Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1530961
34 • THE ARTISAN SPRING 2025 wore a full lace wig built by Natascha that fell into place as soon as we added the headset Henson always wore. As Kaufman, I added terrible cowlicks and unruly curls plus some temporary color to achieve that sad oily look. e character of "Dan Aykroyd"/Dylan O'Brian was a challenge in the fact that the real Aykroyd had crazy hair! I had to make Dylan look like he had insane hair but not look like a wig in the process. Nicole Venable;s took on the challenge of taming "Lorne Michael"/Gabe LaBelle's amazing curls and then turning around and giving those crazy curls to "Rosie Shuster"/Rachael Sennott. For "John Belushi"/ Matt Wood, we wanted to show a thinning scalp but with course curly hair still remaining. A bald cap was applied and painted then Jennifer Petrovich and I would blend his hairline into the bald cap using draing pens creating a textured look. "Paul Schaffer"/Paul Rust was our longest transformation. Paul has more hair than five people put together and we all know Paul Schaffer does not. I would slick and dry his hair by sections to his scalp each morning. en make-up would apply a bald cap, airbrushing to match his skin tone. Aer that we applied a custom wig consisting of three pieces. A classic horseshoe piece first, then two comb-over pieces. Aer those were on, sideburns were placed. All three of our "not ready for primetime player" women had wonderful hair. "Gilda Radner"/Ella Hunt, "Laraine Newman"/Emily Fairn and "Jane Curtin"/Kim Matula. All were brought to life with wigs craed by Natascha. Each one with its own specific and gorgeous hair texture. A beautiful natural short afro wig was made for "Garrett Morris"/Lamorne Morris by Rob Pickens. e unforgettable Jon Batiste played Billy Preston. Traci Walker and I sewed three wigs together to create his look. John has packed locs that stand quite tall. We hand-sewed his natural hair down as tightly as we could, then stitched three pieces on top to achieve the proper proportion. He was such a trooper through the entire process. Rene Warnes was our resident hot roller person. She set and styled at least four of our recurring ladies every morning. At the end of our film, Lorne is walking down the street in New York. Our director wanted the pedestrians Lorne passes to all be ghosts of future SNL characters. Jason took a poll on set asking everyone to write down their favorites. We ended up with Wild and Crazy Guys, John Belushi's Samurai, Pat, Church Lady, Roseanne Roseannadanna, Mr. Bill, Hans and Franz, the Blues Brothers, and the Wayne's World boys to name a few. Bringing this historic time to life was incredibly nostalgic for all of us working on this project. Everyone brought their own personal memories to the table. Everyone had a favorite character. Walking into an exact replica of Studio 8H every day put everyone on the same page. By doing all the characters every day, we started to feel like the machine that SNL eventually became. e energy was high and there was always another challenge right around the corner. We shot the entire film in six weeks. We hit the ground running, and it felt like it was over in a flash just like every Saturday night.•