When Cynthia Erivo signed on to play Elphaba in Universal’s big-screen adaptation of “Wicked,” she knew one thing: she wanted to be green.
But Erivo wanted to actually be green, not have the color superimposed onto her skin in post. So, the film’s makeup designer Frances Hannon — who was thrilled by the actor’s insistence — took on the challenge of finding the right verdant hue.
Hannon created a checklist: The makeup couldn’t look painted on; the shade of green should compliment Erivo’s “extraordinarily beautiful” features; and the color needed to work in every light. The product also needed to last all day and not transfer onto Erivo’s co-star Ariana Grande, who plays Glinda, or the elaborate costumes designed by Paul Tazewell.
There was just one problem, Hannon says: “The product didn’t exist.”
Hannon had already been in pre-production on the film — a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz,” which tells the tale of Elphaba and Glinda before they became known as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good – when Erivo signed on. Because the Broadway character is, rather famously, painted green, Hannon was already hard at work mixing shades and working with models to see how the products would work for film.
“I found the green that worked in the skin tone, but I couldn’t make it work in all the different lights,” Hannon says. “Inside, it would look beautiful, but outside, the shade looked gray, and in the sunlight, it might look blue.”
After endless searching, Hannon found a discontinued Canadian product. “It was a cream eyeshadow,” she says, explaining that the vital ingredient turned out to be neon.
Once Hannon discovered the green she desired, she turned to famed British makeup manufacturer and developer David Stoneman for help recreating it.
“He took the base out of the little eye shadow, which was a neon yellow — just some drops of it — and added to the green shade. That was the perfect shade. It worked in every light,” Hannon says. “Also, you could put it on very thin and it would stay green.”
Stoneman also created a green primer which smoothed the makeup on the skin. “We airbrushed the very fine green on. We contoured and powdered and sealed if we needed to,” Hannon says.
Erivo’s transformation took up to two and a half hours in the makeup trailer each day, but it wasn’t just about turning her skin green — Hannon and Erivo wanted to give the character a visual arc as the film progresses. The base green color never changes, but Hannon added subtle details like freckles and eyebrow transfers. “The strength of her lips, eyes and nails got darker,” Hannon says, noting that as Elphaba discovers her power, her nails get stronger and longer.
The wigs were also key to designing Elphaba’s look, and getting them right required a huge amount of research.
“Cynthia is tiny,” Hannon says of the 5′ 1″ actor. “She had a big hat and big dark clothes and we didn’t want to lose the character.” Micro-braiding was the answer, she says, “It kept [her hair] close to the head and out of her face. It didn’t let the hat and costume drown her, and left space for Elphaba to develop.”