When make-up designer Mike Marino signed on to do the prosthetics for A Completely different Man, he was taken in by the story’s means 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 Completely 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 seem like, for the reason that actors needed to be enjoying 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 wanted to do by the movie, we needed to have Sebastian look near Adam Pearson, however a bit completely different. He was actually the primary affect with the design of the make-up as a result of they’re enjoying in opposition to one another, so it wouldn’t actually make sense if it appeared fully completely different. It needed to have the identical feeling. So, I used Sebastian’s face to do what I may along 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 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 any of that stuff. All through the movie, his face is getting scabby and lumpy and all these different issues taking place, after which he’s peeling items of it off, after which he finally peels his whole face off.
DEADLINE: Inform me in regards to the phases of the prosthetics.
MARINO: So, there’s a couple of 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 are extra intensified and flakier. After which you’ve got this extraordinarily delicate model the place his face nearly appears to be like 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 ultimate 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. In the event you look carefully, you possibly can type of see remnants of the form of what that character appears to be like like. After which finally the subsequent scene, he’s Sebastian Stan. He’s the brand new character.
That’s about 4 phases, and it was exhausting to make the very delicate one. We barely may even take it out of our molds as a result of it was simply so pliable and so delicate 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 mainly a concentrated jelly donut filling. I needed to glue the make-up on with that materials in order that it could type of slough off and simply peel and drip off. So then when he stretches it, it’s all this actually stretchy cocoon-like shell occurring. In order that was undoubtedly a difficult factor to even pull off.
DEADLINE: And what’s that final prosthetic itself made out of? Is it a distinct materials from the others that makes it so delicate and tough to work with?
MARINO: It’s all the identical materials. It’s simply various in density of silicone. There’re methods to range the softness of issues. Like as an illustration, on The Penguin, I made sure features of that make-up tougher, just like the nostril. And there have been features of Colin [Farrell]’s face, just like the neck, which I made extraordinarily delicate as a result of it’s such a cellular space. Identical with this, there’s a few delicate 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, but it surely’s all platinum, medical-grade silicone.
