Lily James as Pamela Anderson and Sebastian Stan are aghast, as Pam & Tommy (photo credit Hulu)
“How did a British brunette and a Marvel actor become a bleached-blonde sex symbol and a rocker?”
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Interviewer Kathleen Hou of the Cut gets right into it with the Pam and Tommy make-up, hair and make-up effects team of David Williams, Barry Lee Moe and Jason Collins. You can read the rest of her interesting interview at, The Secrets to Pamela Anderson’s Lips and … That Talking Penis.
Just A Few of the Highlights
Hou: How did you get the perfect shade of hair color?
Moe: We used virgin hair for the wigs and compared samples with color swatches from drugstore brands to see exactly how we could achieve that blonde. It ended up being a blend of three to four different European blondes that gave us that kind of bright shiny blonde look that Pam always had. (learn more…)
Hou: Pam is considered a beauty icon. …what makes her beauty look so iconic?
Williams: That look has been the Zeitgeist of America for more than 50 years. Starting from the ’50s, we’ve always had peaches and cream, Marilyn Monroe, and Brigitte Bardot. Pam’s hairdo was even called the Baby Bardot. (learn more…)
Hou: And she had body prosthetics as well, for the breasts?
Williams: We have to make sure that Lily runs like the wind. It’s all going to move. It all has to look real and natural. (learn more…)
Hou: I read that you used over 70 nipple rings and that there was also a talking penis. Talk to me about that.
Collins: The process was quite amusing actually. When you read the scene, you kind of have to put down the script and say, “What did I just read?” The penis was an animatronic puppet that took two puppeteers. One controlled the dialogue (mouth) and one controlled the four-way movement (up, down, left, and right). The great thing about having puppeteers operate a physical prop is that it allows the actor to have interaction with the member. (learn more…)
Hou: Pam was especially known for her lips. What is the key to a Pam lip?
Williams: We did try to use makeup products from the time period, such as the original ten lipstick shades created by Bobbi Brown. She always had a slightly pouty look in the way that the lips were drawn on and having it slightly overdrawn was emblematic. (learn more…)