Welcome to a look inside The Holocron. A collection of articles from the archives of *starwars.com no longer directly available.

(*Archived here with Permission utilising The Internet Archive Wayback Machine)

Looks are Everything – Part II

Working closely with the Costume and Make-up Departments, Chief Hairdresser Sue Love was responsible for one more of the crucial elements that work their magic to bring to life the characters of Episode I.

“I’ve always been a hairdresser, always wanted to be a hairdresser,” begins Love, whose career in the movies began around the time Star Wars opened. “I had done everything in the salon, had gone as far as I could. And in the 70’s, when blow drying came in, it all became very boring. So I made some contacts in the film business, and when I was given a chance, I took it.” Love has been at it ever since, weaving her hairdressing spell in such productions as Braveheart and The Fifth Element. “My very first project was a movie called Arabian Adventure,” she recalls. “I then worked on a British television series called The Professional, and I went on from there.” With her daughter Sarah in tow, Love was unwittingly planting the hairdressing bug in her family lineage. “I used to follow mom around,” says Sarah, “and I eventually ended up training as a hairdresser myself. I then worked in the theater industry for a couple of years before moving to films.” Over the years, mother and daughter collaborated on a few projects, including The Fifth Element. They were reunited once again when Producer Rick McCallum hired them to work on Episode I.

Sculpting hairstyles on the set requires a broader range of abilities than what might be expected in the salon, and proper training is key. “You just need to have an all-around knowledge of hair and hairdressing,” explains Sue Love. “I was fortunate in my training during the 60’s, because you got that, you did everything. Nowadays they just don’t do it anymore, they pretty much just do the cutting and the drying. But for all the period work, you have to know how to do the different hairstyles, you have to master the different techniques, the wigs and everything.” The approach to movie hairstyling can also be very different than standard hairdressing, both in terms of the techniques involved and the expected results. “First of all, there’s not as much worry about permanency,” says Sue Love. “You can sometimes use temporary techniques, because you know that hair only needs a lifespan of a few hours.” This allows hairdressers to create complex hairstyles that, if required to last for any significant period of time, would be impossible to achieve. “Then there is the fact that you know your work is going to end up onscreen,” Love continues, “and that your tiny mistake will be magnified and appear on a 40-foot wide head. So you’ve got to be extra careful.”

On Episode I, Sue and Sarah Love had one month to prepare before principal photography began. Armed with concept art and tapes of the original Trilogy, they started planning. “We spoke to George, and he gave us directions,” says Sue Love. “He’s very clear and definite in what he wants, but of course he leaves the methods of achieving those results to us. And he always listens when we tell him that something is impossible.” But the Loves were determined not to let this happen often, no matter how complex the designs of Concept Artist Iain McCaig proved to be. But concept art only covered hairdos for the main characters, and for all the others who wore hair, it was up to Sue and her daughter Sarah to give them convincing hairstyles. “We didn’t do all the rest,” points out Sue Love. “There are quite a lot of creatures in this movie, and we didn’t work on those for obvious reasons. And we didn’t work on the digital characters either.” That still leaves a large population that needs hair care. “In order to prepare for the job,” continues Love, “we watched all three original movies. We spent a whole day just watching the movies, rewinding scenes and watching them again, over and over again.” The Loves played the movies in chronological order, but also watched them in reverse, so that they could somehow “devolve” the hairstyles from Return of the Jedi to A New Hope, and all the way down to Episode I. “We had to grasp not only the differences between the people from Tatooine and the people from Naboo, but also the variations in the way they wear their hair from one timeframe to another,” says Sarah Love. “From one movie to another, the characters are all related in some way, and we wanted to preserve that continuity.”

For practical reasons, a movie is usually shot out of sequence, which means that hair management can become a complex puzzle at times. Unlike make-up artists, hairdressers can’t afford the luxury of erasing a mistake and starting over. Once the scissors have thinned or shortened an actor’s hair, there is no turning back. Wigs can help up to a certain point, but they remain far from being an ideal remedy. The character of Obi-Wan Kenobi, among others, required some wizardry on the part of the Loves. “We had to cut Ewan’s hair quite short and give him a braid on one side,” explains Sue Love. “But then George thought a pony tail at the back of the head would look good, which is of course we couldn’t do since the hair was gone! So we shuffled around, found some hair that matched Ewan’s, and attached it. And George was right: it worked beautifully.”

Stunt doubles also carry with them their load of practical problems for hairdressers, because the transition from one performer to the other, on screen, must be accomplished seamlessly. “At first we tried dyeing the hair of Ewan’s stunt double, but it didn’t quite work,” Sue Love says. “So we had to use a wig. It worked well, but you still have to be extremely careful and really pay attention, because the better the match between actor and stunt double, the closer the camera can go on the double.” For obvious reasons, stunt doubles are often shot from a back angle; this makes hair is one of the main elements, along with the costume, that allow audiences to readily recognize the character. “So it should be really exact,” comments Sue Love.

As is the case for make-up artists, the job of the hairdressing team doesn’t stop once the actors leave their reclining chairs. On the set, and especially when shooting an action-packed movie like Episode I, Sue Love and her team have to stand ready to spring into some action of their own. “There’s always some piece of hair that has moved where it shouldn’t have, and you need to bring it back to where it was in the previous shot,” explains Sue Love. “So we work closely with the Continuity Supervisor, and it’s really helpful. On Episode I, Jayne-Ann Tenggren helped a lot in keeping all the tiny details straight.” There are never too many pairs of eyes paying attention to the subtleties of hair placement – or displacement, as it often happened during the action scenes of The Phantom Menace. The hairdresser is also required to be on set to perform the many transformations the actors’ hair might need during the day, as the characters move from one location to another, and emerge from one adventure only to plunge back into the next. “The hair’s got to be wet, dry, messy, tidy…and you need to keep track of it all,” laughs Sue Love. “We take a lot of reference pictures.” Rick McCallum felt confident that every single detail would be attended to with the utmost professionalism. “Sue did the most outstanding job during the production,” McCallum says. “It was a real pleasure to have her with us on this project.”

While a character’s hair obviously has to work with his or her make-up, the match between hair and costume is no less important. On Episode I, with elaborate costumes worn by Queen Amidala and other characters, the delicate fusion between the hair and the cloth required skill and imagination. “We usually like to see the costume first,” explains Sue Love, “and then do something, with the hair, that will fit that costume.” Governor Sio Bibble, played by Oliver Walpole, is a case in point. He wears the elegant garments of a Naboo politician, and needed a haircut to match. “With short hair it just didn’t look right.” says Sue Love. “So we opted for the period, longer hair, and it all came together.” In the case of hairstyles that had been previously designed, almost as part of the costume itself, by Iain McCaig, the Chief Hairdresser’s job didn’t lose any of its complexity: bringing a fantasy hairdo into the real world can be quite a challenge. Queen Amidala, in particular, proved to require special attention, and had the Loves use their full range of skills to create the intricate, royal hair designs. “It was indeed complicated,” says Sue Love, “but in the end it looked absolutely spectacular. So it was worth the effort, especially since Natalie Portman made it so easy for us. She never complained about the head pieces being too hot or too heavy – and some of them were hot and heavy. She was great.”

Hairstyles are one of the many elements that define the identity of the Star Wars saga. And like everything else, they have to be just right for their influence to blend perfectly with the tone created by the costumes, the make-ups, the props, the sets…. So how do you conjure up a Star Wars hairdo? Above the funky, otherworldly twists present in many of the coiffures of Star Wars characters, one quality reigns supreme: timelessness. To achieve this, George Lucas has relied on influences that are already considered classic and will therefore never feel outdated, no matter where in time – or in space – they end up being positioned. So the Loves have followed Lucas’ lead. “There is very little that’s futuristic in Episode I”, says Sarah Love. “Pretty much all the costumes and hairstyles are period, classic.”

And so the wheel keeps turning. By the time moviegoers witness the conclusion of Episode III, the various costume and hairstyle designs will have been brought to a point where they connect with what exists in the original Trilogy. Ironically, the influence will still be a classic one, because those Episode III designs will be tapping into material that appeared in Episodes IV, V and VI, and which was made classic by the equally timeless quality of the original Star Wars movies.

Welcome to a look inside The Holocron. A collection of articles from the archives of *starwars.com no longer directly available.

(*Archived here with Permission utilising The Internet Archive Wayback Machine)

Looks are Everything – Part I

The Star Wars universe is filled with countless species, each with its own unique appearance. Several departments work together to create these otherworldly looks, and make-up is one of them. Chief Make-Up Artist on Episode I, Paul R. A. Engelen brings to life the faces of the heroes and villains of the new Star Wars movie.

“It goes back to 1970,” says Engelen, “when I first started in art school. I thought I would perhaps end up being a designer, but it turned out differently. A good friend of mine with whom I was in college persuaded me to go with him watch his father, who was doing the make-up on the play Oliver Twist. I ended up working myself, on the crowds, doing hair and things like that. Then Thomas Nick, another great make-up artist, asked me if I would like to assist him on a film shoot, and I jumped at it. So I did my apprenticeship when I started working,” says Engelen with a smile.

This unexpected debut was the beginning of a career that would allow Engelen, over the years, to explore different aspects of his art, from period work like Much Ado About Nothing and monstrous effects in Frankenstein, all the way to the action-packed adventures of Robin Hood Prince of Thieves and the elegant simplicity of Seven Years in Tibet. “Producer Rick McCallum actually called while I was working on Seven Years in Tibet,” says Engelen. “Right out of the blue – it was my first contact with Lucasfilm. We discussed the upcoming movie, and I was brought on board.”

Episode I was an interesting mix of challenges for Engelen. The sheer number of characters demanded a wide variety of make-up designs, and the presence of alien creatures meant that unorthodox techniques would apply. “My background allows me to be comfortable with both bare skin and prosthetics,” says Engelen, “and I like to be involved in both sides of make-up. But when the prosthetics are done and the shooting begins, I prefer to concentrate on the actors. I love to be on the floor with them. Fortunately, there are those, like Nick Dudman, who are able to immerse themselves completely in the prosthetics side of it. We made a good team.” This type of collaboration would prove to be helpful in the realization of the many make-up designs produced by the art department. Some of those designs, very imaginative, required careful planning and creative thinking to be brought to life.

The make-up of Darth Maul was one of the more complex designs. “I have not seen anything that looks remotely like the Darth Maul character,” says Engelen. “And that’s fascinating.” Every day that Darth Maul was required on set, Engelen had to accurately reproduce Maul’s tattoo design on Ray Park’s face and head. He also had to make sure that it would withstand the intense activity the martial artist-actor would engage in. “I just had to make sure that somehow we could keep this design on,” Engelen says. “There was so much activity and fighting going on, that the heat was a constant threat. We tried different things, and I ended up using a paint mixed with a rubber solution, which adhered nicely to the skin. [A close-up on Darth Maul]It worked well, up to a point. As long as you didn’t push it too much, it didn’t run or bleed away like normal make-up would have done.” No matter how good the make-up held, it had to be removed each night and put back on the next morning, and Engelen needed to make sure that his markings would look exactly the same each time. “For the head, I used a stencil,” he says. “But for the face, it couldn’t be that easy. I had to note the marks on his face – a little mole here, a wrinkle there – and use these as sort of landmarks from which to draw the various shapes of the design.”

The various make-up designs for the Queen, although not destined to bear the pressure of lightsaber combat, were still very delicate to realize. “Many influences were combined for the overall look of the Queen,” says Engelen, “but I’d say that most of the time it’s an Eastern look. The costumes and the headdress designs were all very intricate and elaborate, creating strong images.” Engelen explains that while the make-up has to go in the same direction as the rest of the elements that compose the Queen’s look, it also needs to take away some of the heaviness of the whole design, and underline the features in a very light way, acting as a kind of counter weight. “It was an almost white base color, very oriental-looking,” Engelen continues. “An almost naïve kind of markings. Red dots on the cheek, a very accentuated red mouth, and some black eyes. I think it worked: it ‘pops’ the face amongst all of this incredible, ornate headdress and costume. It all seems to balance quite well.”

Engelen’s job goes beyond making up the actors every morning. Someone needs to remain on the set, brushes ready, and keep an eye out for any character that might require some touching-up — and Engelen loves to take care of that himself. “It’s basically a question of maintaining the actors’ looks from one shot to the next,” he says, “and making sure they look the same in the afternoon as they did in the morning.” However, to Engelen, being on the set serves another purpose as well. “I think seeing the actors work their characters out really helps me. It allows me to be conscious of the character’s personality as I make the actor up, and maybe change a few little things to better match that personality. They’re really small touches, and they don’t make a marked difference. But they’re important to me.”

Engelen’s mastery of various make-up techniques allowed him to meet the different challenges that awaited him on Episode I. However, a new technique is emerging: digital make-up. More and more, computer artists can re-create make-up effects with touch-less strokes from their virtual brushes. “The computer effects are much more acceptable and believable nowadays,” says Engelen. “The range of distortions and additions that they can do now with faces – with my area – is impressive. I have to admit it’s a bit alarming. But elaborate make-ups are inconveniences for the whole production, not least of which the actors.” While computers might solve certain problems and provide a few welcome short-cuts, nothing will quite be able to completely replace the touch of a human hand weaving a delicate tapestry on bare skin. “I think there will always be a place for people like myself,” concludes Engelen. And his work is an eloquent testimony to the fact that, indeed, there will always be a need for the human element.