Oscar-winning prosthetic makeup artist Kazu Hiro has been in the industry for over 30 years. He’s transformed Bradley Cooper, Gary Oldman, Charlize Theron and, most recently, Dwayne Johnson in “The Smashing Machine.”
This year, he was tasked with transforming Tom Cruise in “Digger,” in which Cruise plays a Texas oil tycoon. But this isn’t the Cruise audiences are typically familiar with — the dashing Hollywood movie star who jumps off cliffs and hangs off airplane wings. No, Digger is an aged man with jowls, thinning hair, a disheveled appearance and a belly.
The film is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and also stars Riz Ahmed, John Goodman and Sandra Hüller and follows Digger, whose company causes a potential global catastrophe.
That transformation could have taken hours — six to be precise. Except Cruise didn’t want to spend that long in the makeup chair putting prosthetics on. He was convinced the team could do it faster, and Hiro did. He pulled it off, finding a way to streamline the process.
Hiro spoke with Variety about his process and how he transformed Cruise into the oil baron.
Kazu, take me through the process of you getting the script or signing on to do this and the concept you had of what Digger needed to look like from a makeup point of view.
My agent called me and said Alejandro wanted to talk to me about this project. I wanted to read the script before I met him, and I read it and it was amazing, with a great story.
We had a conversation, but he’s supposed to be an oil tycoon. At that time, he was around 76 years old, much older than the final look.
I went to see Tom in London, and we had a meeting with him and Alejandro — it was an open idea at the time. He was on a tight schedule because he was shooting “Mission Impossible,” but we set up time to do a 3D scan, live caps and photographs and I started to sculpt. Alejandro liked the first design.
As I was about to finish the sculpture and started to make a mold of each piece, he called and said, “Digger should be 67 years old.” So, I took another look and finished that in a few weeks. But I also made a third design, and the final look was a mix of those.
How many pieces was that design?
It was full coverage — 12 pieces. The test makeup took less than five hours. The second day went down to two and a half, which is a good time for prosthetics makeup. But Tom wanted to be in makeup during rehearsals, which was six weeks before filming and we had to do it.
Tom has spoken about this, but said, “I had a guy there with a stopwatch and I’m like, ‘OK, you see that time, six hours? By the time we’re done, we’re going to get it under an hour,’” When Tom Cruise says that, you do it.
How did you achieve that?
Two hours and 15 minutes is a good time, including hair work and putting on a wig. I can just slap on prosthetics and paint and put the wig on in one hour, but it will sacrifice the quality. To do good work, you need to spend time on each process to maintain the quality every day. I always try not to spend too much in the chair because I understand the actor has to work afterward, and the hours in the day are limited. And so I always try to figure it out.
What I usually do is I have an assistant right next to me write down how long it took. If I feel OK, this may be faster or this may be longer than the day before, I ask, “OK, how long was it?” And I adjust my timing for the other applications. I don’t want to delay the whole process of filming, and I always try to finish on time or shorter. It has to be done as he requested.
Does he wear a prosthetic belly in the film?
Yes, he did. We made a prosthetic version for the beginning of the film when he’s not wearing a shirt.
But under the suits, we made spandex and glued down prosthetics on it because he didn’t want to glue it (the prosthetic belly) on him. I said, “Are you sure? This is going to be heavy and hard to wear?” He said, “Yes, I’m trained and can handle it. So he started to wear that.”
In the end, how many pieces did you use?
There was a bald cap and, under bald cap, forehead, cheek, nose. The neck and chin were attached. And there were wig and eyebrow pieces. In the end, it was seven.
You’re speaking to me from the set of your new film,’ Lizard Music’. Can you tell me anything about working with Benny Safdie and Dwayne Johnson again?
I cannot …(laughs).
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.