of money doing it let's really make

a low-budget horror movie I love that

it's got a 50 sensibility and it feels

very timeless and yet it it's supposed

to take place today Frank had always had

the intention that it was going to be a

heavy CGI movie but that he wanted to

augment with puppet pieces and and have

us design everything and build it and

then the visual effects people would

take their cue off of what we were

designing and building we played with

those ideas that that the tentacles

would unfurl and then do these little

hooks and once I'd actually grab and

pull the meat in and then there's these

little sea anenome that would chew on

everything challenge where the effects

were concerned because the effects on

that were a combination of some can be

practical stuff and a lot of really

excellent CGI work from Caffe effects

and and the real challenge there was

mesh the practical effects and the

computer effects in a in a happy way my

personal contributions to the nest I

think the most unusual contribution was

I was what they called the green hand

they painted my hand green and they put

ingenious a little um cable ties that

they cut at angles and my job was to you

know simulate the tentacle coming in and

then going right above the actors chest

which had a big balloon of you know

blood and I would grab it and pop it and

pull all the flesh off and and that got

in place with the CGI tentacles everyone

knew that it was blood time when I

showed up with a big green arm you know

walking around hey blood today Shannon

and arms green that means we're gonna do

some blood today

and Cindy's wonderful in this the

technology is fantastic and ever-growing

but I think sometimes it's overused and

where it's really good is where it just

augments well what if what already

exists

I like the stuff in front of the camera

I like it in camera which is becoming

less used I'm like one of those people

who actually love CGI I think it's a

great great tool I still do like

animatronics but there's a fine line

with it because it's it's its

capabilities are limited you know you

can't really have something flying down

a supermarket aisle as an animatronic

creature and have it really be

believable you're really much better off

with computer graphics also - combining

it with live-action creature effects is

the best of both worlds because actually

when you make a monster and it's in the

room in front of the camera it's

undeniably there and the audience

actually oddly enough knows that - until

CG becomes utterly convincing as a

physical presence

I think physical effects will always be

better just because they have a presence

them and a solidity to them which CG as

yet can't quite duplicate I was on a set

of a movie that was doing a comic book

and they were doing it in motion capture

so you know the actors will the stuff

attached to them doing all this stuff

and you're seeing these cartoon

characters you respond so I was talking

to the director and he was saying it

goes yeah you see a thing like this you

can really do a graphic novel or a comic

book exactly the way it was done like if

you want to do braids right since

Frankenstein you know if you knew it and

every shot will be burning race this

Frankenstein that's never been done

before he goes well Sin City kind of did

it all right close to it and I didn't

contradict him but I'm thinking no since

that he did it exactly what you're

talking about

Sin City especially with the character

of Marv would be the perfect candidate

for a motion capture thing because it's

like oh who can play that but we could

we can just draw that character and have

a guy walk through it then it'll be

perfect except it wouldn't have that

make you work

performance so I would didn't do that he

actually cast an actor and turned him

into Marv and Micky work was great and

it's why everyone remembers Sin City as

great as it is it's Mickey Rourke's

phenomenal performance that is the thing

that Mike just blew us out of our socks

it was just great

got any beers around this place I

remember when I was reading the book

again I just worked with Mickey in it a

red book to see who could play Marvin it

I was looking at it again oh my god I

know who this person is Mickey is Mars

but you need to make him look more like

the comic and get more of the iconic

features the first thing that was put

down was okay we don't want him wearing

too much stuff because he's got such a

great face and such a great voices so

let's try just some minimal stuff so we

did a couple little pieces just bridge

of the nose things and we did a test and

Mickey was here and Robert comes up and

all sudden Frank Miller walks in behind

him and they're looking at now looking

at it they're looking at it and I said

oh hey man you know here's the wig and

there's dentures and you know we just we

kept a kind of subtle because we didn't

want to go too crazy so the first shot

we did on and just looked too baby

smooth I was like even when Mickey takes

off the Mickey has more character in his

face when he's got the makeup off than

when he does on I said but we can go

further if you want and Franklin really

will you go further I said yeah yeah he

said well here this is let me talk to

you man so he takes a piece of paper and

he does the sketch and he was that smart

of as soon as he did that I saw how the

brow came out and how the nose came out

and flattened and then the chin comes in

and I think I got it exactly so we do

the makeup and he got the wife beater

and the necklace with the cross and the

black duster and walked in the set and

Frank Miller literally backed away and

into Frank up until that point had

always just been he's safe he's on a

page you can't really hurt me and then

you look up and he's walking towards you

and Frank literally was like we were so

lucky because all the actors that we had

to do makeups on Benicio del Toro and

Nick Stahl and Mickey I mean these guys

were so excited and so into the project

I can't imagine anyone other than Mickey

Rourke wearing that marv makeup I mean I

kind of look at that as

the modern-day Frankenstein when I was a

kid Frankenstein was real the Wolfman

was real mummy and that's why they

scared the hell out of me I thought they

were real I mean it's only after I saw a

man of a thousand faces the story of lon

chaney

that movie was about somebody creating

the monsters I realized oh yeah of

course somebody creates the monsters I

watched this movie and went wow this is

this is a real guy right

my dad's against lon chaney you know so

he there happened to be a book out and

he got me the book I looked through it

and had all these amazing photos of all

these makeups and just like that's you

know that's what the real guy looked

like and this is what all the different

characters amazing stuff that he came up

I mean you know the Phantom of the Opera

makeup with the upturned nose one of the

great makeups of all times Phantom of

the Opera fishhooks and can't help lord

knows what he put himself through

they would put pieces of wire in his

eyes to pull his eyes down I mean talk

about a guy who was doing whatever he

could for the art of acting in the art

of makeup and and that really inspired

me you know and that's where I did start

to play with like really seeing what I

could do as far as changing my face with

with just household items a lot of

people Stan Winston and Tom Savini all

started out wanting to be actors I

wanted to be launched Cheney when I grew

up so I decided I wanted to be the guy

that creates the monsters before that I

was a little tiny kid loafing on the

corner in Little Italy and then that

from that day on I was shining shoes to

buy makeup I went to grade school with

half my eyebrows missing nose putty in

my hair then I realized I could make up

my friends you know so I would you know

burn the top of their heads off with

makeup slice their throats of their

wrists and they would go home and their

parents would scream because they're not

a makeup boat they're like what happened

to my kid who did that Savini where you

can't play with him anymore

I remember being very impressed with

Jack Pearson's work even before I knew

who Jack Pierce was and mommy in the

Wolfman and Frankenstein are pretty

indelible creations what's amazing is

how iconic those makeups are Jack Pierce

creating a makeup on Karloff that is as

classic as the Empire State Building

it's this like deco perfection there's a

reason why that Karloff here's the

universal image is just you know and

stamped in every even every kid born

today they've seen that Frankenstein and

that that's the Frankenstein of their

dreams that's the Frankenstein of their

nightmare with the bolts and the flat

head that's the Frank thank you and the

Junkers was doing incredible makeups

with primitive materials he would build

the makeup every day out of his kit with

colloseum and cotton Karloff would sit

there for nine and a half hours while

Jack would put layers of cotton to build

up Karloff's you know brows and then his

build his square head and then put the

wig on from scratch every day that was a

new creation there were no rubber pieces

to glue on you know one of the reasons

Jack Pierce was unceremoniously fired

from Universal was that he took too long

and by the 40s they wanted hurry up

hurry up hurry up he was using primitive

stuff but creating our classic monsters

and it all changes with the technology

the ability to make latex pieces that

would hold up for the time and to be

able to be painted and it was just you

know was something that took three hours

now took ten minutes

you know Thomas of the down-and-dirty

school of figuring it out you know a lot

of well you know what if he just like I

know what'll work babe and he really was

very innovative it's just got this

amazing energy and had a tremendous

influence on some of the stuff that we

did I mean we I could call on Tom to do

anything

Romero's movies always held a

fascination for me just because there

was a kind of there's this kind of

slightly panic in the eighties about

video nasties in the UK like our sense

of sort of banned everything and a lot

of good films got got taken off the

shelves and so Dawn of the Dead was like

this legendary movie that everyone

talked about I mean I I had never seen a

movie before that was just kill after

kill after kill after kill at people

getting shot in the head and heads

explosion it was this beautiful orgy of

on-screen makeup effects I remember the

one picture of David M guy and Dawn of

the Dead when he zombified he's got a

big hole in his neck and he's doing one

of the best zombie performances in the

in the history of the genre I think and

and looking at it and just thinking oh

my god what is this when David M gives

up the elevator shaft and he gets shot

and his arm explodes into blood well I

don't have explosives licence then but I

wanted to see an explosion of blood come

out of him so you know I would just take

a condom and split it open tape it shut

fill it with blood tie it around David's

arm under his clothes the hole was

already in the clothing and I would have

fish line attached to the tape so

enjoyed and I'm up in the elevator shaft

above him so that when George says

action I yanked that tape which opens

the rubber and blood just went he was

just always coming up with these

spontaneous things it was great I mean I

could always call Tom up and say hey man

we're gonna make another one you know

start thinking of ways to kill zombie

we all had a day to die which had

nothing to do with the title of the

movie but everybody's death scene they

gave a day to because of the technical

so I was the last death scene

we reference that specifically insuring

the dead with with Dylan's character and

it's almost like a Romero staple as well

the evisceration line you know it's what

you wait for it I love the way that you

know you totally buy that somebody would

just lie there and allow you to tell

them in pieces without struggling like

crazy I had already talked to George

about having a wine

now he's worried about getting the line

up because I when I walked in i said you

know i don't think roads is gonna is

gonna just say nothing when he dies and

George knows well let's remember they've

torn your legs off and all you are is a

torso what would you say and I was

spurred in this year choked on him

choked on him great blood is like

something and it was just everybody was

like was a great chat the shot was great

you know

particular kudos to Joe for putting up

with the stink of those entrails as well

which were famously rotten I was very

fortunate because it's a real memorable

death scene I've known Greg Nicotero

since he was 14 used to come visit the

set of Creepshow we were on draw

sketches for Chanel and invited us to

his house would swim in his pool you

know he was just a great just a fun guy

and we met totally coincidentally this

is Greg was still I don't know I can't I

don't remember maybe twelve or fourteen

something like that and they were in

Italy vacationing and I was over there

working with Dario Argento and we're

sitting at Alfredo's restaurant in Rome

and we walk in and you know everyone's

like look there's a Colosseum you know

there's the forum and I'm like yeah

there's George Ramin literally at the

next table was George was George Romero

all of a sudden his kid comes over to me

and says I'm from Pittsburgh my name is

Greg Nicotero and I just really love

horror movies and so we chatted a little

bit and I signed an autograph and all

that and he said can I ever get to do

anything like that do you think and I

said well if you really want to you know

someday

I kept in touch with them I went and

visited the set of Creepshow a lot I

think George Romero and Chris Romero

gave him the job on Day of the Dead you

know some job and I took him as my

assistant I always acknowledged and

thanked George Romero for basically

being the guy that opened the doors for

me every movie I saw the Friday the 13th

the movies like happy birthday to me and

the Prowler the Prowler was a huge

influence at any movie that I saw the

Tom Savini did the makeup on I would go

see when I wrote my first film cabin

fever

I very consciously wrote a makeup

effects film it said I don't I don't

want a movie that's gonna be about CG

it's about the body deteriorating and we

really have to see it and when people

read the script it say well the effects

it better be good you're gonna use CG

and I'm gonna use real practical makeup

effects I suppose I thought that you

know they were just gonna slap a bunch

of blood on my face and some bruising

and I don't know why I thought it would

be pretty simple but um you know they

really created wounds and well you know

you can there was there was so much

dimension to what they put on my face

the moment we're joined Ladd rolls over

and a face has all rotted out right

before rider Stronach smashes her in the

head with a shovel I was really really

pleased with that because we needed her

to still be alive and it really looked

like her skin had been peeled off I

guess I was sort of an effects virgin

before that but that night kind of got

hooked on the experience I love the

blood and I love being covered in blood

remember the leg shaving scene it was

supposed to be the skin peeling off like

a banana but in shipping the parts there

was a freeze that happened that we

weren't expecting and a lot of the

makeup effects that had been made got

frozen they got destroyed in the freeze

you know we sat there and we thought how

are we gonna get this how are we gonna

get her shave her legs with this whole

makeup effects we planned and we thought

okay what if you know we just do the

full makeup on it and she's slowly

revealing it

and it wound up being so much more

effective and it gets a wild scream

every time people see that was an

empowerment and he became really the

centerpiece of the film this is the guy

that created the Exorcist

The Godfather Midnight Cowboy this

Sentinel this was the guy he pioneered

he invents all the techniques that all

the guys used today I knew that in

Hollywood when they did a transformation

they would generally make it out of foam

latex but all in one piece the problem

with that was simple foam latex shrimps

so when you try to put it on you will be

fighting the smallness of the mask and

well why didn't I make it in sections

what dick was doing was unlike anybody

else you know just these multi piece

appliances and and just the way things

looked there's they just really look

real you just felt like if you could

touch it if that would feel like real

flesh there's something dick had an eye

for for creating the right form right

wrinkled over this Winkle and fold over

this fold makeup artist wouldn't didn't

share their secrets you know competition

whatever but not dick Smith you would

call dick Smith on the phone why what is

it I'm busy and you were scared because

it's dick Smith you know and then you

would ask him a question an hour and a

half later he's still telling you how to

do the formulas and then he would type

it up in Xerox it in those days and

melon TIA he shared his secrets

when I was a kid when I was six years

old I saw The Exorcist and it

traumatized me I thought it was

completely real

I thought you'd get possessed by the

devil the intensity was so great that

sitting in the theater National Theatre

in Westwood sitting there when the

lights went down everybody would know

everyone was scared before it started

the Linda make up the basic demonic

faith was the toughest one we did a

series of six different makeups right

off to test and going crazy doing

anything but they want to see you know

every go whole hog and there was nothing

in the first half dozen that pleased any

of us and so I did another half dozen

but Billy then decide really freeking

the director then decided that we should

tone it all down make it as little as

possible and I wasn't too happy about

that and then I think we went into more

different tests and finally we started

coming back in the other direction

the makeup on her bus just increasingly

startling and weird

did you remember that's when she did the

vomiting that a Hispanic woman stood up

in the middle of the audience is

screaming and said dios mio dios mio she

ran up the aisle to screaming I mean

teach did all the vomiting scenes and

it's easy to put the makeup on that went

Linda wore and there was a pretty good

match they had to make a vomiting

apparatus for the vomiting scene which

was kind of like a bit that went in your

mouth and the teeny tiny tubes that ran

under the makeup and of course I

couldn't I couldn't walk I couldn't talk

and I you know I couldn't eat and the

inventors like this little vacuum

cleaner thing you know like me and the

dentist little thing went you know to

get rid of that we originally thought

we'd have to use her a lot because Linda

had no training as an actress and but

she learned very fast so Linda was used

in practically everything except the

extreme violence scenes I did the

vomiting scene and the but they called

the abuse of the cross sequence which is

done to the thighs and bloody sponges on

the thighs but I always have to say is

nobody know it was going to be the

Exorcist we're just working we're just

making hard

we tried to duplicate reality and

something Stan Winston said to me as a

kid because I had sculpted this big

monster hand he's like that's all fine

and dandy sculpt the nose why don't you

sculpt the nose and mold it and run it

and put and apply it and let's see if it

looks real and if you can do that you

can do anything I was like but that

sounds either just a now as you went now

it's not just a nose it's dead center in

your face so you've got to learn how to

crawl before you can walk

there's nothing harder in this life then

to convince you that somebody's older

than they are on film old-age makeup is

the most diabolically difficult thing to

really pull off it's only ever been done

twice in my estimation in a way that I

completely believed both times were Dick

Smith well you know when I saw the

exercise which I wasn't allowed to see

but it was one of the films my dad

brought home and I snuck a peek through

the crack in the door and watched

everyone I kept going I don't know why

people are 50-odd about it to me I was

looking at it as a technical standpoint

those makeups are amazing never did I

ever think that next one slide I was

wearing that wearing a makeup you know

as he's playing father Merrin seem to

recall that he had trouble getting some

work after that because everybody

thought he was 75 years old and indeed

he was not max was a young man Max was

40 something wanting to be exercised he

was a young man but working with Max who

was in his early forties somewhere was

really an easy job because he had a long

kind of serious looking face his skin

wrinkled easily enough I could add on

small appliance to get in the waffle on

his neck and use this what we call

old-age stipple which is just a latex

formulation that you stipple on the skin

and stretch it and then when you let it

go it makes the skin more leathery and

therefore it wrinkles naturally the

approach wasn't in that complex in

theory actually executing it took took

genius my own space would be I could

look like a mummy in no time I put some

of my face you know I don't even think

Max von Sydow even looks at

today it's probably that it is probably

the best old-age make I've ever done

it's flawless

and the other one was f Murray Abraham

and Emma days which is one of the great

makeups of all time and you just

completely believe it

I mean dick really became the master of

old-age makeup you know you follow the

father Merrin makeup which to me is

perfect all the way up to Hamid dais and

so forth and and just really it's just

really beautiful subtle stuff his

performance was truly wonderful and

that's that's all part of it your makeup

is worthless

it's the actor doesn't use it look he's

deserved an Academy Award his whole life

he finally gave it to him from a - that

is a victory for me that I treasure

still if they do the Hall of Fame of

makeup effects artist he'll be right at

the top of the list rather like right

next to Jack Pierce would be dick Smith

I started working in the film business

as a male boy

20th Century Fox Studios in 1967 and the

head of the makeup department at Fox was

John Chambers Johnnie once applied to me

before he got into the field for a job

at NBC and at that point I had nothing

that I could offer him Johnny headed

west and became very successful he had

been a a guy in the military one of his

jobs was picking up pieces of people

after accidents and an acts of war and

he became fascinated by disfigurement

and how you deal with it and he was my

first exposure to a makeup artist I used

to go into the makeup department all the

time because I thought it was so cool

they had you know shelves lined with

sculptures and monsters and they were

making all the foam appliances for the

Planet of the Apes

your wildest dream I'm old enough to

remember when Planet of the Apes came

out and when an impact that had on my

little nine-year-old brain you know of

course every kid has to do a Planet of

the Apes makeup so I did a whole bunch

of those as well and you know got my

face I cast my own face which was very

difficult and ended up sculpting you

know just looking at how they broke it

down you know those photos so it was

like the brow with the muzzle and then a

lower chin and then hairpieces on hand

laid all this hair look at the Planet of

the Apes being really exciting and as a

kid because of the idea and seeing the

makeup and a strange and adventurous

those were I remember my dad trying to

bond my brother never say you know let's

go we're going to you know call it

football game or sitting up in the

nosebleeds

it was cold I thought mad cuz I'm

missing Planet of the Apes he won an

Oscar he won the second honorary Oscar

ever given to a makeup person before it

was a category for plan of the Apes Rick

Baker had a great love for gorillas and

it was drill obsessed human being

started with John Landis as schlock and

then Kate did King Kong he always does

soft limbo you normally hack off a limb

well I was really excited when when Rick

got hired to do play on the airplane

figure that's gonna be great I mean I

knew wreck stuff was going to be great

because of Rick's interest and obsession

with apes and and his inspiration by

plan of the Apes and all and so I think

that he always had a really unique

vision in terms of how to translate

those makeups saying how can we improve

upon this how can we make this different

how can we make it more interesting well

listen you know let's see what we can do

about adding what I loved about Rick's

makeups where you know the makeup you

did in Paul Giamatti and the makeup on

Jim Bob and they're all so dramatically

different always tough I mean I think

Rick took a huge chance doing that film

because it has so much love you know and

within the world in the audience and all

of us it was astounding work definitely

you know a tribute to to Rick's vision

in his is sort of updating you know the

classic I was working on a picture

called jaws three people zero at

Universal which looked like it was never

gonna get made and my friend Mike

Finnell was working on a project called

the howling where the original director

was apparently being let go when I came

over to do that picture the idea was

that there was going to be a werewolf

transformation it was all going to be

done in one take which was unusual for

the time so we went to Rick Baker who

was a friend of ours and you know was I

always wanted to do a werewolf picture

but he had been working with John Landis

on a picture called American werewolf

and they had never really got the

financing he never got off the ground I

think was a little frustrated I gave

Rick a screenplay I'd written in 1969

called an American Werewolf in London

and I said Rick figure this out because

I want to show and I told him everything

so he had a long time to think about it

because no one would ever make that and

so when we asked him to do our picture

he said sure then he had all these ideas

which I guess he had been planning to

use on the other picture and he worked

for us for about I don't know a week

maybe they did a fabulous test and

John's project suddenly came to life I'd

call him up and I go hey Rick I got the

money we're making werewolf anyway Oh

hmm what's the matter says we remember

that change Oh head I showed you know

that yeah well I'm I'm doing a werewolf

picture for Jo don t reason you fuck

what what so Rick had to sum I

reluctantly leave our movie and left us

in the hands of Rob Lowe teen who is his

associate as much younger had worked

with me on piranhas at the age of 18 so

I already knew him so Rob poutine took

over the picture and finished did the

werewolves and Rick came in and did an

American Werewolf in London Rick Baker's

American Werewolf in London when you

watch that it's happening right in front

of you my stuff

always was happening right in front of

you there was something to that

Rob came up with his own concept of you

know how he wanted to do these

transformations I had done a movie

called airplane where I made a

mechanical nose prosthetic for Leslie

Nielsen it was like a Pinocchio nose and

it grew on camera you know so I thought

well wait a minute what if I use the

same technology that I used for that

nose and I used it to actually make the

mechanical mask make its nose grow and

make the make the lower jaw grow make

the ears grow and make the teeth grow

with the inspiration that Joe Dante

wanted to see transformation done in one

shot I then started thinking like well

would it be kind of interesting to

actually make a replica of the actor and

inside would be like an under skull and

I thought well what if I actually took

the skull and and cut it up and actually

got the bones to shift and whatnot it

wasn't learned by doing situation the

rob would do stuff we would shoot it we

would look at it we would cut it we

would discover that what looked like a

mistake was actually good work for us if

we put a sound effect on it rabo team

was just he was really unbelievable on

the Haley do you Wallace who had to do

most of the reacting to the world wolf

and had to look at nothing was a really

good actress who could really get into

the moment and you find that no matter

how good your effects are if you're cut

away to the actors response isn't

convincing it negates the quality of the

effect it was interesting hearing Joe

going okay he's getting taller what's

there comes his ears they know that

there's a level of visibility to the

fact that you're doing it so they have

to take that into account and not break

up

well I love teen rabo teen God you know

what it's like it's like when a movie

would come out by rabo teen or Rick

Baker or dick smith this is the latest

exhibit from your favorite artist that's

what I would treat it you're not going

to just see this movie you're gonna see

the latest artwork from when these

people I mean look at Total Recall the

woman's head that just boom boom boom

boom and there's Arnold when I was

meeting with Paul and I was pitching him

my different ideas for the movie this is

the transition scene where where Arnold

in essence is going to Mars and his

adventure is beginning that wasn't in

the script no that was that wasn't

written somewhere he just contributed

that the stuff that you respect I talked

with a bunch of guys on the thing about

how to do it as a lot of influence at

the time from alien face hugging and

such rabo teen came in and said kind of

gave me the secret to the movie

creatively dramatically and and the

effects wise he said look this is a

chance of a lifetime because the thing

can look like anything is that to look

like one thing changes constantly we can

just go wild with it so I said to John

wouldn't it be neat if the guy's ribcage

Norris his ribcage just rips open and

his ribs become like a big set of teeth

and then Doc who isn't expecting this of

course falls in to the the chest cavity

and the teeth close and white Doc's arms

on

one of my favorite images of all time is

you know the horse's head hitting the

floor and sprouting the legs kidding me

I remember when I first saw the thing I

went into a double feature the thing in

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

I thought of Fast Times was first and

then was gonna go in this thing and had

the times all screwed up so when you got

there this guy's head was coming off the

table stretching and then he calling it

cause before that ain't fast time you

know you felt like you were in the hands

of lunatics who would stop at nothing to

get the visceral effect now that is the

masterpiece of splatter to me the thing

nothing I've ever done I could say this

is a masterpiece of splatter although

they call me the king of splatter Robbo

teams working the thing was that's the

masterpiece and what really is

mind-blowing is those effects still hold

up

we got a call out of the blue from Kevin

Costner's company and he was gonna do

this Western called Dances with Wolves

first one we was gonna direct so he

called us in and he said well listen I

saw the cadaverous you did for gross

anatomy so you can do dead bodies you

can definitely do dead Buffalo's

obviously it's illegal to to shoot and

kill animals for motion pictures and

they had some very specific things they

wanted to do we need to make to

mechanical buffalos for a buffalo hunt

to simulate the actual arrows and bullet

hits that are going into the buffalo

hides then there were the other buffalos

I want to say 23 buffalos and they were

made so that they are hides were

removable during the construction I got

a phone call from the production

designer

he said we're using actual buffalo hides

here and we understand you're using

artificial fur and I said well of course

we're using artificial fur you know we

don't want to use actual animal hides

and making these things and you know

working with the skins and all that

stuff would be very difficult for us and

this will be well it's never gonna match

it's never gonna match in a million

years enough well trust me so I don't do

a great job it's gonna look nice you'll

see yeah I don't believe you so I said

we'll send me a buffalo hide and I'll

shoot pictures side by side so the

buffalo hide came in and the artificial

fur came and I looked at the two and I

went okay so can I use some some fabric

paints and things that we use and I made

it a painted a book about the same and I

looked at him and I was but put the

labels on and I went huh

and I reversed them I take a picture and

I sent it to the production designer

well I got a call oh my god god

artificial buffalo furl it's terrible

it's not real as awful as that's not the

other thing I said I knew and say that I

switched the tags and there was silence

in the other than the phone and I said

I'll see you at the South Dakota when

we're ready to go and that was that I

never had another problem with it

through a friend of mine Scottie Spiegel

the co-writers are not evil that too I

met the candy guys which was a Greg

Nicotero and Bob Kurtzman and Howard

Berger and we got to be friends when

we'd all go see movies that like the new

art you know and go see the killer I

remember and standing around quitting

and then afterwards we all go out and

eat and all this so anyhow we knew that

Quinton was a writer and Bob Kurtzman

had this idea for this vampire gangster

movie and had written a 25 page outline

but wanted to have a real writer to

write write the script so he thought hey

I can I could probably pay Quentin to do

this this would be great and I said okay

I'll do it for $1,500 and I'll do all

that stuff and I was happy to do that

but I but I threw a provision in there I

said look I'm gonna be making Reservoir

Dogs coming up in this next year and a

half and I want you to do the makeup

effects on it for free and and Bob said

okay so he wrote from dusk till dawn for

Bob and Bob tried to get it going for

quite a while nobody liked it everyone

was saying you can't go from having this

gangster movie to this vampire movie and

it's easy it's two different movies this

is crazy who would ever make a film

that's two films and one that doesn't

make any sense it'll never happen

Quentin gave me a script to read he'd

said here's something you can do in

Mexico it's something that I first wrote

I'll have the rights to it anymore but

uh check it out and I started reading it

and it was terrific but like there's

stuff that he had already taken out of

it like Ezekiel speech from Pulp Fiction

was in that originally and there was

other gems that he had already been

pulling out and I thought you know a few

more years don't be anything left if you

keep mining it we met her go shoot it

quick while we can and then the next

thing you know the movie was being made

there's a strike that was going on

because we're not in Union actually we

had to shoot the second half first so

kandi had to make all of the effects all

the creatures and everything right away

so that we could start with all that you

know even think he was shooting out of

order I mean should it in order so that

you could have time to prepare all that

the shoot all your outdoor stuff first

we had to start with interior crew stuff

before we could go out and shoot the

exteriors stuff so the whole second half

was done first so first day was

in the bar and by the first end of the

first week we're into vampires and

creatures wasn't all of that I was so

much fun it was like literally you talk

about a bunch of guys that show up to

work there's a bunch of naked girls and

blood and vampires in Quentin Tarantino

and Harvey Keitel and Robert Rodriguez

we were shooting downtown in an old

lorries meat seasoning factory that had

been closed down and it was hot as hell

this was during the the summer no air

conditioning we were all dying so we

were we had a room that was actually

like the meat locker that was off from

the the soundstage where I set up the

makeup room and there are 12 of us and

they're doing hundreds of makeups all

day long just churning churning churning

you know my makeup took about three

hours and it was great getting the

makeup on you know I'm getting the long

finger I love the long fingers you know

and we're after the make up song about

an hour after it's on I'm running on the

hallway scaring people sneaking up

behind Rodriguez you know they do a

great purpose they gave me a penis nose

look at my makeup and that's all gone

it's a penis now because he's my friend

and and it's in there and every day he's

like why why did you do this up until

that point we had done little things for

Quentin you know nothing big like

where's four dogs a great movie but for

us it was this chop thing which is

rather memorable and a lot of blood

stuff but we really got to prove

ourselves to him on that show and then

it just kind of led into the next shows

and you know the next gigantic enormous

thing we did with Quinton was obviously

killed bill where I think we proved

ourselves for a lifetime with him

I wanted to have the Japanese type of

pyrotechnics with like the way the blood

would squirt out and all that kind of

stuff I didn't want to have that horror

movie stuff even as far as like the

color of the blood we tested all these

different Bloods we test the Chinese

blood but what they use in Hong Kong and

China for bloody scenes we tested

Japanese blood for what they use in

their movies and we tested American

blood and so we went with the Japanese

blood it was great working with a Howard

burger and he knew exactly what it is I

wanted and and you know and he's great

because there's no excuses you know cuz

there are things that don't work they

don't work half the time actually but

he's never has an excuse about it just

okay sorry we're all waiting here we go

try it again I don't know what the

problem is give me five minutes to

figure it out in the last dozen years

we've done every one of Roberts films

Brian house was the most fun I've ever

had on the film for sure

it was fun just being there I mean just

being there one because of Robin made

sense that they would just be sort of a

infection brought back from the war that

it would be a viral infection and had my

doctor show me real infection so I could

kind of see how could you mix some of

these together and him get out of

control and he said oh well I've got

eyeballs Iraqi eyeballs and actually in

my refrigerator

you know mustard gas makes them all

cloudy even my doctor pissed about that

I put him in the movie my doctor is the

doctor in the movie that's there with

Josh Brolin it's just look puffy they're

all these are horrible so I thought

let's just take these and multiply them

and have them all happen at a very rapid

rate

it was no-holds-barred you know I mean

that's what Robert wanted was everything

goes anything goes and everybody's

pretty serious about it except when you

actually get out on the set you start

doing your thing and you know the press

pack to be an understudy bursting it was

months of doing the disease makeups on

the actors plus all of the effects that

we had in the filming that was a lot for

the money in the time that we had

basically because it was a double

feature had to save money on minds that

there'd be enough money for equipment to

make his it was funny because you know

Robert uses a lot of CGI in his stuff

and so and I had never really you see GI

before except maybe the razor wire

so then I wrote a car crashing away if

I'm gonna do something I never seen

before

so I thought I would do this car crash

people are getting torn apart

simultaneously

when I wrote it Gregg now is like can't

stand CGI so he just assumed that he was

gonna have to build this and then when

he started talking like that I you know

all of a sudden yeah what student camera

forget yeah I didn't tell him I was

thinking about CJ I was like yeah he's

right he actually thinks okay let's do

that let's do it that way

the real challenge was we had to create

dummies of each of these girls that

could act because the idea always was

Quentin said I want this is like a

crash-test dummy movie I want to see all

this stuff in super slow motion so we

did body scans and life casts of four

principal actresses who were in the car

at the time of the crash I can't believe

they have this technology but they get

they got me to get into a circle and

make a DaVinci pogos this round unit

comes around you slowly drops around you

can't move for 60 seconds you have to

hold this position and it takes this

perfect image of your body what Quentin

wanted was very specific stuff you know

to see a a car tire ripped through the

roof of the car and peel the girl's face

off and to you know girl gets her leg

ripped off he she goes flying out of the

front of the car and things like that

there were very specific things so the

actresses had to be cast in the exact

positions they were sitting in in the

car

but then the armatures inside had to be

articulated in such a way too that they

moved like a real human body would move

so we literally designed armatures that

mimicked the human body in terms of the

skeleton you know we had joints that

could only move a certain way if your

arm can't bend this way then the

armatures and the then the puppets

didn't bend that way so we built

everything so that it was all loose we

did full silicone bodies they made these

things look exactly like us

he shot for three days pulling the

bodies apart and ripping the leg off and

shooting the dummies through the

windshield and the last gag was the shot

where Vanessa sitting in the backseat

she's the only one that sees the crash

coming so she closes her eyes so as the

wheel comes through and rips through it

rips her face

that's one of the things I'm real proud

about it is you know it's all done in

camera the dummy's looked really good

and you can't tell and I'm pretty proud

of that but that was all shot on the day

nothing was added nothing was taken away

that's just you know we shot it on the

set that way I like to hone to

conventions where you'll have a young

kid that will come up and say oh man I

loved Evil Dead - and I'm a big fan of

the Romero movies and then you look at

them and you go wow that was me one day

and they're influenced by movies and

sequences that we've had a part in doing

I mean to me that's so exciting to be

able to influence young filmmakers and

young minds it's that magic the movies

go for that however that is defined it's

part of the magic that makes you want to

do it you know when you're a kid and

makes you pursue it as an adult these

guys love what they do any job on a

movie is hard work in long hours but

makeup effects guys are constantly

working a lot longer than the shooting

company is working your inspirations

come from everything all the great old

movies you know all the great old comic

books and then a good healthy dose of

nightmares my generation and you know

generations before us know who Lon

Chaney is who know all these great

makeup artists Jack Pierce

Cecil Hall and they're the basis of why

we do this I am all for you know the

growth of young people and if I've been

able to I've helped them a little bit

sometimes there are a number of makeup

artists that have grown up this kind of

second-generation people and they have

become really better and better until

they're now top artists and that I

regard is terrific

you