Montreal makeup artist Adrien Morot won an Oscar on Sunday for his transformation of actor Brendan Fraser in the feature film The Whale (The whale).
Morot won the Oscar for Best Makeup and Best Hairstyle alongside Judy Chin and Annemarie Bradley.
The Montreal-born creator helped turn Fraser into an obese man for Darren Aronofsky’s film, which tells the story of a reclusive professor trying to reconnect with his daughter.
The team glued several pieces of thick silicone to Fraser’s face and body, before applying makeup.
The Whale has been criticized for its portrayal of the character’s weight. Although Morot acknowledged the complaints in a recent interview with The Canadian Press, he said his job was to make the prosthetic suit as authentic as possible.
A short delay
In an interview he gave to the daily The duty at the time of his selection, Adrien Morot had confided that one of the main challenges associated with this mandate was the short deadline initially imposed by the director for the start of filming.
While he initially believed he should focus on the actor’s face, hands and neck, with the rest of the body covered in clothing, the task became more complex after Darren Aronofsky decided he also wanted to see the arms and legs of the actor, with a concern for a respectful and authentic representation.
“I begged Darren to break his five-week schedule and take the time needed. Because the film is based on Charlie, and if the appearance of Charlie does not convince, the film will not work, “he told the Duty.
The challenge of realism
Indeed, another challenge of this task was to make everything as real as possible, since if overweight make-up is typical of comedies or science fiction, where realism is immediately put aside by the cinephile, it was not the case The Whale.
“It’s a closed door [chamber piece] with reduced distribution. No one wears prosthetics except the main character and he is present in almost every scene,” Morot told online magazine The Credits in early March. “It will fill the screen. The slightest defect will be immediately noticeable. It’s a prosthetic artist’s nightmare. »
Among the other spectacular prostheses made by Adrien Morot, let us note those of ferocious alligators in the film Crawl and mutant superheroes in all three films X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse And X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
The Whale is Morot’s fifth collaboration with Aronofsky, after Mother!, Noah, The Fountain And White Boy Rick.
“Our director Darren Aronofsky pushed us to new heights. Thank you,” said Adrien Morot after going on stage to receive his award.
According to The Canadian Press