Seen “Guardians of the Galaxy" yet?
The sci-fi blockbuster, which features a literally colorful cast of characters, required actors to endure as many as five hours in the makeup chair. Zoe Saldana’s green-all-over look is the layered product of three complementary emerald tones. Dave Bautista’s intricately etched red tattoos on gray skin are the result of painstakingly brushed, splattered, and sponged green, yellow, and red makeup.
Beautification aside, upon learning this, we only had one thought: How does someone eat in heavy special effects makeup, anyway?
For an answer we appealed to John Blake,
a makeup industry veteran who has worked on more than 50
films—including the auditions for “Guardians of the Galaxy”—over the
course of his 30-year-plus career.
“Sometimes, I’ve seen people
[wearing] a costume for as long as 16 hours,” Blake told us. And these
are heavy-duty costumes: On the set of the 1988 film “Gorillas in the
Mist,” actors wore cumbersome costumes that made eating incredibly
difficult. ”These guys were wearing full gorilla suits, and the mouth
didn’t line up with the actor’s mouth,” Blake said. Rather than letting
the actor take off the suit for a grub break, “they had to open up the
neck of the costume and push inside a long straw.”
In his years on the job, Blake
has seen his fair share of protein shakes and green drinks. (Of course;
it’s Hollywood!) Actors who need to bulk up tend to eat hearty
protein-rich and lean fare like chicken,
eggs, and fish—but cut into teeny, tiny pieces to accommodate those
bulky costumes. (On the other end of the spectrum, those looking to slim
down favor ”a mixture of really strong coffee, coconut oil, and protein
powder” drunk through a straw.)
Eating a slice of pizza or a
plate of saucy ribs is obviously a no-no, Blake said, but that doesn’t
mean some don’t attempt it. “There’s always that one guy who tries to
eat ribs or something, and everything had to be redone,” he said.
But there are some easy secret
tricks, too. While working on the set of several “Pirates of the
Caribbean” movies, Blake’s team figured out a simple dining solution to
the heavy beards glued to many actors’ faces: ”At lunchtime, we just
took their mustaches off. Everybody is sitting around with a beard
without a mustache!”
You heard it here first, folks: Be like a superstar, take off your mustache, and tuck in. (Tips from the pros.)