LakshmiBack in the 87th Academy Awards in 2015, The Grand Budapest Hotel won the most number of awards, alongside Birdman. For the category of ‘Best Makeup and Hairstyling’, the winners were announced as Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier. Fast-forward a decade, Frances is back with a bang, nominated once again for the age-old tale of Wicked, directed by Jon M. Chu.
Wicked channels the story of Glinda, a student with an unwavering desire for popularity, and Elphaba, a young woman misunderstood owing to her green complexion, who develop an odd but meaningful connection. Their friendship quickly hits a turning point after they meet the Wizard of Oz, as their lives begin to shift in rather different directions.
The principal cast includes Cynthia Erivo as ‘Elphaba’, Ariana Grande as ‘Glinda’, Jonathan Bailey as ‘Prince Fiyero’, Ethan Slater as ‘Boq’, Jeff Goldblum as ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and Michelle Yeoh as ‘Madame Morrible’.
To tell this story in the truest manner possible, Frances contributed her incredible knowledge in makeup and hairstyling, undoubtedly the most important element for a film like Wicked.
One Lash Shot had the opportunity to speak with the legendary make-up artist Frances Hannon about the behind-the-scenes of the magical looks in Wicked.
How did you end up becoming the lead hair and make-up artist for Wicked?
I had worked with Jon M Chu before. We met many years ago. So, when we had our meeting Jon told me that I’ll be doing the film with him. I was so delighted to have that opportunity to work on Wicked with him as it’s such an extraordinary story! We had worked on Now You See Me 2 before, I believe it was 8-10 years ago! So, it had been a long time since we had seen each other.
I have obviously done a huge mountain of work in between and I think we got on very well together. So, it was an absolute pleasure to work with him again.
What was your inspiration for Glinda and Elphaba’s makeup looks, and how did you give them your own flair?
Obviously, there’s the historical film and the Wicked play as well, which I have seen many, many times when my children were small!
But it was really Jon M. Chu sort of talking through the film with me and Nathan and Paul Tazewell. We had a brief of it being a big Hollywood production and bringing it back to things being tactile and real and not all done in post, as is often the way these days. You know, not replicating figures and everything and actually dealing with true numbers within the size of true size sense.
It was very much for Elphaba, knowing that in the storyline she has no vanity and, we had to deal with Cynthia’s dark skin tone and finding the correct green to make her look beautiful and believable. Within Cynthia’s realm, we had to keep heritage in mind, we had to take my experience in film like knowing Elphaba’s got a big black hat and a huge black cloak in most of the film. One has to make sure that you make her face well enough that everything shines through.
Considering her hair, tiny micro-braids worked really well to keep it tied to her head, so as to leave the visual all around for Jon, you know, so that you never lost her.
Within that choice of hair, I was free to give a very good story arc over films 1 & 2, where I used more browns in her hair to make her look younger. As she progressed in her storyline, I went with much darker hair and longer and let the hair go freer. She looked bit more like a goddess rather than the determined look towards the end.
So, we opened with a note to Wicked the play with a large braid and as you saw at the end of number one, she had been Glinda-fied and had gotten a lot more relaxed. But always we had to consider the style for the scene. It isn’t just for the story; you take into account the artists’ needs. How the artists perceive Elphaba and what works for the camera and Jon M. Chu as well.
For Glinda, we wanted a very sort of serial princess-like quality. I found some mutual references to Grace Kelly in her younger days and it wasn’t based on Grace Kelly’s face or anything like that—just the purity and the simplicity in her old photos. It rang true on how very natural she was and that’s how we wanted our Glinda to be— free and natural so that everybody who watched the film could attach themselves and recognize themselves in her, you know.
And it was crucial for both artists to be timeless.
Did Cynthia and Ariana give their opinion on their makeup looks?
Yes, very much! When you star in a film like Wicked, you have the storyline and the arc and then within that you supply everything that is needed. But then every day, everybody brings to the table how the character is to them. Like for Elphaba, though we had kept it very simple because of her character— we always received Cynthia’s input.
She often saw more within that she wanted to add. So, there were simple styles because of the nature of her character, but Cynthia added more to it and of course, there is the wonderful nail story which served as a nod to Margaret Hamilton. But it is very much part of Cynthia and Cynthia’s story in life. It traced her development as she grew, the nails grew, and Elphaba became a stronger person, which shows within the story of her nails and her hair.
And likewise, for Ari, her look is very simplistic, very accessible to everybody now and hopefully in 50 years’ time will still be the same! But very much Ari’s little touch is to how she saw her princess quality.
Honestly, it was a timeless look.
I am glad you thought that!
Is it true that Cynthia wanted to go on set green every day? How did you approach that- did you delve into the Broadway production?
Yes! It’s a very important part of it as well because once I found the green that I thought made her skin look very beautiful, real and not made up at all. It was very much that Cynthia needed to see her green every day.
So, we did speak in the very early days— would be doing it? I was very lucky because once we found the green skin, Jon and Cynthia loved it so much that we were able to use it for the whole film. We made her up every day— it was her face, her neck and her hands mainly— it was very important for Cynthia as well as all the other artists within that moment, as you react differently to it.
Pablo Helman was the visual effects master. His work is exceptional. And, we did some examples of the green on Cynthia. But it is a very different finish on how it reacts and how it changes with a turn under the light. And that can’t be shown in post. So, I was the happiest make-up artist on earth once I discovered what made Cynthia look so wonderful because we did it every day! (Laughs)
What did you use to make her green and make that last throughout filming, especially in scenes where she is crying?
Well, there was bespoke make-up made especially for her.
So, in the early days, I used models because Cynthia wasn’t in the country— of course, she was quite busy in the early prep days. So, I used models with the right tone and I just mixed hundreds of colors till be found the green that looked beautiful on the skin tone.
But it didn’t work in all the different lights. So, I kept searching for the correct one as I knew that the base the green was in that was reflecting the light wrongly. So, I kept going until I discovered a fluorescent base which was a yellow fluorescent. And, that’s what made Cynthia’s skin look real and not like face paint.
I think it’ll be a new product in the works now because it has such a beautiful reflective quality. It could be added to many other products as a base as well!
It was based on alcohol and it was air-brushed. So, we had a green primer which David Stoneman, the special effects make-up manufacturer, made up the green formula with the fluorescent yellow. He separately made a green primer, similar to one that you may use for the day. Using brushes and sponges, we air-brushed the green on and then on top of that we contoured her. We had to use tattoo-transfer eyebrows but they were done in the beginning of the make-up because Cynthia shaved her eyebrows and her head. And, then we added small touches to make the green look coming from the inside out. Things like little freckles and the contouring on the top, then the lips and the eyeshadow. Overall, it added to Cynthia’s beauty.
I noticed there were no piercings in the film. How did you help disguise the holes in the actors’ ears?
Cynthia has around 28-36 piercings. Cynthia had to deal with it in the past while working on her previous productions.
Often, the way we cover holes, which we have to do regularly, is by using a tiny bit of the base or a tiny bit of the filler. But because Cynthia had so many of them and owing to the positions they were in— that wasn’t an option. So, in the past, she had had some ear covers made which were similar to little prosthetics. They were added every day to protect her piercings and then sprayed green as in her full make-up.
And, as you see most of the time, we only need to put it on the top, because her hair comes up behind the ears so we didn’t need to go underneath.
Ariana has piercings too but not too many. And, the positions of them are such that they can be filled in. It does make a huge difference where they are as well. You can’t manipulate the cartilage. But you can do something with the softer skin.
What kind of make-up did Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater and Jeff Goldblum need?
Ethan is a munchkin, his base in life as with all munchkins is the agricultural race people working in the field. All different classes of within their own area of course, but they generally are weathered people. So, they are tanned, they are freckled, they are broken down and almost natural in appearance. Beautiful eyes and quite high foreheads. And Ethan brought such wonderful visuals to the table— he looked marvellous, just like himself! We curled his hair, we topped his hair, we permed him and we added hair extensions with four different colour reds. He lived with that for us. And, we dressed it every day. He was the only person with full extensions. So, that was his basic look— the weathered, tanned look.
Jeff was matched with his tone—he has very beautiful skin! (Laughs) Jeff was made up as one would do make-up for Jeff normally.
Jonathan was in other productions at the same time as us, so we had to obviously allow for everything they did in that production as well. So, we needed to add in fake hair because we couldn’t get him to grow his own for the time as he had to match continuity in other productions. So, we added a very large hairpiece with streaks of gold blonde through it, which complimented not only his beautiful costumes with the gold braids and everything, but also contributed very much to his storyline. We kept him very tanned and handsome and prince-like of course, which he is.
How many wigs were needed in the film?
God, many, many, many! (Laughs) We wigged nearly every single person or artist. But, say for example, for the character of Elphaba, we had four wigs made particularly for Cynthia in her own head size. But we had 15 made in total. Those would go to the stand-ins, the doubles who did the stunts and everything. It wasn’t that they were all used. Cynthia liked to do her own stunts and everything.
But for Alice Brooks, our DP/cinematographer, every day when the standards would go on set, Alice needed everybody exactly as the principal artist would be. Because she wanted to be able to see what was the status.
So, we never ever sent an artist, be it to practice rehearsals on camera or to do a dance routine for rehearsals on camera—every single person looked exactly like the actor would look that day. So, we had around 15 roughly for Elphaba; and 14 wigs for Glinda and within our crowd numbers, we had roughly around 3,500 and they all had extra hair extensions, pieces or facial or something like that.
For 99% we bought acrylic nylon which we break down by boiling, thereby taking all the plastic coating off. Then we make them into the shapes we need— like the very curly texture for the munchkins; the very high statuesque looks for Emerald City; and the contemporary futuristic 40s sort of vibe with the costumes. Everything was enormous, but the cost of the wig was relatively cheap for the crowd. But the money was on prepping them to look so beautiful! Hopefully, very timeless, of course, within each of the different worlds of Oz.
Jeff was wigged and Jonathan was wigged.
Michelle Yeoh was so beautiful as well— because of her power by which she could control the weather, the whiteness and the wisps of the clouds, I tried to make it look like it was very statuesque but also as if it was just held up by fresh air! Though there were structures within there that you could see, that made it look as if it was floating away on her head. And, it also contributed to her story, because as she starts in her story it’s more clouds and stuff, but as she progresses, it’s more tornadoes and therefore, a much wilder look!
Who was your favourite character to do hair and make-up on?
You can imagine— one never forgets that you are nothing without your team and artistic talent. I have to say on Wicked, they really were exceptional. I had Alice Jones and Sim Camps for Elphaba’s hair and make-up. Gabor Kerekes and Nuria Mbonio did Ari’s hair and make-up. Vicky Lange did Jeff. Lara Prentice did Jonathan. Everybody was assigned to somebody. But it was such a big teamwork. And you couldn’t say there was anybody special, because everybody was so magical, in my opinion.
Correct me if I am wrong, but this is not your first Oscar nomination, if I remember correctly, you already won it for The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2015. Almost exactly over a decade later you are being nominated for your work at Wicked. How do you feel about it?
Yes, you are absolutely right! I didn’t remember what year it was! It was so different and artistic, it was an equal challenge, but in a very different way.
But the special thing about Wicked is that since it’s one of the musicals that most people grew up watching, everyone honoured and respected everything that had gone on before. The goal was to enhance the thoughts of the viewers, while they watched the characters that they already love. To try and bring some more beauty and more interest and a more visual story that I can add to.
On the stage play, you see what you see for the whole two hours or so. But for me, I can enhance the story by doing so much for Elphaba and Glinda. That’s the pleasure of a film that’s so different from the theatre. It lasts forever.
In your opinion what did you learn in these years that you used to work during the production of Wicked?
I think this project particularly, aside from everything else I have done, I was able to bring such an amazing team to work with. But also, I was able to bring everything I’ve ever learned and everything my team came up with.
I used a lot of theatre people because of all the dance sequences, the structures and the longevity needed. I mean on the stage, you only need it to last 2-3 hours, but on a film, you need it to last 14 hours a day! One sequence might take 5-6 days or more.
So, there was a whole different concept in the way we worked before. It involved bringing everything we had ever learned into play really. From 18th-century pages in historical methods to futuristic methods of using products that had never been used before. The old stuff is combined with the new stuff to create this wonderful visual.
I don’t know how much you can say about Wicked Part Two, but will the beauty looks remain consistent, or will they change at all with the characters? Perhaps get older, or villainous- resulting in a different kind of make-up?
We are not allowed to talk about number two (laughs)!
But I can say that number two in itself visually holds up its whole entity. I think if people haven’t seen number one, and they see the second part, it’s a whole story in itself visually, from the set, from my side and from Paul’s side, it shows the story progression in itself. But there is nothing that remains, everything does develop. Without letting any secrets out! (Laughs)
What do you hope people see when they watch both the lead characters of Elphaba and Glinda in this story?
I think you need to go and see it more than once. It’s the nuances and the details, that not only I bring, but Nathan, Paul, Jon and the artists bring. There is so much in there that each time you watch it, you’ll recognize something else and be like “Oh yeah! Now I see why the hair is different there, or now I see why Frances has done that, at that moment, on that character!”
There are so many little things, but it takes time to see the finer details, both on the principal leads and the background artists. Then there was a cameo appearance by Stephen Schwartz, the music composer and lyricist. We based his character on the original character in The Wizard of Oz. It’s all in those small details.
Similarly, there was Prince Fiyero’s horse. There were multiple horses— some were good at standing still, some were good at galloping off. So, there were different horses with Jonathan in different scenes. The horses were very disciplined, but one was white, one was brown and one was black and we had to dye them, train them, fit in hair extensions and paint them!
It was quite a small detail in the background, but until and unless you revisit it, you won’t realize it! In the beginning, when Jonathan arrives, it’s such a remarkable scene with the horse talking.
Only on the fifth or sixth viewing will you be able to see the true depth of it. In the first viewing, it’s such a feast for the eyes. It’s the details that come out more and more, that make it such a pleasure to watch.
[Author’s Note: Special thanks to Frances! I can’t wait to see what mystical looks you will bring in Wicked Part 2!]
Lakshmi
