Charles Dance/Yeston & Kopit Concept Makeup
Phantom Cosplay & Makeup Application: @phantomonabudget
Prosthetic: @dyadmufx
This is my first interpretation of what Erik (The Phantom) might have looked like in the 1990 miniseries adaptation of the Yeston and Kopit stage show. This version is quite famous for never showing Erik's face. Instead, we are left with only clues to his actual appearance. I imagine that decision was made as often the imagination can co.e up with far worse possibilities than whatever they would have out on camera. Still...it's fun to try.
Makeup Design
There are few clues or hints in the movie to build upon. We know the eyes are sunken in due to the eye shadow applied to the actor, Charles Dance. We know that the mouth, jaw, and skin around the edge of the face appear to be unaffected. And when pressed about his appearance, Erik says only: "I have no face. I have only the semblance of a face...and no one should have to look at it."
So...not exactly descriptive, and leaves a lot of room for interpretation.
Given the visual clues (or lack thereof), we know the middle of the face is the only area affected and it is completely covered by the mask. I chose to use a beautiful, foam latex base prosthetic appliance by DYAD FX. I kept the skin tone similar to that of the mouth and around the face, but carefully and thinly layered colors from my alcohol activated pallettes to give the effect of a very thin, pinkish tone to the area. I painted in veining to further the effect of the thinned out skin.
...No Nose??
I wanted to give the illusion of not having a nose (or at least that he was losing his). This is certainly the holy grail of Phantom visual design for most Phans, as we have truly only seen one makeup design faithful to the original Gaston Leroux novel...and that was Lon Chaney nearly 100 years ago! So I wanted to try to incorporate that element into this design.
However, it is impossible to eliminate the nose using makeup alone, as effects makeup is additive, not subtractive. Meaning, we add things like prosthetic appliances to the skin to create an effect, but can't take away what the person naturally has. Any time you see a missing nose in film and TV, it is removed using visual/digital effects (VFX). Oftentimes, VFX compliments a prosthetic effects makeup design (like Red Skull in the Marvel movies). It is possible to hide the nose under surrounding prosthetics, but in my opinion, that is usually not successful for realism. Adding more material under/around the nose makes the end result look more simian (ape-like) than just a human without a nose.
To allude to this effect, I instead painted the majority of my nose dark to appear like a cavity, and left the tip of the nose. I felt it gave a better and more realistic overall look. It simply suggests the nose is missing (or soon to be completely missing) instead of trying to physically bury the nose in a ton of material.
Overall, I'm happy with this first attempt but can already think of changes I'd like to make. I enjoyed this and look forward to doing more interpretations of classic Phantoms, to include a Gaston Leroux concept makeup in the near future!
