Griselda on the Run
by Angela Nogaro | Department Head Make-up
Photos Courtesy of Netflix
As with every show that was made during COVID, we now look back and wonder, “How the hell did we make it through? Griselda was no different. In the summer of 2021, I received a call from Philipp Barnett, a line producer that Dennis Parker and I had previously worked with on the Starz show Counterpart. He was producing a show about Griselda Blanco, starring Sofia Vergara, and wanted me to meet with Eric Newman, the executive producer, and Andre Bias, the director. Andy and Eric had a long-standing relationship stemming from Narcos and shared a creative vision.
Our initial discussion about achieving that vision began with the question, “How can we change Sofia’s look, taking into consideration that she is in every scene, and make it work for a TV schedule?” This was no small order.
They then proceeded to tell me that they had done some initial make-up tests prior to the COVID shutdown with Bill Corso and Vivian Baker. Also, that Art Sakamoto had been brought on to sculpt teeth for Sofia to wear. I immediately asked Ken Niederbaumer to join me on this project. Then I reached out to Bill Corso. Come to find out that we had the same initial idea of changing Sofia’s eyebrows. Ken and I did quite a few make-up tests using eyebrow blockers from “Out of Kit” with custom eyebrows hand-tied by Kristy Staky of Top Knot.
We had known from the get-go that this would never be a realistic prosthetic recreation of the actual Griselda. Money and time constraints would have made it impossible. What we wanted instead, was to find a way to disguise Sofia Vergara’s iconic face with minimal application. Given the parameters that we had to work within, it was challenging. We suggested giving her a slightly down-turned nose to help create a character with a bit of a sinister edge. To get an idea if it would work, we applied a stock broken-nose piece to the end of her nose. We loved it. We brought in Stevie Bettles to sculpt a small nose appliance. That last detail gave us exactly what we were looking for. Kelly Kline, who was Sofia’s personal hair stylist, had been with us at all of our make-up tests. Once we had decided on her look, he was able to start designing her hair styles. For her initial 1970’s look, he styled her wig in keeping with its natural wave, allowing it to have frizz and feel uncontrolled in the spirit of Janis Joplin.
At the beginning of our story, Griselda is fleeing from Colombia after having just killed her husband. She arrives in Miami with nothing but her children and a kilo of cocaine. We needed to have the audience feel the haste of this decision. At this point, we were still in loose prep and were slated to start production in November. As November came rolling around, Netflix choose to make some changes to the scripts and decided to push production until the beginning of January. Now we had another three months to wait until we began. Sofia was contracted to shoot America’s Got Talent and now our schedules were going to conflict (more on this later). As we rolled into the holidays, it was time to start assembling our teams. Ken suggested we ask Marissa Lafayette to join us and I asked Rela Martine. Dennis Parker had collaborated with Kathleen Leonard on many shows. She came on as the key hair stylist with Lauren Upshaw as the third. Shanty Oriata came from a Disney background with extensive wig experience. She was a natural fit for what we needed.
As the new year came to pass and we were gearing up for our make-up tests, the director and I both contracted COVID. Dear Lord… Would we ever get to shoot this show? It is in times like these that modern technology proved to be a blessing. Ken, Marissa, and Rela, along with Dennis and the hair team, did the initial make-up tests, with me quarantined in my home consulting on FaceTime. It was three days before we were to begin shooting when Ken and I realized we needed someone incredibly talented, dedicated only to taking care of Sofia.
Enter Todd MacIntosh. We handed off the pieces of her initial design and left him to work his magic and make any modifications that needed to happen going forward. There were many. Along with Kelly, they designed all the looks for her character progression. We were still unsure of how many years ahead the episodes were going to take us. Having Todd with his amazing skill set allowed us to focus on all of our other characters. Todd’s daily routine started with reclining the chair and adjusting the lighting, making sure Sofia was comfortable during her application. Starting on her eyebrows, he applied a thin layer of Deena Wax to protect the hairs, then powdered. Westmore silicone adhesive was used over the wax to help flatten the brows. Pros-Aide was used around the eyebrow. Removing the center acetate backing on the blocker to position and secure placement. Each side needed the acetate to be removed simultaneously as the piece was applied in one continuous movement. Then it had to be smoothed out and blended, repeat with other eyebrow with overlap above nose. Latex was stippled over lightly up to hairline again powder. Her nose appliance was prepped with Pros-Aide around nostrils, then repeat the process on Sofia. When dry, lock the nostrils in place and lift the tip of the nose to Sofia’s preferred position and lock in place. Smooth and blend the rest of the nose. Stipple lightly. A couple of coats of matte sealer was applied over all prosthetics. Her nose was stippled with pink-mauve Illustrator.
He then began applying her base, a custom mix of Revlon color stay. The winged eyeshadow on her eyelids was established with a Temptu airbrush color in medium brown. Green or gold eyeshadow, brown or black eyeliner were then applied depending on the scene. Mascara and a soft application of brick-colored blush wrapped it up. At this stage, Kelly would come in and wrap Sofia’s hair. He used a 3M bandage around her hairline and would need to color it through the lace to ensure that it wasn’t visible. Sofia had a total of five wigs that were made by wigmaker Rob Pickens and Kelly was tasked with washing, blocking and styling them every day. As we moved into the later part of the ’70s, the styling of Sofia’s wigs reflected the times and developed with her character. Highlights were added and her look became much more polished with the use of hot roller sets and blow-outs. Think Farrah Fawcett or Jaclyn Smith. No products were used, so the hair had soft, complete natural movement.
It was in the ’80s when she had reached the pinnacle of power. Kelly opted to give her a popular ’80s scrunch bob beveled with a natural curl a la Madonna. He always ensured that her stunt and photo doubles had wigs that had been styled to match Sofia. Once the wig was done, Todd would go back in for any touches and lipstick application. Sofia would do her own body make-up and get in costume and once again, they would check for flaws and adjustments. She always applied her teeth on set. Toward the later years of her reign, she was incarcerated and spent many years in prison. Todd sculpted a neck waddle to depict her aging and Kelly chopped into her wig, disheveled her hair, and added gray to illustrate her downfall.
Our overall goal for this show was to visually create three distinct worlds. We wanted to display the sharp contrasts and cultural differences of Miami in the ’70s and ’80s—the bored rich white people that Griselda built her cocaine empire upon, the Columbian drug dealers and the Marielitos, who were the second wave of Cuban refugees, mostly poor criminals fleeing Cuba.
The make-up and hair teams worked very closely to gather research. Dennis and I scoured the internet for photos of Griselda and her Columbian cohorts. Since these are actual historical figures, it gave us great examples of hair styles and facial hair that this specific group of people were wearing at the time. We took creative liberties when it came to designing some of our characters but everything was period-accurate. We found period magazines for references on hair styles and make-up for the wealthy inhabitants of Miami.
The cops in Miami that had arrested the real Griselda were really helpful in giving us descriptions of the Marielitos and their specific tattoos. The majority were jailhouse, hand drawn and depicting religious icons. Since there was little in the way of photos for us to rely on, iPad and Apple pencil in hand, our team jumped in enthusiastically to draw tattoos. We printed out our drawings on a laser printer using transfer paper, then airbrushed them with a diluted mix of Pros-Aide, when they were dry, we applied the acetate sheeting. These designs were used for our main cast and all of our BG actors.
Dennis and I had so many talented artists come in to help with all of our BG. Too many to name, but you know who you are and THANK YOU! It was a never-ending cycle of covering tattoos, applying tattoos, and prepping wigs. Ken designed and executed Alberto Guerrero’s make-up, in his earlier stages Ken mottled his complexion to give him a weathered look using a blend of illustrator colors. He trimmed, shaped and styled his goatee. As he aged, Ken applied stretch and stipple around his eyes for fine wrinkles, we had a custom lace piece made to fit around his own facial hair to make it bigger, fuller and to show passage of time. A small scar was added to his left cheek using collodion. Ken also mixed and color matched Endura Skin for tattoo cover on his semi sleeved arms and chest.
He also designed Maximiliano Hernandez’s character Papa Mejia. Dennis had used a men’s wig from John Blake that was set with perm rods to make it a soft afro. Ken added sideburns and gave him a hair lip. Carol G wore a full wig, cut with a heavy bang to cover her dyed blue hair. There were so many wigs and falls used throughout the show, along with facial hairpieces and prosthetic pieces for wounds and bruises. Marissa, Rela and I took care of our large group of principal actresses, dividing up day players however it was convenient.
With such an enormous cast we all needed to be ready to jump in. When we were three months into shooting, we had to take a month-long hiatus so that Sofia could complete her contractual obligation on America’s Got Talent. During our time off, my department was offered and accepted other jobs. Luckily, some good old friends were in-between jobs and available to help get me to the end of this show. Michelle Tyminski Schoenbach came in as my key, and Renee Napolitano and Gina Homan took over the other positions. As if this wasn’t enough, the make-up and hair trailers had both gotten broken into and robbed while parked at LA Center. Fortunately for us, Kelly had taken Sofia’s wigs home to work on them, which would have been a true disaster. Most of the wigs that Dennis had been using on our main cast were stolen, along with so much work and personal equipment. Of course, you only realize that something you need was missing when you look for it. All of this illustrates the resilience that people in our business have. We just dust ourselves off and keep moving forward. In hindsight, it is pretty amazing how well this show turned out given all of its trials and tribulations. •
