Local 706 - The Artisan

Spring 2018

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THE ARTISAN SPRING 2018 • 45 Opposite page photos courtesy of Kazuhiro Tsuji Littlejohn, who has more than 25 years' experience in the industry and worked with Academy Award-winning actor Jamie Foxx for 10 years on his most memorable films, including Django Unchained, Dreamgirls and Ray, was tasked with supervising the film. In that capacity, she oversaw the women's individual make-up artists, who included Derrick Rutledge, Molly R. Stern, Tracey Levy and Cindy Williams, as well as make-up artists for Chris Pine, Janeen Schreyer and Whitney James. Additionally, veteran make-up artist Joanetta Stowers worked closely with Littlejohn on the execution of all aspects of the film project. Taking their lead from Delgado's elaborate costume designs, Littlejohn and her team set off to design "outside-the-box" futur- istic/fantasy looks for each character that accentuated their diverse ethnicities, as well. Together, they transform the three celestial visi- tors—Winfrey, Witherspoon and Kaling—into intergalactic celestial goddesses. Littlejohn aimed for and designed looks that no one had ever seen before. "I wanted the women to look good for children," said Littlejohn, who said that she gleaned inspiration from studying the color palettes and Delgado's costume designs for each planet. "I think that all children love color, and my favorite tones are jewel tones, so I chose the purples and greens and oranges and rusts. I tried to get a little bit crazy with that." Getting so whimsical, however, was occasionally a challenge for Littlejohn. "Some actresses are not used to 'out-of-the-box' make- up. It seems too much for them," said Littlejohn. For a sequence set on a lushly verdant planet, for example, Littlejohn envisioned that Witherspoon's Mrs. Whatsit would wear a vibrant kelly-green lipstick so that when her character suddenly shape-shifted into a flying green stingray, the transformation would not seem so abrupt. "Reese had concerns about the green lipstick," Littlejohn says. "All of the women had a private make-up artist, so I presented the look to each of them and explained why I wanted to do it. Reese said, 'I don't know if I can pull off this green.' I reminded her that she will turn into this green creature that will be so vibrant and beautiful, and the kids watching this movie can't be afraid of it." Littlejohn said that she had to keep encouraging Witherspoon's artist to amp up the green until it was the perfect, bold shade she envisioned, explaining, "We had to mix things up." Oprah, who plays Mrs. Which, wanted to double-down on a whimsi- cal makeover. For Winfrey, Rutledge executed Littlejohn's vision with her distinguishing traits being her eyebrows and lips. This was conveyed

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