CHAPTER 5 Relating the Makeup to the Character

One of the basic purposes of most makeup is to assist the actor in the development of a character by making suitable changes (when necessary) in the actor’s physical appearance. It seems reasonable, therefore, that our study of makeup should begin with an examination of the principles of character analysis.

Character Analysis

The first step in arriving at a suitable image for the character is to study the play. Directly through the stage directions, and indirectly through the dialogue, you come to know the character. You become acquainted not only with the character’s physical appearance but also with his or her background, environment, personality, age, and relationships with other characters in the play. Although this probing into the character is essential for the actor, it is also essential preparation for the makeup. It is important to be able to translate the information into visual terms.

Take, for example, the nose of Cyrano de Bergerac. This would appear at first glance to be the basis for Cyrano’s makeup. But is it sufficient to simply attach a large nose to the actor’s face?

Without it there is no Cyrano, but to what extent is the nose comic and to what extent tragic? What elements of nobility and courage and kindness should appear in the visual impression aside from the one exaggerated feature? And from a purely practical point of view, what effect will any given shape of nose have on the particular actor’s face?

Such questions as these should be asked about any character you are analyzing. And, in answering each question, there is a choice to be made. You may not always make the right choice, but you should make a definite one. A fine makeup, like a fine painting or a fine performance, is a product of thorough preparation, intelligent selection, and meticulous execution.

You may wish, for example, to reflect specifically on a character’s face their state of health, disposition, and occupation. When these are specified in the script, it is essential not to deny them in the makeup. If Marguerite Gautier plays her death scene with rosy cheeks and a bloom of health, the credulity of the audience is going to be severely strained. Or if a pale, sallow-complexioned character is supposed to be a deep sea fisherman, the more alert members of the audience may suspect a sinister twist of the plot. Therefore, it is essential, at the very least, to provide the minimum requirements of the physical appearance so as to correlate what the audience sees with what it hears. But beyond this you have an obligation to use the resources of makeup creatively to solve more subtle problems.

It is, for example, not only possible but commonplace to find members of the same family who have similar backgrounds and similar environments, as well as a family resemblance, but who are still very different. The differences between the sisters Goneril and Cordelia in King Lear, for example, are crucial to the play. It will surely help both the actors and the audience if these differences can be reflected in the makeup. This requires an analysis to determine what each character should, or might, look like.

Such an analysis can be simplified by classifying the determinants of physical appearance into six groups: heredity, race, environment, temperament, health, and age. These are not, of course, mutually exclusive. Race, for example, is merely a subdivision of heredity and may be a basic consideration in such a play as Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and of no significance at all in a play like Waiting for Godot, which was, in fact, performed on Broadway with both white and black casts. Temperament is obviously a more important consideration than environment in studying the character of Lady Macbeth, whereas with Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, both environment and temperament are basic to an understanding of the character and the play. In any character analysis, therefore, it works well to concentrate one’s attention on those groups which are of most significance to the character. It is not important to know precisely in which group any specific feature or character trait belongs. The divisions are laid out merely as a practical aid in organizing one’s research.

Heredity

Generally speaking, this group includes those characteristics, physical and mental, with which a person is born. The red hair of all the boys in Life With Father is obviously hereditary. Since it is required by the play, there is no choice to be made. But in most instances you must decide such things as the color of the hair, the shape of the nose, and the line of the eyebrow, and you must base your decision on a knowledge of the relationship between physical features and character and personality. In the character analysis, it is a challenge to choose exactly the kind of feature that will tell the audience most about the character and that will best support the character portrait the actor is trying to present.

Race

In realistic plays written to chronicle specific human experience, race is always a factor to be considered, whether it is mentioned in the play or not. Contemporary history plays such as August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, Octavio Solis’ El Paso Blue, and Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club paint a picture of American history fashioned out of unique cultural experiences. Demands of each script require specific cultural images to advance the dramatic action. Members of the same family should appear to be of the same race—unless there are adopted children of other races, a fact that would surely be brought out in the dialogue. Historical characters should appear to be of whatever race or combination of races they actually were—unless the playwright or director has decided to disregard the historical facts.

Environment

In addition to race and other hereditary factors, environment is of considerable importance in determining the color and texture of the skin. A farmer and a computer programmer are likely to have different colors of skin, and a color which is right for one would probably look incongruous on the other.

One must take into consideration not only the general climatic conditions of the part of the world in which the character lives but also the character’s physical work conditions and leisure-time activities. Offices, mines, fields, foundries, night clubs, and country estates all have different effects upon the people who work or live in them. But remember that a character may have had a variety of environments. Monsieur Madeleine in Hugo’s Les Miserables may be a wealthy and highly respected mayor, but his physical appearance will still bear the marks of his years of imprisonment as the convict Jean Valjean. If environment is to be construed as referring to all external forces and situations affecting the individual, then custom or fashion may logically be considered a part of the environmental influences, and a very important one. Influences arising from social customs and attitudes have throughout the centuries brought about superficial and self-imposed changes in appearance.

During most of the first half of the twentieth century it was assumed that men’s hair would be short and that women’s hair would be longer. A man might have been capable of growing long hair and might even have prefered long hair, but social pressures were at work to discourage him. During other periods of history, however, customs were different, and men wore their hair long and in some periods wore wigs. The drawings in Appendix F indicate the great variety in hair styles through the centuries, and, of course, those styles must be taken into consideration in analyzing a character and planning the makeup.

Similarly, the wearing of makeup off stage has varied throughout the centuries. If an eighteenth-century fop appears to be wearing makeup, no harm is done because he might very well have done so, but if any of the men in a realistic mid-twentieth-century play are obviously made up, they immediately become less believable. Furthermore, styles in street makeup vary. The plucked eyebrows, brilliant rouge, and bizarre lips of the late nineteen twenties would seem anachronistic in most other periods. Similar eccentricities such as the heavy, stylized eye makeup of the ancient Egyptians can be found in other periods in history. (For information on fashions in makeup, see Appendix E.)

Remember that, on the stage, makeup should look like makeup only when the character would normally be wearing it. That means that your character must be analyzed in the light of the social customs to determine not only possible hair styles but also the accepted usage in regard to makeup. For every character that you make up, always analyze the skin color, hair style, and street makeup in terms of environmental influences.

Temperament

An individual’s temperament, which can be interpreted as including personality, disposition, and personal habits, affects physical appearance in many ways. (See FIGURE 5-1.) The adventurer and the scholar, the Bohemian artist and the shrewd business person, the prizefighter and the philosopher, all are widely different in temperament, and these differences are to a greater or lesser degree apparent in the physical appearance. The convivial Sir Toby Belch and the melancholy Sir Andrew Aguecheek, for example, are aside from all other differences, widely contrasting in temperament and could not conceivably look alike.

The March sisters in Little Women are products of the same environment and the same heredity; yet temperamental differences make them strongly individual, and their individuality should be reflected in the makeup.

FIGURE 5-1 Character makeups on the same actor showing differences in age and temperament.
Actor Colm Fiore in the film Storm of the Century. Makeup effects by Maestro Studio F/X, Inc., Quebec, Canada.

A shy, librarian in, say, 1953 would certainly not be ostracized if she wore false eyelashes, but it is most unlikely that she would do so. And the idea of her wearing green eyeshadow is preposterous. Yet green eyeshadow might be quite right for a dissolute, aging actress, such as Tennessee Williams’ leading character in Sweet Bird of Youth.

The hair is an even more striking and obvious reflection of personality. One would expect the mature and socially correct Mrs. Higgins in Pygmalion to have her hair beautifully done, not a hair out of place, perhaps not in the latest fashion but in one considered proper for a woman of her years and of her elevated social station. The Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, on the other hand, might be expected to give her hair no attention at all, except, perhaps, to push it out of her eyes. When she is transformed into a “lady,” her hair, as well as everything else about her, must reflect the change.

There are fewer opportunities for men to express their personality in this way, but the ones which exist must not be slighted. When a beard or a mustache is to be worn, it offers an opportunity to reflect personality. First of all comes the choice of whether to wear facial hair at all. And the choice is always related to fashion. In other words, it would take as much courage not to wear a moustache or beard in 1870 as it would to wear one in, say 1940. In 1960 it would take less courage than in 1940, but the mere fact of wearing a beard would still be significant and a clear reflection of personality.

Secondly, once the decision to wear the beard has been made, there is the equally important decision as to what kind of beard to wear. You must know first of all what kind of beards were being worn in the period. If fashions were very limiting, there is less freedom of choice; if the character departs from the fashion (and there are always those who do), it is doubly significant. But there are several periods in history, especially in the late nineteenth century, for example, when facial hair was the rule and the style was limited only by the imagination, taste, and hairgrowing capability of the individual. In such a period there is an extraordinary opportunity to express personality through conscious choice of style in facial hair.

The same principles apply, as well, to hair on the head. There are often limitations on styles for men, but even during periods when convention was very restrictive, as in the second quarter of the twentieth century, there was still some variation in length, in wave or absence of it, in the part, and in color.

An interesting case of temperamental differences resulting in both conscious and unconscious physical changes is found in the Madwoman of Chaillot. There are, in fact, four madwomen, each completely different from the others temperamentally, each showing that difference in her face. Countess Aurelia, the Madwoman of Chaillot, is calm, compassionate, clever, rather tragic, and completely charming. Mme. Constance, the Madwoman of Passy, is garrulous, argumentative, bad tempered, flighty, and quick to take offense. Mlle. Gabrielle, the Madwoman of St. Sulpice, is shy, retiring, and easily hurt. And Mme. Josephine, the Madwoman of La Concorde, is forthright, practical, and very businesslike. A makeup that would be appropriate for one of the madwomen would be completely wrong for any of the others.

These are not problems to be faced only with certain striking characters, like the madwomen or Sir Toby Belch, or on special occasions when circumstances demand it. They should be considered and solved for every character.

An actress of twenty-five who is playing a contemporary character of twenty-five must not assume that her hair style or her way of making up her eyebrows or her lips will automatically be suitable for the character. The problem becomes particularly acute in repertory theater or summer stock when an actor is playing a different role every week, sometimes with very little variations in age. It is then more important than ever that ways of distinguishing among the characters be found. This means finding the most revealing ways in which character might be expressed and use these to help develop individuality in the makeup.

Health

In most cases a character’s state of health has nothing to do with the play. But sometimes, as with Mimi or Camille, there are noticeable changes that are important to the characterization or the plot. At other times, as with Elizabeth Barrett or with Laura in The Glass Menagerie, there is no specific illness, just a state of delicate health. A character may also be undernourished and must give physical evidence of this. By contrast, there are those who are overnourished and suffer from gout. And are others who are bursting with health and should show it in their faces.

Even when the health is not normal, a specific illness is rarely indicated. It is seldom necessary, therefore, to try to reproduce medically accurate physical symptoms. Any physical suggestions of the illness can usually be confined to changes in the skin color, the eyes, and perhaps the hair. As always, it is better to do too little than too much. Above all, avoid attributing to certain illnesses specific physical symptoms that are inaccurate and that will immediately be spotted by doctors and nurses in the audience. In certain areas of makeup it is best to curb the imagination and rely strictly on factual information.

Age

Since age invariably affects all people in physical terms, it is an essential consideration in every makeup, but not necessarily the most important one. How old is Falstaff, for example, or Lady Macbeth? Is it important to know this information precisely? Are there not more important facts to know about those particular characters? Before beginning the makeup, there must be some definite decision made about the age, and that decision will rest with the actor and the director. But in makeup we are interested in the apparent, not the actual, age, and this depends on the kind of life the character has led and how the character feels about it. Thus, the environment may have affected the character’s apparent age, but so has his or her mental attitude. Is it positive or negative? Is he or she cheerful or morose? Does the character feel sorry for himself or herself, or is he or she glad to be alive? Do they look forward or backward? And how old do they think they are? Are they conscious of getting older each year or does time seem to have stopped? Do they really want to remain young?

Remember also that apparent age is related to nutrition and thus involves health, which depends on both nutrition and mental attitudes. As you can see, the various factors affecting the appearance are in many cases interrelated and cannot always be considered separately.

Discussing specific effects of age can be only general and indicate the kind of changes that may take place. The conventional divisions of youth, middle age, and old age are serviceable for this discussion.

YOUTH  (See FIGURE 5-2A.) There is an unfortunate custom in the theater of referring to any youthful makeup as a straight makeup. This means simply that you do nothing but heighten the color and project the features. Designating a makeup as “straight” can lead to neglect of essential work. Conceivably, the term has a certain validity in the event that a specific role is so cast that the actor’s features are precisely right, with not a hair to be changed. If makeup is required that will change the actor to fit the character being playing, this is called a character makeup (FIGURE 5-3).

Now, there are instances when there is no clearly defined character, or perhaps no character at all. In photographic protraiture, in some platform appearances, and sometimes in choruses, it is expected that the actors appear as themselves, but it is rare to find an actor who cannot profit by some facial improvement. And a straight makeup does not improve; it merely projects. When we wish to improve an actor’s face without relating it to a specific character, we use corrective makeup.

Makeup for youth, except when actors are appearing as themselves, requires a character analysis. The physical attributes of youthfulness are usually a smooth skin, a good deal of color in the face, a delicately curved mouth, smooth brows following the shape of the eye, an abundance of hair, and so on. Those are, of course, average characteristics. Heredity, environment, temperament, and health may counteract the normal effects of youth, as in the case of Richard III. Despite the fact that Richard is a young man at the time of the play, he is hardly an average, normal one. Although there may be little in the face to suggest age, it will probably not seem particularly youthful. Temperament and environment will have had strong influences on his physical appearance.

FIGURE 5-2
Adolphe Appia.
A. Photograph at age 20. (Note the smooth skin, full lips and eyebrows, and gentle curves, characteristic of youth.) B. In later years.

FIGURE 5-3 Actor in character makeup playing a character of the same age showing the influence of environment on his physical appearance. Actor John Ales in the film Ride With the Devil. Makeup by Jeff Goodwin of Transformations Makeup FX Lab.

Ophelia is a young girl, but her profound unhappiness and confusion, which finally result in a complete mental breakdown and suicide, must certainly, along with other elements in her personality, be reflected in some way, however subtly, in the makeup.

MIDDLE AGE  (See FIGURE 5-4.) This is an indefinite period somewhere in the middle of life. It reaches its climax perhaps in the fifties or even the sixties, depending on the individual. For purposes of this discussion it can be considered as including all ages between forty and sixty-five. But remember that in earlier times middle age came much sooner. In any case, it is the apparent rather than the actual age that is important in makeup.

FIGURE 5-4 Age makeup on Kenneth Branagh. Adding 25 years and 25 pounds. Makeup by Jeff Goodwin of Transformations Makeup FX Lab.

Age can, and too often does, bring with it changes in the color of the skin and the hair: sagging muscles, hair loss, and an increasing angularity in the lips, eyebrows, and cheeks, but the exact nature of these changes will depend on factors other than age. So it is important in every case to determine how seriously and in what ways age has affected appearance. And remember that the effects of age are modified radically by health, environment, temperament, and mental habits.

OLD AGE  (See FIGURE 5-2B.) As a person advances beyond middle life, the skull structure usually becomes more prominent (FIGURE 11-36G), especially if the person is thin. A large person will have a greater tendency toward flabbiness, with pouches and puffs and double chins. (FIGURE 11-36F) Along with a general sagging of the flesh, the tip of the nose may droop (FIGURE 11-35A), hair may fall out (FIGURE 11-35L), eyebrows may become bushy or scraggly (FIGURE 11-16E), lips almost invariably become thinner (FIGURE 11-41B), teeth may fall out, skin and hair color will probably change, the skin on the neck may droop (FIGURE 11-41L), the hands may become bony (FIGURE 11-54C), and the face may be a mass of wrinkles (FIGURE 12-15A). It is up to you to decide which of these effects apply to your character. Again, changes will be affected by health, environment, temperament, and mental attitudes.

The creative aspect of makeup lies in the mind of the artist and stems directly from the artist’s understanding of the character. Following such a plan of character analysis means, of course, that all consideration of makeup cannot be left until the night of dress rehearsal. It is something that should be planned as carefully as the sets and the costumes. If, before you sit down at your dressing table, you have intelligently planned in specific terms the physical changes you wish to make, you will have mastered the creative part of your problem and will have left only the technical one of executing your ideas.

Physiognomy

Since the beginning of the human race people must have observed other people and drawn conclusions from their appearances as to their probable behavior. Through trial and error, certain correlations have been found that seem to hold up with reasonable consistency. Just as people draw these conclusions consciously or unconsciously in daily life, so they continue to do so when they see characters on the stage in the theater. The actor may choose to turn this to an advantage by becoming consciously aware of the correlations of physical appearance with character and personality traits. If not, the actor is taking the risk of assuming physical characteristics that could mislead the audience and detract from the believability of the character.

The practice of relating physical appearance to character and personality traits is defined by the dictionary as physiognomy. A familiarity with some of the principles of physiognomy can be enormously helpful in designing a face for the actor’s character.

Much of this you already do unconsciously. Look, for example, at the faces in FIGURE 6-1. Study each character sketch and ask yourself why it suits the character. Is it a strong face or a weak one? Does it look optimistic or pessimistic? Sensitive or crude? Aggressive or timid? Determined or vacillating? Intelligent or not? Can you determine what there is about the face that causes you to react as you do?

Whether your response to the face is intuitive or analytical, it comes under the heading of physiognomy, and it is essentially what the audience does in relation to every character on the stage. Actors would thus do well to be aware of the ways in which an audience may relate physical appearance to personality and character traits.

In making changes in the face, remember that you are dealing with a whole face, not just a single feature, and those changes you do make will inevitably be affected by other areas of the face.

EYES  Perhaps no other feature betrays the inner person so clearly as the eyes. (See FIGURE 5-5.) In general, prominent eyes are found on dreamers and aesthetes (FIGURE 5-5A and B) who live largely through their senses, whereas deep-set eyes (FIGURE 5-5C and D) are more likely to be an indication of an observant, analytical mind. We might say that one is the eye of a Romeo, the other of a Cassius. Many eyes will be neither strongly one nor the other, and thus the individuality might be expected to include characteristics of both types.

The eyes and the mouth often change markedly during one’s lifetime. These changes are usually associated with the aging process, but the kind of changes that take place will depend upon the sort of mental, emotional, and physical life one leads. The kind of wrinkles which develop through frequent laughter, for example, quite logically suggest a happy, kindly disposition.

EYEBROWS  Eyebrows are one of the most expressive and easily changed features of all. Even a slight change in the eyebrow can effect the entire face. Eyebrows vary in placement, line, thickness, color, length, and direction of the hairs. They can reveal mental or physical energy (FIGURES 5-5H and J, 6-1C and L), suggest weakness or lack of concentration (FIGURES 5-5F and 6-1A and J) and define a practical, intelligent personality from a simple, erratic one (FIGURE 6-1H and B). If you want to suggest treachery or cunning, put a curve in the brow and angle it upwards (FIGURES 5-5K and 6-1D). This would also be an appropriate brow for Iago and Richard III and is, in fact, the brow of Henry VIII.

FIGURE 5-5 Character in eyes and eyebrows.

NOSE  Noses can be classified as to size and shape (in profile). They can also be described in definitive terms such as Roman, Grecian, Aquiline, and retrousse; and with descriptive words such as strong, refined, aristocratic, cute, and inquisitive.

The nose is the bony feature that is relatively easy to remodel in three dimensions. A very little added to or subtracted from the nose can, like a change in the eyebrows, alter the entire face. And since the change is so dramatic, it is important that the right kind of change be made. Once the decision to change the shape of the nose is made, questions such as what qualities would be appropriate for the character must be asked. Should it be straight or crooked, long or short, convex or concave, narrow or wide? Imagine, if you can, a Lady Macbeth with a small, delicate, turned-up nose or a Snow White with a large Roman one. Utilizing research to study a variety of profiles and choosing one that seems appropriate is an invaluable next step. How it will look on the actor’s face is a simple matter of experimentation.

MOUTH  The size and shape of the mouth and the thickness and color of the lips affects the overall impression of character. The mouth can be large and expansive or small and contracted. It can curve upward or downward, be held loosely or tightly closed. Lips can be thin and straight or full and shapely. They can reveal a social personality or an introverted one. They can indicate warmth or reserve, a serious nature or one full of humor. The mouth is a good indicator of age, becoming thinner, more angular, and losing color as one becomes older. (See FIGURE 5-6.)

The suggestions in this chapter are to be used only as guides. Use these brief suggestions with discretion and try always to correlate the features and not rely on only one to suggest the character. You will rarely be able to make all of the changes you consider ideal, but the purpose of character analysis is to discover the determining factors in the character’s behavior and then to visualize as nearly as possible the final look.

FIGURE 5-6 Mouths.