From Vampire Manicures to Tarantino’s Bloody Requests, Makeup Artist Howard Berger Shares His Hollywood Trade Secrets
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From “American Werewolf in London,” “Nightmare on Elm Street” to the new AMC series, “Interview with the Vampire,” makeup artist Howard Berger has over 800 credits and is the mastermind behind some of the most astounding transformations on film and TV.
Earlier this year, longtime friends Marshall Julius and Berger released the book, “Masters of Make-Up Effects: A Century of Practical Magic” where Berger shares never-before-seen photos, detailing the magic of practical makeup and sharing his process.
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Variety asked Berger to share some of his favorite anecdotes about bloodying up the beautiful faces of Hollywood below.
The Orville’s Alien Sausage Factory
“There’s an array of aliens, hundreds of species [on this show]. Seth MacFarlane (writer, creator and star) is very artistic and we’d have discussions about alien ideas. He would sometimes do a little sketch – and I’ve saved them all – and I’d get it. Over the years that we’ve worked together, I’ve come to understand his language and I can pick things from what he’s saying. So, I’ll take that, enhance it and make it real.
“On a TV show like that, there’s a tremendous amount of work to do. There will be times when we will do 100 makeups in a day. So, I would have a giant barrage of makeup artists on set, several makeup trailers, and we’re doing all these makeups. Since I’ve designed everything, we don’t spend more than an hour and a half on makeup just because we have to. I call it the ‘sausage factory’ because we have to turn them out, but we don’t ever sacrifice quality. We just have to be smart about how things go together.”
The Walking Dead Walkers And More
“Greg Nicotero is the king of the zombies. He supervises all of that. We’re constantly designing and redesigning the zombies.
“[‘Walking Dead’] has about 12 to a couple of hundred different looks and we divide them into different groups. There’s the ‘A group’ in hero makeup, the ‘B group’ is mid-ground makeup and the ‘C group’ is background and [they’re] all about making masks.
“With the ‘A group’ they are all in prosthetics and that will take from one hour and a half to two hours. Greg will also need to take in shooting conditions because Atlanta is known as ‘Hotlanta.’
“Greg learned very quickly in the pilot episode when they applied makeup and they went to set, the makeup started peeling off the actors because it was so hot and humid, and the actors were sweating. So, he had to rethink his approach because you couldn’t have the makeup looking great, and when you get to set, it’s melted.”
Tarantino Blood
“Blood is important. Dick Smith is the godfather of makeup and he created his own formula for movie blood. Before that, there was 3M blood, it was also called Kensington gore blood. It looked fine in person if you watch films from the ‘60s, such as Hammer Horror, but Dick didn’t like that and how it looked. So, he created a formula made from carob syrup with powdered food dyes and preservatives. As a 12-year-old, I wrote to him and he sent me the formula and I still have it. We still use it at KNB EFX Group, although, we altered it a bit.
“We have many different types of blood. There’s human blood, vampire blood and zombie blood. There’s even ‘Tarantino blood’ which is a color that Quentin likes for specific things. When we were on ‘Kill Bill,’ he said, ‘I need the Japanese sword blood.’ I went upstairs and mixed some things up and brought it down to him, and he said, ‘I knew you had it.’
“Blood for zombies is very dark, it’s almost black. Greg will use a combination of blood. When humans are bitten and torn apart, there’s human blood. Then there’s also lighter blood. Sometimes, if you’re shooting in a dark scenario, and the clothing might be dark, that lighter blood will show up better on a black costume or darker costume as opposed to normal human blood.”
Freddy Krueger
“I was working for Kevin Yagher at the time, and Kevin came to me and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to do ‘Nightmare on Elm Street: Part Four,’ do you want to apply Robert’s [Englund] makeup”
“I got to do Freddy, and it was foam rubber multiple-piece makeup with a neckpiece, chin and nose. The first day I did it, it took me four and a half hours. I was being respectful to Robert Englund. He loves to talk. Every time Robert talked, I would stop and wait, and when he was done, I’d go back in. Kevin said, ‘Just ignore Robert and bulldoze through it.’
“Kevin designed and created that makeup, I just took it over and made sure it always looked good for Kevin, and Robert.”
Vampire Manicures
“We shot that in New Orleans, and we had to figure out what was going to be different about our vampires. I didn’t want them to be veiny and ghastly. These guys have to assimilate into real life and they needed to go and seduce their prey. I threw an idea at the showrunner Rolin Jones and said, ‘Why don’t we make everybody else look terrible and the vampires amazing?’ Their hair, skin and eyes are beautiful and magnificent because the spotlight is on them all the time. Rolin was intrigued by that idea. So, we started testing things out.
“[The actors] Sam Reid lives in Australia and Bailey Bass was in New York, so through prep we were making things and sending things all over the world via FedEx. Australia was in complete lockdown, so Sam would hop on Zoom, and I would have him fit his teeth.
“The fingernails were the hardest and were a pain in the butt because they would fly off. We ended up sending the guys to get a manicure every weekend to get acrylic nails that were very specific to the design. It was just driving Sam and Jacob and Bailey crazy because we were always gluing the nails on.
“There’s also a lot of blood and guts and it gets pretty heavy-handed and pretty heavy-duty by episode seven. It becomes a mess.”
“Masters of Make-Up Effects: A Century of Practical Magic” can be purchased here.
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