Did the cast wear wigs all throughout the movie?
Massimo: Yeah. Zendaya used all wigs because sometimes you choose the wig even to change the nature of the hair, to give a different feeling to the character. If you were curly with really thick hair, your feeling in the mirror could be so different if you [wore a wig] with thin, straight hair.
[In the beginning, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist] wore wigs. When you shoot a movie by the needs of a location, you must shoot without continuity. So you can shoot the beginning and the finale of the film the same day. We built wigs. Actually, Mike’s wig was very, very nice. It was by Diane Choi, a really great wig maker from LA. We dyed Mike’s wig and then cut his own hair very short and fresh for the last act, but we kept the wig for the first two acts. The color was complicated to do because it had to look really natural and real. I did the color on this wig many, many times. One time, I took the wig home. Do you remember, Fernanda?
Fernanda: The wig was always there.
Massimo: Fernanda prepared the meal. I was washing and dyeing the wigs. Blonde is not easy to do in the natural way. So you must find the right shadow between the root to the end of the hair. You can’t do the hair color too strong. I use Matrix to create a shadow and make the color change depending on the light.
How did Patrick and Art’s makeup evolve through the film?
Fernanda: At the beginning I wanted them very clean. Their faces are very free. They kind of looked like each other at the beginning. Of course, Patrick and Art are ice and fire. But we wanted them like one, even if they are ice and fire. When we see them later, I wanted the beard for Patrick because now he’s different from ice, Art, who is more cold and clean. I didn’t use any foundation on Mike and left him with his own skin. I wanted the beard for Patrick to make him more sloppy, more different from Art. It helped age him. We can see the difference in growing up and time passing.
When you are styling characters who have a sex scene, is there anything you need to do in terms of hair and makeup?
Massimo: About the hair, no. But even if it’s a wig or not, you have to be sure that it’s going to be well fixed and going to respond well to the natural movements.
C_00450_RMike Faist stars as Art and Zendaya as Tashi in director Luca Guadagnino’sCHALLENGERS An Amazon MGM Studios filmPhoto credit: Niko Tavernise© 2024 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.Niko Tavernise
