Before Cynthia Erivo even began rehearsals as Elphaba for the onscreen adaptation of Wicked, Frances Hannon started collecting green makeup. Lots of it.
As the film’s lead makeup designer, Hannon wanted to get ahead of the most important task at hand: transforming Erivo into the Wicked Witch of the West. Erivo was in America during the early stages of planning, but over in London where filming would take place, Hannon was well-underway with researching and developing Elphaba’s look—particularly her striking green skin.
After a period of “trawling products around streets and shops” and plenty of research, Hannon began creating custom green body makeup with special effects makeup manufacturer David Stoneman.
“We started by bringing in models with the correct skin tone and airbrushed different color greens every day to find the right color green for the skin tone,” Hannon tells Glamour. “We’d look at that in all different lights. We’d go out in the daylight, into the sunlight, into the shade, pre-cameras and pre-sets.”
Nailing the correct green early on was paramount; it was the deciding factor in whether or not visual effects would be needed to create Elphaba’s green skin, which Hannon wanted to avoid. But with every test trial, she kept running into the same problem.
“We found that what looked great inside in warm light, looked absolutely awful in a blue skylight outside,” she says. “We had to develop something that worked for every light because on set Cynthia would move through many, many different light changes in one scene, let alone in one day. And there was no way we could change the makeup to alter the different lighting.”
During one of her shopping outings, Hannon discovered the key: a small tube of neon-based eye makeup from Canada. “A teeny weeny little thing, it was discontinued,” she says. “I brought that to David and he took the base of the neon and put a few drops into the green that we already created, and it just gave the reflective quality that we didn’t have. And within that, it worked in every light. We ticked that box straight away and that was before we got Cynthia in the country. It was going to be makeup, which was a great joy to us because of course it’s lovely to do your art.”
Getting greenified every day was also important to Erivo, who used the physical transformation to help get into character. “She wanted to be able to have that every morning,” adds Hannon. “It was the start of her day, it was bringing Elphaba into her.”
Once the green was settled, Hannon set out to design a makeup look fit for the big screen. Despite her bright skin color, Elphaba still had to look natural and believable. “It was important that it didn’t look face painted, that it lasted 12 hours, that it didn’t transfer, that we didn’t need too many repairs to take time off director Jon Chu‘s filming day,” says Hannon.
To prevent Elphaba’s face from looking flat, key hair and makeup artist Sarah Nuth was tasked with finding the correct color to contour with. It turns out, purple also goes good with green. “I found it quite fascinating, the experimentation with contouring,” says Nuth. “It was purples and things like that used to create contour for a green tone because you still want to lift everything. You want that skin to be luminous. It’s like color theory, if you geek out on color theory, all of that stuff is quite fascinating.”
Little tricks like adding freckles and giving Elphaba a warmer hair color at the beginning of the film helped visually convey her character development. “Then making it darker and longer as she grew older,” says Hannon. “That was all within our timeline breakdowns.”
Tapping into these small details is what sets the onscreen adaptation apart from the stage production. When it comes to styling, fans of the Broadway show will notice that the film, which hits theaters November 22, looks much more contemporary.
“We wanted to hopefully enhance the previous audience’s pleasure of the visuals, but also make it very accessible to new audiences so people can relate to it easier,” says Hannon. “It’s very hard to say when you’re talking about a green skin, but I hope it doesn’t remove you from the character. Instead, I hope it drew you into her by keeping her skin real and not face painted—where anybody could imagine themselves being her. Because the film is so emotional, isn’t it?”
Ahead, Frances Hannon and Sarah Nuth break down the Wicked movie beauty—including Elphaba’s microbraids, Glinda’s “ethereal” glam and covering Ariana Grande’s tattoos, Jonathan Bailey’s swoon-worthy hair, and more. Plus, the “final touch” Grande personally added in the makeup chair to become Glinda.
Elphaba and Glinda are iconic stage characters—where do we begin when designing for a Wicked movie?
FH: We start by learning our script and taking out of that every single character and giving them a history and a timeline to work to for the whole of the film, part one and two. Then you break it down again to work out what happens to them within each scene so that you can give them a visual journey through it all, that complements their costumes and the set and everything that happens to them. And that’s something that very much Sarah and I collaborate on totally because there are so many characters.
There were eight, six principal characters and we did nearly, I think over 3,500 supporting artists in total over the whole film, be they Munchkins or Emerald City or Ozdust. Everyone is fitted, everybody wore either a wig or a hairpiec. So our collaboration is where we start and then everything we research we bring to Jon Chu and [producer] Marc Platt along with Paul Tazewell‘s costumes and Nathan Crowley‘s phenomenal extravagant sets. That’s really our starting point for and it gets more complicated from there really.
SN: It’s the character development. It’s the nuances of how their characters will change, the nuance that brand designs within the hair or the makeup that is not exactly necessarily obvious to the audience, but you see their characters change because they grow themselves through the story.
How much do you reference what already exists?
FH: We took the iconic moments. One lovely one to refer to is Elphaba’s braid. That was very much something that Marc Platt wanted to keep and that’s very much our first vision of Elphaba. I’ve seen the stage show. I have daughters, so when it first opened, I saw it seven or eight times because they loved it so much. So I have a very good memory, a history of the theater.
But other than that, because our sets are so spectacular, you can bring so much more to a film because you can give it a much bigger space and a much bigger timeline. You’re so restricted on stage. The development that Jon and Marc both wanted to see within the characters didn’t tie to the stage production. Our only thing really was our green skin. We also took some tiny pieces from the original Wizard of Oz, the 1939 version. But we were very careful with that because copyright had to be always taken into account.
If you could estimate, how many tests did it take to land on Elphaba’s look?
FH: We must have done 60-plus tests of not just the green, but also the freckles—getting the whole thing right. Cynthia shaves her own eyebrows and has a shaved head. So we did eyebrow transfers, contouring, learning the colors that worked on the green. So I would guess around 60 tests on models roughly.
When Cynthia got in the chair in the morning, what did that application process look like?
FH: We’re airbrushing the green on. It’s a liquid and the bottles of the bespoke makeup had metal beads so the main thing at the start of the day was really getting it really incorporated and mixed well. And then David always made it in big batches and always kept some of that batch back so that we could never, ever lose just a tiny nuance of that green.
He also developed a green primer for us as a base. That was put on by sponge or brush, depending on where it’s going, because it helped protect Cynthia’s skin. And then airbrushing very lightly. And then the contours, eyebrows, freckles, lip shape and everything on top.
When you are working with body makeup, is there skin care preparation needed?
FH: Cynthia’s hours were so long, so she couldn’t do facials and deep scrubs because she had no time away from work. But Cynthia is very, very into working out. I think her natural body sweated so much it prepared itself for our work. Her skin never got dry. She naturally accepted the makeup beautifully, whether it be on her legs or arms. We never did body scrubs on her in advance ourselves. All those things that we often do if we’re going to tan them or do different colors on them, we’ll often do all the prep. We never had to do that with Cynthia. It just worked brilliantly.
SN: She has just got great skin. She doesn’t have dry skin. She’s got that beautiful natural oils to her skin that things sit on. It doesn’t dry out, it doesn’t cake. And yeah, I’m quite amazed really because looking after people in the past when you have to do full body makeup, it can be quite tricky. But the girls worked incredibly hard to maintain it throughout the day, but they did a beautiful job and it always looked so flawless.
From getting Cynthia in the chair to her being completely greenified, how long did that process take?
FH: The girls who made her up were Alice Jones and Olivia Jerrard. There were two people used, one for the hands, one did the face, and then Cyn did her wig. But the whole process, once we got it down, was roughly two hours and 15 minutes.
When it comes to removing the green, is it just hopping in the shower and washing it off? Or is it not that simple.
FH: Not exactly. That’s a special remover. Three girls in the evening, they got that down to 45 minutes depending on if Cynthia had a real rush, you get it off a bit quicker. But then the average time was about 45 to remove. So all that’s incorporated into the length of her working day.
Moving on to hair, Elphaba wears micro-braids. I imagine Cynthia was part of that conversation around hairstyling from the beginning?
FH: Very much so. It was in the early days of research that I came across this particular micro-braiding that I liked. We researched everything, the history of braiding and the contemporary looks now. We wanted to make it timeless, so it was trying to find a balance. Cynthia as an artist is tiny and her costumes, that big witch’s hat and those cloaks, are big. So we had to bring a style to Cynthia that could grow and change but not swamp her.
Micro-braiding fulfilled every nuance. It kept her head shape very small and tight. It allowed development by letting it free, but keeping it very simple. Elphaba isn’t vain, unlike Glinda, so she wouldn’t be doing anything too fancy to herself or taking time for that sort of thing. I brought it to [director] Jon Chu and [producer] Marc Platt. Jon really loved the idea then he took it to Cynthia and she loved the idea. It just developed from there. We made four simple hairstyles but as Cynthia’s Elphaba developed, more hairstyles developed within it.
How many wigs did Cynthia wear throughout both movies?
FH: Cynthia had seven in total that were for her. But all round, four stand-ins, stunt doubles, and everything else we had to cover, so we had something like 17 wigs. Those wigs were made by Samuel James on green lace, six to eight inches long of the right texture. And then the braids were put in afterwards. It took four braiders several days to braid each individual wig. The first day I met Cynthia, she only had a day in the UK, long before anybody else was on board and before we had cameras. We trialed the green and it worked great. I had a black stock wig, and we had imagined that would be the way to go, but I put the black wig on her head against the green and it looked really jarring. It was really, really unattractive and harsh. And I realized then straight away, she needed a lot more brown in it to soften the look and make it younger.
SN: I remember the incredible braiders had this recipe of how much brown to put in at what place within the braids, at what positioning on the head. Because they’d have to completely copy the wigs to look identical and obviously braiding one as they go. So sometimes they’d have one in that they’re marrying up to and matching and referencing. And they did a phenomenal job and so many hours of work go into that, the various specifics of all of it to make sure they look the same.
Another standout moment are Elphaba’s nails, which start out as this ombré design then change to a glittery design when she reaches Emerald City. Why was it important to reflect that change in the setting in her nails?
FH: Cynthia brought the idea of Elphaba’s nails to the table. The nails were something she used a lot within her performance. We started off with the little seven-year-old having very small, tiny green nails. And then we developed it into Elphaba’s sheer and long, but natural nails. And then Emerald City, where she’s on her way to the Wizard and she’s feeling really upbeat and powerful, she chooses to have them stronger. Shea Osei did her nails and she’d often go to Cynthia’s home. Whenever was possible, Shea would put on proper gels, not press-ons. If we had to interchange, we’d often use press-ons. Sometimes the press-ons would go on top of the already existing nails if we did one change to the other in the same day. But it was always planned and taken into account. Cynthia used it beautifully in silhouettes. It was as strong as her beautiful witch hat.
For Glinda, Ariana Grande dyed her hair blonde for this film, but she’s wearing wigs.
FH: As soon as Ariana came in, she wanted to go blonde, which was a great idea because it gave her the feeling every day of being Glinda. So for all the dance rehearsals and everything she had to do, she went in blonde herself. She often asked to wear a blonde wig to rehearsals or read-throughs, because she wanted to feel like she was bringing Glinda into everything. The visual of the blonde, no different from the green, was very important to her. She had seven wigs herself, and I can’t quite remember how many we had in total.
SN: Glinda had more stunt doubles—she had a riding double and various stunt doubles.
FH: In all, probably five were used, seven were available, and then there were all the others [for stunts.] There were probably 17 in total. We’d be filming with the real Ariana and then there’d be a stand-in, and then there’d be another double on set. So you might often do six Glindas in one day for various moments.
Something I kept thinking about when I watched the movie was the “toss”, toss!” of Glinda’s hair. I was envisioning you guys constantly running in after a cut to reset her hair because she’s constantly flinging her head around.
FH: Gabor Kerekes did her hair and he was in there as much as they’d allow him. But we don’t often get the time we might like in between, particularly if they might not cut, they might keep going. You never take your eyes off it and you do what you can to keep it as perfect as possible.
SN: But it’s always a compliment if somebody’s really feeling themselves when they’ve got your wig on and it feels like their own hair that so much that they want to play with it. As much as it’s a little bit tricky to look after, it’s definitely a compliment that she’s feeling confident, she’s feeling good, she wants to use it in the scene. Gabor did a lovely job and that’s probably why she felt like she wanted to flick it around.
Describe Glinda’s overall look.
FH: Ari has used all these words as well, but it was to keep it very iridescent and shimmery and very princess-like. As you could see from the film, it’s not complicated makeup, but it is very intricate mixing her REM products and other products for covering tattoos, she has so many. There was a lot of groundwork before you actually got into the beauty side. And for her growth within her look, it was really that it just became stronger. Her eyes grew stronger, her eyebrows grew stronger. We tried for a very youthful look for the opening, but really she maintains a general princess-style shimmer and opalescence, which really complemented her costumes.
What did you use to cover Ariana’s tattoos?
FH: MAQPro Creamy, tubes of tattoo cover that you can buy in a huge range of skin tones. It’s got a really high pigment density. It’s a product that we recommend. In our industry we use it all the time. You don’t need too much of it, so you don’t have that problem with transfer onto costumes. [Ariana’s hand tattoos] are covered and all that touching with Elphaba in a black costume, that’s something you’re very aware of. It certainly wasn’t done in post. Any covering up was all done with makeup.
MAQPRO Creamy
Precious About Makeup
What REM products were used on Ariana?
FH: I do remember one very well because it was a lovely finish to her. It was like the final touch of when she became Glinda for the day, and it was her Interstellar Highlighter Topper in Miss Mercury. She used to rub her finger in it, she’d always do it herself, and add it to just tip the end of her nose. We did use it in other places for her makeup too. But it was something that she often liked to add when we were doing a final check just before a take. It was a little bit of if it was something that she’d do without thought, but it was very much part of Glinda.
R.E.M. Beauty Interstellar Highlighter Topper
Ulta Beauty
In the opening scene, we get a peek of Glinda in the future as the Good Witch and she’s wearing body jewels on her shoulder. Why did you add that detail?
FH: It was really because Glinda’s dresses were so extravagant and spectacular. With the hair and her tiara and everything, it just did something within the shoulder area, this gap that drew the eye to it. It would catch the light and shimmer when she got out of the bubble, it would particularly catch in a turn, and it just added a nice touch that wasn’t just a bit of highlighting powder like one would do for a normal night out if you had bare shoulders.
Glinda’s eyelashes are also particularly striking. Were those extensions or falsies?
FH: They were half pieces. And with then some individuals just to make the blend. And always to give that impression of giving them that lift out, which she loved with her eyebrows as well. I can’t tell you the contemporary name for the shape of the eyebrows, but it’s not as in … mine are very arched and just traditional. She has this lovely lift on her eyebrows that she likes very much. And the lashes were used to give that effect too. And then the hair also went with that whole effect. So everything from here was going up and out, not just round
How did we settle on a French manicure for Glinda?
SN: It worked across the board with all her costumes because it’s so classic. If you were to choose pink, you might find that it doesn’t work so beautifully with one costume or with another. Whereas the classic French works seamlessly throughout any of her costume choices. And yeah, it is a classic and it looks so flattering. Clean simplicity.
Another character Glinda often appears with is Fiyero, played by Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey. How do you make Jonathan, who is already this huge heartthrob, look even more princely and swoon-worthy?
FH: Johnny came to us from another film, so I had everything made prior to his arrival. He was in Canada filming. So I had a maker go get his head shape while he was in Canada and that was sent to me. And then I went to Ray Marston‘s wig studio and had his wigs made. I had some options made because until you’re with Johnny and until his head is in his space of Fiyero, it’s very hard to decide on where he wanted to be with his look. But one thing we knew about Johnny is he had masses of action with regards to his dance routines. That went over many, many days for eight and 10 hours a day. Johnny’s own hair, though he has plenty of it, would actually collapse with the body heat. I had a medium toupee and a large toupee made for him. I’d seen all his costumes, and he needed more bulk. And he agreed straight away. That way, we could control the wig and the wig doesn’t drop so much.
So it’s all part of the things that Sarah and I do throughout any film. You have to think of not just the design, but how that design keeps the look throughout the film. I was inspired very much by Paul Tazewell’s use of huge brass buttons over his uniforms. And I had a story arc that we had to keep in mind. So I used big splices of blonde, brassy, yellow hair, which really gave Johnny a look he’d never had before. It was right over the front of his hair. The length gave him an extra two or three inches in height and more bulk on the sides. And it also gave him everything he needed for continuity every day to add to the extravagance and the volume of his look.
SN: The golden touches are definitely a point to keep an eye on, that was definitely a choice for his development.
In the beginning, Fiyero reflects Glinda, but as the film progresses he gets a bit more disheveled and roughed up.
You’re absolutely right. He starts in Shiz with his vanity. And then as he becomes more aware that he isn’t superficial as he calls himself, there’s slightly less care in his everyday appearance and then there’s a storyline still to come that he changed into. But with Jonathan himself, keeping his qualities. He wore makeup, we always kept him tanned. His distinguished features and just a very, very light beard growth because it was enhancing, made him look very strong and it worked really well. In Bridgerton, he is very dreamy, but he’s very clean-cut. I always research projects an actor has done before to see if it gives you something inspiring, but also to make sure you never copy. I believe we achieved that with Jonathan.
What was the most challenging part of this whole process? What was the most rewarding?
FH: We had terribly high collars to deal with, which are never easy with fake hair. Sarah did Madame Morrible’s hair and when you have a big, high collar rubbing on your hair like that, it’s nearly like putting Velcros against it and trying to tear it away from its position. Sometimes you can’t avoid it, you just have to battle with it constantly all day. Sarah did with Madame Morrible’s wigs. But with Jonathan we kept it just high enough so that his collars didn’t lift or rub it, but it blended well. I don’t think anybody would know Jonathan is wearing something fake.
The most rewarding thing was to achieve it all. There was some really difficult stuff all of us went through to get to the end. And maintaining the looks through dance routines, that’s very hard. Laura Blount supervised all the crowd and to keep hundreds of dancers perfect for 10 or 12 hours every day, weeks on end, is a real huge challenge. And there was never a flaw, I don’t think. But the biggest achievement for me, going right back to the very early days, was perfecting the green because if that hadn’t been perfected, firstly it would’ve gone to post and that would’ve been very sad.
SN: It was challenging, but also the best part was creating looks that were so timeless, taking inspiration from so many different things, different periods of time, the seasons, the weather. Not tying anything into a certain period and opening your mind into creating characters that aren’t tied into anything specifically.
Besides the ones we discussed, are there any other favorite looks you have from the movie?
FH: We had to give looks to different lands. Finding the munchkins was very important. In the original Wizard of Oz, they were fancy and colored and blue-haired and everything. And my brief from talking with Jon was the munchkins had to be able to be picked out, but they had to stay real. We weren’t going into the fantasy world at all. So I thought red hair, it has such a variation in color. Being very textured because they’re an agricultural culture, they’re outdoor people. We tanned them because they work in the field. We freckled them. We kept the high forehead. We used a hundred shades of red and more. And everyone had curls of some varying degree.
But the reason why it had to be so specific is our main character, Boq, is from Munchkinland. And in one of our storylines he’s picked out and the reason why they know where he’s from is because of how he looks. And that was a real connecting story point to finding the thread and then making a whole culture from that thread. Boq himself, Ethan, had naturally pale red hair, so we made him redder, we permed him, we gave him a full head of extensions. They took hours. He had four different color reds in his extensions, plus color in his own hair to give the vibrancy as well. But he still had to look attractive. Marissa still had to want him. So it was very important to keep the beauty but give the distinction.
SN: I looked after Madame Morrible’s wigs, which was an amazing journey. I remember when Fran came to me with the first images of the references and the vision. And playing around with the wig after that. It was a lot of fun and Michelle was very passionate about the process as well. It was trying to create effortless and intricate shapes without erring on any particular period in time. Something very new and fresh. Michelle had nail extensions as well. And you could see when her nails were done, she would slowly turn into Morrible. The way in which she used her hands.
What is one thing you hope audiences take away from the hair and makeup in this movie?
FH: I hope it’s inspiring. That their eyes have a feast. There’s stuff in there that on your first viewing you won’t necessarily notice, but when you see it the next time and the next, there’ll be lots of tiny things that make the world work. And it makes it more interesting to watch time after time.
SN: I hope they just feel joy. There’s so much in the world at the moment that doesn’t necessarily bring joy. I hope that a film like this does bring joy and a bit of innocence. And the hair and makeup just adds to the costume and the sets to create a little bit of escapism.
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Ariana Yaptangco is the senior beauty editor at Glamour. Follow her @arianayap.
The post ‘Wicked’ Movie Beauty: How Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande Transformed Into the Witches of Oz appeared first on Glamour.
