The Working Artist Andy Schoneberg
- By David Sanger
CLICK on the video above to watch the FULL INTERVIEW.
Today's Monster Maker Interview features two-time Emmy Award winner Andy Schoneberg--one of the most consistently busy, sought-after, and multi-talented makeup artists working in Hollywood. Born in Casper, Wyoming, and growing up in Billings, Montana, Andy had to learn the business from trial and error and hints gleaned from rare books. Over the years, he’s contributed makeup effects and creatures to more than 100 films and television shows, including Jurassic Park, The Pacific, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Hangover Part II, and The Walking Dead. His interview sheds light on the attitude and personality that it takes to have a long career in makeup effects, and he tells some fantastic stories from the set along the way.
Jump To Section
- From a Basement in Billings to a 2-Time Emmy-winning Makeup FX Artist
- Pursuing Your Passion in Practical Effects
- Schoneberg’s Commitment to Continuously Learning
- Riding Jurassic Park's T-Rex
- Working on The Walking Dead
- Schoneberg’s Careful Balance of Work and Art
(Andy, on his back, like Michelangelo at the Sistine Chapel, lies beneath the belly of the massive T-Rex from Jurassic Park, sculpting.)
From a Basement in Billings to a 2-Time Emmy-winning Makeup FX Artist
Growing up a bit further north, in Billings, Montana, where they filmed Little Big Man, Andy studied art at Senior High and MSU Billings before turning Southwest to Hollywood. But even as young as 14 years old, Andy was carving foam body parts on a work table set up in the basement of his parents’ home. “It was doing things like sitting at that table and doing model kits, and then branching out from there to customizing those model kits, and then going from that to getting clay from the local art supplier…I remember sculpting a dinosaur puppet… I made the head of paper mache and painted it, fabric body and that sort of thing, and that was the early sort of genesis of that stuff.” According to Jaci Webb’s article in the Billings Gazette, a hometown paper that recently ran a profile on Andy, “He never outgrew comic books and graphic novels, and he turned his interest in prosthetic makeup into a profession.”
(Of the makeups that inspired a young artist, Andy's eyes go wide about Dick Smith's makeup on Dustin Hoffman for Little Big Man.)
(Dick Smith's Mark Twain makeup on Hal Holbrook. Another inspiration for Schoneberg.)
(Andy Schoneberg shellacs the T-1000 "Pretzel Man" sculpture at Stan Winston Studio.)
Pursuing Your Passion in Practical Effects
“There’s an attitude,” says Andy, “that you have to cultivate as a person in an outlying area of just, ‘I’m not going to give up. I’m going to figure out how to get what I need to get to do the stuff—to make the effect I wanna make.'” The challenges of working with limited materials in a small town developed in Andy an attitude that has served him well. A congratulatory note sent to makeup legend Dick Smith on his Oscar win for Amadeus led to a personal invitation to Los Angeles to take his course. Once that door was open, he moved to Hollywood, where his skill and tenacity turned him into a sought-after multi-talented artist in high demand.
(Dick Smith, a great source of inspiration for Andy, with his Oscar for Amadeus.)
Schoneberg’s Commitment to Continuously Learning
Schoneberg has had a prolific and diverse career as a special effects make-up artist, an FX sculptor, and even a puppeteer. His first job was at Mony Monsano's lab on Snow White, where he poured up and painted slip-cast dwarf feet, and he hasn’t stopped working since! He’s worked for most of the major, iconic creature shops, from Stan Winston Studio to Rick Baker’s Cinovation to ADI and KNB. In fact, he says, “My goal was always to work at as many shops as I could, to see how many different ways of doing things there were. I wasn’t disappointed because every shop you work for has a different approach to the basics of the business.” This broad experience has made Andy a master of problem-solving and improvisation. His 25 years in the industry have exposed him to just about every challenge imaginable, from Edward’s “scissor hands” to recreating Hitler for Quentin Tarantino’s revisionist historical drama, Inglourious Basterds.
(Andy Schoneberg's makeup on Martin Wuttke as Hitler for the film Inglourious Basterds.)
Riding Jurassic Park's T-Rex
Schoneberg describes a career highlight, his own personal interaction with the 30’ T-Rex constructed at Stan Winston Studio for JURASSIC PARK. “I was riveting the legs. I had to figure out how to attach the legs to the understructure knowing that there were these big hydraulic rams and there just had to be such a positive bond on the thing that the legs wouldn’t get ripped off. So we felt glue wasn’t enough. So we made these saddlebags, basically, that were riveted to the carbon fiber under the skull and then attached to the big polyfoam leg sections. So I'm sitting on the hip-bone section of the T-Rex…and I get a call up from Lloyd Ball, who’s down there, and he goes, ‘We gotta fire up the T-Rex, we gotta test a move on it.’ I said, ‘Do you want me to get down?’ ‘Nah, it’s okay, you’re fine where you are.’ So, I got to actually RIDE the T-Rex!”
(Andy Schoneberg sculpts a 1/5th scale Brachiosaurus for the original Jurassic Park.)
Working on The Walking Dead
Andy has won two Emmy awards as part of the special effects makeup team on The Walking Dead. Andy’s personality is well-suited to the quick pace of a television schedule. As he told the Billings Gazette, “Last season, there was a zombie who got hit by a tank. We had to do his makeup as a zombie; then we had to do this huge gash on his cheek in 15 minutes while the rest of the crew just waited.” No stranger to pressure or short deadlines, Andy continues to keep the wounds fresh. As Andy sees it, “We’re not so much makeup artists…as we are problem solvers.”
(Zombie Walker child from The Walking Dead. Makeup Effects by KNB EFX Group.)
(The Mona Lisa replica, Art by the one and only Andy Schoneberg.)
Schoneberg’s Careful Balance of Work and Art
Andy is still drawn to painting, something he’s been doing since his parents bought him his first paint set when he was 12. His new project is creating an exact copy of the “Mona Lisa,” using 15th-century painting techniques, including making his own oil paint and working on a poplar wood panel to honor Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece.
You can see the work and hear Andy’s reflection on his colorful career spent solving problems by clicking the EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW on the player at the top of the page.
- David Sanger w/credit to reporting & interview by Jaci Webb of the Billings Gazette Staff.
Check out Mastering Special Effects Disasters - Explode a Head course with Andy Schoneberg HERE.