How ‘Blonde’ Makeup and Hairstyling Heads Jaime Leigh McIntosh & Tina Roesler Kerwin Dove Into Mountains of Images of Marilyn Monroe

There is a purpose why Marilyn Monroe has endured decade after decade. You merely can not take your eyes off of her. Andrew Dominik’s movie, Blonde, plunges us into the ache, each personal and public, that the Hollywood icon endured, and the movie has obtained polarizing reactions since its launch. Even if Blonde is tough to look at, you can not deny that Ana de Armas embodies Monroe with sympathy, intelligence, and love. She is aided by the extraordinary work of make-up division head Tina Roesler Kerwin and hair make-up head Jaime Leigh McIntosh.
Even although Monroe’s presence is bigger than life, the duo had very completely different experiences with the actress, however working collectively actually helped to form a unified imaginative and prescient for Dominik’s movie.
“I didn’t know a lot about her, to be trustworthy,” McIntosh admitted early in our dialog. “I knew about how well-known she was and how she died tragically too younger. I had by no means seen her in a film, and I’m undecided that I even knew she was a film star. That’s how little I knew. She was simply at all times there. I knew she was well-known. It was an enormous crash course for me. Because it’s not a biopic, I went off of the script and the e-book, and I knew what Andrew [Dominik] and Ana [de Armas] wished. That was my tunnel imaginative and prescient, and I didn’t wish to get too loopy down the rabbit gap about her precise life.”
Kerwin, however, was extra acquainted with Monroe’s work.
“I grew up with Marilyn in my life–as a lot as the common particular person,” she mentioned. “Everyone is aware of what she seems to be like, however fewer individuals have seen their movies. I grew up in Texas, and they’d do double options of well-known individuals. So they’d characteristic a double invoice of Marilyn or somebody like Elvis. As far as understanding Marilyn and know the main points of her make-up and her course of, I didn’t know that. It didn’t take us lengthy to acknowledge the accountability that did know all these issues.”
Finding the proper shade of blonde was a activity, however Kerwin and McIntosh admitted that they needed to hit the bottom operating in phrases of creating all of the seems to be for Marilyn Monroe and Norma Jeane. After all, the movie, tailored from Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, is titled Blonde.
“Going via the insane quantity of reference, relying on the photograph or mild, that blonde appeared to alter via time,” McIntosh mentioned. “I used to be solely in a position to have three blonde wigs. One was platinum and two of her extra “iconic” blonde. I wanted them to be sitting on the common of the spectrum of that shade. Our wigmaker, Rob Pickens, used, I consider, a number of shades of blonde. There may need been six or seven. Once the wig was made and we noticed Ana in full make-up, I went again and coloured the wigs a little bit extra so as to add extra depth and dimension.”
(Photo: Netflix)
Throughout out intensive dialog, I saved coming again to the truth that de Armas regarded nothing like herself however I couldn’t “see” the hair and make-up designs. For lots of tales about well-known individuals, we will see the changes or audiences touch upon “essentially the most make-up” in relation to awards. I saved telling these girls how I used to be regularly leaning into my tv to strive and discover a seam or speck of prosthetics, however I solely noticed the embodiment of Monroe.
“The changes on Ana have been typically so micro, it’s laborious to explain how we corrected them,” Kerwin revealed. “There was a day the place we had the monitor up with completely different photos up. Jaime went to as much as make an adjustment on Ana, however she couldn’t determine why what she was doing wasn’t altering. It was as a result of she was wanting on the picture of Marilyn. She noticed one thing on Marilyn and went to the touch up Ana. There have been actually occasions the place it was occurring to us too. Ana’s hair is actually darkish however Marilyn’s could be very pale. In order for the shadow of Ana’s hair to not present via the wigs, after Jamie Lee prepped her hair and I placed on three prosthetic items for a half-bald cap and then the wig went on prime. The purpose it’s a prosthetic as opposed an everyday cap, it has extra transparency and it might withhold us altering the wigs many occasions a day. If you didn’t see them, good. That’s the objective. We wished the wig to appear like it was popping out of her scalp, and the prosthetics gave her a clean scalp.”
Blonde actually drives the narrative that Norma Jeane needed to apply a personality to be taken severely in Hollywood, however individuals took benefit of her. She was at all times enjoying an element. Depending on who she was round on a set or house with one of her husbands, Norma Jeane could be snug as herself however she typically needed to put Marilyn on prime of that so as to appease. The layering of actor on character on character is one thing McIntosh and Kerwin needed to at all times contemplate.
“We are coping with three characters,” Kerwin mentioned. “We are coping with Ana, Norma, and Marilyn. There have been typically when the objective for Ana was to vanish, however she would carry humanity and the self to Norma Jeane. The strains between Marilyn and Norma Jeane have been typically very blurred. The objective was to make it plausible and refined and go away room for Ana to indicate the soul of the character and not distract. In some moments, she seems to be like Marilyn however she seems to be like Norma. It was a blur for her.”
“The recreations have been all the things from full-on glam Marilyn to her at house as Norma Jeane,” McIntosh added. “There could be these occasions the place it wouldn’t be a recreation of a picture and with the ability to discover our personal Norma Jeane house alone with The Playwright or a traditional day on the seashore. She’s simply being an actual lady, and it was good to include into the glitz and glam.”
I even thought of if Norma Jeane’s shade palette could be completely different than Marilyn’s. Did Norma keep away from vibrant reds as a result of Marilyn at all times wore them?
“It could be particular if it associated to a picture that we have been recreating,” Kerwin mentioned. “When we shot in black-and-white, it affected the alternatives for shade palette and different issues like her garments. Norma Jeane was at all times beneath, however there was an expectation for what Marilyn would appear like. Those are iconic photos. The “at house” photos aren’t as well-known, however they do exist. We actually needed to comply with the lead of Andrew to information us to distinguish the variations of Ana and Norma Jeane and Marilyn. Sometimes, if she’s house, we don’t know if she’s going to work or if she simply got here again, and she could be sporting make-up. That was vital too, as a result of if I pulled the make-up again too far, then Ana would come via. It was difficult to search out the extent, particularly within the eye make-up.”
(Kerwin and McIntosh touching up de Armas on set; photograph: Matt Kennedy/Netflix)
McIntosh recalled how troublesome the shoot was as a result of of how a lot time Blonde covers and what number of seems to be wanted to be created. There have been days when de Armas could be capturing a well-known picture from a film however then she is likely to be at house with The Playwright or the Ex-Athlete.
“The schedule was insane,” she mentioned. “It’s at all times tight, however Blonde was past. My instance of how tight it was is, for continuity, there are occasions in a day the place I alter a wig as a result of the subsequent scene is expounded to a scene we shot a number of days in the past. I obtained the wig adjustments all the way down to seven minutes. There have been some events the place I used to be informed there wasn’t that point. It would freak me out, however I needed to put belief into Andrew. Not solely are we working as rapidly as we will, however lots of these seems to be have ten minutes of preparation from a change. It may need been the primary time we had the look collectively. Out job was laborious, however Ana having to carry out the ups and downs…it’s wonderful.”
“What was actually useful earlier than capturing was a day the place we shot some of the stills for the transition to Marilyn on the journal covers,” Kerwin added. “On that someday, we modified her 36 occasions. It was a crash course on the variations between these three girls. I had by no means met Ana earlier than that. It was a fast studying curve in phrases of the place to shadow, what lipsticks to not use, and what labored. And then we began capturing. As laborious as that day was, we discovered lots of issues that day. It was transferring practice each single day. The motion pictures have been enjoying on the TV within the trailer, and the photographs we plastered all around the partitions.”
“There have been no photos within the movie the place they face changed Ana onto Marilyn. Even the photographs her mom is taking a look at of Norma Jeane…they’re all full photoshoots that we wanted to create for these photos,” McIntosh clarified.
The remaining part of Blonde is traumatic as a result of it places into perspective how alone Marilyn felt in her remaining days. McIntosh revealed to me that they shot the ultimate scene in Monroe’s precise house, and being within the house was surreal for each her and Kerwin.
“When we have been capturing lots of issues in that home, it was a fairly closed set,” McIntosh mentioned. “We obtained Ana prepared, however we wouldn’t see her for take after take. It was very personal. Those have been my reminiscences of it. It felt a little bit intrusive to be in that house, however I felt lucky to be there.”
“It’s attention-grabbing, as a result of we shot lots of sensible areas from her life,” Kerwin mentioned. “We shot in her actual areas just like the duplex she lived in along with her mother or on the orphanage. We felt Marilyn was with us, and we felt when she was sad with us. The home the place she handed away in had a attention-grabbing feeling. It’s not a really large home, and it’s an attractive house. We have been grateful to be there, however we have been utterly conscious that that house was totally her. You can’t not really feel a degree of respect and reverence to your complete scenario.”
Blonde is out there to stream on Netflix. 

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