The Oscar Nominees for the 86th Academy Awards (2014)
This year's Oscar-nominated Makeups are united by a common theme: REALITY.
You won't find aliens, monsters, or out-of-this-world fantasy characters among the work singled out by the Academy, but the nominated makeups are no less impactful in their artistry, and it's our pleasure to shine a light on the makeup masters responsible. Good luck to all of you!
-Matt Winston
Jump To Section
- Best Makeup and Hairstyling
- Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
- Making a Better Bad Grandpa
- No Time for Touch-Ups
- Reality Is Tougher Than Fantasy
- The Lone Ranger
- Johnny Depp's Secret Weapon
- Tonto's Inspiration
- The Tonto Makeup
- Simulating Cracked Mud
- Transforming Into Old Tonto
- Dallas Buyers Club
- Tiny Budget. Big Effect.
- From Healthy to Sick...And Back Again
- Miracles on a Shoestring
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
- Dallas Buyers Club - Robin Mathews and Adruitha Lee
- Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa - Stephen Prouty [for Alterian, Inc.]
- The Lone Ranger - Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua Casny
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
"[The success of Bad Grandpa] hinged on the fact that people were going to be fooled by this makeup every day."
- Stephen Prouty, Oscar-nominee Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
Making a Better Bad Grandpa
For Johnny Knoxville's return to the big screen as horny 86-year-old Irving Zisman in Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, he turned to his regular team of makeup effects collaborators at Tony Gardner's Alterian, Inc. (Zombieland, 127 Hours, The Hangover). Their goal was to take the Zisman character to a whole new level of realism, expressiveness, and durability. Silicone appliances, hand-tied hairpieces, a rumpled wardrobe, and Knoxville's go-for-broke performance would all come together to achieve that mission.
Lead Makeup Artist Stephen Prouty (Zombieland, Planet of the Apes, Men in Black 3), assisted by Bart Mixon and Will Huff (later replaced by Jamie Kelman when Huff had to leave for another job), applied the Zisman makeup throughout the shoot. Prouty will be representing the BAD GRANDPA makeup team (including Alterian, Inc.) at this year's Academy Awards.
(Tony Gardner guides the Irving Zisman makeup design process at Alterian, Inc.)
((L) Life-casting Johnny Knoxville at Alterian, Inc. (R) Lead Makeup Artist Stephen Prouty sculpts the Irving Zisman makeup.)
No Time for Touch-Ups
To create a "bullet-proof" makeup that would hold up during the long gaps between touchup times, Zisman's "lips" were made out of Bondo (Pros-Aide adhesive thickened with Cab-O-Sil) and overlapped onto the silicone prosthetics to keep everything locked into place.
(Stephen Prouty, Jamie Kelman, and Bart Mixon transform Johnny Knoxville into his elderly alter-ego, Irving Zisman.)
Reality Is Tougher Than Fantasy
Pulling off convincing old-age makeup may not seem as challenging as transforming an actor into a fantasy character, but in fact, it's exactly the opposite. “People know what real old people look like," pointed out Prouty. "If something’s off, they’re going to question it.”
But perhaps the person most qualified to speak to the effectiveness of the makeup is the man underneath it all, Irving Zisman's alter-ego, Johnny Knoxville himself: "They are real artists; they're amazing. I was nose-to-nose with people, and they didn't even know it was me."
Watch Make-Up Artist Magazine's Bad Grandpa Application Time-lapse
The Lone Ranger
"The idea of creating a character and seeing it come to life when applied to an actor was always fascinating to me."
- Joel Harlow, Oscar-nominee Best Makeup and Hairstyling The Lone Ranger
Johnny Depp's Secret Weapon
Nominated for The Lone Ranger along with Hair Department Head Gloria Pasqua Casny, Academy Award-winning makeup artist Joel Harlow (Star Trek, Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice in Wonderland) is Johnny Depp's go-to makeup magician, having collaborated on a menagerie of Depp's most iconic characters including Jack Sparrow, the Mad Hatter, Dark Shadows' Barnabas Collins and now, The Lone Ranger's Tonto. In addition to his duties with Depp, Harlow supervised a team of 25 makeup artists who were responsible for the look of the entire cast, including the background actors.
Tonto's Inspiration
Harlow discovered his inspiration for the Tonto makeup while shooting The Rum Diary with Depp. "I came across a really interesting painting by Kirby Sattler titled 'I Am Crow,'" said Harlow. "I showed it to Johnny, who thought it could be a great inspiration for the character and look of Tonto. Johnny then showed the image to Jerry [Bruckheimer] and Gore [Verbinski], which really got the fire going."
((L) Johnny Depp as Tonto. (R) The inspiration: Kirby Sattler's “I Am Crow.”)
The Tonto Makeup
Harlow opted to go with silicone for the Tonto prosthetic makeup, which consisted of four facial appliances, four body appliances, and a prosthetic nose. The entire application process took an hour and a half, including the addition of the bird-dropping streaked wig custom-made by Hair Department Head (and Co-Oscar nominee) Gloria Pasqua Casny (Pirates of the Caribbean, Divergent, Cowboys & Aliens).
Simulating Cracked Mud
"I wanted to achieve a cracked mud look in Tonto’s makeup," said Harlow, "Almost like a mud mask. However, if I had used anything like an actual clay-based treatment, there would have been no way to maintain and track the makeup over 153 days of filming. What I ultimately settled on was a series of silicone prosthetics that I had sculpted into the texture of cracked earth."
(Joel Harlow touches up Depp's silicone “cracked mud” appliances behind the scenes of The Lone Ranger.)
Transforming Into Old Tonto
To turn Depp into "Old Tonto," Harlow and his team created an elaborate upper body, neck, and head prosthetic makeup consisting of 17 silicone appliances. Makeup Artist Mike Smithson sculpted the chest, belly, and arms, while Harlow tackled the head, neck, and shoulders. To complete the effect, Khanh Trance hand-punched facial and body hair while artist Cristina Patterson created several sets of "old age" contact lenses. Topped off with Gloria Pasqua-Casny's greying mane of hand-tied hair, Harlow and team had aged Depp by decades.
(Harlow and team transform Johnny Depp into “Old Tonto.”)
Watch Joel Harlow discuss the development of Tonto's look for The Lone Ranger during his recent Makeup Demonstration for Stan Winston School.
Dallas Buyers Club
“We had to take [Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto] back and forth from their sickest look to their healthiest look, up to five times in one day,”
- Robin Mathews, Oscar-nominee Best Makeup and Hairstyling Dallas Buyers Club
Tiny Budget. Big Effect.
Makeup Artist Robin Mathews (Into The Wild, Django Unchained, The Twilight Saga) was given a makeup budget of $250 for Dallas Buyers Club. But that didn't stop the Academy from honoring her and Hair Department Head Adruitha Lee (Wedding Crashers, Evan Almighty, 12 Years a Slave) with an Academy Award nomination for their work.
From Healthy to Sick...And Back Again
In order to realistically portray two AIDS patients at their sickest, Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto both lost 40 pounds before filming began. Mathews and Lee were faced with two challenges. The first was to accentuate the appearance of illness. “I basically highlighted and contoured every bone or tendon, and sometimes veins, that I could find over their entire body. It’s a full body makeup.” The second challenge was to create a "healthy" look for the gaunt actors. “They maintained that 40-pound weight loss throughout," said Mathews. "So when they look like they’re 25 pounds heavier and healthier because of the medication, that’s just makeup.” To push the effect even further, Mathews attached “dental plumpers” to the inside of McConaughey’s cheeks to fill out his face.
(Matthew McConaughey's extreme weight loss was either accentuated or minimized by Dallas Buyers Club's Makeup and Hair Department.)
(Jared Leto's turn as Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club required him to lose 40 pounds.)
Miracles on a Shoestring
The extreme budget constraints forced the Makeup and Hair team to be as stubbornly resourceful as the film's hero, Ron Woodruff. “There’s one look for the AIDS patients where they develop this rash called seborrheic dermatitis," recalled Mathews. "I wound up using grits and cornmeal because it was affordable. As a matter of fact, I had to borrow them from my mom’s pantry because we didn’t even have enough money to buy them.”
-Matt Winston
(Adruitha Lee, Matthew McConaughey, and Robin Mathews reunite to celebrate their triumph in the trenches of Dallas Buyers Club.)
Watch Robin Mathews discuss Dallas Buyers Club with Gold Derby