Poor Issues: how hair and make-up play a central function within the Yorgos Lanthimos movie

There’s a scene in Poor Issues, the most recent movie by singular Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, the place the hair of protagonist Bella Baxter (performed by Emma Stone) is described as ‘silk on a translucent, glowing egg’. Launched within the UK in the present day (12 January 2024), the darkish comedy is an adaptation of Scottish author and artist Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel – which blends surrealism and sci-fi with political and social commentary. Set in Victorian London, the Frankensteinian story recounts the story of Bella being introduced again to life by surgeon Dr Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) after leaping from a bridge to finish her life, pregnant with a baby she doesn’t need. Dr Baxter finally swaps her mind with that of her unborn baby, resulting in Bella having to study concerning the world she inhabits anew.

Poor Issues: Nadia Stacey on how she created the hair and make-up

The movie opens with Bella’s suicide, with a close-up shot of the again of her head, displaying hair pinned up within the style that was well-liked for girls of well mannered society, unruly tendrils escaping their coiffured cage. All through her narrative arc, because the character travels the world, Bella’s hair turns into symbolically longer and extra unruly. As Nadia Stacey, chief hair and make-up artist for Poor Issues explains: ‘Her hair was left down deliberately as a marker of her non-conformity to society, as we see all the ladies round her with interval hairstyles. Because the movie goes on, the hair grows at an accelerated price, too. So I modified the size as she strikes by way of her journey ending up with 44-inch hair wefts.’

When Stacey signed on for the mission, she was given easy directions as to how the hair must be created nearly instantly. ‘I acquired an e mail early on that simply stated “no wigs”! So I ended up utilizing micro braids in Emma’s hair and hooked up actual hair wefts of various lengths for various elements of the story. They have been made in a pure brown and dyed black to match Emma’s hair.’ (Stone had by accident dyed her hair black in actual life; the preliminary plan was to take her purple hair to a deep shade of brown). ‘The black hair wasn’t initially intentional; we knew it might be darkish, but it surely went nearly black. However it was a cheerful accident as a result of it’s precisely what Bella must be. It makes her stand out in amongst this vibrant world she enters and regularly reveals her as nearly otherworldly,’ Stacey says.

Bella’s face is purposefully saved make-up-free for the primary half of Poor Issues. ‘Yorgos at all times insists on no make-up when it’s not particular for a personality and on this occasion that’s fully proper,’ says Stacey. ‘After we first meet Bella she’s a child and even if you happen to noticed make-up that was simply utilized for display it might pull you out of the story. We targeting Emma’s skincare as an alternative and used clear forehead gel and matte lip balm simply to shine her for the display.’

It’s when Bella arrives in Paris and meets brothel proprietor Madame Swiney (Kathryn Hunter), taking on a job at her institution, that make-up comes into play. ‘Madame Swiney and the brothel ladies all have make-up within the anatomical colors that our manufacturing designers have been utilizing within the Baxters’ home from medical references: blood purple, pinks from pores and skin, blues and purple from veins. I felt at that time Bella is studying one thing new, that make-up is a part of the method of presenting herself to the boys visiting the brothel and likewise what which means.’

Alongside her work with Stone, Stacey created the monstrous (in all senses of the phrase) prosthetic worn by Willem Dafoe, which concerned layering a number of items collectively, even glueing a few of them immediately onto Dafoe’s face. The character the actor performs was experimented on by his father, additionally a surgeon, resulting in disfigurement and bodily dysfunction. Outwardly terrifying, Dr Baxter (or ‘God’ as Bella calls him) is a fancy and compassionate man.

‘The problem was methods to make this look on display. It was a troublesome course of as a result of there might be so many alternative variations of that look,’ says Stacey. ‘There was a Francis Bacon portray that was a place to begin. I labored with prosthetic artists Mark Coulier and Josh Weston to develop the preliminary concepts and we went by way of so many alternative variations as a result of it’s important to strike the stability of surprising with seeing sufficient of the person to really feel for him. And, when you’ve Willem Dafoe, you don’t wish to cowl his face fully. It was additionally essential to inform the story of Dr Baxter and what his father had completed to him by way of the scars on his face. Josh and Robin Pritchard, one other prosthetic artist, utilized the make-up every day and acquired it down to simply beneath three hours ultimately. Willem stated it was six, but it surely should have simply felt like that!’

Poor Issues marks the second collaboration between Yorgos Lanthimos and Nadia Stacey. The director is famend for his post-modern filmmaking fashion as a part of the ‘Greek Bizarre Wave’ cinematic motion, together with his different work, together with The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and The Favorite (Stacey supplied hair and make-up for the final). ‘Working with Yorgos is essentially the most inventive you’ll ever be and essentially the most scared! Not due to him, however as a result of he permits the liberty to allow you to give you concepts and feed them again. However there’s no restrict to that, which is unbelievable but additionally scary, since you don’t know the place the boundaries are. Basically, there aren’t any. I watched Poor Issues for the primary time and felt the identical as after I first watched The Favorite; I had no concept what the completed movies would appear to be, however I used to be so extremely proud that my title was on them. It’s thrilling to work with somebody so courageous.’

Poor Issues is in UK cinemas from 12 January 2024.