Kazu Hiro, the Oscar-winning make-up artist for Bombshell and The Darkest Hour, talks to Awards Daily about his first Emmy nomination for Starz’s Gaslit. For the 70s-era Watergate limited series, he turned Sean Penn into John Mitchell. Here, he discusses his process, including what he tries to learn about his subject, in creating the prosthetic makeup (and what he forgets when he is done). He also talks about why he left Japan, giving a very interesting take about what makes American culture better for his creativity
Awards Daily: When you are taking on these real life figures like John Mitchell, how much do pictures versusvideo help you in creating their appearance?
Kazu Hiro: It depends, because if I am doing likeness make-up of someone who has lots of film, film helps a lot. Many times people from the past are quite limited in moving images. Photographs are great because I can see more detail than with video or film. So I just try to gather as much as possible of what is out there. So it all depends; I would say both images and moving images are important.
Awards Daily: Did you try to find any personal details about John Mitchell in creating his look? Or was it more of recreating the physical appearance?
Kazu Hiro: Both, because I had to understand the personality of those people to get not just the look of them. Because most of the time personality reflects the look and their expressions. So I try to read what is behind their face at certain times in their lives. I always try to get as much detail as possible, be it audiobooks, videos etc..
Awards Daily: Did you find anything particular about Mitchell?
Kazu Hiro: I don’t remember now. [Laughs] It was a long time ago. I am sorry my memory is not good. Once I finish my work I just do not remember. I have to dump the old information from my brain to put the new stuff in.
Awards Daily: I read changing Penn’s eyebrows did a lot to create his look. Was that something you knew right away or was it trial and error?
Kazu Hiro: At the first meeting I took photographs and made impressions of his face and did a 3D scan and then made a head cast of Sean. I started to sculpt on his head cast of John Mitchell and as I started to do that, I started to see what was the difference in their faces, what I would have to put on and what would help Sean look like John Mitchell. During that time of course I would sculpt the shape of eyebrows and hairstyle on the sculpture. That would decide the design of the wig and any other hair piece. Sean had particular eyebrows that looked almost like a chin, because the tail part of his eyebrows is almost gone, but John Mitchell had eyebrows all the way down to his eyelid. That’s when I noticed that if I put these eyebrows on it would help a lot to make Sean look like John Mitchell. That is how I found out.
Awards Daily: I saw you are working on Maestro with Bradley Cooper. Is there anything you can tell us about that?
Kazu Hiro: Not much, but the one thing I can probably say is Bradley is such an amazing actor, producer and writer, and I am really enjoying being a part of it. He is just amazing and open and honest. We started two years ago preparing this film but then COVID… It has been a really great working relationship. Amazing guy to work with.
Awards Daily: I watched your Bombshell press room speech about Japanese culture being too submissive for you. What did you mean by that?
Kazu Hiro: There are many meanings behind that. One thing I do not like about Japanese media is that they always come with the same questions. If they read an interview I gave they will ask the same question. During awards season everyone tried to get interviews and they asked the same question over and over again, and I was getting upset about it. Also at that time I was not Japanese anymore because I had changed my citizenship to American, and they asked me a question about winning an Oscar as a Japanese person and I said I am not Japanese anymore. So one thing that upsets me, if you are going to ask a question, do some research first, and also one of the reasons I left Japan was the culture itself is suppressive. On the surface they care about each other a lot but at the same time they are really tormented people because of the entirety of Japanese culture and that is why there are so many suicides in Japan. Because they cannot express who they are freely and the possibility of what they can do is so limited, especially in the film industry. In the past it was really hard for me. They are very limited in the budget and the time and the expressions. It is really hard to make it big in Japan, not like in this country. After I said that I got a lot of backlash from the Japanese media, but many Japanese people understood what I meant because they felt the same way.
Awards Daily: This is your first Emmy nomination. Have you found this to be a different experience from the Oscar race?
Kazu Hiro: It’s interesting because I never really worked on a TV show before in this country, and it feels more like a process than the Oscars. A few days ago they asked me for a thirty second quip after they had asked for a seven minute quip. That won’t happen with the Oscars; there is less of a process. So a lot more process, and it is a little more confusing because there are so many categories and so many rules.
Awards Daily: Did you need to give Sean Penn any advice about how to move in that make-up and fat suit?
Kazu Hiro: Not really. He is an amazing actor, and the thing he did was when I did the test makeup for the first time he asked me to give him stuff to remove this make-up because he wanted to keep it on all day. The reason he wanted to do that was so he could get used to the prosthetic make-up in his own environment. Then he could look at himself in front of the mirror and move around and see it long enough without people standing around him. Everybody’s process is different; he was figuring out how to move and what would transfer to the surface through the prosthetic. I think that was an amazing thing he did, and I am sure he practiced with the make-up on his private time.
