The collaboration process to develop a character’s look can typically take months, going back and forth among filmmaker, artisans and actor to refine details through countless emails and photo attachments. But with four separate characters (plus a surprise fifth persona in the finale) just for on HBO’s , prosthetic designer Vincent Van Dyke knew they didn’t have that kind of time, so he invited the key players to his studio in Burbank for a live sculpting session. “Walking into Vincent’s studio for the first time and seeing those clay molded heads of the characters was a very surreal experience,” Downey says.
“You’re not just throwing on a costume; you’re stepping into someone else’s skin. Working with director Park [Chan-wook], molding and adjusting the clay, was hands-on in a way you don’t get with CGI. It was like stepping back into an old-school way of creating characters from the outside in.
” Ultimately, Park, Downey and Van Dyke, along with key makeup FX artist Chris Burgoyne, special makeup effects artist Michael Mekash and hair department head Katherine Kousakis, transformed the actor’s bone structure, hair, eye color and complexion, and built five different ways to reveal so much about these characters simply through hair and makeup. “A lot of that came through the collaborative testing phase of Robert giving notes,” says Burgoyne. “He was like, ‘For The Auteur, I want to be more olive-toned, and as The Congressman, I want to have an.
