His makeup was around about two hours and the hair on top of that, because the hair pieces was quite an intense process, was a bit more than an hour to put all of Elvis’s hair pieces on after the prosthetic.Īustin’s progression as Elvis through the film, the subtleties that that went into those prosthetics go down the microscopic, tiny imperfections in the skin all the way through with his tanning. Austin’s artists were Emma George and Anthony McMullen, and they did an amazing job with him. When he was really old, it was around about five or five and a half hours, because the older look had far more pieces on, he was completely encased. JASON BAIRD: For Tom Hanks, his daily makeup was around about three and a half hours. And then Jason’s team took on the application day to day and did all the fat suits and all the prep.

And the other thing we did was pin his ears back, we made a prosthetic that sits behind the ears to pull in Austin’s ears, just because Elvis had those ears that held flat to his head. When you’re watching the movie, imperceptibly he becomes more Elvis as you get through the movie, because we were able to add more stuff to him. When he comes back and does the ’68 special and he’s wearing the black leather outfit, and he’s looking really super handsome, Baz wanted him to look more mature and chiseled and less boyish than Austin looks, you know? So, we were able to push his character more into Elvis territory and change his face. Austin Butler’s wearing a chin piece all the way through the movie right from the beginning, and then we added cheek pieces and a jawline for when he is in Vegas. What we didn’t realize then was that there was gonna be more work turning Austin Butler into Elvis in terms of prosthetics than there was on Tom Parker. Obviously, the fat makeup at the end, you know, the heavier makeup when he is doing the “Unchained Melody” at the end of the movie. So, that’s a fat, bullfrog neck and bald head, and then there might be a few things to do on Elvis as well. MARK COULIER: That was a really interesting thing because originally, we were thinking about the makeup for Colonel Tom Parker on Tom Hanks. Oscars Seeking To Eschew Politics, Partisanship In Favor Of Old-School EscapismĭEADLINE: Can you walk me through how Austin Butler’s prosthetics change throughout the film?

Marking Melody by R.E. Butler