The collaboration course of to develop a personality’s look can sometimes take months, going backwards and forwards amongst filmmaker, artisans and actor to refine particulars by means of numerous emails and photograph attachments. However with 4 separate characters (plus a shock fifth persona within the finale) only for Robert Downey Jr. on HBO’s The Sympathizer, prosthetic designer Vincent Van Dyke knew they didn’t have that sort of time, so he invited the important thing gamers to his studio in Burbank for a stay sculpting session.
“Strolling into Vincent’s studio for the primary time and seeing these clay molded heads of the characters was a really surreal expertise,” Downey says. “You’re not simply throwing on a fancy dress; you’re moving into another person’s pores and skin. Working with director Park [Chan-wook], molding and adjusting the clay, was hands-on in a means you don’t get with CGI. It was like stepping again into an old-school means of making characters from the surface in.”
Finally, Park, Downey and Van Dyke, together with key make-up FX artist Chris Burgoyne, particular make-up results artist Michael Mekash and hair division head Katherine Kousakis, reworked the actor’s bone construction, hair, eye shade and complexion, and constructed 5 alternative ways to disclose a lot about these characters merely by means of hair and make-up.
“Numerous that got here by means of the collaborative testing section of Robert giving notes,” says Burgoyne. “He was like, ‘For The Auteur, I wish to be extra olive-toned, and as The Congressman, I wish to have an Orange County vibe to me, like I’m sitting out on the seashore after I’m not within the workplace.’ When Mike and I get that sort of enter, we go into computerized mode: ‘How am I going to attain this?’ And we make it occur.” Provides Kousakis, “He actually stretched my wings” — prodding her to perm and dye an extended, straight blond wig till it grew to become Claude the CIA agent’s one-of-a-kind tight ginger curls.
Taking an actor removed from his pure look is already a problem, however when a number of metamorphoses must be utilized to the identical actor — typically on the identical day — the work of design and utility turns into each a artistic and a sensible matter. “There are methods to make any person unrecognizable fully, nevertheless it makes that utility a lot extra concerned and longer. Figuring out that wasn’t the place we might go, we needed to stay considerably refined in our method,” says Van Dyke, who ready for Downey lace hairpieces (for the face and physique), hand-painted contact lenses, dentures, eye baggage, nasolabial folds, jowls, earlobes and even veins to make every of his characters look distinct.
As a way to assist streamline the method, Downey shaved his head — and likewise challenged the group to get their work performed rapidly. “He timed us on the primary day!” Kousakis remembers with amusing, including that she, Burgoyne and Mekash quickly developed the sleek effectivity of a race automotive pit crew. Provides Mekash, “It was one of the best challenge I’ve been on. I’ll by no means [again] get 5 makeups on one tv sequence on the most effective character actors on the planet.”
For his half, Downey credit the crew. “Going bald positively made my mornings simpler,” he says. “Once you’ve bought a strong group, even probably the most complicated seems to be come collectively easily. It’s a group effort, discovering that candy spot the place the character” — or characters, in his case — “comes alive.”
This story first appeared in a June standalone subject of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.