When make-up designer Mike Marino signed on to do the prosthetics for A Totally different Man, he was taken in by the story’s potential to shine a comedic mild on a darkish topic. Author-director Aaron Schimberg’s tackle somebody’s obsession of self then led Marino to an Oscar nomination for his prosthetic designs.
A Totally different Man follows Edward (Sebastian Stan), an aspiring actor, who undergoes a medical process to drastically change his look. When his new face will get in the best way of the position he was born to play, he turns into obsessive about reclaiming what was misplaced. Marino appeared to Adam Pearson for inspiration on what Edward’s preliminary prosthetics ought to appear to be, for the reason that actors needed to be taking part in off of one another, although Marino’s actual craftsmanship got here within the type of the “remedy phases” prosthetics.
DEADLINE: What was your inspiration for Edward’s prosthetics?
MIKE MARINO: The precise direct inspiration was Adam Pearson. Because of what we would have liked to do by means of the movie, we needed to have Sebastian look near Adam Pearson, however a bit totally different. He was actually the principle affect with the design of the make-up as a result of they’re taking part in in opposition to one another, so it wouldn’t actually make sense if it appeared fully totally different. It needed to have the identical feeling. So, I used Sebastian’s face to do what I may together with his personal face and his proportions, and blend them with Adam Pearson’s in a way, however I needed to truly make it slightly bit extra dramatic as a result of his face is like Edward’s face within the movie. Sebastian’s character goes by means of this sort of metamorphosis the place he’s getting scabs and these items are peeling off of his face. So, it needed to be altered from Adam Pearson’s face, which isn’t going by means of any of that stuff. All through the movie, his face is getting scabby and lumpy and all these different issues occurring, after which he’s peeling items of it off, after which he in the end peels his complete face off.
DEADLINE: Inform me in regards to the phases of the prosthetics.
MARINO: So, there’s just a few phases. His preliminary look is its personal look in itself, after which when he begins going to therapies, he begins getting scabs and little items of issues which can be extra intensified and flakier. After which you’ve got this extraordinarily mushy model the place his face virtually seems prefer it’s melting off, which is the scene the place he peels his face off and beneath is one other stage of make-up. It’s a transitionary state between Edward’s remaining look as Man, which he modifies his title to, and Edward’s look. When he peels that off, beneath is one other make-up he’s carrying that’s barely distorting his facial options. For those who look carefully, you possibly can sort of see remnants of the form of what that character seems like. After which in the end the subsequent scene, he’s Sebastian Stan. He’s the brand new character.
That’s about 4 phases, and it was onerous to make the very mushy one. We barely may even take it out of our molds as a result of it was simply so pliable and so mushy that it was barely holding its form. And I needed to do the make-up of his transitionary stage first after which glue with a really sticky gel, a really sticky materials referred to as Methylcellulose, which is principally a concentrated jelly donut filling. I needed to glue the make-up on with that materials in order that it might sort of slough off and simply peel and drip off. So then when he stretches it, it’s all this actually stretchy cocoon-like shell happening. In order that was undoubtedly a tough factor to even pull off.
DEADLINE: And what’s that final prosthetic itself made out of? Is it a unique materials from the others that makes it so mushy and troublesome to work with?
MARINO: It’s all the identical materials. It’s simply assorted in density of silicone. There’re methods to fluctuate the softness of issues. Like for example, on The Penguin, I made sure points of that make-up more durable, just like the nostril. And there have been points of Colin [Farrell]’s face, just like the neck, which I made extraordinarily mushy as a result of it’s such a cell space. Similar with this, there’s a few mushy spots of Edward’s character, after which when he’s peeling his face off, it’s a a lot, a lot softer model of the identical materials. We are able to make it extra liquid and do various things chemically to make it very pliable, nevertheless it’s all platinum, medical-grade silicone.
