Sasquatch Sunset makeup and hair designer Steve Newburn reveals the secret behind the baby Sasquatch’s movements (some of them weren’t radio-controlled!).
When starting work on David and Nathan Zellner’s Bigfoot odyssey Sasquatch Sunset, makeup and hair designer Steve Newburn was prepared to go to the mat for one element of the creature design process.
“I don’t want to put contact lenses in [the actors],” said Newburn. “These are characters — you can’t cover their eyes. And David and Nathan were in the same mindset.”
Taking place over four seasons, Sasquatch Sunset follows Alpha (David Zellner), Female (Riley Keough), Male (Jesse Eisenberg), and Child (Christophe Zajak-Denek) as they endure mountain lions, pregnancy, logs, and other threats to their existence.
In creating these loveable creatures, Newburn and his team paid great attention to their eyes and facial features.
“Riley mastered the thousand-yard stare of the battered-down female. You know who that character is just by looking into her eyes. Sculpturally, we’d give specific characteristics around the eyes to amplify the character. We wanted her to be beaten down and resigned to her fate. She’s got to keep these dumb guys alive and from killing themselves. She’s the future.”
For the males in the group, Newburn also built personality around their peepers.
“Nathan’s character was a little more of a stereotype — the angry, hostile big monster with a brow furrow, all done in a way to work with the eyes. With Christophe, who played the Child, we made the bone structure around his eyes larger, with youthful wonder and more curiosity.”
What are the Sasquatch Sunset Suits Made out of?
With the eyes out of the way, Newburn had to create a suit that could be easily repairable and durable. So what exactly is a Sasquatch suit made out of?
“The go-to for prosthetics these days is silicone. It doesn’t breathe. It’s heavy. We went into this knowing we didn’t have a lot of time or money, but we’re putting these actors out into this real-world environment. What you see in the movie, we’re not holding back. If they’re running in thorn bushes, they’re actually doing it. We had one suit and one backup just in case. The material is a foam latex, basically a sponge with a hair suit over it. It’s the most user-friendly material out there for what we do.”
Keough’s suits got more use than the others, due to her character’s pregnancy.
“The one that changes visually throughout is Riley’s. Her backup suit became her pregnant suit. We technically only had one suit for her in the sense that half the movie she’s not showing and the other half she is. We had this six-month-term belly built into it and then we added pads to make it bigger and bigger. After she gives birth, we could take them away and have the belly shrink back.”
And Baby Makes Three. . .Creating the Sasquatch Sunset Baby
Female giving birth means the addition of a new character — the baby. Only obviously they did not suit up a real-life newborn to play a Sasquatch. Newburn created the baby himself.
“The Photoshop rendering of the baby was one of the first things we did. We knew it wouldn’t play until later in the schedule. I built most of the babies in the trailers while we were on location. They’re not perfect, but I was in there doing the mechanics for it. It had to have mouth movement and head movement and these little armatures. Part of it was radio-controlled and part of it was Riley.”
Yep, not only did Keough perform as her own character, but she also did some light puppetry work for the baby.
“I was watching the monitors the first day we shot it, and I was like, it’s kicking? Am I insane? And she was like, ‘I hope it’s okay I was puppeteering that thing.’ I was like, ‘Holy cow!’ You’re bringing your A game for yourself and you’re playing this other little character partially as well.”
Sasquatch Sunset is streaming on Paramount+.
