Ewan McGregor went on the file earlier this 12 months about his emotions relating to fake facial hair, which led to the star of “A Gentleman in Moscow” rising his personal mustache. However whereas the mustache is actual, the collection requires McGregor’s Rely Rostov to age many years over the course of eight episodes. Making a plausible transformation required shut collaboration with the restricted collection’ hair and make-up lead Jacqui Fowler.
“As a designer, you don’t need him to look the identical as how he’s regarded up to now,” Fowler advised IndieWire. “And it’s fairly onerous as a result of he’s bought an eclectic combine of labor. We thrashed round some concepts. At first, he talked about wigs. And I used to be like, ‘Oh no, no, no, let’s not do wigs. Let’s do it by yourself hair.’”
That offered a problem as a result of his hair and facial hair weren’t the identical shade, so Fowler needed to tweak his coloring. And McGregor was adamant about rising his personal mustache for “A Gentleman in Moscow.” “At first I used to be considering, ‘God, how are we going to do that?’ As a result of [his mustache] is so gentle. However we labored it out.”
Fowler regarded to Russian males from the period for inspiration for the mustache, one thing she knew can be a giant speaking level. “I didn’t need to make it too Poirot or too technical,” she mentioned. “The Hussar troopers had large mustaches. That was what I wished to get throughout. The Hussars would have it the place it will droop down, however it says within the guide — that’s the information — it turns up on the finish.”
That twist meant that McGregor did don some further facial hair. Once we first meet Rely Rostov as he’s sentenced to accommodate arrest within the Metropol Lodge, he sports activities a head of untamed curls and an opulent mustache that twirls up on both aspect. The mustache’s ends don’t final lengthy, however the preliminary impression is important to the character’s evolution over the course of the restricted collection primarily based on Amor Towles’ bestseller. “We added these little extensions [to McGregor’s mustache] as we needed to reduce them off within the shot,” Fowler mentioned. “We have been very fortunate, in a lot of methods, that he might develop an excellent mustache.”
Working with McGregor’s personal hair — which they permed for his youthful seems — required cautious coloring and tweaking to de-age after which age him subtly. Working from a temper board on which Fowler and McGregor collaborated, they added temple fills that they might take away to offer the phantasm of thinning hair.
Utilizing McGregor’s personal hair posed some logistical challenges when the shoot was interrupted by the SAG-AFTRA strike, prompting reshoots throughout a number of episodes, usually on the identical day. “If we went younger within the morning, we needed to wash the hair shade out after which begin once more, after which add the grays into it ’trigger it was simply too darkish for the distinction. After which we’d add the make-up on prime. It simply depended. 9 occasions out of 10, we have been capable of work out which was a greater route that day simply to avoid wasting time. As a result of in any other case, it’d be an hour make-up change.”
Regardless of the stress, Fowler factors to the buoyant enthusiasm everybody dropped at the variation. “It was a really blissful shoot, I’ve to say, and that comes from the highest. I feel there was plenty of pleasure normally, credit score to the producers and administrators. We felt we have been creating one thing particular. Hopefully, the viewers [will] admire it, and we’ve completed the guide and extra great, rioting justice.”
New episodes of “A Gentleman in Moscow” stream on Paramount+ on Fridays and premiere on Showtime on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.