Breasts sprout, spines separate, heads explode – in the work of Coralie Fargeat substancenothing is off limits. This was quickly made clear to prosthetic designer Pierre-Olivier Persin when he began working on the Mubi film. ) took a fountain of youth drug that had some jaw-dropping side effects.
“They always say to you, ‘There’s a lot of prosthetic work in my script,’ but you end up with two aging looks and that’s it,” veteran Persin (game of Thrones)Tell THRsaid it was the most prosthetic work he had ever done on a project. “and substancewhen I read the script, it fell out of my hands and I said, ‘Wow, I need to meet Coralie.’ ”
The body horror thriller, which relies heavily on practical effects, follows Moore’s character, Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading celebrity who takes a black market drug that creates a makeshift person named Sue. The younger version of myself then has to face the consequences.
Persin and his team used two stunt doubles and two body doubles for Moore, fitting the actress and four other women with prosthetics. “Demi was willing to do as much as she could,” Persin said. In the “birth” scene, in which the alter ego is born through an open spine, Persin used puppets and prosthetic gear on the double to ensure it looked as real as possible (see opposite page).
Margaret Qualley played Moore’s younger self, who showed off fake breasts in the film produced by Persin, who first filmed Qualley’s live actor, then made the silicone appliances Glue it to the actress, then color and blend. He explains: “The process for every prosthetic is pretty much the same: start with an instant cast or scan, then sculpt out the variations you want to achieve, and then shape those sculptures. Then you use silicon or whatever material you’re working with, They were then glued on and painted.
Pierre-Olivier Persin used models, digital sculpting, and Photoshop to create the look of Elisasue, also known as Monstro, with Margaret Qualley wearing the outfit and face for close-ups and other moments. A stand-in intervenes.
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Persin’s first project documenting Elizabeth’s decay involved a finger, the first body part in the film to experience the side effects of medication. “I remember Coralie trying to go too fast in the first period,” Pessin said. “I thought, ‘Eventually she’s going to turn into that weird witch, so maybe it’s better to take it one step at a time.’ When Persin tried his prosthetic finger on someone, it looked ‘goofy,’ like” Mickey Mouse” and he spent a month correcting it. From that point on, all her stages of decay were carefully designed, until the later “Gollum” stage, where the look was achieved using plaster line (modelling clay) and ” Vintage hand carved model” design.
Because Farget wanted to use as few special effects as possible, even the scene where Qualley’s Sue confronts Moore’s Elizabeth was done primarily with puppets, with only a small amount of visual effects assistance. “We used Gollum’s face to create Demi’s virtual head, which is very complex, bleeds and moves realistically,” Pessin said. “And then Margaret actually hit her head on the mirror, causing it to explode and break… Then we shot the same scene with Demi and the visual effects department mixed the two shots together so you could actually see The fake head hits the mirror and you can see Demi’s reaction.
Depending on the transformation, Moore would spend six hours in the makeup chair. The last look that took the most work: Monstro.
Life-size epoxy print of Moore’s stand-in character Gollum on stage. This epoxy print was created using a 3D scan of her body.
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Monstro, also known as Elisasue, is the merging of Sue and Elisabeth, as Sue attempts to create a new version of herself using the remaining serum. The result is a distorted blob, like an Edvard Munch work screamsElizabeth’s face is etched onto the monster’s back. “We disagreed at times. In the final stretch, we understood each other,” Pessin said.
Faget noted that his main focus on the film was really the monster’s appearance. But Persin’s first design – which used models, digital sculpting and Photoshop – was very close to the final version.
Monstro’s face is a prosthetic that takes two hours a day to complete, while its body is a suit. Qualley’s face was used for close-ups of the monster, while a body double was used for full-body shots. “Nothing is too ridiculous,” Persin said. “It’s never enough.”
During the birthing scenes, Persin used a combination of prosthetics and puppets. Moore, two stunt doubles and two body doubles all had prosthetics, such as spinal scars. To perform the sutures, Persin switched between prosthetics attached to the puppet and the actress’ skin. The challenge was not to make the skin look “too rubbery or stretchy,” so the team created a prosthetic that was very soft but had “harder wound edges” to make the weaving of the needles through the skin look more realistic and visible. It tastes more like meat.
Courtesy of Mubi; Christine Tamalet/Mubi
Check out other revealing stories about the filmmaking process: THR.com/behindthescreen
This story first appeared in the November issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
