updated: 14/04/2005
Leatherface’s sister Henrietta was described in the casting notice as ‘late 30’s, a frumpy large sized mother-hen type’ so Heather Kafka was not an obvious choice. Bad hair, bad skin, bad teeth and an absence of eyebrows helped.
Heather described how she found the character:
It was almost impossible for me to find those tiny clues the writer leaves the actor on the page since a lot of it was about size, which I don’t have. Without any bridge from my skin to the way she was written, I knew I’d have to completely fabricate her in my own mind. So, I went to Savers, bought some cheap terrycloth bathrobe and a pair of slippers, which I then dragged through the mud a few times. Once I put it on, I didn’t take it off for three days. I literally locked myself in the house, walked around with a teacup in my hand and went crazy. It was on day three of complete madness that I inexplicably went into the bathroom and took a razor to my eyebrows. I shaved ’em right off my face. The hollowness staring back at me was the Henrietta I was looking for – she was not a total monster – but without all the normal features of a human face, she was not quite right either. (I was also completely f***ing insane! Doing this before I’d even had a call-back! Turned out, there was some debate over whether eyebrows would grow back or not. – oh well – they did.)
Carla Palmer (as Carla E Palmer) was head makeup artist; Troy Breeding was key makeup artist; Grady Holder was makeup artist (special effects body dismemberment); Scott Stoddard was special makeup effects artist.