'American Horror Story: Hotel': How The Countess, Liz Taylor & The Addiction Demon Were Designed [VIDEO]
The head makeup artist behind FX's American Horror Story delves into the design behind Hotel's various colorful characters.
American Horror Story makeup artist Eryn Kruger Mekash had a lot of work on her hands with Hotel. She spoke with IndieWire recently about the various looks of The Countess (Lady Gaga), Liz Taylor (Denis O'Hare) and the dreaded Addiction Demon (Alexander Ward).
"[Gaga] was turned into a vampire in the late '20s, so we established all of the looks with Rudolph Valentino and his wife, Natacha Rambova [the costume and set designer]," Mekash said. "We saw '30s makeup and the '70s, which was her big heyday with disco, and then there was a time in the '80s with Angela Bassett's character [Ramona Royale]. Then we had the modern-day stuff, which was incredibly glamorous."
For Liz Taylor, Mekash and company obviously modeled the character after the late acting legend.
"His look was patterned after Taylor in 'Cleopatra' and the eye makeup was inspired by an old bartender that [creator] Ryan Murphy met a long time ago," Mekash revealed. "It was the first time that Denis ever wore such makeup."
As for the Addiction Demon, it was not an easy process; the character required over four hours of makeup every day.
"Initially, it was all foam with prosthetics underneath, and there were layers and layers of silicone and also silicone liquid that could be made into sheets," Mekash said. "There was a chest piece and arm pieces and a facial mask that was glued down. Alex was covered from tip to toe- it was almost total sensory deprivation."
Luckily, everything came together to create unique and memorable character designs.
American Horror Story season 6 is slated to premiere in the fall on FX. The theme has still yet to be announced.
