Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1529095
THE ARTISAN WINTER 2025 • 33 spreadsheet. We called it our "Bible!" It took her three days to break down, in the midst of meeting actors and finding photos of the characters being portrayed. Her room looked like a scene from NCIS … schedules and photos sprawled out all over her bed. With no desk in the room, she stood for hours, working on her computer which rested on stacked books on her dresser. As for my superpowers, it's my neurodivergent brain. I have ADHD, my letters as I call them, which allows me to hyper-focus, have unlimited energy, and a unique talent of problem-solving and a fearlessness, especially when it comes to designing hair. We had two gis waiting for us when we landed in Guthrie. HAIR Continued from page 29 Mike Deaver played by Stephen Guarino required a full bald cap, along with a wig and hand-laid thin comb over hair. We did a total of 35 actual historical characters and with the exceptions of Ron and Nancy Reagan, did not see the actual actors until the day before they began shooting. Lastly, we had the fictitious character of Victor Petrovich played by Jon Voight. We see this character in the early 1980s and also in modern times. So, we had to span a 40-year gap in time. e obvious solution was to take then 80-year-old Jon Voight 20 years in each direction. To de-age Jon, I could not use lis because he was concerned it would hurt his skin. So, I smoothed him out as much as possible with Revlon color stay and counter shadowed and highlighted everything I could to further smooth out his forms. en I laid a short-chopped salt and pepper beard. And lastly, hand-laid younger stronger eyebrows. For his age make-up, I made a silicone prosthetic neck to take his neck waddle and jowls further then their natural age, applied four layers of my custom formula of old-age stipple around his eyes, cheeks, forehead and pretty much everywhere the silicone prosthetic wasn't. I accented the look with strong airbrushed shadows and highlights that were camouflaged with heavy age spots and other discoloration and breakup. I hand-laid white hair beard stubble to echo his younger look and further pushed his mouth and jowls with dental plumpers. Ruth Mitchell and Alex Ford. Ruth Mitchell was our wig guru. She came from a theater background and was our historical meter for our historical hair styles. She confided in us early on that she felt intimidated and insecure about working on this show. We could not have done this movie without her or had such beautifully styled wigs that withstood the elements and hours we had on Reagan. Her fingers never stopped, nor has our friendship with her! Alex Ford was our key hair and she not only barbered and styled exceptionally, she did the hiring and worked with the COVID team to get testing done for our stylists. Alex also DH'd the childhood years of Reagan, back in Oklahoma aer we had wrapped. Oh … did I mention that our equipment didn't land in Oklahoma until three days before filming? e cube truck downloaded our 45-plus bins to load another department's equipment on it! Yeah, that was a bummer… Of the 21 wigs used, only two were custom for Penelope Ann Miller who played Nancy Reagan, made by Natascha Hahn. We also had a rental from her, making only three wigs for Miss Penelope that had to be styled for each era she filmed. Ruth and Michelle worked together to create her looks through the eras. Pat Boone landed the day before to play Rev. Ottis, who had a thick head of silver hair. Pat did not … but ... we had a John Blake "Halo" in silver and a synthetic silver man's wig. I cut the Halo into pieces and had it sewn together with the nape of a man's synthetic wig! e next day, he told us stories of the scene he was to be in as he was actually there! We surprised him by putting on his music and he bubbled up with joy, serenading us as we finished fitting his wig. at same evening, we had to color a wig from my stock to create a young Pat Boone. Luckily, we had the perfect technical advisor in our trailer to give us styling tips! Every day was a different version of this day! I always felt we had "Angel, Trailer, Fairies" aiding us, keeping us healthy, and giving us inspiration to create iconic looks and somehow having just what we needed in that cube truck that we never got to properly unload! Kevin Dillon played Jack Warner. I felt so thankful finding again Jon Voight (above and right) as Victor Petrovich Dennis Quaid Olek Krupa as Mikhail Gorbachev