Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1469328
46 • THE ARTISAN SUMMER 2022 journey outside of our comfort zones was a very welcomed learning experience. Our showrunner, Elizabeth Meriwether, had a vision of simplic- ity. I felt it important to reinforce the concept that we were doing looks akin to "Julia Roberts' portrayal of Erin Brockovich, not Christian Bale as Dick Cheney. e sheer size of this limited series demanded a very streamlined process to achieve our many real-life transformations, oen working simultaneously alongside make-up. It was also a priority to nd the balance between the recognizable faces of our well-known actors with our delicate representational applications. William H. Macy elevated the expectations greatly. He, like most of the actors, had ideas to elevate his look, thus allow- ing him condence in appearance. It was very important for these looks to be respectfully representational of the real-life persons they were emulating. With our block shooting time frame in mind, it quickly became evident that personalized bald caps and a wig were needed for Macy. We were able to have another wig customized by Rob Pickens. e wig was styled, adhered in place and maintained daily by myself and Nani Casillas. Collaborating on such an intimate application during a pandemic needed to be precise and required a lot of trust for a group of people that performed beautifully. e work really reects the teamwork involved. e telling of a story through hair has always been my favorite thing to do. is story allowed us to depict time and emotion while following a complicated real-life story. e real Elizabeth Holmes is an extremely layered, complicated human being and we did not have any access to her, so it was necessary for us to design her backstory a bit. I imagined that she would have never been bothered to do her hair, or that she wanted to do her hair but didn't have the knowledge. I felt as though she adopted behaviors that she believed would help her be perceived as a business professional. is included her overall style and her hair as well. I think she followed social cues to appear as though she was putting herself together but actually didn't really know how to execute her desired appearance. I assumed this is why her bun was never really neat or hair was never really brushed. Elizabeth slept in her oce. She slept on the oor or on the couch in a sleeping bag. She couldn't be bothered to style her hair but she knew that power- ful women look put together. She adopted a daily disguise, the black turtleneck, a simple clothing choice stolen from the infamous Steve Jobs, then hastily applied red lipstick and topped with a messy bun. She even changed her voice. She was personally perceived very much like her business, from afar she tried to present a rened exterior but the closer you got, the more you saw the hasty, incomplete attempt to look the part of CEO and act the part of a successful empire. Amanda Seyfried's transformation was absolutely impressive to witness. When she revealed her voice transition, it was clear we were going to see something special. Amanda is an excellent collaborator. She really trusted Jorjee and myself. She authorized full reign of her hair to me, allowing me to cut and color as needed. I thinned out her natural hair by cutting channels and disconnected layers. On a daily basis, I would need to create the frizz using a combination of dry shampoo and salt spray. e Sam Villa texture iron became my best friend. We focused the iron on her ends. I tied it all together into the signature bun for her iconic turtleneck look. One of my favorite hair moments is when we follow Elizabeth Holmes to her dorm at Stanford aer she was sexually assaulted at a party. e camera follows behind her showing a disheveled half braid with a couple twigs placed in it. e hair was actually given the opportunity to express the atrocities o screen. It was subtle but what it achieved was very powerful. I was able to exercise my hair-coloring skills quite a bit on this show. My favorite example was with Sunny Balwani, played by Naveen Andrews. I had him grow out his natural grays, which I would paint over and uncover based on what was needed in the shooting schedule. Something similar was also utilized on Rochelle Gibbons, played by Kate Burton. However, in this case, I lightened and darkened her hair to show passage of time, also exposing and covering her roots with the use of temporary color. Aside from the obvious challenges of recreating authentic looks, we were faced with the additional issue of intimate applications during a pandemic. is show really required use of all of our skills. HAIR Continued from page 45 Vanessa Rose Price (left) and Jorjee Douglass (right)