“I am basically a narrator, only with the skin on a character’s face,” explained Mike Marino, the prosthesis Maestro whose reputation quickly becomes as praised as film make -up legends Rick Baker and Stan Winston.
At this year’s Golden Globes, Marino was not recognized once, but twice by winning actors on stage: first by Colin Farrellwhich is unrecognizable in HBO’s “The Penguin”; And then off Sebastic townWho won for his role in the dark indie comedy about disfiguring and self -acceptance, “another man.”
“It was a huge compliment,” Marino told Thewrap of the Shoutouts. “People teased me that night – producers and actors and heroes of me like Rick Baker – joke,” This is Marino Globes. “I have done this throughout my life and I am just super grateful and happy to do what I do. Prosthetic work is not the crazy, thriving company it once was, but I follow my mentors’ footprints and try for greatness every time, for That’s what I taught them. ”
For his work on “Another man,” Marino noted his third Oscar nomination in the makeup category (divided by David Presto and Crystal Jurado). His former Noms was for “Coming 2 America” (2021) and “The Batman” (2022), but “Another Man” is in a completely different key – the lowest budget for Marino’s three nominated films, out of many millions, of many millions, With a swelling shooting plane in just 22 days.
Directed by Aaron Schimberg follows the story Edward (Stan), a man with facial treatment whose uncertainty is aggravated after he undergoes a treatment to improve his face. After the change, he meets Oswald (Adam Pearson), a warm, chatter English man with the same facial conditions as before Transformation Edward.
A few weeks before the film, production began in 2022, Marino was contacted via text message of the city, which is also an executive producer on the film and asked if the makeup artist could lend their prosthesis gifts. Marino, which is based in New York, where the film was to be filmed, was fascinated.
“I read the script and thought,” This is absolutely strange and original and I have to do this, “he reminded. “We live in a time where everyone is trying to look as perfect as possible, and this story actually has something to say about it. Edward goes through this metamorphosis, where he becomes a handsome guy like Sebastian Stan, but after he loses his face, he does not know who he is. “
With Pearson as a plan (the actor, who debuted in Jonathan Glazers “Under The Skin”, neurofibromatos), Marino created a three -part silicone prosthesis for the character of the city.
“In a previous era, there would have been seven or eight, but the majority of this was a head piece, with also a small eyelid and a lower lip,” shared Marino. “And with Sebastian we got it for a two hour application, when the hair and eyebrows were glued on.” While he did not film, Stan wore makeup on the streets of New York City, both to test its credibility and to feel the reactions from passersby, a theme that the film handles with a mixture of arrest and irony.
The story also demanded several stages of makeup, as Edward experiences his facial treatment. For a scene in the bathroom, Marino paid tribute to a moment from A Ghost Horror Classic from the 1980s.
“Aaron, Sebastian and I, we are superfilmgeeks, and we saw that nightmare sequence in ‘Poltergeist’ where a guy in a mirror peels off some of the face. The funny thing is that for that movie they had only one shot to get it right, so (screenwriter) Steven Spielberg went in and did the scaling himself. It’s his hands in the scene. For us, Sebastian was responsible for getting it right, which he did perfectly. “
Marino also quoted “The Elephant Man” as his favorite movie – the one who mostly decided the way in his life and career – and is grateful that critics and audiences have understood the ideas in “another man” in similar terms.
“David Lynch caught Joseph Merrick’s beauty and humanity in that movie,” he said. “And I love the reactions to Adam’s performance in our film, which proves that people get it. People love Adam when they see him and talk to him, and it doesn’t matter how he looks and all the superficial stuff. “
The history of the films, mentioned Marino, is remarkable for the contributions of makeup artists, as far back as Lon Chany in the silent era and Jack Pierce, who worked with the original “Frankenstein.” Marino is an avid dedicated by his efforts and even studied as a protégé under Oscar-winning makeupman Dick Smith (“The Godfather”, “The Exorcist”, “Amadeus”).
“I look at my work like who I am,” he said. “I’m not just a rented gun, which sometimes people want on their production. I have to be interested in the material and feel that it is right, as with this movie. I love to approach a character and ask: ‘How did this person grow up? How do they live? What are they thinking? ‘Makeup is story. “
