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00:00Hi, I'm Mike Fleming, co-editor-in-chief of Deadline, and we're here to talk about Neon's
00:15Long Legs.
00:17Now, this movie, it's a sleeper hit horror film that came out this summer, and I mean
00:24this lovingly.
00:25It's as atmospherically as creepy as a movie like Seven, Silence of the Lambs, Twin Peaks.
00:33I mean this is just tour-de-force stuff.
00:37And in the film, Micah Monroe plays an FBI agent with clairvoyant instincts and a past,
00:45and she tries to crack a case where basically families are being murdered.
00:51Now at the center is the title character, played by Nicolas Cage, who throws himself
00:59into maybe the best-drawn serial killer I've seen since Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the
01:07Lambs or Kevin Spacey in Seven, or Anthony Perkins in Psycho.
01:13And the film was directed and written by that actor's son, Osgood Perkins.
01:19Now I'd hoped to dissect this creation with Mr. Cage, but he pulled out at the last minute,
01:27so I feel like I had the long legs cut out of me, but fear not, because we have the folks
01:34that helped craft his look.
01:36And I'd like you to give a big hand to the special effects makeup artist, Felix Fox,
01:44and the key hairstylist, Kristen Scharr, and the key makeup artist, Madeleine Hermans.
01:53Welcome all of you.
01:59How many of you have seen this movie?
02:01It's Neon's biggest grossing film ever, so I would assume a lot.
02:05And so why don't we show a clip, and for those of you not quite so familiar, you know, buy
02:12a hat and hang on to it.
02:34There she is, the almost birthday girl.
02:42Oh, but it seems I wore my long legs today.
02:49What happens if I...
02:54Cheesy cookies!
02:59Hey!
03:04Excuse me, who are you, and why are you talking to my kid?
03:12Let me in now, and it can be nice.
03:23Make me go now, and I'll have to come back.
03:28Not once, not twice, but as many times as I like.
03:38By the way, it's not a musical.
03:45Now I'd like to direct this to all three of you.
03:48What is the biggest challenge to get that look, that distinctive look that is just,
03:58it will haunt your dreams?
04:02You can thank Oz for that.
04:04That was all his idea, his creation.
04:08It's all him.
04:09All thanks to Oz, and then obviously the incredible Felix Fox here from Amazing Apes.
04:14Well, so I guess the question that we all want to know is, how many hours in the chair
04:21for him to look like that?
04:24It was about two and a half hours, and that was a tight two and a half hours.
04:29And he's a very interesting man.
04:34He was a big fan of Oz's dad, Anthony Perkins, one of his touchstone actors.
04:41And he brings something to this.
04:44He's already an Oscar winner, but he just really, I can't remember the last time I saw
04:49an actor do something like this.
04:51Maybe Heath Ledger as the Joker.
04:54So, when he's in the chair for two and a half hours, and you guys are hovering around
04:59him, what is that like?
05:01What do you talk about?
05:02Is he somebody that you don't want to approach?
05:06What's the most interesting thing that he's brought up and talked about while he's
05:10sitting there for a few hours?
05:14Believe it or not on this one, and this is the second movie that I've worked with
05:17him on.
05:18The first one was Wicker Man, and he was very quiet.
05:22He was very much in his role, and he was very quiet.
05:25So, actually the whole trailer was very quiet.
05:28Wow.
05:29So, there wasn't a lot.
05:30It was more talking about the process of everything.
05:35And tell me a little bit about that in terms of the process and finding that character,
05:42because you guys kind of had to bring it to life.
05:46You know, the thing about this movie is the way when you look at it, it's sort of like
05:52the middle of the country, and that's why I brought up Silence of the Lambs, and the
05:57way that Oz shot it, it's very stylistic.
06:01Give me a sense of that and the role that the makeup played, the makeup and the hair
06:09and the visual effects played in finding that period look that is something singular.
06:21Specifically to Longlegs' character or the whole film?
06:25Well, first Longlegs, and then, yeah, the whole film, if I could.
06:31Well, I think with the Longlegs, it was quite a bit of back and forth with the design.
06:36We started out with one concept between Oz and the shop that was a lot more, I mean,
06:43it was a lot more human, less white makeup than you saw, less plastic surgery, a little
06:48bit more pulled, not so form disfigured.
06:53And there was about four designs, and what they settled on after we tested one was that
06:58we were going to go a little bit more extreme, an ode, like a love story to Lon Chaney's
07:03Phantom of the Opera is really where that inspiration came from, and you can see that
07:08in the nose and the form a little bit.
07:11So it was a bit of a back and forth.
07:13He has two looks for it.
07:14One is the 70s, and then one is with more of the beauty makeup, per se, on it.
07:21You know, a little bit of blue eyeshadow, I don't know if you see that.
07:24We released very little on the actual behind the scenes of the makeup.
07:28There are some photos, but it was all meant to be very mysterious in that sense.
07:33Now, why did you do it that way?
07:35I think it was great, because I think we can all say that the release of the movie built
07:40that sort of momentum up, so you didn't really know.
07:43And sometimes you give away too much of the makeup, and then the mystery of the movie
07:47is shot, so it's one of the very few things I've worked on where they kept that mystery,
07:53and I love it.
07:54Even though I love to have my work out there, I love the mystery of it more.
07:58And for you guys, when did you know you had it right?
08:03When did you know?
08:05Who makes that decision?
08:07Nick Cage?
08:08I mean, Oz told me that basically he said to Nick, you're Nick Cage, do whatever you like.
08:15Change the lines, you know.
08:17Design the look.
08:18And he looked at him, and he said, no, you're Oz Perkins.
08:23I'm going to say it exactly as you wrote it, and I believe he did not veer from the dialogue once.
08:32And I would imagine also he probably adhered to what Oz had in mind.
08:37But talk a little bit about that.
08:39When you start off in one way, and it's subtle, and then you just decide, screw it, let's go for it.
08:48Well, Kirsten and I primarily worked with the rest of the cast due to all the special effects.
08:55Nick was with the special effects team.
08:57But in terms of designing those looks, we had multiple makeup tests,
09:03and we were filming 70s and 90s on the same days a lot of the time.
09:08So we would have to figure out how we can do that quick decade change,
09:12you know, in like a 20-minute change between scenes.
09:15And for Alicia Witt, who plays Ruth Harker.
09:19Nope.
09:20She plays...
09:22Why am I forgetting her name at the moment?
09:25Old Ruth.
09:26Old Ruth.
09:27Lee Harker is Micah.
09:29Yeah.
09:30Old Ruth.
09:31She's not a nice lady.
09:32No, she is lovely.
09:34She is an angel.
09:35Old Ruth is a little nutty.
09:38But we obviously had to make her look 20 years younger.
09:43So when we were doing those scenes, it was a lot of focus on skin care
09:47and how do we make everything look soft and supple
09:50and using a little bit more pink tones to kind of bring that youthfulness.
09:54And then for her aged looks, we would do some special effects to create the wrinkles
09:59and just make everything dull.
10:01Oz really wanted her to be colorless, dull,
10:04like the life had been sucked out of her by long legs
10:08and the satanic experience she was having.
10:11So there was a lot of powder and whiter, paler foundation
10:16to just suck all of the life out of her.
10:19As for the hair for her,
10:21I did draw a lot of inspiration from Kitty from the 70s
10:25to really signify the 70s
10:28because hair did really play a big part in the 70s.
10:32So I did a lot of heap roller setting in the hair
10:35and then when we had to switch over to her 90s look
10:38where she did get possessed by long legs,
10:40Oz wanted, he's like,
10:42I want your hair, like your length of hair.
10:44Actually, no, I want it longer.
10:45I want it to the knees.
10:46And I was thinking in my head,
10:47where am I going to find a colorless wig to get down here?
10:51So I had to get the longest 24-inch wig I could find with no color to it
10:56and then get custom extensions, make them myself
10:59and then clip them down the hair to make it right to the knees.
11:03And then obviously texture powder just to get it in there
11:06so it looked like it was a little bit lived in
11:08and just out of control just because she was,
11:11it was almost like unsettling
11:13to show like that's what she was dealing with.
11:16Well, and Maika Monroe, her character, you know, she's,
11:23I guess you would call it stronger than psychic hunches,
11:27but she's very, and once you learn about her
11:31and how she was raised, you kind of get it,
11:33but she's a very solitary, plain spoken,
11:37she doesn't say much, FBI agent.
11:40How do you guys, what do you focus on to give her a look
11:47that basically reinforces those qualities?
11:53Well, Maika has amazing skin already
11:56and beautiful eyebrows and eyelashes,
11:58so we were really focusing on skin care again
12:01and basically no coverage, like using very light coverage, no concealer.
12:06We wanted to be able to see some of the darker color under her eyes,
12:10which really added to the like moody atmosphere of everything.
12:13And I don't even think I put mascara on her.
12:16She got her eyelashes tinted and then we were like, that's perfect.
12:19We wanted it to be as subtle and as natural as we could.
12:24So it was a lot of skin care and very light coverage for makeup.
12:29Well, and was there maybe a North Star film
12:35that was an inspiration for the look you all were going for?
12:41I almost feel like this movie is going to be its own trendsetter, you know?
12:46So I don't think there was anything drawn
12:48other than what the idea Oz Perkins had in his mind
12:51for what the movie was and the story
12:53and everything just kind of really worked together
12:56and I think it just all played into itself.
12:59We did, obviously, Silence of the Lambs was a big inspiration for it
13:04and then I just was looking for, in my references,
13:08finding strong FBI female characters from movies over the years
13:14and how they presented themselves
13:16and a lot of it was very natural
13:19and it focuses more on the personality and performance of the actor
13:23to kind of bring across that really strong female officer presence.
13:29I'd say I mentioned the Phantom of the Opera before
13:32because that was a huge one, Lon Chaney's look.
13:35As well as one of the references that Oz brought in early
13:40was Bob Dylan in the Rolling Thunder review.
13:43That look was a huge...
13:46was in our minds all the time when we did that
13:49as well as, personally, Mark Bolin from T-Rex.
13:52There was actually a lot of musical...
13:55musician references going on in our minds
13:58when we were thinking of things like that.
14:01The white face and Geisha as well.
14:03The whole ritualistic preparation of the Geisha experience and makeup
14:08was huge, you know, when he's...
14:10We tried that many, many times,
14:12how far we should go with the powder, with the white makeup.
14:15Should it be a line? Should it be light?
14:18So, yeah, a lot of music.
14:20And the same thing for his wig, too.
14:22That's where it came from.
14:24The Mark Bolin inspiration for his wig,
14:26which we have to give credit for to Stacey Butterworth,
14:29who is a local wig maker in Vancouver.
14:33Is there a part of you sometimes when...
14:36when you guys come up with a look,
14:39you put it on him,
14:41he's the Oscar-winning star of Leaving Las Vegas
14:44and so many other movies, and he's a daring actor,
14:47but do you ever say,
14:49I can't believe he's letting us do this to him?
14:51You know?
14:53Give me a sense of that,
14:55because he's really throwing himself off a cliff here.
14:58And this movie, this could have been like...
15:01This could have been a...
15:03This could have been maybe a career killer, you know?
15:06What did you...
15:08Going in, did you guys feel right away
15:10that this was going to be something exceptional,
15:13or just give a thought about that?
15:15I did, for sure.
15:17I remember going to the shop,
15:19Amazing Ape Productions in Vancouver
15:21was the shop responsible for the sculpts
15:23and for the design and the initial everything
15:25and the discussion with Oz,
15:27and they were very busy at the time,
15:29and they went, okay, there's this little show,
15:32you know, it's got Nicolas Cage in it,
15:34and instantly I was excited,
15:36because we had done...
15:38I had a shop previously, years and years before,
15:40that did The Wicker Man with him,
15:42and it was great.
15:44So, personally, I was excited about it,
15:47and I know him to be somebody
15:49that embraces those roles to their fullest.
15:52And when I heard that he didn't want
15:55to be recognizable as himself,
15:57I was even more excited.
15:59And that was his goal?
16:01His goal.
16:03His goal the whole time was,
16:05I don't want to be recognizable.
16:07And I think he did a very amazing job at that.
16:10And you all helped him.
16:12So much is him, though.
16:14Oh, yeah.
16:16I think from my first phone call with Oz
16:19and my first time reading the script,
16:21I was like, this is going to be
16:23a really special project.
16:25And it was definitely a surreal experience.
16:27You know, our crew,
16:29so many of the people in the crew
16:31are just in their 20s,
16:33young people in Vancouver working in film,
16:35a small indie production.
16:37It was very surreal to be like,
16:39Nic Cage is going to be on set with us?
16:41One of the best projects I've ever worked on.
16:43It was quite a surreal experience.
16:45But I knew from my first phone call with Oz
16:47it was going to be really special.
16:49I agree both with everyone.
16:51But I think the one time
16:53was the jarring part for me.
16:55He was coming to say his goodbyes
16:57because he had wrapped.
16:59And we had done this scene with Micah and Nick
17:01in the interrogation room.
17:03And he comes out and he's like,
17:05thank you guys for everything.
17:07And when you look at him,
17:09it was incredible.
17:11It was such an icon to work with.
17:13And I can collectively say we're all super grateful
17:15to be working on this project.
17:17You could hear his boots clomping down the hallway.
17:19Because he's such an imposingly tall person.
17:21And then those snake skin cowboy boots
17:23just clomping down the hall.
17:25Icon. Complete icon.
17:27Fur jacket and his glasses.
17:29I remember when he walked out,
17:31I'm like, oh, Nic Cage is here.
17:33Oh, I don't know what to do.
17:35Well, if you haven't seen it,
17:37I think you'd be in for a real treat.