Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1512433
ALL PHOTOS: MICHAEL MORIATIS/PARAMOUNT+ PHOTOS BY MELINDA SUE GORDON/UNIVERSAL PICTURES HAIR B Y J A I M E L E I G H M C I N T O S H D E P A R T M E N T H E A D H A I R A project where all the cast and crew are experiencing a "pinch me" moment, being so thrilled to work on a Christopher Nolan film, Oppenheimer made for a fantastic work environment, and one in which you knew everyone was going to be giving it everything. Luckily for me, I was collaborating with Department Head of Make-up and Prosthetics Luisa Abel, who has done many Nolan IMAX films and was able to guide me. We wanted the team to honor Nolan's commitment to historical accuracy surrounding J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project. e team also would need to understand how Nolan likes to run his set, which was something I was excited about, but knew wouldn't be suited for everyone: no phones and no monitors. My team embraced this structured environment and quickly adapted. e first hair design discussions with Nolan were on how best to hit the hair style/length marks with J. Robert Oppenheimer himself, showing the passage of time without the use of multiple wigs. Once we worked out our plan for Oppie, we then worked on how to do that with all our other characters spanning the years. Nolan wanted to avoid using wigs, so for graying hair, we tested and used multiple techniques to have characters slowly gray over time. All colors and techniques didn't work on every head of hair, so each cast member had his or her own recipe. We started J. Robert Oppenheimer with a mop of curly hair. Cillian Murphy had grown his hair to a length we were able to perm; the perm gave us a natural feel and also took less time in the chair. We airbrushed the hair to cover natural grays, giving an all-over brunette look so that it would wash out and we could use Cillian's own graying hair, build on it, add more gray or airbrush darker to cover when needed. Once we wrapped the 1920s, it was time for Cillian to get the shortest haircut. e next stage in Oppie's story was keeping the darker coloring but using a toupee-style hairpiece through the top, still using Cillian's own hair line and blending that up into the piece. e guidance from Nolan was that "it should be such a subtle difference between this stage and the next shorter one, that you oen question why you even bother applying it." From there, we gradually let more of Cillian's own grays come through around the temples and then the hairpiece comes off and we see Oppie with his shortest style. As time passes, grayer is added to Cillian's own until we reach 1963, the oldest age of many of the characters. For this, we used Cillian's own sides and back, painted heavily with gray. Make-up applied a silicon bald pate through the top and we had a whitish gray, thinner top hairpiece hand-craed by wigmaker Rob Pickens. Because we knew this piece would only be used twice, Rob used an uncoated front lace, which meant Continued on page 33