Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1529095
THE ARTISAN WINTER 2025 • 29 PHOTOS BY RON BATZDORFF When asked to write about the Reagan film we did back in 2020, I decided to talk about the people who made this experience what it was, not just about the 21 wigs, lack of prep, and in the heat of the pandemic. I want to thank the people that showed up, especially Michelle Rene Elam, who jumped on board to be my Co-department Head hair stylist. I was just finishing up For All Mankind Season 2 in Los Angeles, when I received a call by the producers of Reagan. ey were in a time-sensitive predicament, as their DH hair stylist le the show less than a week before filming in Guthrie, Oklahoma. ey sent me the script with 374 scenes, periods from 1920s to 2021 and a HUGE ensemble cast of 164 characters! e cast needed to look like people who were highlighted throughout Ronald Reagan's life, with many looks carried through multiple eras. I turned it down and recommended my BFF, Michelle Rene Elam. She turned it down, too. en the producers called me back… I pitched to them that in order for the department to be successful, I would need to co-department head with Michelle. We have worked for each other on many projects, and we knew each other's superpowers. Michelle's her organizational skills, managing a team, and being able to break down a script meticulously, creating a comprehensive HAIR B Y T E N A P A R K E R D E P A R T M E N T H E A D H A I R Continued on page 33 Continued on page 30 L-R: Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan and Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan MAKE-UP B Y S C O T T W H E E L E R D E P A R T M E N T H E A D M A K E - U P Reagan, directed by Sean McNamara and starring Dennis Quaid in the title role, presented us with the challenge of recreating one of the most iconic figures in American political history: Ronald Reagan. e movie spans several decades, showcasing the life and legacy of the 40th President of the United States. For us, this project required a delicate balance of historical accuracy, character continuity, and creative interpretation within a limited budget and time constraints for the wide range of time periods and characters involved. I personally had just a few weeks to create the needed prosthetics for Dennis Quaid, as well as Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan and Jon Voight as Victor Petrovich, the fictitious character who provides much of the exposition of the movie. We had to tackle more than just aging Quaid convincingly over several decades. We had to authentically portray a large ensemble of characters over various time periods while adapting to the film's changing tone as it moved from Reagan's Hollywood years to his political career. e make-up and hair in Reagan were both a storytelling tool and a means of transformation that hopefully went a long way in the suspension of disbelief e earliest period in the film with Dennis Quaid as Reagan depicts his rise as a movie star in the 1940s and 1950s. When we were shooting this, I caught COVID-19. Jennifer Aspinall stepped in and