Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1475069
20 • THE ARTISAN FALL 2022 WINNING TIME THE POWER OF TEAMWORK Technique. Execution. Flair. Mastery. Endurance. Performance. Teamwork. Balance. Relationships. Dynamics. Obsession. These are the themes explored in HBO's new hit show, Winning Time. In early 2021, I needed a job. My pre-pandemic show had been pushed until autumn, my banked hours were about to run out, and I was worried. Fortunately, I was contacted about doing a TV show depicting the rise of the NBA Lakers during the 1979-80 season. It would star John C. Reilly as new owner Dr. Jerry Buss and uincy Isaiah as 19-year-old point guard Magic Johnson. Did I know anything about basketball? No. However, I know a great script when I read one, and after a year of lockdown, I was eager to sink my teeth into doing my favorite types of make-up: period, character, and likeness. Of course, I was anxious about how we could safely pull off this job without sacrificing the character and period look. Another concern was that this would be an enormous episodic TV show, a medium in which I had little experience aside from day checking. I needed help, big time. Also, looming in the back of my mind was the possibility that I might have to return to finish my other show. I needed a team that would be able to carry on should I have to step away. For that matter, I needed to create a team that could carry on should one of us fall ill. How did I find every member of my core team? Day checking. The best byproduct of earning my wage is that I get to meet talented Local 706 make-up artists. While working on Christien Tinsley's period TV show Perry Mason, I met two highly gifted people who PHOTOS: WARRICK PAGE/ © HBO would become some of my closest friends and collaborators, Steve Costanza and Corinne Foster. They were organized and efficient —I immediately recognized kindred spirits. I needed my core members to have the highest level skill set to handle anything thrown at them: prosthetics, beauty, tattoo coverage, textured hair work, injury, period, and character make- up on all types of complexions. I pretty much begged Steve and Corinne to come aboard. Another absolute score was that of artist Jamie Hess. I met Jamie while day checking on Bright, and we'd subsequently worked together on Vice, Triple Frontier, and Angelyne. I remarked on her extreme attention to detail and courage to jump into the unknown. Lastly, I needed someone of equivalent passion who could act as liaison to the Health & Safety Department. Marsha Shearrill, who I'd also met through day checking, was the artist who would take on this essential responsibility. The next course of action was creating the overall look. The pilot, which we were not on, was shot in 2019. Inevitably, the actors looked different a year and a half later. Thankfully, there was a time passage in the script, and looks could be re-established. I presented a library of research to showrunner Max Borenstein. We all agreed to make the actors look as much like the real people as possible. This would involve actors wearing prosthetics, facial hair, dentures, lenses, wigs, etc. Every character was to be make-up tested and vetted before they went on camera. Max cared intensely about how each actor looked. BY KATE BISCOE Below, l-r: Solomon Hughes (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), DeVaughn Nixon (Norm Nixon) and Jimel Atkins; Shaylaren Hilton, John C. Reilly (Jerry Buss), and Stephen Adly Guirgis; Adrien Brody (Pat Riley) and Spencer Garrett (Chick Hearn).