Local 706 - The Artisan

B Y L A I N I T H O M P S O N D E P A R T M E N T H E A D M A K E U P My involvement on this fi lm started with a phone call from Marie Cisco, associate producer from Lee Daniels Entertainment, asking my availability. About two weeks later, I received another call from Jahil Fisher, make-up, hair and costume producer, asking me to summit a mood vision board of six looks for singer Billie Holiday (covering the periods 1949-1959). He would submit to director Lee Daniels, and if Lee liked the ideas, I would get a personal call from him to move on to round two of the hiring process for the department head position. I have worked on several period movies and have amassed huge binders of period research photos dating from the early 1800s to present day, so I was quickly able to pull and submit my six mood visions. Within 30 minutes, I got a FaceTime call from Lee Daniels. You can't just sneak up on a girl with a FaceTime call without being forewarned. (Luckily, I keep myself halfway together.) We connected immediately, he made small talk, talked about the project, we laughed and at the end of our 10-minute conversation, he said welcome. In shock, I responded, "That's it, I have the job?" He laughed and said yes. It's off to Montreal, Canada, to begin principal pho- tography. Charles Gregory Ross (Department Head Hair) and I meet up to begin our six weeks of prep. The fi rst three weeks entailed hours and hours of research, narrow- ing it down to photos that coincided to the very specifi c and important period of Billie Holiday 's life 1949-1959. The United States vs. Billie Holiday. This period was during the "Jim Crow" era, when people of color were still being tarred, feathered and lynched because of the color of their skin. Billie's song "Strange Fruit" was an example that caused heightened tensions (it can be compared to today 's BLM protest) among her fans. Her defi ant way of express- ing her civil rights through music lyrics caused the govern- ment to want to put an end to the uproars, an end to Billie Holiday 's activism and an end to the defi ant expression of her political views. "Lock Her Up." All photos by Takashi Seida and courtesy of Paramount Pictures

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