One of Oscar’s more fresh and youthful categories, Best Makeup was initiated in 1981 as penance for not recognizing the achievement of turning John Hurt into the soulful, deformed John Merrick in 1980’s The Elephant Man. (The “Hairstyling” part was added to the award’s name in 2012.) And a survey of these four decades of winners shows a tendency to honor a mix of political biopics, ribald comedies and prestige dramas. This year’s five nominees run the gamut of animated characters come to life (Cruella), Eddie Murphy transformations (Coming 2 America), real-people doppelgängers (House of Gucci, The Eyes of Tammy Faye) and villainy in latex (Dune).
COMING 2 AMERICA, Mike Marino, Stacey Morris and Carla Farmer
The barbershop scenes in the 1988 Coming to America, in which Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall play multiple characters (including an elderly Jewish man named Saul), are homaged in the sequel. Retired makeup legend Rick Baker didn’t win an Oscar for the original (Beetlejuice did that year), but character makeup designer Mike Marino said, “Rick had set up a map for me with his amazing job on that film and I made everybody even grayer and older.” That’s not to say Marino was tracing over Baker’s work: “Eddie as Saul took five hours to apply, with so many prosthetic pieces,” said Marino. “It’s tremendously elaborate.”
CRUELLA, Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne and Julia Vernon
Cruella de Vil’s hair is like a big black-and-white cookie, split right down the middle of her scalp. Designing wigs for the character proved tricky. “The black-and-white hair kind of throws off your eye,” said hair and makeup designer Nadia Stacey, who first worked with Cruella star Emma Stone on 2018’s The Favourite. “I only actually had two black-and-white wigs for her, and then I kept changing and swapping them out with all the different styles. Like a do-it-yourself Cruella hair kit.”
DUNE, Donald Mowat, Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
Stellan Skarsgård leaves a mighty impression as the bad Baron Harkonnen, who often appears without clothes. “Stellan just loved being naked as the Baron,” said makeup artist Donald Mowat. But fewer robes meant more work. With his clothes on, it took four hours to apply all of Skarsgård’s makeup, which included a silicone bald cap, plus prosthetic hands and feet and ankles and eyebrow covers. “Naked, it took six-and-a-half or seven hours,” said Mowat. “That’s a huge difference in the day, but it was worth it.”
THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE, Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram and Justin Raleigh
The late Tammy Faye Bakker was second to none as a lover of mascara and lipstick, and she would likely beam at the irony of the biopic of her life receiving a nomination here. “Hair-makeup stylist Linda Dowds expertly provides (Tammy Faye’s) trademark shell of gaudiness,” wrote Robert Abele in TheWrap’s review. (Stephanie Ingram headed up the film’s wig department.) But the job wasn’t simply a cosmetic doll-up. Chastain spent up to seven hours a day with prosthetic makeup designer Justin Raleigh, turning the angular actress into the fuller-faced televangelist.
HOUSE OF GUCCI, Göran Lundström, Anna Carin Lock and Frederic Aspiras
Göran Lundström, a nominee three years ago in this category for the dark Swedish fantasy Border, was the prosthetics designer for Jared Leto, helping the actor disappear into the balding, paunchy Paolo Gucci. The extensive makeup required about four hours to apply, which was done off set so that Leto could arrive every day in character. “We tried to cut the time but it took an hour and a half just to cover Jared’s long hair,” said Lundström. “So we glued it all down on his head and then it took 40 minutes every night to unglue it.”
Steve’s Perspective
Three of the last four awards in this category have gone for turning an actor into another famous person, which this year might mean The Eyes of Tammy Faye. (Or does it mean House of Gucci, even though the guy that Jared Leto plays isn’t all that famous?) While Dune casts a giant shadow over the below-the-line categories, this one included, the transformation of Jessica Chastain in Tammy Faye has taken most precursors, including the Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild Awards.
