‘The Batman’ makeup and hair interview

“We were working together very carefully to create a lot of characters,” reveals Naomi Donne about “The Batman” in our recent webchat. Fellow makeup artist Mike Marino continues, “Naomi had armies of makeup artists, there were airplane hangers of makeup artists!” Donne adds, “We had a huge Halloween scene with hundreds and hundreds of extras in full Halloween makeup.” Mike Fontaine reflects, “All the elements came together so beautifully. We got to be part of something that worked on all levels that movies are suppose to work on” Watch the exclusive video interview above with the Oscar nominees.

“The Batman” is a new iteration of the iconic caped crusader. Director and co-writer Matt Reeves explores Gotham City as a noir drama. In it, Batman (Robert Pattinson) is a crime-fighting detective who solves riddles to foil a serial killer targeting politicians.

Donne explains, “Matt had a really strong vision about the world he was creating. I think the Mike’s and I were instinctively on the same page about the realism of this film. It’s the street world, the club world and the privileged world. And how they all come together. It reflects so much of society today. Creating all these characters, in this world, was the most exciting thing.”

The trio are currently nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling at the 2023 Academy Awards. Donne has previously been nominated for “1917” (2019) and “Cruella” (2021). Marino was also nominated last year for “Coming 2 America.” None of them have won an Oscar before. Fontaine says, “The first movies that I worked on in New York, when I was just starting, was with Mike and Naomi. They really showed me the ropes. It’s a very cool full circle moment. In that way it’s very special.”

One of the most impressive feats in “The Batman” is the transformation of Colin Farrell into the sleazy crime boss, known as ‘The Penguin.’ This was Fontaine and Marino’s responsibility. The former admits, “It could have been something like a nose tip and a monocle. It became very exciting when we had the freedom to create such an interesting character.” Marino notes, “A lot of the time we build things that get missed or cut out. But they saw Colin in the makeup and wanted to film more and write more scenes. That was really flattering.”

There was a challenge the team had to overcome. Marino explains, “We took such a long break (due to COVID) that Colin lost 30lbs. By the time we went back, nothing fit. The whole makeup had to be re-sculpted, so that we could film and make it look continuous. We had to basically redo what we started to make sure it looked right again.”