By Lexi Stewart
It's always going to be an interesting job when your handsome leading man demands to look disgusting, despite the studio telling his makeup artist to just put some pretty scars on his face and 'call it a day.' When Deadpool came out in 2016, it turned heads as an unapologetic comic book adaptation with pop culture antics, shrewd innuendo, and witty banter. It also put the spotlight on the makeup department, who had the tough job of designing what Wade Wilson would look like under the mask. Ryan Reynolds came back with a vengeance for Deadpool 2 earlier this year, and with so many new looks making an appearance, we were eager to learn more about the makeup design this time around.
For a project that had been close to Reynolds' heart for so many years, he needed a total rock star in the makeup department who could tackle the Krueger-like makeup and do it right, while the studios were running for the hills at the thought of making Reynolds look 'disgusting.' That's how Academy Award-winning makeup and character artist Bill Corso came on board. Their partnership worked so well that Reynolds had no hesitation in asking Corso to return for Deadpool 2. Bill talked to Stan Winston School in depth about the process of coming back and how it was different working on the sequel.
Jump To Section
- Giving the Ultimate Super-Antihero a Revamp
- Bringing in Time-Traveling Soldier, Cable
- The Great Mike Smithson Joins Team “Cable”
- Dickie Greenleaf Returns (Spoilers Ahead)
- Additional Thanks Go To…
- It Ain't Over Till It's Over
- Listen to the Deadpool 2 Audio Interview with Bill Corso
(Members of the Deadpool 2 makeup team - L. to R.: Bill Corso, Mike Fields, Ryan Reynolds, Bronwyne Sloley, Geoff Redknap)
Giving the Ultimate Super-Antihero a Revamp
This film was a chance for Corso to sink his teeth into some new characters and make improvements on the original makeup at the same time. "Anytime one of us gets to go back and revisit our work, it's a chance to fix it, or to alter it to something that maybe we had in mind originally."
In the first film, we follow Wade Wilson through three distinct stages of looks: pre-Deadpool handsome, post-accident disfigurement, and then his evolution into the suit and mask. Corso explains that Deadpool 2 sees disfigured Wade feature much more heavily and not only that, but his look also changes and evolves throughout. "It's a lot more makeup this time. And Ryan was very concerned because it was three and a half, almost four hours in the chair every day during the first movie. So the number one mandate for him was, 'Please can you figure out a way to make this go faster? Because I'm totally cool with it. I'm there for you, and I will sit. But if there's any way to trim any fat off of that, I would so appreciate it.' So that was my number one concern."
(Bill Corso, Geoff Redknap, and Mike Fields transform Ryan Reynolds into Deadpool.)
Cutting down time in the makeup chair makes life easier for everyone involved, so Corso accepted the challenge with determination and the desire to re-invent the makeup at the same time. The end result worked wonders and met both criteria. "I really wanted to revisit the sculpture and refine it a little bit. There are things about the first one I didn't really like. I completely re-engineered the makeup. I re-sculpted it, changed little things I didn't like, and we reduced the makeup time from almost four hours to literally just under two hours." Corso and his team made smart tweaks and altered their working process to succeed in reducing application time.
The makeup department welcomed a few new faces, along with some of Bill Corso's central team from the previous film. For the main application, he brought in Mike Fields and Geoff Redknap.
However, he also realized that he would need an extra set of hands. "On the first movie, I pre-painted everything myself. I would get Ryan ready, send him to set, and on days when he wasn't working, all I did was paint appliances, to get the level of detail I wanted. On this movie, I didn't want to be sitting in the trailer all day long painting appliances." Fellow Academy Award-winning makeup artist and friend Joel Harlow recommended Bronwyne Sloley, a talented painter who was able to help pre-paint the appliances and also jump in on days where Reynolds had more skin showing, especially his arms.
(Bronwyne Sloley pre-painting the Deadpool 2 appliances.)
The makeup consisted primarily of a series of paper-thin silicone pieces, and the back of the head was made as one finished piece that was much easier and quicker to apply than the first film. "Christopher Nelson gave me this great idea that they used on Bright and Guardians of the Galaxy where we took OpSite tape and strapped his head from ear to ear with the tape nice and tight. That would give us a place to glue, and we would just put a couple of those strips on. Then I made the entire back of his head basically like a bald cap, but it was the finished look. It was an actual sculpted piece that was pre-painted so that it was completely done."
There were plenty of challenges for Deadpool to overcome in the story this time around, including getting sent to prison and losing the superpowers that keep his cancer at bay. But this made the job fun for Bill Corso. "There are changes in the makeup. It doesn't stay static or stay exactly the same for the whole movie. There's nothing more fun for us than to do makeup on top of makeup. We got to change his look a little bit, which I had a blast with."
(Geoff Redknap, Mike Fields, and Bill Corso apply the Deadpool makeup to Ryan Reynolds.)
When prosthetic makeup is involved in a job, Makeup artists understand more than most how challenging it can be for an actor to endure. However, when asked about Reynolds' tolerance for the process, Bill applauded his attitude. "He couldn't have been better. I mean, he would come in, he would joke, but he would always sit still. He was always in good spirits. I gotta hand it to him. He went through a lot, and even on days when we had to enhance the makeup and add things to it, he was excited about it. He was fantastic."
(Bill Corso touches up Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool on the set of Deadpool 2. Photo Credit: Joe Lederer. Courtesy 20th Century Fox.)
(Bill Corso adds a little shine to Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool on the set of Deadpool 2. Photo Credit: Joe Lederer. Courtesy 20th Century Fox.)
Bringing in Time-Traveling Soldier, Cable
The next big makeup Corso had to sink his teeth into was Cable, played by Josh Brolin. Corso was always an advocate of creating the character with prosthetics rather than leaving it to motion capture, and going through the makeup application process each morning would end up helping Brolin get into the mindset of Cable. "Ironically, the Cable makeup is more complicated than the Deadpool makeup, and it kept evolving as we started shooting," said Corso.
(Josh Brolin in the Cable makeup vs. final graded/edited image.)
To get the ball rolling, the production design department provided Corso and his team with a Cable concept by Jered Marantz. From there Bill gave his input and directed the plan of attack before departing for location to start shooting, leaving Andy Clement to supervise the initial iteration of the makeup. At Clement's shop, lead sculptor Richie Alonzo added his spin as he started sculpting the neck appliances, soon joined by Akihito "Aki" Ikeda who helped sculpt the bio-mechanical elements, and finally Pepe Mora jumped on board to assist Aki with all the sculptures for the body pieces, which were used for lighting reference, in addition to the many mutant sculpts.
(The bio-mechanical back and shoulder prosthetics for Josh Brolin as Cable for Deadpool 2. Photo Credit: Joe Lederer. Courtesy 20th Century Fox.)
One of the more significant challenges for the team was that the studio kept making alterations to the Cable design, causing the finish date to be pushed back. "This makeup is not like the Terminator," pointed out Corso, "It's a disease that's growing on Cable that's turning his skin into metal. So it's gotta look like metal, but there's a lot of skin involved that's been mutated, and it's kind of messed up, and I thought, they can't be made of the same material."
The Great Mike Smithson Joins Team “Cable”
After some early test applications, lead Cable makeup artist Mike Smithson returned to Andy Clement's shop to add some sculptural refinements to the makeup.
(Mike Smithson and Bill Corso lifecast half of Josh Brolin's face during the makeup testing phase for Deadpool 2. Image courtesy Bill Corso.)
Cable's face scar also took a lot of testing, with Smithson and Corso spending three days trying to find the best solution. "Eventually, you know, it was old-school makeup. Mike just said, 'You know what, screw this. Let's just do a collodion scar on him and look at it,’ because nothing's cooler than collodion, right? So he does that, and of course, it looks bitchin'."
Proving that a mix of new and old-school makeup effects was indeed the way to go, Corso and Smithson lifecast the collodion scar, refined it and made a pros-aide transfer for it which ends up in the final film. "In comic books, it's easy," pointed out Corso. "You can draw whatever you want. But when you do it practically, and it's a real guy in a real makeup, sometimes it messes with your head trying to figure out how to pull it off."
(Key "Cable" makeup artist Mike Smithson applies the prosthetics to Josh Brolin for Deadpool 2, assisted by makeup artist Felix Fox. Photo Credit: Joe Lederer. Courtesy 20th Century Fox.)
(Mike Smithson and Felix Fox apply the Cable prosthetics to Josh Brolin for Deadpool 2. Photo Credit: Joe Lederer. Courtesy 20th Century Fox.)
In the end, there were two main sets of appliances made, but it wasn't until they got to road-test the makeup that they realized the costume was going to become a nightmare for the pieces. "The problem was that Josh isn't just wearing a t-shirt," said Corso. "He's got shoulder straps and weapons and belts and all this stuff over his shoulders. And he's whipping giant heavy guns around. It was basically a costume and character designed to destroy your makeup." The process of testing and finding a happy medium with the density of the material was painstaking but ultimately worth the time and effort.
(Mike Smithson touches up Josh Brolin as Cable on the set of Deadpool 2. Photo Credit: Joe Lederer. Courtesy 20th Century Fox.)
Dickie Greenleaf Returns (Spoilers Ahead)
This sequel is filled to the brim with cameos, but some are harder to spot than others. The most elusive cameo is Matt Damon (pictured above) as one of the two rednecks Cable encounters in the past.
(Left: Brolin as "Cable" with Damon as "Redneck #2" in Deadpool 2. Right: Close shot of Matt Damon in makeup.)
Damon was so unrecognizable on set, most people, including the crew, didn't even know it was him at first. The only hint was that he was credited as "Dickie Greenleaf" (Damon's character from The Talented Mr. Ripley), and this Easter Egg set the internet alight. The writers eventually confirmed the rumor and sung high praises for the part Corso played in pulling off Damon's incognito cameo.
"Bill Corso, our makeup artist, he’s a master at prosthetics." Deadpool 2 director David Leitch revealed to Yahoo. "He had Matt in the chair for three hours, and a lot of the crew didn’t know."
Additional Thanks Go To…
Although we've focused on the prosthetic makeups of Deadpool 2 in this Article, Bill Corso would also love to give credit to Monica Huppert who headed the Makeup Department and did "Domino's" makeup, and Anne Carroll who ran the Hair Department and helped dial in all the characters hairdos.
It Ain't Over Till It's Over
(Just a few of the makeups designed for the prison scenes. Images courtesy Bill Corso.)
Deadpool 2 gave Bill Corso and his talented team the chance to not only riff on the original makeups but also design new looks and develop fun side characters. With work like this coming out of Hollywood, we really are seeing a kind of makeup renaissance, and comic book movies are taking full advantage of the makeup department. "Nowadays more than ever there's a lot of big movies featuring amazing makeups, but there are also small films that have really fun, complicated, involved makeups which affect the entire movie. If done well, makeups can help propel a film... sometimes to even greater success."
Bill Corso is a true believer in the art of character makeup, and with such an illustrious career in the profession, he has faith that genuinely great makeup effects will never fall victim to being completely replaced by digital effects. "If quality movies keep using makeup, it's always going to be viable. Especially when actors see what it can bring to their performance. If you go back and count the number of actors who have won Oscars that have been in makeup...it's been quite a few. That'll never go away."
Listen to the Deadpool 2 Audio Interview with Bill Corso
Want to learn from the master himself? Check out our courses with Bill Corso to create your own character: