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Friday, February 23, 2018
Makeup Artist Turned Gary Oldman Into Churchill for ‘Darkest Hour’
Variety: The Oscar buzz surrounding Gary Oldman’s turn as Winston Churchill has been deafening since “Darkest Hour” hit the festival circuit last August, and he’s already racked up the lion’s share of this season’s accolades.
7 comments:
Rebecca Meckler
said...
The makeup in this movie was truly phenomenal. During the movie it immensely helped make Oldman become Churchill. Before watching the movie, I did not realize Tusiji was such an accomplished makeup artist. I found it interesting that Tsuji had not previously been able to work on serious movies. The other movies that were listed, though famous and successful, were not dramas. I wonder why serious movies have less involved makeup the other movies. Though they tend to be more realistic I would have thought other historical movies would have employed these techniques. In addition, I wonder how proportionally close faces have to be to make Tusiji job simpler. How much simpler would it have been if there faces were similar, as the makeup for Oldman took six hours. It is interested to read about what what Tusiji did for the movie and I look forward to seeing his future work, weather its art or makeup.
I thought the makeup in this movie was one of the strongest parts, and there were definitely many to choose from. Tsuji's work here is absolutely stunning. I have never seen so many close up shots on a face completely constructed with makeup that looked so realistic. You could even see the pores on his skin! It was absolutely convincing. I think the story of him coming out of retirement is pretty great as well. I am glad that they were able to convince him, because it would have been almost impossible to pull off this movie with anyone less talented than he. Not to mention Gary Oldman's performance in this film. He was really stunning as well. It is wild to me how many different faces Oldman has put on over the years in his performances, from Sirius Black to the Police Commissioner, he really can change who he is to fit the part.
I had to do a little more research on this since the article does not really talk about the actual process, which I am curious about. I always love to see when behind the scenes people get the credit they deserve. Sure that's not why we do it, but its nice to be appreciated. I was hoping though that based on the headline, this article would have more about the process. I found some other articles and videos about the process and from that I can say that I don't really get it. There have to be qualified actors who look far more like Churchill than Oldman. I think the make up is incredible and quite an art, but I don't think it's necessary. It seems there was a big actor name they wanted to use no matter if he looked the part. When you are doing a realistic history film you rarely see actors who don't look pretty close to the real person, but that is not always done with makeup. And you don't even need to look like the real person to tell the story. I suppose I am curious why a different actor couldn't have played this role.
While I haven’t the seen the film, so I can’t comment on the final product of the makeup. I agree with Drew, in that I expected the article to be more about the process that it took to transform Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill. Actually, I be fascinated to see how Tsuji pulled off something that was almost impossible. What intrigued me most about this article was the makeup artist’s relationship to his work, and even though the article didn’t really dive into it. I wonder what had caused him to say “I had made a promise to myself to leave the business”. That was probably the biggest question I had after reading the article. However, I really liked the way that the article highlighted the importance of the relationship between the makeup artist and the actor, and that actually Oldman was one of the reasons that Tsuji signed on to do the film.
Makeup artists need more recognition publically, in the media, than they have ever received. This goes for red carpet makeup artists, movie and TV makeup artists, celebrity makeup artists, concert and touring makeup artists, special effects makeup artists, and so on and so on. They really are crucial to any performance, appearance, etc.; they create the person that you see. They decide how this person will be conveyed to the world. It is a huge and important job. If a celebrity or actor’s makeup is incorrect, it is blatantly INCORRECT. Distracting. Unsettling. It can ruin a performance. On the other hand, if the makeup is good, it is amazing. Lady Gaga comes to mind. Her makeup has always been a part of why she is so iconic. Do I know the name of the makeup artist who worked on the Telephone, Applause, and Marry the Night music videos? No. But I should. We all should.
This was a really great article that did a great job shining a light on people behind the camera of big company films that do not always get the recognition that they deserve! Makeup for film, television, and theatre is something that I have a lot of interest in, but definitely have not had much experience in at all. While costume designers get a lot more credit for their work on mainstream news and media platforms more often than they used to, makeup is one department that is still often overlooked. This idea of recognition is one that I think a lot of people in design and production of theatre and film play with often. To me, recognition of people behind the scenes and behind the camera is important because it is the only way that young people will every be exposed to jobs and art that they might want to do some day as well. In all, I loved this article, and hope to see more articles and recognition like this in the future!
I was absolutely blown away when I went to see The Darkest hour for the first time, and I have to say, it was not only the appearance of Churchill that sealed the deal for me, but his behaviour and acting as well. To the point that Drew made earlier in the comments, I think another actor could have played churchill while using a lot less makeup to do so, but the performance that Gary Oldman produced was absolutely incredible. Going with that, the work that the makeup artists did so that Gary Oldman's acting could shine through was absolutely phenomenal. One would think that in order to transform Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill would require large rubber prosthetics of some sort, restricting the emotive power of the actor, but that was not apparent in the movie. Well done.
7 comments:
The makeup in this movie was truly phenomenal. During the movie it immensely helped make Oldman become Churchill. Before watching the movie, I did not realize Tusiji was such an accomplished makeup artist. I found it interesting that Tsuji had not previously been able to work on serious movies. The other movies that were listed, though famous and successful, were not dramas. I wonder why serious movies have less involved makeup the other movies. Though they tend to be more realistic I would have thought other historical movies would have employed these techniques. In addition, I wonder how proportionally close faces have to be to make Tusiji job simpler. How much simpler would it have been if there faces were similar, as the makeup for Oldman took six hours. It is interested to read about what what Tusiji did for the movie and I look forward to seeing his future work, weather its art or makeup.
I thought the makeup in this movie was one of the strongest parts, and there were definitely many to choose from. Tsuji's work here is absolutely stunning. I have never seen so many close up shots on a face completely constructed with makeup that looked so realistic. You could even see the pores on his skin! It was absolutely convincing. I think the story of him coming out of retirement is pretty great as well. I am glad that they were able to convince him, because it would have been almost impossible to pull off this movie with anyone less talented than he. Not to mention Gary Oldman's performance in this film. He was really stunning as well. It is wild to me how many different faces Oldman has put on over the years in his performances, from Sirius Black to the Police Commissioner, he really can change who he is to fit the part.
I had to do a little more research on this since the article does not really talk about the actual process, which I am curious about. I always love to see when behind the scenes people get the credit they deserve. Sure that's not why we do it, but its nice to be appreciated. I was hoping though that based on the headline, this article would have more about the process. I found some other articles and videos about the process and from that I can say that I don't really get it. There have to be qualified actors who look far more like Churchill than Oldman. I think the make up is incredible and quite an art, but I don't think it's necessary. It seems there was a big actor name they wanted to use no matter if he looked the part. When you are doing a realistic history film you rarely see actors who don't look pretty close to the real person, but that is not always done with makeup. And you don't even need to look like the real person to tell the story. I suppose I am curious why a different actor couldn't have played this role.
While I haven’t the seen the film, so I can’t comment on the final product of the makeup. I agree with Drew, in that I expected the article to be more about the process that it took to transform Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill. Actually, I be fascinated to see how Tsuji pulled off something that was almost impossible. What intrigued me most about this article was the makeup artist’s relationship to his work, and even though the article didn’t really dive into it. I wonder what had caused him to say “I had made a promise to myself to leave the business”. That was probably the biggest question I had after reading the article. However, I really liked the way that the article highlighted the importance of the relationship between the makeup artist and the actor, and that actually Oldman was one of the reasons that Tsuji signed on to do the film.
Makeup artists need more recognition publically, in the media, than they have ever received. This goes for red carpet makeup artists, movie and TV makeup artists, celebrity makeup artists, concert and touring makeup artists, special effects makeup artists, and so on and so on. They really are crucial to any performance, appearance, etc.; they create the person that you see. They decide how this person will be conveyed to the world. It is a huge and important job. If a celebrity or actor’s makeup is incorrect, it is blatantly INCORRECT. Distracting. Unsettling. It can ruin a performance. On the other hand, if the makeup is good, it is amazing. Lady Gaga comes to mind. Her makeup has always been a part of why she is so iconic. Do I know the name of the makeup artist who worked on the Telephone, Applause, and Marry the Night music videos? No. But I should. We all should.
This was a really great article that did a great job shining a light on people behind the camera of big company films that do not always get the recognition that they deserve! Makeup for film, television, and theatre is something that I have a lot of interest in, but definitely have not had much experience in at all. While costume designers get a lot more credit for their work on mainstream news and media platforms more often than they used to, makeup is one department that is still often overlooked. This idea of recognition is one that I think a lot of people in design and production of theatre and film play with often. To me, recognition of people behind the scenes and behind the camera is important because it is the only way that young people will every be exposed to jobs and art that they might want to do some day as well. In all, I loved this article, and hope to see more articles and recognition like this in the future!
I was absolutely blown away when I went to see The Darkest hour for the first time, and I have to say, it was not only the appearance of Churchill that sealed the deal for me, but his behaviour and acting as well. To the point that Drew made earlier in the comments, I think another actor could have played churchill while using a lot less makeup to do so, but the performance that Gary Oldman produced was absolutely incredible. Going with that, the work that the makeup artists did so that Gary Oldman's acting could shine through was absolutely phenomenal. One would think that in order to transform Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill would require large rubber prosthetics of some sort, restricting the emotive power of the actor, but that was not apparent in the movie. Well done.
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