What did Ethan Slater reveal about spending even more makeup time than Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in the Wicked movies?

Ethan Slater shares his hair and makeup process for the Wicked movies and how he used to spend more time in the makeover chairs than lead actresses, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.

Ethan Slater joked about this, saying,

"Even in movie one, for some reason, I was in the chair for the longest of anyone. "I'm very particular."

A lot of this came from the fact that Ethan Slater had to wear a lot of hair extensions to make his hair fuller and thicker,

"It was my hair, but they wanted to make it thicker, fuller, a little brighter, and [add] freckles and all this stuff." Adding that he tried everything to make the process easier, "I tried it. I tried everything to make it easier. But no, there were days in the second movie where I was in the chair for five hours."

The process was just as tedious for the second film, where Ethan Slater had to become the Tin Man. He spoke to Parade, explaining the process of essentially turning full silver. When asked whether it was actually him, in the tin suit, he agreed,

"Yes, and it was very metal-like! That's my face moving. If I lifted an eyebrow, the eyebrow lifted. If I twitched my cheek, my cheek twitched. So I was really acting through the prosthetics, and they didn't have to change it in post-production at all. I think a big question is how much CGI is there, and the answer is just the Tin Man joints."

As for the process and how long it took, Ethan Slater said,

"When it started, it was about five hours a day. By the end, it was under three. [Makeup prosthetic designers] Mark [Coulier] and Stephen [Murphy], and Frances Hannon got really good at it."

And further joked about his nervousness about the extensive makeup,

Trending

"That was constantly ringing in my head. I kept thinking, “Thank God we've had nearly 100 years of testing on these paints to make sure that I'm not going to develop a reaction!”

This is quite a real fear on his part, considering the actor Buddy Ebsen, who played the Tin Man in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, had to be replaced due to a severe allergic reaction caused by the toxic aluminium dust in the makeup, nearly killing him. But that was not all, as the makeup was later reformulated into a paste for the new actor, Jack Haley. However, Jack also ended up getting an eye infection.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback