American Cinematographer - December 1994 - 38

capable of at the time. We
through a lot of designs, a
lot of drawings. The important
thing to remember is that it
wasn't a question of creating a

were

went

monster. This is a man who's
been brought back to life, and his
brain doesn't belong to his body.

He's

totally lost and he's been

abandoned by Dr. Frankenstein,
so he's a
very sad character."
In fact, Mary Shelley's
book reads almost like the story
of an abused child and his uncar¬

ing parent. Still, Parker refrained
from imparting a childlike qual¬
ity to the makeup, feeling that
was De Niro's
job: "He did it
beautifully. My side of it was cre¬
ating the look - it's more techni¬
cal."
One hallmark of

a

great

makeup is how much it trans¬
forms the actor while still retain¬

ing his

essence

in the character.
As Parker

Above: The

Creature

become

gets a cosmetic

touch-up. Right:
Makeup
supervisor
Daniel Parker

applies his
a

patient De Niro.

a

Stuart Freeborn offered

after
one

con¬

design
design,

at

last

leapt out: a
study of the

me

my
makeup on

first job doing effects
Return of the Jedi." Parker eventu¬

Creature's face

ally settled into a career as one of
Britain's top effects makeup art¬
ists, despite his father's advice.
But after lending his talents to
such diverse projects as Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom, En¬
emy Mine, and Dream Child (with

twisted

that, despite its

lip,
disfigured
right cheek,
"dodgy" left
eye and closecropped hair,

Jim Henson), Parker decided to

wisdom, which

showy effects work and
on
honing his skills
as a
straight makeup artist, work¬
ing only with paint on such films
as A
Passage to India and Empire of

"make it busy." "I try not to do
that," Parker insists. "I'm a

give

up

concentrate

the Sun.

Parker, along with his
team

of mad

scientists

at

Shepperton Studios' Animated
Extras, brought together the best
of both the straight makeup and
prosthetics worlds to create the
Creature. Although De Niro's
makeup is elaborate, including a
series of full-body prosthetics
that completely alter the actor's
physiology, it's also in many
ways quite simple, going against
the

36

ceived

makeup man
it's a dead-end job!' Parker
laughs. "I actually went into films
to become a producer, and then
never

-

(Robert De Niro)

skills to

do,

prevailing "rubber monster"

American

Cinematographer

seems

to be

bore a remark¬
able resemblance to Robert De
Niro. "That was very important

shape on
paper. "I learned generally how
to cut up a body to make sure the
incisions were correct," he says.

to me," Parker exclaims. "If
you
look at his right cheek, you'll see
he's even got his mole there!
We sculpted it into the prosthetic
as an anchor
point so you'd know
where you're at - the prosthetic
mole goes right over his own real
one. You don't want to lose Rob¬
ert De Niro; it'd be a crime. We
wanted his face, his eyes and his
charisma to come through. If we
lost that, we might as well have
been using anybody."
As crafted by Parker, the

"I

Creature's features

painter before a prosthetic
makeup artist. When it comes to
prosthetics, I prefer to put very
little on and do it with paint."
To augment his research
into the Creature's filmic prede¬
cessors, Parker delved deep into
period surgical and morticians'
handbooks as his designs for the
De Niro Creature took

kept doing drawings

as

I

learned about medical proce¬
dures and stitching work - the
tools they had and what they

December 1994

required
something in the neighborhood
of six prosthetic pieces. First there
was a
headpiece that covered De
American Cinematographer - December 1994

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