When Charlize Theron played Megyn Kelly in "Bombshell," the makeup team had to change the very structure of Theron's face, right down to her nose. Makeup artist Kazu Hiro gave Theron two hidden nose plugs tailored to widen her nostrils to match Kelly's face. It's just one of the many details productions tackle when transforming actors into real public figures, because unlike fictional characters, audiences already know what these characters look like, so they can easily catch any mistake.
Rami Malek's Oscar-winning portrayal of Freddie Mercury in "Bohemian Rhapsody" needed to capture one very unique physical feature: the Queen front man's iconic teeth. So Malek wore fake teeth to account for Mercury's additional four incisors. And the teeth had to be adjusted and resized perfectly so they didn't change the way Malek talked. Since Mercury was a performer, Malek also had to move and dance on stage the way Mercury did. To achieve this, Malek worked with movement director Polly Bennett. First, they studied Mercury's past and learned that he was both a boxer and long-distance runner. So Malek trained himself to be agile and limber like a boxer. With this boxing background, Mercury could change direction very quickly on stage. And so too could Malek. Meanwhile, the film wanted to recreate Live Aid nearly shot for shot, meaning Malek had to imitate every frame of the concert footage. You can see Malek perfectly match how Mercury handles the mic here and how he struts around on stage here.
The makeup team behind "Bombshell" had just six weeks of preproduction to make Charlize Theron look like Megyn Kelly. Luckily, Theron didn't need heavy prosthetics for her transformation. Instead, the team focused more on subtle differences, far beyond the nose plugs we mentioned earlier. First, Theron and Kelly have very different-shaped eyes. So makeup artist Vivian Baker turned to fake eyelashes, using Lashify Gossamers, which come in pieces instead of a single strip. This flexibility gave Baker the ability to play with the weight of Theron's lash line. With the addition of fake eyelids, this transformed her eyes, according to makeup artist Kazu Hiro, from deep-socketed to more hooded. To get a deeper shade of blue to match Kelly's eyes, Theron wore colored contact lenses. And to match what the makeup team described as Kelly's "heart-shaped face," the team lowered Theron's wig, thus lowering her hairline. Hiro also created some traditional prosthetics as well, like an upturned nose tip and angular jaw and chin pieces.
Actor Gary Oldman looks nothing like Winston Churchill. So when the actor was cast to play Churchill in "Darkest Hour," makeup artist Kazu Hiro had to cover Oldman in nearly half his body weight worth of special effects makeup. They did about three to five makeup tests, matching various silicone prostheses to see what was crucial and what wasn't. Hiro realized he could cover Oldman's cheeks, jowls, neck, chin, and nose. But Oldman's eyes, mouth, and forehead were important for emphasizing expressions and emotions. So Hiro intentionally left out some of Churchill's physical features, like discarding the piece for Churchill's real-life forehead scar. That's why you can see Oldman's real forehead creases emote as much as his mouth. The team made up for this diversion from the truth by nailing details the viewer might not even think of as essential, like giving the prosthetic pieces pink and blotchy tones to match the leader's skin. In the end, even without the scar, "Darkest Hour" created a convincing Churchill, leading to Oscar wins for both Oldman and Hiro.
As seen in "I, Tonya," visual effects can be just as crucial to an actor's transformation as makeup and training. Margot Robbie trained for five months to skate like Tonya Harding, but there were multiple moves too difficult for a non-Olympic athlete. And since Harding's skating routines are just as famous as her public persona, the film had to get the moves exactly right. So the team used two VFX methods to seamlessly combine Robbie's training with her stunt double's. For the first method, a stunt double would skate with an orange tennis ball on her head. Her face would be swapped out for Robbie's. The second method was full head replacement. They 3D-scanned Robbie's face to get a full range of her skin texture and expressions in order to build a digital model. Head replacement was useful for complex shots like this one, which was actually three shots stitched together. Because of this careful work behind the scenes, you'll never be able to tell what part of the shot is Robbie and what part is a double. Instead, you can just focus on how Robbie imitated all of Harding's mannerisms, from putting her hand over her face when she's upset to raising her arms in a moment of triumph.
In "Rocketman," the first step to transforming Taron Egerton into Elton John was nailing the costumes, especially when Egerton was performing. After all, John himself said he doesn't feel like the Elton John until he chooses his outfit for a show. So costume designer Julian Day closely modeled Egerton's looks after John's real outfits. This included designing 50 pairs of glasses and 50 pairs of shoes, one of which was covered in real Swarovski crystals. And while Egerton already knew how to sing, playing an instrument in Elton John's legendary style is a whole other skill. Egerton spent six weeks training with piano coach Michael L. Roberts. According to Roberts, a piano is hard to perform at, since you can't move around with it like you would with a guitar. So Egerton focused on the unique parts of John's playing style, such as how he leans into his mic and sometimes plays with his feet. Roberts and Egerton also studied John's musical influences, like blues and boogie-woogie, to get the right style of finger placement. Because of that physicality, it really felt like you were watching Elton John play.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufonypu9ZmmJysn6fAbsDRmqWsnp%2BnuqawjKKlraddp7KiuIypnKionJp6qrqMpqavoZVir6q7z6KarGViZX9yeZc%3D