‘The Bikeriders’ Makeup Head Ashleigh Chavis on Adhering to Authenticity and Trying to Keep Austin Butler and Jodie Comer From Looking Too Beautiful

Ashleigh Chavis has been working as a makeup artist for film and TV for 15 years now. Some of her better known projects include The Conjuring, Homeland, Banshee, Magic Mike XXL, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and George & Tammy. With Director Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders, Ashleigh moved into the role of Makeup Design Head, making her the leader of a crew of artists who had to strive for a high level of authenticity and subtlety. The photobook by photographer Danny Lyon (that covered the early years of an infamous 1960/1970s Chicago biker gang), served as a template for The Bikeriders makeup team. 

In our conversation, Ashleigh talks about all the little things that we viewers may not notice, but play a big part in getting the look and feel of every character correct for the project. We also get into how difficult it is to rough up the natural beauty of Austin Butler and Jodie Comer. No easy feat, that, but if you see The Bikeriders, what you might notice most about the makeup is that you barely notice it at all. That sort of skill level in Ashleigh’s profession sometimes goes unnoticed when matched up against productions with more obvious prosthetics and showier uses of makeup, but for a project like The Bikeriders, the not noticing is everything.

Awards Daily: Compared to Sons of Anarchy, The Bikeriders is a very different project–more rooted in realism. When you came to the project, how did the vision of Jeff Nichols impact your department?

Ashleigh Chavis: He was very intentional with every conversation that we had as far as taking this photo book, and getting as close as possible to turning this into the world that we’re all going to be immersed in for the next few months. I read the script before I saw the photo book and I read it in one swoop, just from start to finish. I didn’t put it down. It was one of the best scripts I’ve ever read. I felt very confident in my abilities to give him what he was asking for visually, on the makeup side, because his script was so well written and so beautifully delivered. And I feel like he communicates face to face just as eloquently as he writes his scripts. I would ask him questions — he lets anybody ask questions, you have his phone number, his direct line, his assistant’s line, his email. If you have a question, he wants you to ask him. And then he will really sit and think about the answer with you and listen to why you think something should be a certain way. He values and respects the expertise of the crew that he has brought onto the project. So I was able to freely immerse into this world that he was presenting to me in a script and through Danny Lyon’s photos. The storytelling and the way he writes is so clear and really taps into your imagination from the time you start reading it.

Awards Daily: I could see the photo book almost serving as storyboards for the scenes, but in terms of reproducing the look that you were wanting, I can’t imagine how invaluable that was. 

Ashleigh Chavis: It was our Bible. It was the way we were living our creative lives during those three months or so during prep and filming. To be able to have that resource to look back on at any point while we were filming was completely invaluable. It was something that you don’t often have. Normally, you present your idea and your perspective of what the script is asking for, then  in your pre-production meetings with the director or producers, they tell you what they’re looking for. And then you present that to them during camera testing. To be able to actually have an image, that someone like Jeff loved so much and have him say can you help me bring this to life? We had that resource to look back on anytime we needed it. So if I felt at any point a little bit lost on any delivery of how far we were going to go with any particular character’s look, I always just had an image to refresh my memory into what this world and environment was really like.

Awards Daily: Something I’ve always found fascinating about Jeff’s work is that he’s made two films with sci-fi elements in them but they could not be more grounded in reality. There’s a mythic quality to bicycle gangs, and he seemed to choose not to play into that legend and to instead play them as very much as real human beings. Did that have an impact on how you were expected to make them look?

Ashleigh Chavis: Yes, they definitely made it clear to me what the expectations were. But also, whenever I spoke with my team from the very first conversation, when I hired all of us who are going to be there full time, every conversation I had was about needing to be able to smell this group of guys and their girlfriends before they even entered a room. That lifestyle needs to come out in every single scene, whether they are really filthy or at their so-called cleanest. Even when they’re at their cleanest, they can’t be super clean. This is a lifestyle to them. So we had to make sure that we were coming as close as we, as makeup artists, could possibly get to for the viewer to feel like they could feel the heat that’s just vibrating off of this group of guys: whatever that meant— the dust, the grime, the sweat. Nobody needed to ever look powder fresh. Nobody ever needed to look super clean. Nobody’s fingernails needed to be clean. This has to look authentic. And so I think my team jumped on board and were just as excited about that as I was to help bring that lifestyle on screen. 

Awards Daily: It’s interesting you say that, because the one thing that you don’t get when you watch a film, you get sight, you get sound, but you don’t get scent. But I swear to you, I could smell gasoline, leather, and nicotine every scene and sometimes skunky beer. (Laughs).

Ashleigh Chavis: And body odor and jeans that hadn’t been washed in a month. I just felt like we needed to do the best we could to make that happen, to bring that scent out, even if it’s in people’s subconscious or imagination. 

Awards Daily: There is what I would say is obvious, more showy makeup that uses a lot of prosthetics, and then there’s makeup that’s very subtle that is quietly defining a character’s image. The Bikeriders is mostly the latter, but there’s also Norman Reedus’ teeth. I don’t know how not to ask about Norman’s teeth.

Ashleigh Chavis: We had some images of the real Funny Sonny in the book, and his teeth were obviously not taken care of. You’ve got a lot of good looking people in this cast and Norman really wanted to jump on board with going the opposite way with his character. So the look of his teeth was really encouraged by Norman, and the real Funny Sonny’s teeth were not good, so it made sense as well. But, he was working on a project in Paris at the same time that we were prepping for Bikeriders. So between the time differences of myself prepping in Cincinnati and him in Paris, to get him to a dentist to be measured properly so that then we could go to our guy that was crafting and making these molds for him and doing the painting, was a challenge. I think our guy did a phenomenal job. That was all tricky to balance because of the time difference and Norman’s filming schedule and our work schedule. But he was completely on board and he actually took them to Paris with him. So, he was able to practice with them and get comfortable talking with them. It’s one thing to put them in and just smile with them, but to actually be able to speak and for people to understand what you’re saying was different. He was able to practice with them before he started. 

Awards Daily: I actually didn’t recognize Norman right away, and he’s a very distinctive looking person, and it was the teeth. I think what’s important about the teeth though is not that they looked bad, it is that they looked authentic bad, not cartoonish.

Ashleigh Chavis: Which is what we were going for, for sure. You don’t want them to look fake. If it’s going to look fake, just don’t do it and we will come up with something else. We can stain his teeth. Same with all the facial hair pieces that we put on everybody. All the sideburns, a bunch of the goatees and facial hair pieces were fake. If we can do it and not only does the production approve it, but we really feel like we’re not creating a distraction in the story, as far as the teeth or the facial hair, then that’s great. But if it’s going to take everybody out of the story, because it’s so distracting watching this person try to pretend like this is their real facial hair or their real teeth, then it’s better just not to do it. I think Norman really embraced it and kind of loved it. Because he does have such a distinct look about him, I think he enjoyed looking different in this project. 

Awards Daily: A lot of the other work is more subtle. Tom Hardy has a bunch of tattoos, and I don’t remember him being sleeveless very much in the film, but you’re working with characters who probably should have some tattoos that should be visible and some that should be hidden. And in a movie like this, I assume scars were important to add as well. How do you manage the continuity of their look day after day?

Ashleigh Chavis: Tom works with an incredible makeup artist, Audrey Doyle. Audrey goes with Tom on all of his projects. So Audrey came along for this project with Tom. He was the only one that had a personal makeup artist. All of us other makeup artists fell absolutely madly in love with Audrey. She’s this hilarious Irish woman who is incredibly talented. She has worked with Tom for years and they have such a wonderful relationship. But she and I also had several pre-production meetings and time to prep together, just because we respected each other’s position so much. She wanted to run things by me as the department head. But she knew her actor. I had never worked with him, and she knows him very well. I wanted to make sure there were things that would be great for the both of them as well. She had mentioned that Tom likes to have a little scar here or there on a lot of his characters. So the two of them work together as far as mapping that out and making sure it wasn’t any scar placement that I already had planned for another actor, because you don’t want identical scars on different actors. Costuming did such an amazing job too. He was in long sleeves most of the time. So most of his own tattoos were covered in every scene. There were a couple scenes where he had just his sleeves rolled up to his forearm. Those are the only times that Audrey had to cover the tattoos that were visible on his arms and then just lay over a few of the ones that were approved by Jeff and production that were acceptable during that time. So any of our guys that had a lot of tattoos of their own, costuming would just put them in long sleeves. A lot of them have full sleeve tattoos and we would cover those and just place a few on their hands. But we pretty much had to cover tattoos on every single cast member, before we could then put the decade appropriate ink that would have worked during that time period.

Awards Daily: What are the things that we as viewers don’t necessarily see very easily in your work?

Ashleigh Chavis: I think a lot of work that we do on tattoos goes unnoticed, and that’s a very time consuming job, especially for a movie like The Bikeriders, where the placement of tattoos, the number of tattoos, the style of tattoos were all different. So whether they were in the main cast or in the background extras, we had to cover everybody’s tattoos. On the days that we had two or three hundred background extras, everybody had to be covered. And then, any Jeff approved tattoos to go on the background extras had to be applied. So on the day, if anyone was in the trailer working on inventory or paperwork or or continuity, they were also cutting out tattoos. Whenever we weren’t busy, we were cutting out tattoos as well. I think that happens on just about any show, but especially on period pieces, because tattoos are so prevalent in modern day, and that’s a new thing as far as the amount and the full sleeves and some of the placement, like chest plates and all of that. Tattoo work, whether it be covering, replacing, altering, can be hours and hours of pretty tedious and grueling work for makeup artists. You might say Oh, I didn’t even know he had tattoos. Well, that’s the point, right? That’s because a makeup artist just spent an hour and a half covering his whole back tattoo so you wouldn’t notice.

Any facial hair, whether it be handlaying lace front pieces, I think people think they’re just kind of like pulling the sticker off and sticking them on. Working with adhesives was a challenge on this one, because it was so cold in Ohio when we were there shooting. Sometimes the adhesives don’t like the cold. Also, if your talent is a regular drinker, the alcohol that comes out of their pores through their sweat removes adhesives, so that can be challenging, but for this one specifically, it was the cold. We either had adhesives that were freezing in the trailers, or that would be okay for a moment and then you’re working at night and it’s 18 degrees outside, they would start to buckle. It’s just a lot of tedious work to try to, again, make something not look distracting, and have people say I didn’t know that was a fake beard. That’s because somebody hand laced that whole entire piece. That could take months, and then someone else works day in and day out to keep that piece properly groomed and clean and stuck on there without anybody noticing. Things like that can be big challenges for us that maybe don’t seem like that big of a deal, but if we didn’t do all the work we need to for it, then it would be very distracting.

Awards Daily: Tom Hardy is just about the easiest person to picture in a motorcycle gang movie that you could probably come up with. Austin Butler on the other hand is one of the most beautiful human beings I’ve ever seen in my life. You have to on some level work against that for this movie to a degree. For this film, in this part, if he stands next to Tom Hardy, he has to look like he can stand next to Tom Hardy. What things did you do for him to give him that sort of toughness? 

Ashleigh Chavis: Specifically for Austin, it was a challenge to not make his looks be so distracting that it was taking people out of the story. Whereas his looks are a part of the story, you still need to notice how much Benny’s involvement in this club was affecting everyone around him. So I just tried to bring down anything that would make his eyes pop anymore, anything that would really elevate his smolder, which might sound silly, but when people are that attractive, it can be distracting. So just making sure that he looked grimy, that even though he’s handsome, he still lives in this world, so he still has to look like maybe he doesn’t take a bath every day. I focused a lot on smaller areas being a little bit grimy, like inside his ears and under his fingernails, his beard not being perfect and not groomed, areas that even if he’s wiping his face off every day, he’s not really getting in the areas where a guy that walks around in a suit and tie all day would concentrate. Also, none of these guys wear a helmet. So keeping them a little bit sunburned, or dirty and dusty, and keeping his hairline not exactly clean and perfect looking as far as the dirt goes. Some ring around the collar, a little grime anywhere that someone that might really be showering every day would not have dirt or grime. I tried to focus with him trying to match up with how dirty costume had him in each scene because you want to make sure makeup also coincides with the level of dirt and grime that their wardrobe has while also not adding too much. They look cool, but they might smell bad. It was challenging to make Austin look grimy. It really was. (Laughs).

Awards Daily: One thing I’m gathering from what you’re saying is that with someone like Austin, who’s so naturally attractive, it sounds like it took a lot of littles. Because if you do too much like you said, that’s distracting, but if you do a little thing here, there, and there, it adds up to more.

Ashleigh Chavis: Yeah, definitely. Because visually he’s so stunning, he’s going to take up a lot of space in people’s brains as they’re watching the movie anyway, because you can’t help but look at him. Trying to downplay that so that that character fits into the whole scene, as opposed to nobody even knowing what’s going on because they’re so pretty that’s all you see. Well, there’s also a whole world that’s around them in a scene. We have to find that balance. 

Awards Daily: So let’s get to Jodie because there’s a lot of masculinity in this movie and there’s this one striking, incredibly talented bit of feminine energy. Being a person who’s from the Midwest, I’m not that far removed from where people still dressed that way, even into the next decade when I was born. I recognized Jodie. She was as midwestern as midwestern gets for this film. 

Ashleigh Chavis: Jodie herself is so stunningly beautiful. Her facial features are gorgeous, and she is very elegant, and very British. She presents herself very professionally. In the first makeup test that I did with her, you just throw a little mascara on her and she’s like the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen in your life. She just was so pretty and I was like okay, in a similar way as Austin, I need to not try to make her look so much like the real Kathy by changing her facial features, but just concentrate on Jodie’s facial features and improvise with her makeup looks to appease the decade. I was trying to make her look harder and tougher and really less beautiful. I think when I stopped trying to fight against her facial features, that’s when Kathy, the character, started coming to life. These folks are very lower middle class type groups of people, the type of girl that would have a friend that’s hanging out at a biker bar so she maybe puts on her mascara, a little lipstick and some eyeliner when she’s going out, but she’s kind of rough around the edges. She’s tough in her own feminine way. She’s gutsy enough to stick up for herself, but still living in a time in our country where expectations of women were to have your hair done and have your makeup on. Kathy wanted to be respectable, but she also wanted this life with someone who is an outcast. It was very intentional to have her, when we first see her on screen, with more makeup on and a little bit more vibrant, as opposed to a year or two later when she’s a bit of a mess and disheveled and doing her best to keep up with this world that she’s found herself in. The only other place I really felt like she would have a full face of makeup on was when she went to confront Johnny (Tom Hardy) in the bar, because I feel like she needed an extra boost of courage. And Kathy, being the only constant voice of reason in this whole universe, needed to stand her ground, and maybe needed a little extra eyeliner or lipstick on that day to confront him. 

Awards Daily: That really fascinates me there because I think that the guys in the motorcycle gang, their armor is their leather. What I’m hearing here is that to go up against Tom Hardy and his armor, she needed to have some of her own in a feminine way.

Ashleigh Chavis: Yes, and to almost get back to who she was before they came into her life, to get back to that woman who put a face on every day and a nice sweater and had her hair fixed. She’s still a Midwestern woman, middle class, but she was trying to maybe remind herself who she is and that she’s worth more than this treatment that she’s been given. She is tough. She’s rough around the edges. And the real Kathy in the book reflects that as well. She was oftentimes the only female in a lot of these pictures in the photo book. You might see another girlfriend at times, but she was one of the very few constants in any of these guys’ lives, especially Benny. And, you know, we all just need a little extra boost of courage once in a while. I think for that scene, in my brain, that’s what Kathy needed. Talking with Jodie about that, she agreed. 

Awards Daily: The longer I do this job, the more I become more and more aware of how important the craft part is to the storytelling. What you’re saying to me is that putting on her makeup isn’t just to go up against Tom Hardy, it’s also showing her making a decision to reclaim herself. That’s like a really high level choice that is subtly delivered.

Ashleigh Chavis: It’s nerdy stuff. It’s real nerdy stuff. We get real deep into these backstories and everything, but it helps to create what viewers are going to be watching for sure, and it’s fun for us.

Awards Daily: You don’t think about the makeup when you’re watching The Bikeriders. When Gary Oldman is playing Winston Churchill, the makeup’s going to occur to you at some point and then hopefully you dismiss it and just get lost in the story. I was actually struggling to think about what questions to ask you because the makeup isn’t really noticeable. Then I thought, well, that’s the thing to talk about then!

Ashleigh Chavis: That’s the best compliment you could give us.