The Academy Celebrates: MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING Oscar Nominees

Oscar week concluded on Saturday afternoon with my favorite event of the week – the Hair and Makeup symposium. The Academy invited the public to join them to celebrate the achievements of this year’s nominees in the category. The nominees discussed their creative processes and presented film clips, photographs and displays of their work, including appliances, molds and wigs.

The event was moderated by makeup artists and hairstylists branch governor Leonard Engelman with special guests director Sacha Gervasi (HITCHCOCK) and actor Graham McTavish (THE HOBBIT – AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY).

Nominees Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell said, “Anne Hathaway insisted on having her hair cut for real in the movie and it was completely her decision. She was absolutely clear that she wanted to do it. We could have easily done it with wigs and full cap and basically a bald cap and a very, very fine wig on the top and it would have been easy to do but she really wanted to do it for real. It was a very emotional moment, as well, being on the set. I think the whole crew were all emotional.”

The actors playing the dwarves were in the makeup chairs for about an hour. People would disappear into a room and re-emerge as dwarves – the HOBBIT artists had to “physically squash them.” This included lowering their ears and applying more facial hair to the actors’ face and heads. Every dwarf had a stunt double which added to an endless supply of prosethetic noses, ears, and eyebrows. Plus with the 24 frames per second, special care was given how every aspect of the makeup and hair were applied.

The most interesting of the hair and makeup displays was HITCHCOCK. As you can see, host Leonard Engelman joined in by standing next to the statue of Hitchcock in the Grand Lobby of the Samuel Goldwyn Theater. While in production, Oscar winning actor Anthony Hopkins would not leave his trailer until he was made up in the very extensive costume and makeup – he became the famous director 100%. Helen Mirren was genuinely shocked by her co-star’s transformation. He did not want to break the illusion.

The application of the prosthetic took 90 minutes, but just seconds for Hopkins to rip off at the end of the day. Director Sacha Gervasi and the makeup artists told the audience that Hopkins loved to freak out the crew by playing “Hannibal Lecter” around the set.

Hopkins did meet Hitchcock on one occasion and had a lot of input on how he should look in the movie. He remembered meeting the director at a restaurant and that he had a lot of “broken capillaries, broken blood vessels all over his face.” Hopkins was very committed to the part.

The Makeup and Hairstyling nominees are:

HITCHCOCK
Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel

THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane

LES MISÉRABLES
Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

Oscars® for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, February 24 at the Dolby Theatre™ at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and will be hosted by Seth MacFarlane live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide. For more information go to Oscar.com or download the official Oscars app.

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