How did you come to work on The Covenant?
My dear friend and frequent collaborator, Jake Gyllenhaal, mentioned that Guy Ritchie had an indie film in Spain. This was during the height of Covid and he asked if I was available. I am a fan of the old Ritchie films, and like the oldschool, fast style of working. I had a few prior commitments with the awards whirlwind of Dune and would have to miss a few days of shooting, but Jake and the producers were in agreement that I come on board as Makeup/Hair Designer and Department Head.
How large was your makeup team?
My team was average size, though junior and rather inexperienced — crewing during Covid was a very difficult task. My first choices were busy and production was pushing for EU hires first, then UK as a second option. As head of department/designer, we have many hats to wear, and balance budgets, and even must know about tax incentives and where the actual crew is hired. Luckily, I had Diana Estrada Hudson an ex-Angeleno who speaks Spanish! Now a naturalized Brit, Diana came on board to run background hair and makeup. I also hired three local Spanish makeup artists and one hairstylist to help on our bigger days with day player cast and huge crowds.
The cast is mostly male actors. Does that affect your process differently than with a cast of female actors?
Working with male versus female actors does not really differ for me. I tend to find men a little harder for makeup, as it is not a natural fit for them, and they rely on your expertise more. They also use makeup in films and television for corrective natural enhancement which in my view takes great skill, often undervalued by others. Male actors also rely on character and fx makeup techniques far more often than female actors, a fact, plain and simple. Sweat, dirt, wounds, casualty, etc., occur in life and in the film we see. Having said all that, I do believe female actors help you with their makeup and rely on their hairstylists and wigs in a similar manner in creating character or aging.
Speaking of female characters, any must-have products for Emily Beecham’s makeup as Caroline Kinney?
Our wonderful costume designer LouLou Bontemps and I agreed to keep her look clean and natural in her clothes. Pretty skin with a little Armani base, and if I recall correctly a Tom Ford lipstick blotted, and barely there eyeshadow in my go-to earth tones, brown mascara on fair ladies, and a sweeping of cheek color from NARS.
When working in extreme environments are there any special challenges you face in application or continuity?
In any extreme environment, as it was in the Spanish mountains outside of Alicante, it was cold early in the am and dry hot, and sunny in the daytime. Quite similar to California. So I was using a lot of La Roche Posay sunscreen, a few other local Spanish and EU brands of sun and postsun care, as well as one of my favorite skincare lines QMS from Germany.
Are there any cultural considerations you needed to keep in mind given the film takes place mostly in Afghanistan and includes various ethnic groups in the storyline?
I am so pleased you asked about ethnic and cultural sensitivities in the storyline. I am profoundly aware and sensitive to the feelings of our cast and crowd actors of various backgrounds who were in our film. The amazing Dar Salim, who plays opposite Jake, is Iraqi and lives in Denmark, and many of our crowd actors are refugees themselves. For women who cover up, I would ask that only one or two female crew handle makeup, skincare, hair, etc. Or for the male crew only to touch or hand sunscreen to observant cast or crowd males too.
What about continuity for stubble and beard growth?
For continuity, the story is ver y much in two parts, though the challenge was we were block shooting and a very short shoot of just under eight weeks! Jake looks great with the beard and Guy wanted it throughout. It would have posed issues to shave it for his return in the finale, as we shot back and for th, so I am ver y proud of how we did it all in the end. In prep, I had some burn scar prosthetic pieces made by my go-to effects guru Love Larson for Dar Salim as a kind of back story that he was injured early on. Guy loved it, however, once he realized it took more than ten minutes to put on and ten to take off, and rarely get a close-up, why bother? There are times as makeup artists we need to listen to that. I so respect Love for never being offended by it. I am very proud of the work we all did to recreate the vast crowd, stunt and cast looks for civilians, Afghans, Taliban, Soldiers, US Soldiers airbase all in Spain with the great costume department and costume designer Loulou Bontemps, first-rate producers Samantha Waite, Josh Berger and Guy Ritchie.
Any FX products you couldn’t have done the film without?
There were a handful of products I cannot live without: a water spray bottle, Elizabeth Arden Eight-Hour Cream for sweat/wet look; Maekup By David Stoneman blood, blood gel, and mouth blood; RCMA Makeup, Graftobian and Ben Nye Bruise Wheels; Kryolan Tuplast scar material, Tear Stick, Death Pallor Wheel and Rigid Collodion; Pigs Might Fly Blood,Love Mud, Reel Dirt, Fleet Street Dirtworks, Ben Nye Ash Powder and K.D. 151 adhesives.
Words Shannon Levy
Photos Christopher Raphael/MGM Pictures
