playing a role: movie-in-a-movie makeups

Various movie-in-a-movie makeups

When movie makers turn to making movies about movie-making the results are fascinating. Illusion is revealed to go all the way down as you realise that the process of the actress-character transforming her appearance with makeup for a movie-within-a-movie role is itself all artifice.

The movies

The Shadow Of The Vampire (2000): This movie portrays the filming of the classic vampire movie Nosferatu whose star seems to be taking his role far more seriously than expected. Greta Schroeder (Catherine McCormack) is the actress who plays the character of Ellen Hutter wearing a deliberately bad wig for her movie-within-a-movie scenes. Ann Buchanan was the hair and makeup designer; Katja Reinert was the makeup artist; and Leendert Van Nimwegen was the hair stylist and makeup artist.

Bowfinger (1999): Hollywood’s least successful director sets out to get Hollywood’s biggest star, Kit Ramsey, for his next movie (without his knowing). His cast including Carol (Christine Baranski) are also unaware that Kit is an unwitting participant in their movie. Steve Artmont was the key makeup artist with Rick Sharp as the makeup artist; Gloria Ponce was the key hair stylist.

F/X – Murder by Illusion: Ellen (Diane Venora) is the actress/stuntwoman girlfriend of Rollie Tyler and dons a blonde wig and special effects squids to play a character being shot in a scene being filmed in a movie-within-the-movie: a few minutes later in the film and the character Ellen is herself the victim of a shooting. Carl Fullerton was the special makeup artist; Allen McKinley and Allen Weisinger were the makeup artists on the movie.