By MICHAEL GINGOLD
WOLF MAN, now in theaters from Universal and Blumhouse, is Leigh Whannell’s second take on a one of the former studio’s fiendish favorites–and like his THE INVISIBLE MAN, it involves a reconception of its title character. RUE MORGUE spoke with makeup artist Arjen Tuiten about the creation of this screen lycanthrope.
Twice-nominated for an Academy Award (for WONDER and MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL), Tuiten here developed a different beast than the one seen in 1941’s Lon Chaney Jr.-starring WOLF MAN, or the monsters created by Rick Baker in AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and Rob Bottin in THE HOWLING. Whannell’s protagonist is Blake Lovell (Christopher Abbott), who brings his family to the remote house of his recently deceased father. On the way there, he is attacked and wounded by an animalistic creature in the woods, and he himself soon begins undergoing a slow, horrific transformation. (See our review of WOLF MAN here.) Tuiten, who revealed to us that he’s now working on Blumhouse, Atomic Monster and New Line Cinema’s THE MUMMY, explains below his fresh take on the horror standard (with a couple of SPOILERS along the way)…
Has the werewolf or wolf man always been a dream creature for you to tackle?
I would say that is true for any makeup effects artist, right? And I was lucky enough to be able to do this version. Not that I was chasing it or anything over the years, but I did keep an eye out. And after THE INVISIBLE MAN, I was like, OK, they’re probably going to do others, you know?
Were the original Universal monsters meaningful to you when you were getting started?
To a certain extent, yes. Actually, I have a bunch of drawings that I did years ago based on them. They’re so cemented in our pop culture that it’s hard, even if you don’t work in film, to not know what they look like, but especially in the makeup field, of course. In fact, Lon Chaney Jr. is actually hanging up right there [indicates a picture on the wall behind him]. So yeah, I’ve actually been a fan of all those movies.
How did you become involved with the new WOLF MAN?
As I said, I wasn’t chasing it by any means, but I kind of kept an eye out because I heard it was floating around, and eventually I e-mailed Couper Samuelson at Blumhouse, and later Jason Blum, and they were like, “Yeah, we would love to talk.” Then I met Leigh for the first time, and he told me how long he’d been developing this and trying to find a new idea of what a modern version would be. Going into it, I thought it might be a period piece, but then he told me about it and gave me the script. I read it, we had another meeting, and I understood where he was coming from and the story he was trying to tell.
The fact that this film is not about the full moon, where the character changes and then changes back, but rather deals with a gradual, permanent transformation that’s not seen in a lot of werewolf movies–did that affect how you first thought about the makeup?
Yes. And when Leigh first told me about that, I thought it was really interesting. One of the first things I thought about was Cronenberg’s THE FLY, where he’s infected, and it’s two anatomies trying to mix, rather than totally transforming into this beautiful wolf, which is what we’ve seen in so many variations of this idea. So we clicked on that, and I told him, “I think I know what you’re looking for,” and came up with a concept based on what he was telling me.
This isn’t the type of werewolf that’s a full monster with a snout; you see his humanity throughout, and he’s not quite as altered. Was that always the approach you were going to take?
Yeah. This is not a curse; like, once you’re stuck with it, that’s it. And once this story ends, his transformation could still continue growing, or not; that’s kind of left to the imagination. We just follow him and his family throughout this one night, and that’s basically the whole story. So I approached it in such a way that it could be real, because that’s what Leigh was very adamant about: that it could actually happen, and not be fantastical in any way. Everything had to be very grounded, so I approached the prosthetics in such a way where hopefully it feels like this is two anatomies trying to mix, and it’s asymmetrical and not too heavy.
Was there ever a concern that there have been so many werewolves in movies over the years that this one had to look unique, or was that not so much a part of the thought process?
We did think about that a lot, but Leigh’s beautiful story gave me that already, in the sense of the image. As I said, I did this concept art and sent it to him, and he e-mailed me back the next morning saying, “I’ve been trying to find this for the last four years, and you absolutely nailed it. This is exactly what I was hoping to find, and you understood what I’m trying to tell.” That was a good thing [laughs].
How much work did you do on the design before Christopher Abbott was cast?
Well, we were still dealing with the writers’ and actors’ strikes, and due to that, unfortunately, my build time got cut in half. So it was quite stressful to get everything done. After I did that one design, I said, “It would be good to get the actor, because I can do other versions, but unless we have the guy who’s going to wear it, I can’t really because some of it is quite subtle.” I think we got Christopher during Christmas 2023, and started working right away because we did not have much time left by the time we were shooting. Everything in this film is in camera–every aspect of the transformation. So every time we see him, it’s a different makeup, which meant a different sculpture, different molding, different teeth. We also did some mechanical heads and a mechanical hand–a lot of stuff, because Leigh wanted everything in camera, which of course made us very excited, and I believe that makes this film special.
How was your working relationship with Jane O’Kane, who did the straight makeup and hair work?
Jane’s amazing. We got to meet during preproduction, and she came on board when we were already building, and she was a great help. She’s a great artist and supported us in every way, because the movie had a small cast, so even though she was busy, she made sure to help us as much as she could in the sense of what we needed, with local materials and things we didn’t know.
At what point, in terms of Blake’s look, did her work end and yours begin?
Hers ends when he’s feeling a little bit sick, like when he has the arm infection in the basement. When they’re wrapping it, that’s when it switches to mine, and you see him sweaty on the bed, and he gets a little pockmarked. Even that very subtle stuff is all prosthetics too. He had a forehead appliance, teeth, even though you don’t see them, cheeks and a three-quarter wig, which kind of recedes his hairline a little bit, and he pulls the hair out.
What was the experience of doing the makeup practically on set? And did you shoot it chronologically?
No, we didn’t shoot it chronologically, at least not the makeups; those kind of went back and forth. The application time varied from two and a half hours for the first stage to six hours for the final stage. It was a lot of hours in the chair, and I have to give a shout-out to Christopher, because when I first met him, I wasn’t too sure. I knew he was a very good actor, but I wasn’t sure if he fully understood what was coming. So when he was in my shop for life casting and whatnot, I showed him the calendar and everything that was marked green, which was pretty much three months straight, was him in glue [laughs]. But I have to say, he was absolutely incredible.
I remember some people stopping me, when I would go to craft services or something, and they would say, “You know, I watch horror movies all the time, and I’ve seen other werewolf movies, and nothing scares me much, but this is genuinely scary. Like, this is disturbing.” And I would say, “Well, that’s a good thing. That’s what Leigh wants!”
Can you talk about the second werewolf, the Grady creature? What was the thinking that went into that one?
Leigh was also very clear on that. He didn’t want to see a lot of hair, he didn’t want to see anything that resembled something classic–even though, to my mind, if he had been out in the woods that long, he would be more changed or transformed in a way. We kind of kept it within the same rules, obviously. We went back and forth on that a little bit in the sense of how far I should bring him. I still think he should have been a little further [laughs], but that’s the realities of filmmaking.
Were you involved in hiring the actor who would be under all that makeup?
Yes. Actually, in the beginning, Leigh invited me to some of the casting on that, just to get a sense of face and structures. We ended up with Ben Prendergast, who was amazing–a great guy, and also a great actor and stuntman.
You said everything in the movie was done practically. Does that include the scenes of the wolf men running through the woods, and if so, did the makeup have to be especially durable, considering all the action they’d be performing while wearing it?
Yeah. Christopher did have a great stunt guy, Byrin Henry, but Christopher ended up doing most of that stuff, if not all. And due to the weather in New Zealand at the time–a lot of rain and wet night work in the forest and mud–we were already approaching the makeups in that sense. Christopher, fortunately, wasn’t a huge sweater, so it wouldn’t fall off or come loose very quickly, which was good, because that’s often a problem. And since he was shirtless, he was often cold, so he wouldn’t sweat [laughs].
Did you take any inspiration from any past werewolf movies?
No. Rick Baker is a good friend of mine and I did talk to him about it. He actually lent me Jack Pierce’s makeup case, and I had it here in my office. Rick owns that; it’s the case Pierce made up Lon Chaney Jr. with in 1941. I just wanted it around for good mojo, I guess you could call it. But I didn’t look at past werewolves because I didn’t want anything to influence me. I really wanted to start on a blank page; that’s what Leigh was asking me to do.
