Hair department head Melizah Wheat, makeup head Leo Satkovich, and special makeup effects designer Jason Collins are part of making the iconic look of Amy Madigan’s Aunt Gladys in the film Weapons. Here, in an interview with The Contending, the team shares tons of stories about their time on set. They’re also incredibly proud of what they helped create from an intricate dummy of Aunt Gladys to accidentally influencing the lighting of a scene, making movie magic. They not only loved the experience, but they are very much in for digging further into Gladys in a future film.
The Contending: I was going to just start with what is probably the thing everyone’s talking about with this film: the design of Aunt Gladys. Her look, her style, the phrase you already made iconic has become a cliche, but it’s true with her. What went into creating her look?
Melizah Wheat: Well, I’ll start by saying we started with the script, and there was a basic outline for designing the look of Aunt Gladys. I knew she would have red hair and there were a few little tokens of information as I read the script. It took so many twists. It was very dark, and I wasn’t sure how much volume this character would have. It wasn’t until the camera test that we visually saw a lot of the elements come together: the costume, the palette of colors, the makeup. It was just really a magical time to see all these pieces come together and, for me, I didn’t realize how robust and how grand she was going to be. We still refined things as time went on with the wig, the palette, and whatnot, but straight out of the gate with the camera test Amy brought so much to the table and made it interesting, unsettling, and still with a lot of mystery. But really it was just collaborative work and I thought that’s where the magic really came in, bouncing what Leo and so many others brought to the table.
Leo Satkovich: I think when building Gladys you have to start with the words that are on the pages. The script from Zach and team, and the words on the page were along the lines of Gladys has red hair, garish clown-like makeup caked on and just very eccentric. We had a very broad blueprint of who this character was supposed to be and from there Melizah, Jason, and I put our heads together with Zach Cregger and Trish Summerville, the costume designer, and we all just started bouncing ideas off one another. Trish had been working with Zach for a few weeks earlier than we had so she already had the idea for the colorful pantsuits Gladys ended up having. That gave us a good foundation for our respective departments, and we landed on somewhere between Jane Hudson in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and Mink Stole in John Waters’ films.
We wanted something that looked very period but also very ambiguous. So we gave her a red lip that was a little bit more indicative of late 40s-early 50s, then a wonky black liner under the eye that you would see more in the late 60s. Then a powder blue, really deep gradient eyeshadow that you would see in the late 40s–early 50s as well. As well as a really messy red nail polish. Then we had those wonky eyebrows on her and that was very challenging for me so I put those into a design program and printed them out as a stencil and then applied them every day on her, and every day they got a little bit more cockeyed and she gave me something a bit different every day.
But what we wanted to give off was that she was confident in this look so we didn’t want her to be ghoulish. It was about finding that fine line where the look was rooted in reality where if you saw Aunt Gladys walking down the street you didn’t want to jump to the other side of the street, but you definitely didn’t make eye contact. When you looked at her you just felt like something was off even if you couldn’t really put your finger on it.
Jason Collins: It’s a wonderful playing field that Zach gives you where it was specific but not really specific. One of the things that we knew early on was that Gladys was going to have to have a ferocity to her where she could switch on the dime, and achieving that is always tough in designs. Going from garish audacity to recovering stroke victim and then to the ferocity of a natural born killer that preys upon others. So we landed on this bird of prey concept where it was like she’s kind of hawkish in how she attacks her prey, and in order to do that with prosthetics we changed her profile, putting a nose on her that looked like a beak because Amy has this soft nose that makes her look more endearing. We also changed the size of her pupil so it was smaller and more beady like a bird. We were going to do both of her eyes because we thought that would be pretty dynamic but when we showed it to Zach we left one out and he really fell in love with that look because it added to the look of something being off about her.
We also used her ear lobes to help elongate her face and took out her eyebrows to add to the creepy way her wig rested on top of her head. Then when it came to her teeth we avoided the more rotting small teeth because we wanted something offbeat that created more questions than answers. In my research I came upon a disease where people have too much gums and I always felt that was unnerving. So we made up these little baby teeth, and when Amy saw the design she thought it was great but she was worried it was going to affect her ability to talk. So we made certain she had them a month ahead of time so she could practice with them. That way she was able to incorporate the teeth into her overall performance. So all that and what everyone else added, and of course, Amy’s great performance gave us Gladys.
The Contending: Staying with Aunt Gladys: that confident bright look is of course what most people know, but we also see her when she is weak and her appearance reflects that, where she still seems a bit off but she appears to be a helpless old woman. What specific things did you guys do to create that opposite side of her?
Jason Collins: The idea was she was old, frail and sick and so her hair was very thin and falling out. We knew from the beginning because Amy has really healthy hair that we needed to do a full bald cap. That meant for the hair she does have we had to punch those in individually, and that kind of work takes a lot of patience and time because you really want to sell the idea that you’re seeing through the hair into the scalp. Leo and I also worked on making her skin seem more unhealthy looking like parchment. To give her skin that draw-out we did a lot of stretching and stippling, a ton of shading and shadowing, and a lot of vein work that really gave us a hollowed out husk of a woman.
Leo Satkovich: Yeah, and it was also about removing and adding different tones as well. Being among the living we as people have some great peach tones and red in our skin. So when she was healthier it was about adding those healthy mauve tones. Then as she started to get drained and sick she would look a little bit more wrinkled, more creepy, we would start to remove those tones and add more sallow colors like greens and yellows.
Jason Collins: We only see Gladys really in the third act, but she leaves such an impression, and obviously we see her peppered throughout the film in nightmares. To have so little screen time and get the maximum amount of stages out of her, I feel like there’s a real journey going on with this character and these looks. The nightmare look in particular starting with that upside down wig, right, Melizah?
Melizah Wheat: Yeah, the upside down wig was quite a science project, but it was another way to color outside the lines. Zach said we had to figure out a way to have Gladys’s hair not be affected by gravity when we’re shooting this. At first I was, like, okay, monofilament my friend, but then that wasn’t going to work either so I had to structure a second wig and I literally had it hanging from the ceiling in my trailer and I styled it and basically baked it into shape so when she wore it it would not, you know, be affected by gravity, so that was quite fun. That scene being in the dark and such a quick visual punch to the audience, I thought it would be a great idea to elevate the color just a little bit without making it jump out. As well as the texture of the wig, which was more witchy-centric, and worked well with the way Leo did the makeup. Leo, you need to talk about the shot when they were layering in the bed.
Leo Satkovich: Yeah, when we were doing Archer’s nightmare where he looks at his son Matthew and then Matthew slowly turns into Gladys. When we were shooting that in a small room, they had positioned Amy in the bed all swaddled in the blankets, and they got the swaddle to match the overlay perfectly. All the folds, blankets, sheets, and Amy’s position matched perfectly with the overlay onto the son so the transformation would be flawless. So they’re getting ready to shoot and I was like, oh God, she doesn’t have near enough red lipstick! One thing that Zach wanted was if Glady’s makeup look every day is say 80 percent, he wanted this at like 200 percent, because like Melizah said, we did not have a lot of time to see this look in the movie.
So whatever we did had to come across and we’ve got to be able to see it. So I’m crawling under flag lights around grips in this dark room, trying to put makeup on her, and someone says, do you need a light? So they shine their iPhone light so I could see Amy’s face and Larkin (Seiple), the DP, asked, who did that? Everyone just started looking at each other and then he just said, No, no, do it again, and so they shine that light on her again and that’s how that jumpscare came to be. So it wasn’t originally supposed to be this bright light. It was supposed to be like when she was in Julia’s room when she was coming out of the ceiling. I was so happy that you get to see a full screen of Gladys in this wild look that has become this sensational viral meme. It is just really funny how these things happen, but that’s movie magic!
The Contending: One of the other big looks were Gladys’s victims that she is controlling. The actors are a big part of it with the animalistic way they are moving and attacking people. But there’s also something about their appearance that just looks off. What did you guys do to give them that distinct look?
Leo Satkovich: Specifically with the parents, at first they look normal but then from the moment Gladys possesses them, we started to pull the color out of their skin and then just slowly degraded them from there. So when Alex first sees his parents at the dinner table we took the color out of their lips and face, making them look a little bit pale so the audience instinctively knew something is not right here. Then from there we slowly aged them as the story went on and they got scabier, greener, a little bit more rotten, if you will. Mom’s makeup got progressively messier and redder in and around the eyes as they don’t sleep, even some tooth decay. Just small, minute details to get across that they are still alive but their bodies are not keeping up with what is happening in the world.
Jason Collins: Originally we played with bulging eyes as practical elements, but with them running and only having frontal views and no peripheral views, it became a danger. So early on we decided on VFX to do that. Because it allowed the actors to do what they needed to do without tripping or hurting themselves. I thought that the eyes popping really helped it, specifically with Benedict (Wong), because by the time he smashes in his husband’s head he’s already covered in black bile and blood and he just looks like a nightmare. And he’s got such great facial features, so just a slight bulge in his eyes was an act of genius that played well together.
Melizah Wheat: It was really cool disturbing the parents’ regular hair, working it seamlessly with the makeup, where we went bigger and they went more muted. It was just a funny balance that worked. We have the scene in the beginning where it looks like the parents have come to the school, and then later looking back we see that it’s actually Gladys who is there with the dad.
It’s implied that she just combed his hair down and I think she’s putting a little makeup on him, and so that’s another element that gets thrown into the movie. Then you’re like, oh, yeah, that’s right, that wasn’t the mom, that was actually Gladys.
The Contending: The final scene of the children chasing Gladys is set up so well that you realize oh, yes, Alex would know how to do that and. The comeuppance that is happening to Gladys is so satisfying. Anything you guys can tell me about the creation of that scene I’d be happy to hear about?
Jason Collins: That was a fun sequence and one we knew was going to be big because of everything involved. For me and Leo, it involved that final look of Gladys where her hair is all crazy and down, where she’s not really aged to when she was sick, but isn’t really fresh-faced anymore either. But the biggest thing we did was the body of Gladys we made for the end that was cable mechanized to be released at the same time as seventeen crazy children are pulling her apart. To make this lifelike dummy of Gladys, Amy came in and we were able to get her expressions for what she would look like if she was being torn apart. So I scanned her. We did a live cast and a clean print of that and then a resculpt so we could get all the pores and details because we really wanted this body to sing. Zach was very adamant that one of the kids pulls an ear off and a lot of blood comes out. And then another kid bashes her eyes in with their fingers and a big geyser of blood comes out. Some other kids are taking apart her arms. Then the coup de grâce is the snapping of the jaw on the top of the head.
Also, when you build something in the shop and you bring it to set thinking it’s going to be done a certain way, and then all of a sudden you find out they want to shoot it a different way, which isn’t how you’ve prepared. But you have to roll with the punches and re-engineer some things on the fly. Those resets are not easy. It’s a big geyser of blood coming out of each body part as they are being pulled apart…so having multiple cameras on it is really helpful to capture it all. The kids were insane. They were jumping and running everywhere, and they were covered in blood, and I’m certain we scarred them for life, but they seemed to be having a good time in the blood water park that day.
Leo Satkovich: I think that Gladys dummy belongs in a museum; it was an engineering feat. In pictures and continuity photos you can tell if it was Amy or the dummy. The engineering on the inside was almost like in the movies when you see a robot and everything looks human, then you remove the chest and it’s all animatronics. The other cool thing about being on set that day was that Amy did all of it. All of the running, perfecting her movements, and she always had a stunt double at the ready but Amy just said, that’s very kind but I prefer to do this myself. So every time you see Gladys, even from the very extreme wide shots, that was Amy.
Jason Collins: Except when she went through the windows; that would be a lot to ask of her. I did love how Amy was just balls to the wall going to do her own thing. Then of course everyone’s worried because we’ve got the 70-something year old woman running around in 100° heat. But man, she was outrunning everyone, including the camera guy. No one could hold a candle to her.
Melizah Wheat: Even the smallest thing like prepping her wrap for the bald cap for the stunt double was a challenge because she had this very narrow small head. I had to put more mass into her wig and make it wider in the back so it would mirror the silhouette of Amy. That was a new thing for me but it was important, because I knew they would be filming from the back. Then of course there were all the children and their wings, and with their smaller heads, that also made it very challenging to get them all doubled with the stunt people.
The Contending: The rest of the cast is supposed to look just like small town people. What did you guys do to create that contrast with the craziness to make everyone else feel so grounded?
Leo Satkovich: I think that’s what makes this movie so believable. Zach really brings you to that line of camp without crossing it. To really sell that everything has to be extremely real and rooted in reality. There has to be such an immense deviation from Gladys and the people around her and everything else. That is what makes it believable. When it comes to our straight makeup characters it was just about finding all of those details that made them real. Makeup, no makeup, adding under eyes, then we switch gears and put all the makeup on Amy. You have to keep that groundedness and keep the line on camp otherwise it becomes an entirely different movie.
Melizah Wheat: I think with Alden’s (Ehrenreich) character as a police officer you got the quintessential haircut. Julia Garner as the teacher Justine is very grounded so we didn’t overstyle her. Even when she is getting chased, her hair just gets a little sweaty and messier. When she’s in the car and she has been drinking we just tried to make her seem a little unraveled. But by the time we get to the potato peeler scene her hair is like fire from being attacked. It’s a subtle, simple silhouette. It was important to push and pull at the right time. Because it helps the effect, the performance, it’s a reflection on everybody. It is the little seasoning here and there that makes a difference. By that scene everyone is at their most frazzled and heightened: Julia, Josh (Brolin), Alden.
Jason Collins: Everyone loves a good veggie peeler scene. (laughing) It’s that going up to the line where you’re looking at the script and you read she picks up what and does what?? Zach asked if I’d ever seen that and I was, like, no! He said he had and it’s great and very unnerving. I was, like, yeah, it is very unnerving! I remember when we first tested out that scene props could only find a veggie peeler that was so big so we had to make the pieces small to test it. Zach was, like, I don’t know. I think it needs to be bigger, and props couldn’t find one so we had to design a bigger one. Then on the day me and Leo were in the trailer and were applying it to Alden, and Zach came in and said, wow you went big! First I thought, oh, we went too big. But he said, no, I think it’ll read, but for a minute you could tell he was worried it was too big. But it really did work in the scene because you did need to read it quickly. It is one of those things where it was a fun gag because no one’s done it before and I love watching people in a theater freak out!
The Contending: Final thoughts?
Jason Collins: I hope everyone enjoyed the movie, that’s what we’re here for, to make enjoyable characters.
Melizah Wheat: We all agree we’re crossing our fingers for a prequel, right, guys?
Jason Collins: We got to see where Aunt Gladys came from. I’m very curious where she came up with her look.
Weapons streams on HBO MAX.
