Sucker Punch Movie Makeup: Interview With the Artist

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 Sad (?) but true fact: I often pick movies to go see based solely on the costumes and/or makeup.  Which is why the trailer for Zack Synder's new movie Sucker Punch with its awesome special effects, an even better soundtrack, and the best makeup I've seen in a film since Burlesque (which I think is totally worth watching just for the makeup) left me mesmerized.  And really, after watching it in theatres last week, those were the highlights of the movie, plus costumes.  Hot chicks in leather and glitter fishnet stockings and heavy eye makeup with mile-long eyelashes doing battle scenes to an amazing soundtrack more than made up for the lackluster dialogue and ending.

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The makeup, though, was by far my favorite aspect of the film.  Think lots of lip gloss, glitter eyeshadow, thick black eyeliner, and multiple pairs of false eyelashes.  Even the male leads were heavily made up with smeary eyeliner and base of some kind to create a seedy, swarthy effect.  Spending two hours in the makeup chair each day was not uncommon for each principal character.  Luckily there are tons of close ups, which provide many opportunities to see the makeup, well, up close!  This is the meaning of makeup artistry.  It's almost unreal.

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I wish you could see the above picture even more up close.  There's a tiny gap between her upper and lower eyeliner, with a little shimmer highlight in between the two lines at the outer corner of her eye.  It's how Marilyn Monroe did her eye makeup!

Rosalina da Silva previously worked with Snyder on Watchmen (yet another incredible film) and was also the head makeup artist on the set of Sucker Punch.  I came across this short but sweet interview with her on The Beauty of Life blog and felt it was definitely worth sharing!  I'm dying to ask her a few questions myself.


Each of the main characters has such a unique, different look. How did you come up with the concepts for each of the girls?
Every girl had a very different and individual personality in the story. Through weeks of prep we defined and created their character, that best suited the illusion created by Zack Snyder. Wardrobe was a big part of it as well -- then we changed hair color and lengths, the makeup just developed to bring the look together.

I love the look you created for Babydoll. What products did you use to get the look?
Babydoll was a lot of fun, inspired by Brigitte Bardot with a splash of Anime characters. A sweet, innocent look but at the same time very fearless. [I used] a 60's eyeliner, long full lashes, nude lips.

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There's so much black eye makeup in this movie! What were your go-to products for characters like Amber and Blondie?
My old favorite eyeliner, M.A.C Fluidline in Blacktrack -- tried and true. We airbrushed the foundations on -- we used various brands, Armani, Kevin Aucoin, Kett, Kryolan.  On long-running shows I often change the foundations, as the skin changes due to the long days on set.  Sometimes with lack of sleep and dehydration, you need to adjust to achieve the best and smoothest results.

What was the experience like on this movie, with all the special effects?
Most of the special effects were in post production, so there was a lot of green screen and staring into empty space. In general the experience of working on this movie was exhilarating ... and exhausting!

How was it working with a bunch of girls for this movie? Were they all really into makeup?
The girls loved makeup! Who doesn't? They were totally into experimenting, pushing the envelope to find their character through their makeup look. We really went to extremes on this movie due to Zack Snyder's incredible vision and the fantasy world that he created. There were no limits, never too much in the world of glamour, color, lashes, glitter and crystals.