‘The Substance’ special makeup effects designer on Monstro Elisasue, exploding heads, and a ‘crazy amount of blood’
“I really want the flesh and blood to be real.”
That’s what “The Substance” director Coralie Fargeat told special makeup effects designer Pierre Olivier Persin when they met to discuss the body horror film starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. “I thought that half of it would be VFX or a mix of techniques,” Persin tells Gold Derby. After agreeing to go the practical route, the makeup designer says, “That was like a teenage dream because in France, especially when I grew up, there were no makeup effects studios.” Watch the full video interview above.
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In “The Substance,” a fading celebrity takes a black-market drug: a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself. However, if the drug isn’t administered properly, drastic changes can occur in the source’s body, including rapid aging. This was something Persin had to master, as Moore’s character went through a gradual, yet extreme transformation.
“I loved working with her because she was with us all the way through,” Persin says of Moore. “She was never looking at her mobile. She was always looking at herself in the mirror and always with you saying, ‘Oh, send me designs and send me pictures even of the sculptures and your designs because it helps me to imagine what the character will be and how I will move and act.’ She was the real trooper from the beginning to the end.”
SEE ‘The Substance’ and star Demi Moore to compete in Comedy/Musical races at Golden Globes
The film comes to a dramatic conclusion when both bodies are fused together as Monstro Elisasue. “In Monstro, what was written in the script was that grotesque creature with Elisabeth, Demi Moore’s face, in the back,” Persin explains. “Apart from that, it was not described at all. And when I read the script, I was not hired yet, but I sculpted a maquette of what I thought the Monstro could be. I showed it to Coralie and it was quite close to the final monster we have in the movie. She liked it. She liked it a lot and I guess that’s one of the reasons I was hired on the movie.”
Persin explains how it took nearly four months to perfect Monstro’s look, but it was all worth it when he saw that bloodbath of a finale.
“We had the special effects supervisor and his team building the blood rig because it was like a fireman’s hose spurting blood,” he reveals. “It was a crazy, crazy amount of blood. So we had them building all those rigs and I’m happy they did it. We had only one suit, and the suit was foam latex, so basically it’s big sponge. And the suit is soaked in blood and you have to repair it and re-glue it, and it doesn’t dry overnight even though you’re trying. So that was a lot of work, but what was really fun was Monstro’s head explodes, so that was fun to do.”
Persin explains the head was made of gelatin and a fragile thin shell for a skull. “It could easily break and explode,” he says. “And we put lots of horrible stuff inside, blood bags and horrible brain matters and whatever. And the special effects crew put in all the explosives. We just pushed the buttons.”
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