Hitting cinemas in Australia on Boxing Day, Les Misérables starring Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman is set to see box office sales soar over the Christmas holidays.
With Hathaway transformed into a disease-ridden prostitute and Jackman into a hardened convict, the film’s make-up artist Lisa Westcott has revealed how she made the two Hollywood stars look like they were from the 19th century underclass.
How do you make a beautiful woman not look beautiful? It’s kind of tricky, isn’t it,” says Westcott. "My template for the whores was very, very crude makeup that had been on for a long time — really smeared. It’s really very lumpy and bumpy.”
To fully get her into character, Westcott painted over Hathaway’s teeth so they looked like a bloody mess”.
A lot of people had to wear plastic molds over their teeth. I was one of the lucky ones. I was just able to paint my own teeth,” says Hathaway.
The actress also decided to get her hair cut off for the part. Annie Hathaway had the idea that she wanted to get her hair cut for real … which I was amazed at. We tried to talk her out of it,” says director Tom Hooper.
Jackman was made to look decrepit, tired and filthy” with the use of a scraggly beard extension, contact lenses that gave his eyes a red and sore appearance and slips that went over his teeth” so they seemed rotten. His hair was also made to look like his jailors had hacked it off.
The innkeepers, played by Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, were given make-up and hair tricks such as a gold tooth and a blond wig dipped in tea and coffee in order to appear brassy.
Click here to see the full behind-the-scenes video on the hair and make-up looks.
