Wakanda Forever takes place five years after the first film –- and introduces a lot of new characters. Where did you draw inspiration when designing those looks?The obvious answer to that is the comic book source material. We also had a Mayan cultural specialist, Dr. Gerardo Aldana, who helped inform the looks and advised us because we wanted to be as culturally accurate as possible. I would run everything by Dr. Aldana, from the hieroglyphics on the front of the rebreathers on their faces to the shapes that were used.
How did Shuri’s looks evolve in this film?
My key, Kim Felix Burke, handled Shuri. In this film, Shuri is more mature. She’s suffered a loss which we see at the beginning of the movie, as the crew did in real life losing Chadwick Boseman. For her, it plays out on screen. We wanted to make sure that maturity and grief read on her. She has a tattoo behind her right ear that is a bit of artwork from Chad’s Black Panther helmet from the first film as a way to honor him.
What were some of the challenges you faced shooting in water for the undersea kingdom of Talokan?
All of them! Not being a stranger to water, having worked on all five of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, I know the problems that water is going to pose. Water is a constant battle. It is unforgiving. It erodes mountains. We had to really seal our makeups, use waterproof makeup, and then seal over that. Then it’s constant touch-ups all day. You’ve got fighting battles underwater, and abrasion and water are how you get most things off, so trying to keep it on was a challenge. We were shooting wet for wet in a great number of these scenes. Even when not submerged the actors were still spritzed and covered in water at the beginning of each shot so we struggled. Half your day is spent in the morning getting everyone ready and the rest is spent making sure what you did that morning didn’t come off during the day.
What was the process like for creating the blue skin tones for the Talokanil people?
It was an extensive process. Certainly, there have been blue people in films before but we wanted to find something unique to our world. Once we found that color, then it was a question of finding the right material to keep it locked in until we wanted to remove it. The first time I did a full Talokanil makeup, I made up a standin and showed it to Ryan Coogler, our director, who signed off on the color. I happened to run into Geoff Baumann, our VFX supervisor, on the way out and he asked if it was waterproof? I spritzed the actor and it started to bleed this dark blue sweat. So I had to go down an entirely different road finding another product and coming up with something that looked the same that wouldn’t bleed.
How much of the transformations were makeup design vs prosthetic?
I never really separate those two; it’s all about what the character requires. If there’s a prosthetic element to the character, like pointed ears or gills, or even a wardrobe element like a gasket around the face, that all falls under my department. They need to seamlessly blend into each other because a lot of the prosthetics on this are jewelry or wardrobe elements. We used many materials to achieve the look of one Talokanil — transfer, silicone, prosthetics; it was a lot of different skill sets going into one character.
Whose look was the most difficult to achieve?
Each one of them presents its sense of challenges. Namor may have been because he’s a fairly well-established character in the Marvel universe. It was combining that comic book reference with the Mayan character. We did a couple of versions of the ear. The septum piercing is 3D printed and held together. We added slight arches to his brows as the character in the comics has an extreme arch. Then there’s all the Talokanil from the flashback sequence. The prosthetic gaskets they wear are traditionally Mayan. At the end of each day, you take them off and you can’t salvage them. Each one has silicone and twelve different colors to simulate jade and gold. And when you have 40 people playing, you want to salvage as much as you can so you don’t have to make hundreds for each day of shooting.
Products that you couldn’t have done the film without?
Yes! Endura –- airbrushable and paintable tattoo makeup made by EBA. They have a great line of colors. That was the one product that saved the day as far as keeping blue on the characters. It’s very heavily pigmented so it didn’t require multiple passes which are invaluable in the morning when you’re cranking out person after person. Each Talokanil was a three-hour makeup job. Also digital technology such as ZBrush digital sculpting program by Pixologic, 3D printers, and clear 3D printing resin. These modern products figured very heavily into what we did on this film. I did Danai Gurira’s head stencil for the Okoye tattoo on her head from the computer. This technology cuts application time down considerably. On the first film, the application time was three to four hours versus 45 minutes on this film. Then you have production happy.
What do you love about working on Black Panther films?
The camaraderie. We all worked on the first film. There was a family atmosphere which you don’t find on a lot of films. Since we lost Chad, there was a sadness, I think everyone being back together helped us get through that. It was comforting to know that everyone was feeling the same.
Words Shannon Levy
Photos Courtesy of Marvel Studio
