Oscar-winning prosthetic makeup artist Kazu Hiro has been in the industry for over 30 years, and he’s about ready to retire.
Except he keeps meeting great creators and filmmakers like Bradley Cooper, Gary Oldman and Charlize Theron, who keep him from hanging up the prosthetics. This time, it’s Benny Safdie’s creativity that’s giving Hiro energy and motivation to continue doing what he loves.
A24’s “The Smashing Machine” stars Dwayne Johnson as real-life MMA fighter Mark Kerr. The film also stars Emily Blunt as Kerr’s wife, Dawn Staples, Bas Rutten, Lyndsey Gavin and Oleksandr Usyk. It marks Safdie’s solo directorial debut — he previously has worked alongside his brother Josh Safdie.
In “The Smashing Machine,” Johnson is completely unrecognizable.
Hiro, who is set to receive the TIFF Variety Artisan Award, laughs. He has seen the “completely unrecognizable” comment describe almost every transformation he has worked on whether it’s turning Cooper into legendary composer Leonard Bernstein or Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill. “It’s very important and very easy to make someone unrecognized, but the very important part is to really reflect the meaning of the makeup and the purpose of the makeup, and also the subject we are trying to portray,” Hiro says.
Despite the transformative power of the makeup, Hiro and Safdie decided subtlety was key, especially for practical reasons. “There will be a lot of physical activity sweating and fighting, like a punch in the face,” Hiro says. Keeping the designs subtle also meant Johnson’s expressions were never lost.
Johnson’s makeup took two hours, with Hiro applying eyebrow covers. “Mark Kerr has a prominent eyebrow bone, and so I also have to put the eyebrows on it and change the shape of the nose,” Hiro explains. He notes that wig design was also important. “His hairline and the shape of the head also bring the design of a likeness to it.”
In one scene, Johnson’s character ends up in the hospital and has a missing tooth. “We made a quick cap, and because once we put the cap on, it broke the color, so VFX had to put what’s behind it after,” he says.
A daily task Hiro found himself tackling was covering Johnson’s many tattoos. Once he had done that, he added swollen pieces to the eyes, cheeks and nose, depending on what was happening in the story.
However, the sweat from the fight sequences posed a new challenge for Hiro. “His nose would start to peel off, and that’s something that can’t be avoided because people sweat. Especially when he’s fighting or working out. Whatever glue we used, sweat would push out and start to slide off. It was constant maintenance,” he explains.
Hiro worked closely with German Bjoern, Johnson’s makeup artist who applied products to the body that “lasted quite a while,” Hiro notes.
As for any possibility of Hiro retiring after “The Smashing Machine,” he’s already on a mysterious project; he promises, “It’s a crazy project.”
The TIFF Variety Artisan Award recognizes a distinguished creative who has excelled at their craft and made an outstanding contribution to cinema and entertainment. Previous recipients of the TIFF Variety Artisan Award include Clément Ducol & Camille in 2024, Łukasz Żal in 2023, Hildur Guðnadóttir in 2022, Ari Wegner in 2021, Terence Blanchard in 2020 and Roger Deakins in 2019.