Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1529095
at me as if I was mad, asked me why I was showing him all of these photos, and said, "Isn't it just a short back and sides?" A real pro. Benjamin Clementine was similar. As a poet and musician, he is known for his big hair. But in anticipation of this film, he went and got it all cut very short. Cafe de Paris was a famous theatrical nightclub in London and because it was underground, it was thought of as a safe place to go. It started as a club for members of high society but aer the outbreak of war, it entertained a more mixed society. We had a mix of very glamorous clientele and a slightly more bohemian crowd. We had to reproduce real band members such as Ken "Snakehips" Johnson and his musicians. ey all had wigs styled to make them look exactly like the original members of the band. Celeste was the singer. Aer pooling together our research, she wore an elaborately dressed backpiece by Melissa Von Tongeren and glamorous 1940's make-up. At the end of the scene, a bomb hits the club, causing people's lungs to explode. Because of the cause of death, there wasn't much blood. But aer a lot of research, I found that the skin took on a mottled lilac hue and the veins became very pronounced when the lungs exploded. Andrea Lance Jones, who was the crowd supervisor, ran with this idea and helped the prosthetic make-up artist, Susie Redfern. Patrons when dead were completely made up as before but with changed, mottled skin hues and veins painstakingly painted on. Many of the bodies remained in the exact position as they were. For the final part of the make-up, I covered them with a fine layer of dust, which when combined with the lilac hue of the make-up, gave them a weird, ghostly look. e overall crowd in this film created the texture and feeling of London during the war. We had more than 10,000 supporting actors. In the shelters, we made up families of all races and religions in various states from running for their lives. Micky Davies was a real hero who ran a huge shelter organized with food and medical care. He was played by Leigh Gill and wigged and made up to look exactly like Micky Davies. Huge crowds also squeezed into the underground stations. e women le their homes in a hurry with their curlers and pin curls still in. We sourced large quantities of period metal rollers and bobby pins and pinned and set their hair exactly as they would have done. For the opening sequence of the evacuation of the children, Norma Webb and her team cut 320 children's hair into period hair styles. Any long hair was donated to "My Shining Star," a children's cancer charity to make wigs. Using silicone pieces and bondos, large amounts of wounds and dirt were applied to the crowd in the streets who were victims of the explosions. e firefighters were covered in dirt and completely soaked through. Probably some of my favorite looks were of the women working in the munitions factory. ere were 250 women that Andrea and her team had to get ready. ey were all in scarves tied as turbans with either their period hair styles underneath or set up in pin curls. More than a hundred wigs were used daily with all the supporting artists. Most of the women were made up or at the very least, they had their red lipstick on. ese were strong women protesting the lack of shelters, and red lipstick at that time wasn't just for beauty, but also became a symbol of rebellion and strength, particularly against the Germans and fascism as Hitler was known to hate red lipstick! e women were covered in oil according to their jobs but cleaned up for the concert that aired on the radio. e desolation and destruction of a once-thriving community were seen with many wounded and dead civilians buried amongst the rubble of a destroyed area. We had 131 speaking roles all carefully designed and executed, and several thousand supporting actors who were all cut, wigged and made up. My department used every skill we had to recreate the people of the period and create a sense of reality that showed the grit, blood and pain of wartime. Myself and my team lived and breathed this film, feeling that we owed it to the memory of the people who lived through this part of history, and to our director who was so impassioned by this film and pushed us to achieve more than our very best. • 52 • THE ARTISAN WINTER 2025