Donald Mowat: “Making films as a makeup and prosthetics designer, all that stuff also comes with being a little bit of a bank manager”
How do you unify your designs in Dune with that of Frank Herbert’s vision, or did you have your own unique way and style?
For me, it’s what Denis (Villeneuve) is looking for. It’s his vision. It’s his film. I’m there to help, so I looked at it, looking at the book a little bit and not really at the film from a number of years ago, just to be refreshed. To come up with my own ideas to present. I think that, just coming at it from a perspective of “we tried a couple of things,” and put together pictures and mood boards, and then we all come together, production design, costumes, hugely, highly collaborative Denis Villeneuve film in the key, creative areas. We started getting some ideas and early sketches from his people, Sam who does storyboards and illustrations, and then I take what’s given to me and go another step and that’s it.
Is there a design within Dune that you’re proudest of?
Sometimes the things that are not the showiest, maybe. I love it all. I don’t say it lightly. In all these years there are very few films where I can say I very deeply, as Denis would say, “loved” this cast, but I really did. I’m fond of them all. Every single one of them. Timmy (Timothée Chalamet) and Rebecca (Ferguson), because there’s a lot of nuance and subtlety in the makeup and hair. It’s harder than it appears because it’s subtle, but there’s the continuity of it and they play every day. The Baron (Stellan Skarsgaard) is an achievement. It’s an engineering achievement that a lot of people are responsible for, I can’t take all the credit for it. Everyone who I was able to bring, some of the best people in the world, together to sculpt and make it. Dave Bautista, David Dastmalchian, Javier Bardem, I really enjoyed that makeup and I loved working on that with him and setting him up. Zendaya. Everyone had something, there was a hair or makeup element of each character.
Some articles, recently, speak about the correlation between costumes and design and the bulkiness of the costume - such as Skarsgaard’s in here. How do you find the balance between designs and comfort for the actor?
I have a personal philosophy. I hope I haven’t stolen it from someone else because I’ll be busted. But, I just have this thing, and – no I know where it comes from, it’s really from fashion. I guess from Chanel. I do think you have a very hard time doing the hair, the makeup and the costume. There can’t be all those elements, and I use as an example Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread.
My good friend, Mark Bridges, who designs incredible costumes and the hair and makeup was that, someone had to be neutral in some of those looks because it’s really about those clothes, isn’t it? I think you have to be kind of grown-up and buck up a little bit and say: “This isn’t about me, this is about the makeup or this is about the hat or the costume here and this is really about the hair.” I don’t really – and I’ll get killed for it by my colleagues – I don’t really think all three play at that level. You have to sometimes let something go.
Lady Jessica, when she’s covered up in all that veiling and middle eastern influence, I love that. I thought what Jacqueline West and Bob Morgan did was brilliant but I didn’t see her having all kinds of makeup with that. That would have been a little “I dream a genie.” That’s my own personal take. I think it’s stepping back and helping everyone because other things like The Baron – Stellan’s hysterical because he loves being in the makeup and he liked not having the clothes on and it changed the dynamic because he loves getting his kit off. We laughed about it but then I thought “well now we have to reschedule,” because we only have him for six or seven days and now it’s gonna be eight or nine days which is significant for what I do because you have to balance the cost and go to the first AD and the producer and the director because suddenly makeup that was only going to be four hours is now six hours. That’s a significant increase in what you projected. Making films as a makeup and prosthetics designer, all that stuff also comes with being a little bit of a bank manager. Someone has to answer for that, you know?
On such a tight schedule too, the continuity must be a harsh issue for the costumes. How do you find that balance between aesthetic integrity and dependable designs that can be replicated later on?
You know, there are times where we try our best. Makeup and hair particularly, skin and hair change every day. I’m looking at myself today and it’s very strange what’s happening. The air, the humidity, you’re recreating things in the desert. I used to laugh with Timmy about it because there he is, Timmy in the desert, and I would ask the incredible effects team to turn the fans on and I would stand directly in front of them so I could get him back to where we left off, getting all that dust and sand back on his face when the spice is flying around. Then we’d go to the studio and shoot, and you’re out of sequence completely but having to maintain continuity through all these script days and doing the same thing or as he comes out of the tent and he’s tearful or she is and you have to carry that over. You have to have a good eye and be very meticulous and diligent about what you shot because you’re being your own editor as well of how things look.
Is it hard to be self-critical of the designs and continuity? Do you bring that up if something is wrong?
I think we all make mistakes and we’ve all done it. No one is perfect and things, sometimes, something happens but also realistically if you see something that you’ve done that was a mistake or wrong you obviously have to fess up. I’ve gone in the past to Denis and said: “Look maybe something’s wrong here,” as we all do. But I think people are hard on us particularly because, I’ve been on plenty of films where somebody did something and we had to reshoot for a number of reasons. It’s rare we get to reshoot and if we do people will hear about it so I think there’s a kind of – something quite unfair. You know, we get one shot, I think it can be very difficult but occasionally it’s beyond your control.
You’re in a situation where you really can’t, you’ve tried, it’s like blood. It’s very hard to match between rain and water and snow, there’s a lot of physics involved too. I think you also have to know for performance and for the actor when you have to let something go. Do I need to check them? Does this need a check? If there’s a bit of hair, is this really worth spoiling this moment in the film of an incredible performance? Is that one piece of hair going to change something or is it really a distraction? It’s just learning, and it takes many years, I think, to understand when you should interrupt and go to the director or the script supervisor and say: “You know what, that’s not working” and then you go in and fix it.