Harry Potter Make-Up Team Discusses the Epilogue

Feb 25, 2012

Posted by: Mel

DH Film

In a new article from Entertainment Weekly the make-up team for the Harry Potter films discusses all the hard work that went into aging the actors for the Epilogue in “Deathly Hallows: Part 2”:

Old age makeup is tricky. “Ninety percent of the time, it attracts
attention to itself’ Dudman points out. So the process of creating the
scene was intense, with the team looking at the actors’ parents and
their characters’ onscreen parents for clues about the aging process.
Initially, the plan called for lavish makeup. “We made the girls more
hip-y, more bust-y, with a little more tummy. We made prosthetics for
the guys so we could take their hairlines back fractionally. And we made
a whole series of prosthetic pieces: Eye-pieces, nose-pieces, cheek
pieces, chin pieces, ear-pieces.”

Lisa Tomblin, the chief hair designer who worked on four previous Potters,
notes that ” when they originally shot the scene, “Dan Radcliffe had a
gray wig. Rupert had a receding wig with little bits of gray in it. Emma
had a short wig. But it didn’t really work. It’s very difficult to age
somebody that’s 20. It’s not like you’re aging someone that’s 30 and has
the start of wrinkles.”

The rest of the article discusses how they were dissatisified with this initial attempt and what they did for the final version. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” has been nominated for a Best Makeup Oscar.

Many thanks to Max for owling!





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