Tony Gardner: Special Makeup and Effects Designer

The excitement he felt while watching movies as a youngster and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work on Michael Jackson's Thriller video at the age of 18 were more than enough to lead Tony Gardner into a career as a special makeup and effects designer. Born in Ohio, Gardner realized his passion at an early age and for over 25 years has been applying his craft in the film industry.

 

Collaborating with his fellow cast and crew for ideas, Gardner carefully creates stunning makeup and special effects with precision and creativity, making sure that no miniscule detail is overlooked. He is the reason for our giggles when John Travolta transformed into a “fat housewife” in the movie Hairspray, is responsible for the disfigurement of Liam Neeson's face in the 1992 film Darkman and was the brains behind the amazingly scary creatures and effects in the two Addams Family films. His latest venture is his work as a special makeup design artist in the movie Beastly, starring Vanessa Hudgens and Alex Pettyfer. Recently, Youthink had a chance to talk with Gardner about his work on Beastly, some of his career highlights and what advice he has for teens who want to follow in his footsteps.

 

YT: What inspired you to begin a career in special effects and makeup design and what schooling did you have to take?

TG: My inspiration came from films that really affected me as a kid and got me really excited and I wanted to create that excitement for other people and tuck them in a world that was make believe. There wasn’t really any schooling involved other than theatre classes that had makeup classes. I was hired as an intern for four weeks for Michael Jackson’s Thriller and after, they hired me for four years. The experience was really great... and I was so thrown into the filming of this thing. That really inspired me to make this a career choice as opposed to one of several things I was interested in. Thriller was a defining moment because I started as a flunky and a couple of weeks later, I was building zombies and I got to build a zombie on myself. I got to be in the video and I got to shoot everyday. It was just this emotion and experience and that’s kind of when I said, “This is what I wanna do for a living.” School-wise, my best schooling was actually apprenticing under six-time Oscar winning Rick Baker.

 

YT: What are your main responsibilties on the movie Beastly?
TG: It was the complete design of the character, and figuring out how to achieve it. And building the makeup effects pieces to put on the actor everyday. You’re involved with the design, manufacturing and the execution of the character, and the whole gammet. Iit starts with the written word, and once you sit down with the director it becomes collaboration. More people get involved, including the actors, and everyone had great ideas. You try to be the person who takes all those ideas together and turn it into something three-dimensional. You have this agenda and you have to make sure that Alex [Pettyfer] is not buried under a ton of stuff and make sure it’s not hard for him to do what he needs to do.

 

From a technical standpoint, you’re kind of responsible for pulling that character off, and in the film of Beastly, where he is in the makeup, in the majority of the movie, you’re designing a character that people need to look up and relate to as real, and not just for a quick, “You-show-up-here-and-he’s-gone.” You need him for an hour of screen time, and that’s kind of the challenge.

 

YT: So the main goal is to create a lasting impression that really sticks in people’s minds?

TG: Yeah it's trying to design a character that’s true to the character that makes sense for the character. You're not showing off, but designing something that’s relevant or appropriate and then add a stylistic level that works for how the director plans on filming it. So you’re kind of the character designer, but then on set you almost become a partner in crime with the actor because you’re maintaining the look, the prosthetic makeup and you’re maintaining them and keeping up their energy. You become the actor’s helper, becoming the makeup guy and he’s a collaborative experience and you’re all in it together

 

YT: How would you summarize your experience while working with the cast and crew of Beastly?
TG: I think the entire experience was pretty amazing. The director - incredibly creative. He [Daniel Barnz] came up with a lot of the ideas... a lot of specific design ideas for the character that works and works really well. And Alex, you think about someone who is 19 and you’re asking them to shave their head every morning and sit down and put three and a half hours into makeup, he’s really amazing. He was so committed to what we were doing and it made our job so much easier. It made the whole experience really fun. You take the character and you see what Alex is doing with it and walk it out onto the set. Mindy, the director of photography, she enhanced the fantastical element so that its sort of a stylized reality and everybody was really coming from the same place. And the costume (designer), she’s done some amazing stuff on Mary Kate Olsen. It really inspired the idea that maybe Mary Kate should have a tattoo and piercing, and that’s kind of where design elements and come from. Things bounce around between different departments

 

YT: What was it like to work on high profile projects like Michael Jackson’s Thriller and James Cameron’s Aliens?
TG: When I was on Thriller, I was 18, and I had no idea what I was doing in terms of how much of an impact projects like that can have on people. Music videos were kind of in their infancy, and people were having more fun than we were aware that this was really going be a powerful thing. The experience was artistically rewarding. I don’t think it was really considered high profile. I don’t think anyone felt any pressure or stress from it, I think that everyone really enjoyed the experience.

Aliens was a really weird experience because it was one of the films that inspired me when I was a kid - [the original] aliens. I would copy things that I liked in movie, and that’s sort of how I got started. One of the things that I started copying was the chest burster from Aliens. I just made this latex model back then. And you know, here we are many years later, and I’m sculpting the chest burster from Aliens. And the movie it was kind of a weird experience for me all around.

 

YT: Like déjà vu!
TG: Yeah, it really was. Because back when I was doing my little copycat thing in Ohio, I never thought I’d be in that industry, let alone working on the sequel on one of the movies that really inspired me. To really work on Aliens everyday was just joy.

 

YT: What is an experience that was really memorable to you?

TG: I was working on Gwyneth Paltrow for Shallow Hal. We were making Gwyneth a 350 lb woman. And Gwen, she’s super skinny. But we tested makeup on her in a hotel in New York three months before we did the film. And I talked her into leaving the room and going to the lobby to talk to people, walk around, and I told her to go make a dinner reservation and the hotel restaurant. And we had her go to the bar downstairs with someone to order a drink. It was really exciting to sort of step out and fool people in the real world. And we did. And I think that was one of those moments when I realized, I really love what I do, and this is really fun. That, and standing in the middle of the street on Thriller. Looking around at all the trailers and makeup artists doing stuff and hearing music playing and seeing all the people at the end of the street behind the police barricade screaming for Michael. That was another moment when I realized that I really liked what I did, that was really cool.

 

YT: With Youthink being a magazine for teens, what advice would you give to students who want to get involved with the film industry, and more specifically, become a special effects and makeup designer?

TG: Don’t be afraid to try every thing, if you fail its not the end of the world. It's always better to try something and have that experience. Try everything that you want to do, and talk to people that do it. And feel free to ask some questions. It’s really easy to just ask somebody.

 

The things you do on your own, take pictures have a record or have proof. When you talk to this person who does what you want to do, you could say that these are some things you did on your own, so they know you’re genuinely interested.

Be yourself. And trust in yourself. I think that’s really key. Go into situations and try it all, take pictures of everything, be confident, be who you are and always put your best foot forward. And first impressions are really true. Be respectful to the people you’re meeting. Be a good person: all of that stuff really adds up to an opportunity. I found a piece of paper that my first boss was writing on when he interviewed me for the job and he wrote that my skill set was limited because of where I grew up and there were no resources, but two things that were really big was, “has a positive attitude and is very enthusiastic.” That’s what got me in the door, and that’s what got me higher to a four week job, that turned into a four year job that turned into my career.

 

You can witness first-hand Tony Gardner's special makeup and effects work in the movie Beastly, which hits theatres starting Friday, March 4th.