Interviews with
Karen Bartek | Department Head Hair &
Miho Suzuki | Department Head Make-up
Photos courtesy of Netflix
HAIR
Karen, how did you first get your start in the world of hair? What was your job in film or television?
I graduated in the ’80s and was always interested in hair. My older brother was in a punk/new wave band, and he let me have at his hair with an antique razor comb. I was called “The Wiz Kid”—men’s hair was fun back then! Then I started doing others’ hair and my parents finally let me go to beauty school. I started doing nonunion odd shows—first job was with Barbara Eden on a show called Your Mother Wears Combat Boots. I’m pretty sure it was not a big hit!
How did you first hear about Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story?
I was recommended for the show by a couple of my peers, Michelle Cigglia and Janine Thompson. A period project is always fun and more interesting to style. I spoke with Louise Shore, the producer who hired me. She was great and walked me through the Ryan Murphy process.
What were your early conversations about the project with Ryan Murphy like?
My conversations with Ryan were extremely helpful as far as what he was looking for in the look. He didn’t want it kitsch or over the top as some ’80s hair can be. Ryan has a keen eye, and his input was always spot on.
What was it like collaborating with Ryan and Ian Brennan throughout the project?
It was super helpful to have their input. I would collect pictures and send them and they would give me quick responses so my team and I could move forward prepping wigs and haircuts/styles.
What did your preparation and research process look like?
We scoured the internet of course, looking for all we could find, as well as what the writers and creators found and shared. When the actors were hired, I quickly figured out if they would need a wig or if we could cut and color. I worked closely with Rob Pickens, Ryans’ main wigmaker—he would jump in and make it all happen pretty fast.
Was there anything you discovered that felt super impactful to your view of these characters?
Finding out that Lyle wore a toupee, realizing how he must have felt being forced to wear one and that it made him pretty insecure—I really had no idea. I remember the case when it all went down in the ’80s but didn’t know a lot about it.
You’ve mentioned that you grew up in LA during the ’80s, around the time these events occurred. How did living through that time help inform your work on this series?
I think growing up in the era helped me design the reality of the looks. Some shows make the ’80s too perfect and shiny, but living through it, there was nothing shiny! More raw hair and a lot of perms—even men had perms. Of course, we had to tame the frizz for camera because it could be pretty distracting.
The 1980s are iconic for their big, sometimes bad (in retrospect) hair. How did you approach staying faithful to that time period while also creating looks that aligned with the tone of the series?
I know for the boys, Ryan wanted them to come off as Hollywood stars to add to the story. So, we tested some looks and figured out more subdued but classic versions of what they had. With the women like Judalon and Leslie, we went big but not over-the-top. Leslie Abramson had quite frizzy hair, so I tried to get it close but not distracting.
Hair is such an important way these characters are perceived—whether it’s Lyle’s toupee or Leslie’s iconic hair—what was that like to explore as a department head hair?
Honestly, the challenge was exciting to me. Really fun to recreate the looks but still keep it real and hopefully, not too crazy looking. Finding pictures and sorting through good and bad was fun for me and my whole team.
Some of the cast members have mentioned how supportive and comforting you were to them throughout the intense shoot—what was it like collaborating with this cast?
My first and foremost process is to connect with the actors and make them feel at home in our trailer.
The boys—Cooper Koch and Nicholas Chavez—were so into the look. Working with them was so much fun because of their enthusiasm. When they had intense scenes, they would get into their character while in my chair. Being a mom, I quickly went into Mom mode just trying to be comforting but not disturb their process.
With Chloë and Javier, they were both very open to recreating the looks for Kitty and Jose. I think the transformation for Javier was so important for him and we would really let him fill the trailer with Jose vibes. Scary but amazing to watch his character come alive!
All in all, every single actor/actress that came to us was so excited to work on this project. It really made it so much fun for me and my extremely talented team of Brittany Madrigal, Elissa Ruminer, Ånalyn Cruz, Taschi Lynell, and Kaity Lucina and so many more who brought the background to life in the ’80s. There wasn’t a day when we weren’t brainstorming and creating and having fun doing it.
Do you know how many wigs you designed in total? What was your favorite look you created?
I think at least 15-20 for our main cast, and we would have emergency wigs for day players who came in with the wrong era hair. There are too many favorites! I think my first favorite was the Leslie Abramson look—the curls were spot on and hopefully, not over the top.
Also doing Jose Menendez’s look was challenging and I thought Javier really looked like his character—thanks to Rob Pickens’ wigs. Oh, and also, there was a dream sequence where Lyle and Eric had long Fabio hair to break out of prison—that was so crazy and so fun!
What was the most challenging look of the series for you?
Lyle’s bald hairpieces were the challenge. We ended up using his real hair for the shoot until he had scenes where his toupee was ripped off or fell off. Making it look as real as possible was definitely a challenge and a collaboration with the very talented make-up team: Miho Suzuki, Sabrina Wilson, and Mike Ornelaz. •
MAKE-UP:
Miho, what did your preparation and research process look like? Was there anything you discovered that felt super impactful to your view of these characters?
Since it’s a true crime story, we went through some actual footage of court videos, searching for visual references in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles in the late ’80s to early ’90s, beyond to 1960s as the story going back to Jose and Kitty’s youth years.
I read many articles about the characters in the script. I had a great team, not to mention, talented make-up artists, Sabrina Wilson and Michael Ornelaz, were all eager to be part of the research process, finding creative solutions together to bring out actors’ likeness to portray real people without losing Ryan Murphy’s standard of sophistication.
During the character research, one fascinating truth was about Lyle wearing a toupee. His wig was held by glue to his scalp in real life. However, we did the version of the wig which was bolted.
Fracture FX made a custom silicone bald cap with screw bolted in. Sabrina Wilson and Michael Ornelaz applied this on Nicholas. One of my favorite episodes, Episode 3, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” showcases Lyle’s struggle to keep his toupee in best condition in early prison life. Here, you will see Sabrina and Michael’s beautiful work of his bald cap.
Also, collaborating with the hair and costume department was so important on this. We worked so closely and crafted each character together to keep authenticity and realness.
Also, the casting department did a fantastic job giving us such a wonderful group of actors who had resemblance to portray the real people. It really helped us to bring out their likeness.
The make-up looks of the ’80s are very specific and certainly over the top—how did you approach staying faithful to the time period while also creating looks that fit the tone of the series?
As we all know, ’80s was such a unique period for fashion. However, Ryan shared his vision early on, and wanted to make sure we don’t lose the sophisticated side of that era. Actually, when I narrowed down the research, daily make-up fashion on real people in the surrounding area of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, at that time of the storyline wasn’t too over the top, instead rather simple. So I made sure the color palette and texture were period-accurate and well curated, efficiently portraying the period.
The best example of the make-up that translated this era within this story was the make-up I created on Judalon Smyth, portrayed by brilliant Leslie Grossman. Gray and white shimmer eyeshadow, gray eyeliner, velvet finish foundation, pink lipstick with blue undertone, shimmery magenta pink blush applied on the higher area of her cheekbone. Eyebrow was penciled on. I had so much fun doing this make-up on Leslie and she was such a great support and collaborator, sporting that make-up.
Sabrina Wilson did such a fantastic job for Leslie Abramson, portrayed by Ari Graynor. She made subtle but effective changes of colors on Ari, cohesive to beautifully tailored colorful suits she wore for each scene. Ari looked striking as Leslie. Michael Ornelaz did such incredible work throughout, his delicate application was so seamless that no one could tell what was done and what was natural, Michael was responsible for the eyebrow covers on Javier Bardem who played Jose Menendez. Javier’s signature brows are so masculine and prominent, contrasting with Jose Menendez, who had penciled skinny arched eyebrows. Justin Raleigh’s Fracture FX created the custom eyebrow silicon appliance. Justin ventilated multiple sets of beautiful delicate eyebrow pieces. Ana Lozano who was brought on as Javier’s personal make-up artist did his corrective make-up on the rest of the face except for where prosthetics was applied. This was a masterful collaboration among the talented artists.
Some of the cast have mentioned how supportive and comforting you were throughout the intense shoot—what was it like collaborating with this cast?
Cooper and Nicholas were chosen to portray the brothers who killed their parents in the most gruesome way you could possibly imagine, but they were also emotionally, physically, and sexually abused by their own parents daily since their childhood.
It’s easy to imagine how difficult and painful it could be for Cooper and Nicholas getting into Erik and Lyle’s mind set, channeled into their pains, struggles and trauma.
In our make-up trailer, we luckily had diverse personalities to ease their days. Sabrina Wilson was such a comedic relief; she made them laugh with jokes and funny stories. Michael Ornelaz was a kind father figure, always grounding and very comforting. We had the most amazing hardworking make-up PA, Boutheyna, who created such a fun trailer by putting up the stills of screengrab that we shot the day before. She did it so religiously that photos ended up filling so much of blank space of the trailer and it made it feel like walking into an art gallery. I remember actors were so excited to come in every morning to find what’s new on the wall. Whenever actors’ guests came to visit the set, they came to our trailer and spent a lot of time looking through those beautiful photos of the scenes we were making. Our make-up trailer turned into an immersive art box. I am a reiki practitioner so I would give them reiki on demand. I would sometimes do it at the beginning of the day to help Cooper and Nicholas prepare for their very emotional, painful scenes. I would sometimes do reiki at wrap and it helped to detox heaviness at the end of day. So I think we all collectively, naturally did our part to made them feel supported to get through the filming.
While filming was as intense as can be, Netflix constantly checked in with us and offered us continuous support for counseling and created the safe space to discuss and maintain cast and crew’s mental health.
There are so many distinct characters in this series—what was your favorite look you created?
With little knowledge about them as actors previously, they blew us away from DAY 1 of filming with not only striking on-camera presence but also captivating strong performances. Their energies were so dynamic that we were all swallowed in.
For Erik and Lyle, Ryan’s vision of them being like movie stars before their arrest, I beautified them using liquid highlighter mixed in the base make-up, as well as shimmer bronzer to enhance glowy skin and healthy tan. It represented their freedom and money. Once they got into prison, I removed the glow products from their look. This change was subtle but it added their downfall visually. The most important thing for their make-up, I made sure tears wouldn’t streak each time they cry (they cried a lot!) and make sure the foundation didn’t break down. Firstly, I didn’t want them to look like they have make-up on. Secondly, I wanted to keep the touchup as minimum as possible so it won’t distract the actors’ emotional flow. Episode 5, Cooper Koch had a no-cut, 33-min-single take shot, camera is all on him, starts wide, moving slowly in and ends with very close-up on Cooper’s face. He did eight takes of this long take without making any mistakes once. I couldn’t go in to touch him up every moment tears roll down his face, and sometimes he cried heavily, so that was the big accomplishment for me without anyone noticing it.
Another fun look was Erik and Lyle’s imaginary prison escape plan on Episode 3, getting plastic surgery and living a different lives. I used face tapes to pull the face from all the directions and used Stephen Bettles’s OUT OF KIT swollen lip pieces. Stephen personally came to apply one of those days we filmed that scene. It’s a comedic relief episode where we get to chuckle in the midst of heavy painful stories.
What was the most challenging look of the series for you?
I cannot think of any challenging look in particular. It wasn’t the look itself, but the schedule was challenging as we lost some filming time because of the WGA and SAG strikes. However, our production planned the schedules as best they could so that it was achievable without compromising the quality of craft. The support and the trust that series directors, Ryan Murphy Productions and Netflix gave us was so immense that we felt safe to create and set up for success. Last but not least, my solid team, Sabrina Wilson, Michael Ornelaz, make-up PA Bouthenya, as well as the most talented group of make-up artists from local 706: Ana Lozano as Javier Bardem’s personal make-up artist, Justin Raleigh as the prosthetic designer, hard working additional artists such as Martina Kohl, Kelcey Fry, Brigitte Hennech, Alyson Granaderos, Rory Gaudio, Kelsey Burke, Francisco Perez, Randi Mavestrand, Ian Goodwin, Gabby Navarrete, Brian Kinney, Annette Lorant, Alexa Coleman, Marissa Lafayette, Heather Galipo, Jon Shroyer, Carlton Coleman, Rachael Downing, Kenny Myers, Ozzy Alvarez, Bruce Fuller, Richie Alonzo, Kate Biscoe, Elaine Kandel, Ayat Malek Kiankhooy, Hugo Villasenor, Toby Lamm, Kevin Wasner, Chris Nelson, Erin Rosenmann, Shauna Giesbrecht, Brittany White, Stephen Bettles, Julie Socash, John Dave Snyder, Rochelle Uribe, Tracey Anderson, Robert Vega, Teresa Vest, Mandy Artusato.
It’s such a triumphant moment when the series aired, and the popularity of the show influenced nationally and revived the trend of music and fashion, which flooded social media. Not only that, its social wave brought the attention to the truth of tragic abuse behind the murder and created the chance of resentencing Erik and Lyle in real life. This series has became more than the popular show to watch, but it really proved how powerful it can be to change and influence the world. I’m grateful for being a part of this powerful project and the journey with all who were involved. •
