BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
CATEGORY: Achievement in makeup
INTERVIEW WITH: Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
FILM: "The Wolfman"
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Q. You know, you don't have an agent and you went for this film because you wanted to how can I say that, the rebirth of horror film. Now, I was wondering, last time I've seen seven Oscars was at Walt Disney, it was like seven small Oscars. Where do you put seven Oscars?
A. [Baker] I have a nice big mantle, there's room for a few more. Yeah, I mean, I actually I really wanted to do this movie. Both of us did. The original WOLFMAN is what made us want to be makeup artists. So, this Oscar is so special to us.
Q. After so many years of creating such phenomenal prosthetics and makeup appliances, what's it like to win an Oscar tonight for THE WOLFMAN?
A. [Baker] Well, like I said, it was the original WOLFMAN just meant so much to me that, you know, it's just going to be so cool to have an Oscar that says THE WOLFMAN on it. It's just like, we are really excited, I really wanted this one. I got to say, I got to be honest about it, I really wanted this one. It's just a great night. We prepared the whole night for this. So, it's a great reward.
Q. I just want to ask you guys, how do you make the actors comfortable because obviously it's a long process doing the makeup for something like this. Can you talk about working with Benicio on this?
A. [Elsey] Benicio was fantastic. And in fact, he was the one that wanted to be the Wolfman; you know, it was his idea to do the movie and so, he really couldn't complain about anything. You know, and it was about three and a half hours of work. So, he was great. We just used to pass the time trying looking through Benicio is a big geek, and he has a lot of horror magazines. And he loves THE WOLFMAN, he loves FRANKENSTEIN, he loves movies like that. So, we had a lot to talk about, and the time just passed very quickly. And we never made him uncomfortable
Q. I was wondering how you guys collaborate? Did you actually stay up working separately or was it always together?
A. [Elsey] No. Me and Rick have been friends for a long while and I never thought that we would ever work together because, you know, I was living Sidney, Australia and Rick was living here. So, there didn't seem to be any opportunities for that. And this movie came up, and Rick asked me and he said it was in London, and I come from London originally. So, he said, "Would you be prepared to move back to London?" And I said, "Yes." And so the next thing I knew, we started the movie, and it was, it was actually a good collaboration. My big worry was that we would do it and fall out and wouldn't be friends any more, but that didn't happen.
Q. But I do have to ask the question specifically to Rick Baker because I just recently interviewed Adrien Morot, David Montreal who was up for BARNEY'S VERSION, and he thought he was not going to win tonight because he said the "Chosen One" was up for the Oscar, and he meant that in the greatest possible way because he feels you are an inspiration to other makeup artists in the industry. And I am curious now that your hair is white like mine and so we're, you know, we're at that stage in our lives, what that means to you to be somebody who's inspirational to others, including folks like Maestro and Adrien Morot in Montreal?
A. [Baker] It's really great. I mean, it's nice to I like to have my work inspire somebody. And there's so many makeup artists that are working in the screen now that say that to me, that my work inspired them to get into the business. And it's just as Jack Pierce's work inspired me to get into the business. So, it's great. And I thought I was really Dave and I both felt that this year, you know, if we didn't win, that both of the films we were up against, we wouldn't mind losing to because I thought they all did just a really terrific job and are really fine makeup artists. So, we were in good company.
Q. Now, in an industry where film is pretty much dominated by special effects nowadays, how important is it to sort of stick to the old fashioned authentic way of doing makeup?
A. [Baker] Boy, I mean, that's something I wanted to do in this film because it was an old school horror movie and we did the makeup very old school. We intentionally had an old school approach with the handling of hair and using form rubbery stuff.
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