Transformation magic behind movie characters

No modern film project is without makeup. The art of makeup is taught to actors at theatrical schools and studios from the first year as a foundation for every artist. Each actor usually applies their makeup with special attention and care, thinking about the soul and life of the role, rather than mechanically. In such cases, even the smallest wrinkle receives its own internal justification from the life of the character. Makeup in an actor’s life is one of the ways to transform, immerse oneself in the character, and become someone or something else. 

Makeup Secret  №1

In different cultures, makeup was used not only for stage performances or film shoots. For example, Japanese geishas have been painting their faces white for centuries, as a white face was considered a symbol of beauty, tenderness, femininity, and aristocracy. In the Shinto religious ritual, white signified purity, and thus, a whitened face often served as a symbol of religiosity. Even today, Japanese women use skin whitening to maintain their societal status and pay homage to tradition.

Additionally, theaters and other public places used to be lit only by candles, which meant actors had to perform in semi-darkness. The particles in the makeup, like white powder, reflected the candlelight, causing the faces of performers to literally glow in the dark, which attracted the audience’s attention.

White-face makeup was used not only in Asian countries but also in Ancient Greece, where in the 4th century BC, the first mimes appeared—actors performing silent scenes on the streets and squares with the audience. Mimes still exist today, representing artists whose voices are replaced by body movements. Their main distinguishing feature is a white face with contrasting black eyebrows and red lips. This makeup is no accident: it helps to depersonalize their image and create associations with the character rather than a specific person. It also makes the mime’s facial expressions clearer, as all the mimetic folds are more visible on a white background, thus emotions are expressed more vividly.

Clowns like Art and Pennywise from the popular horror films Terrifier and It were made up using contrasting makeup techniques, which helped create a creepy visual effect on screen. This was a successful choice—audiences appreciated every sinister look of the circus “clowns.”

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The technique of makeup application is chosen individually, depending on the project and the specific tasks at hand for the makeup artist. Often, to change an actor’s facial features—such as aging them, adding scars and bruises, visually reducing the nose, or widening the eyes—affordable materials can be used.

Sometimes, to create a bright and colorful design on the actor’s face, face painting (also known as aquagrim) is used. These are water-based paints that do not cause irritation and do not contain toxic substances.

For quick age, corrective, national, character, fantasy, or portrait makeup, transformation artists use thick theatrical makeup on an oil base. Theatrical makeup blends well together, allowing for the creation of shadows and highlights, visually altering the face’s shape, and emphasizing or hiding both features and flaws.

To touch up plastic makeup details and various prosthetics or to create cracks on the skin, makeup artists use alcohol-based makeup, which consists of dry pigments in a solvent that is typically alcohol-based glue.

In Francis Ford Coppola’s film The Godfather, theatrical and alcohol-based makeup were used to age 47-year-old Marlon Brando into 68-year-old Don Vito Corleone. A great self-taught makeup artist, Dick Smith, was hired for the job and skillfully aged Brando by 20 years. Smith had worked on the prosthetic makeup for the films Little Big Man and Alligator People, but for The Godfather, he took a different approach, avoiding complex face structures. Instead, Smith used only theatrical makeup with small age spots and shadows. Before shooting, the actor was made up every day for three hours. The main feature of the makeup was a special steel mouthpiece, which made Brando’s lower jaw protrude forward in a distinctive way.

“My approach in Coppola’s film was to use as little makeup and prosthetics as possible. It’s easier for the actor, looks much more natural, and it takes much less time to prepare.”
Dick Smith

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Actors often wear stage makeup, which is primarily designed to be bold and long-lasting. Naturalness is usually not the goal here, as stage makeup often emphasizes both the eyes and the lips, which is generally avoided in regular makeup. The rest is determined by the role of the actor, the lighting, the event concept, and its mood. However, if the brightness of the image doesn’t fit the concept of the film and the director requires the actor’s facial features to be visually altered but still look natural, decorative cosmetics come to the rescue: foundation creams, contouring, eyeshadows, lip and eye pencils, eyeliners, and lipsticks. These products can slightly change the shape of the face or certain features and create interesting looks, which can be further enhanced with false eyelashes, rhinestones, glitter for the face, or special temporary tattoos. 

Bright stage makeup was used in the fashion horror The Neon Demon by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn. Elle Fanning’s face, playing the main character Jesse, is covered in a large amount of glitter throughout the film. The director used this effect to show how Jesse’s experiments with her appearance strip away her natural beauty.

“The price of beauty will never drop. We evolve, live longer, but our obsession with beauty does not go away—it only becomes more extreme. And this obsession can lead to a completely unusual form of madness.”
Erin Ayanyan

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For film makeup, sometimes even unexpected materials are used. For example, to create the look of a sea nymph, fish, or snake, you can use vegetable netting. If you apply it to the skin and start distributing the makeup with a sponge, you get perfect scales in just a couple of minutes. Old fishnet stockings can also be used for the same purpose.

By the way, makeup doesn’t have to be applied only to the face. In the 1920s, there was a trend in the Western beauty industry of painting knees. Blush was used for the knees, and then intricate designs began to be drawn on them. Who knows, maybe the return of this trend will allow someone’s knees to make it to the big screen?

Unusual tools for makeup were also used during the filming of the Harry Potter saga while creating the character of Lord Voldemort, played by actor Ralph Fiennes. Fiennes is cautious about prosthetic makeup, so his contract specified that he could not sit in the makeup chair for longer than two hours before shooting. During this time, makeup artists had to perform real magic outside of Hogwarts using temporary tattoos and stencils of veins visible through the skin, whitening his face to a deathly gray color, and applying prosthetic teeth and nails, making the character look snake-like. Special effects were used only to create the Dark Lord’s terrifying nose.

“When you’re creating dragons, werewolves, goblins, and doing makeup for main characters, especially when working on something that has been done many times or is iconic for fans, you always have to look for unconventional solutions.”
Nick Dudman

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In cinema, makeup is often used not only to alter actors’ appearances but also to enhance emotional states. For instance, on-screen sweat is simulated using water or oil sprayed onto actors during filming. Tears are typically produced with menthol tear sticks applied to the corners of the eyes to irritate the mucous membrane. Some actors use a mixture of glycerin and water to induce tears on camera.

To create the effect of bloodshot eyes, makeup artists apply red eyeliner to the inner part of the eye. Foam at the mouth is simulated using whipped egg whites. For a slashed throat effect, regular tissues are glued to the actor’s neck, torn to create jagged edges, and then painted with theatrical blood.

Blood on the ground is often substituted with ketchup or tomato paste, while brown-colored polysorbate effectively mimics dirt on the face or in the mouth. Burns on actors’ bodies are created using liquid plastic, and to simulate blisters, makeup artists roll small balls of cotton and place them randomly under the plastic.

Cinema has long devised numerous makeup techniques that anyone can learn with practice. However, to create more complex characters like Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street, the Fly from the eponymous film, or Mystique from X-Men, basic methods, patience, and face paint are insufficient. More advanced solutions are required.

Filmmaking involves a vast number of people, many of whom remain unseen. For an actor to shine on screen, makeup artists and costume designers must collaborate on their appearance. These professionals often work together to ensure the character’s look and costume harmonize, creating a cohesive image. Makeup artists have a plethora of techniques and tools at their disposal to transform actors beyond recognition—turning a handsome man into a monster or an average actress into an enchanting forest nymph.

“I never nitpick movies. In my opinion, if several hundred people gathered every day for about a year, many of them patiently enduring heavy makeup on their faces, wearing someone else’s clothes, and pretending to be someone else just to entertain me, I won’t scrutinize whether they did a good job. I’m already pleased that they tried so hard.”
George Carlin

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Advanced makeup techniques are most commonly employed in fantasy and horror films, as these genres reject realism and prioritize visual impact over narrative quality. Makeup artists in these genres use various prosthetic items, including wigs, mustaches, beards, eyebrows, eyelashes, and even fur; latex, polyurethane, plaster, and silicone prosthetics; gum paste, wax, and gelatin molds; masks made from materials ranging from papier-mâché to plastic and metals; artificial blood; dyes for prosthetics; airbrushes; and other specialized tools.

Prosthetic items are often made from yak hair, which closely resembles human hair in texture. Occasionally, real human hair is used, which some squeamish actors find unpleasant. Would you want someone else’s mustache glued to your face?

Speaking of mustaches, in 2022, after the release of The Gray Man, starring a mustachioed Chris Evans, Netflix turned his mustache into merchandise, selling replicas made from synthetic hair and acrylic paint for $15. Despite being replicas, Evans’s mustaches quickly sold out as fans eagerly purchased them to try on themselves.

Latex, polyurethane, plaster, and silicone prosthetics are particularly popular in film because they can create almost any desired look. Silicone and latex are often confused, but each has distinct properties. Latex is a white liquid resembling cream, kefir, or PVA glue. It doesn’t harden but dries into a semi-transparent yellowish film that can be painted or made up in any color. Silicone typically consists of two components that must be mixed to form rubber. Unlike latex, silicone can set in a closed mold to create a three-dimensional piece. There are also single-component silicone sealants that cure simply from moisture in the air.

In the film X-Men, the character Mystique—a blue-skinned mutant bounty hunter—was created using silicone prosthetics shaped like scales, which were glued to actress Rebecca Romijn’s face and body, then painted blue. The makeup process took 8–9 hours, and since filming spanned several days, the makeup had to be reapplied each time.

Silicone was also used to create Freddy Krueger’s look in the cult horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street. Actor Robert Englund transformed into his character over nearly three hours each time, as silicone was applied to his face and various tools were used to create ulcers and deep scars, which were then painted with makeup and artificial blood.

Latex was used in the film La Vie en Rose to transform Marion Cotillard into Édith Piaf: thin layers of latex were applied to the lower part of her face and around her eyes to simulate wrinkles. To closely resemble the legendary French singer, the actress even shaved her eyebrows and part of her hairline.

Similar materials like gum paste, wax, gelatin, and collodion are used in film for comparable purposes. Gum paste is a flesh-colored makeup plasticine. It’s heavy but malleable and can take on any shape. Wax is a pliable, semi-transparent, and sticky material. It’s lighter than gum paste, making it suitable for larger pieces. These plastic materials can create realistic-looking dragon scales, wounds, tree bark, and stone.

Gelatin is used in cinema to create zombie looks or burn effects, which are often sculpted directly onto the “victim.” To make a specific prosthetic—say, an altered nose for a particular actor—gelatin is poured into a mold and then transferred to the actor’s face once it solidifies. Collodion, on the other hand, is used to create sunken scars, scabs, and scratches.

When applied to the skin, it dries, contracts, and forms a depression that looks incredibly realistic on the actor’s body. 

Makeup Secret  №7

To create a specific character’s appearance, movie makeup artists often have to prepare a special mask in advance, which the actor wears before the makeup is applied. Materials like papier-mâché, rubber, plastic, metals, foam, and others are used for such masks. Together with makeup and prosthetics, these masks often become quite heavy, making shooting a real challenge for the actors. But what wouldn’t one do for the sake of art?

One of the most complex makeup looks in film history remains that of The Fly from the 1986 horror film of the same name. Makeup artists Chris Walas and Stephan Dupuis, along with around thirty assistants, worked daily on the face and body of actor Jeff Goldblum. The makeup process took six hours to complete each day.

In the story, a brilliant but slightly eccentric scientist, Seth Brundle, experiments with teleportation and becomes the subject of his own experiment. However, by chance, a fly enters the sterile chamber. This small insect changes Seth’s life forever—he mutates into a different creature. The makeup artists faced a serious challenge: to show multiple stages of Brundle’s transformation from human to grotesque fly-like monster, in a way that looked realistic and not laughable.

In the first stage, Goldblum’s face was painted with tiny strokes of blue, red, green, yellow, and purple. The fly hairs growing from Brundle’s back scratches were made of pieces of fishing line painted black. In the second stage, plastic warts and pimples were added to his face, and foam rubber prosthetics were attached to the tips of his fingers. The third stage required Goldblum to wear a wig and latex prosthetics on his face and neck. The design team at Chris Walas Inc. studied many medical textbooks before designing the Brundlefly’s look. Walas spent a lot of time analyzing Goldblum’s facial expressions to ensure the makeup suited him well. They also used a lot of methylcellulose, a material that mimics slime.

“I hoped I wouldn’t get lost under the makeup and end up looking like just another guy in a Ronald McDonald suit,” Goldblum said. “I didn’t want people to forget that inside this hideous, half-fly body is a man. He’s very sick, he’s dying, and he’s going mad from love.”

In the fourth stage, Goldblum wore another wig with remaining hair strands and foam pieces on his head, neck, arms, legs, and torso. Additional foam pieces were stuffed under the prosthetics to create a lumpy, diseased skin effect. In the fifth stage, he wore the same facial and hand prosthetics but added a full-body rubber suit. The sixth stage required another rubber suit with more pronounced deformations. In some scenes, Goldblum wore nearly 3 kilograms (over 6.5 lbs) of prosthetics, as well as custom contact lenses that made one eye appear larger than the other. This was the final transformation stage involving Jeff Goldblum. For the last stage of “insectification,” three animatronic puppets were used. Even in Brundle’s final mutated form, the director insisted on preserving some of the actor’s features, asking the effects team to give the creature “Jeff’s eyes, but bigger.”  

Despite all this, head makeup artist Chris Walas was not particularly thrilled with the final result of his work—but the director was satisfied with the scene. Cronenberg’s ideas about makeup and special effects are more emotional and psychological than those of most directors. While many filmmakers focus primarily on the outer appearance of a character, David wanted to go beyond surface-level horror. He aimed to convey real pain and panic in the eyes of a living actor. The Fly terrified audiences of its time and continues to disturb viewers even three decades later.

“I’m an insect who dreamt he was a man—and it was a beautiful dream. But now the dream is over, and the insect is awake. I’m saying… if you stay, I’ll hurt you.”

There are countless secrets to movie makeup. Modern technology combined with traditional makeup techniques allows any actor to transform beyond recognition and become a star—or, conversely, be typecast into a single role.

Makeup is a special seasoning that enhances the script, the storyline, and the director’s vision brought to life on screen. So the next time you sit down to watch a film, take a closer look at the actors’ faces—who knows, maybe you’ll spot a hint of gelatin there?