Reagan: A Journey through American History
by Scott Wheeler | Department Head Make-up and Tena Parker | Department Head Hair
Photos: Ron Batzdorff
MAKE-UP
by Scott Wheeler | Department Head Make-up
Reagan, directed by Sean McNamara and starring Dennis Quaid in the title role, presented us with the challenge of recreating one of the most iconic figures in American political history: Ronald Reagan. The movie spans several decades, showcasing the life and legacy of the 40th President of the United States. For us, this project required a delicate balance of historical accuracy, character continuity, and creative interpretation within a limited budget and time constraints for the wide range of time periods and characters involved. I personally had just a few weeks to create the needed prosthetics for Dennis Quaid, as well as Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan and Jon Voight as Victor Petrovich, the fictitious character who provides much of the exposition of the movie.
We had to tackle more than just aging Quaid convincingly over several decades. We had to authentically portray a large ensemble of characters over various time periods while adapting to the film’s changing tone as it moved from Reagan’s Hollywood years to his political career. The make-up and hair in Reagan were both a storytelling tool and a means of transformation that hopefully went a long way in the suspension of disbelief
The earliest period in the film with Dennis Quaid as Reagan depicts his rise as a movie star in the 1940s and 1950s. When we were shooting this, I caught COVID-19. Jennifer Aspinall stepped in and took over as Department Head until I could get back. For this section of the film, we had to create a youth make-up for Dennis and Penelope. Jen executed these make-ups using lifts and strategic folds in their skin that were covered with custom Pros-Aide transfers sculpted to match their skin texture in the specific area where we were doing the lifts and folds. For Dennis, we quite literally folded his entire neck waddle over onto itself and used full neck transfers to smooth it all out. For Penelope as Nancy Davis/Reagan on top of the lifts and blenders, we had the added tool of her ’40s-’50s period make-up to help shape a more youthful face. The early scenes with Dennis rely heavily on a naturalistic make-up style, ensuring that Reagan’s Hollywood charm came through.
As the story progresses to Reagan’s middle years in the 1960s and 1970s—when Reagan became Governor of California, a combination of highlights and shadows and prosthetic appliances on his neck and nose were used to get Dennis about half-way to the Reagan likeness. The rest was Dennis’s performance. At this point, Dennis was the same age as was Reagan at that time. This was also true for Penelope. And so, at this point in the timeline, Penelope’s make-up was strictly Nancy Reagan likeness. Her likeness for this period was done with highlights and shadows, along with a period-appropriate beauty make up.
For the presidential years, the likeness make-ups for both characters of Ron and Nancy Reagan progressed into age make-ups as well. Along with the silicone-based prosthetics already used on Dennis for his likeness make-up, we incorporated old-age stipple for both characters using my own custom formula. These make-ups were the ones that played the most in the movie.
As we moved to the portrayal of Reagan’s gradual physical decline due to Alzheimer’s disease, Dennis went into full face and neck prosthetics. Penelope’s age make-up now included a neck appliance.
In addition to Ron and Nancy Reagan, the film features an ensemble of important historical figures, each requiring their own make-up transformations. Jane Wyman, Reagan’s first wife, portrayed during the earlier Hollywood years by Mena Suvari, required period-accurate make-up, including bold red lips, well-defined eyebrows, and subtle contouring.
Jen Aspinall also had to transform Kevin Dillon into Jack Warner. This involved a partial bald cap, as well as contouring and proper shaping of his mustache to achieve the likeness.
Other political figures such as Mikhail Gorbachev and Leonid Brezhnev also make appearances in the film. Gorbachev’s recognizable birthmark was recreated using a stencil I made based on photos and airbrush. His head was shaved and hairline thinned to look like actual hair loss and we did a highlight and shadow likeness. Brezhnev was played by Robert Davi. I had to hand-lay his eyebrows to recreate the iconic look of the Soviet dictator. The much-featured character of Mike Deaver played by Stephen Guarino required a full bald cap, along with a wig and hand-laid thin comb over hair. We did a total of 35 actual historical characters and with the exceptions of Ron and Nancy Reagan, did not see the actual actors until the day before they began shooting.
Lastly, we had the fictitious character of Victor Petrovich played by Jon Voight. We see this character in the early 1980s and also in modern times. So, we had to span a 40-year gap in time. The obvious solution was to take then 80-year-old Jon Voight 20 years in each direction. To de-age Jon, I could not use lifts because he was concerned it would hurt his skin. So, I smoothed him out as much as possible with Revlon color stay and counter shadowed and highlighted everything I could to further smooth out his forms. Then I laid a short-chopped salt and pepper beard. And lastly, hand-laid younger stronger eyebrows. For his age make-up, I made a silicone prosthetic neck to take his neck waddle and jowls further then their natural age, applied four layers of my custom formula of old-age stipple around his eyes, cheeks, forehead and pretty much everywhere the silicone prosthetic wasn’t. I accented the look with strong airbrushed shadows and highlights that were camouflaged with heavy age spots and other discoloration and breakup. I hand-laid white hair beard stubble to echo his younger look and further pushed his mouth and jowls with dental plumpers.
HAIR
by Tena Parker | Department Head Hair
When asked to write about the Reagan film we did back in 2020, I decided to talk about the people who made this experience what it was, not just about the 21 wigs, lack of prep, and in the heat of the pandemic. I want to thank the people that showed up, especially Michelle Rene Elam, who jumped on board to be my Co-department Head hair stylist.
I was just finishing up For All Mankind Season 2 in Los Angeles, when I received a call by the producers of Reagan. They were in a time-sensitive predicament, as their DH hair stylist left the show less than a week before filming in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
They sent me the script with 374 scenes, periods from 1920s to 2021 and a HUGE ensemble cast of 164 characters! The cast needed to look like people who were highlighted throughout Ronald Reagan’s life, with many looks carried through multiple eras.
I turned it down and recommended my BFF, Michelle Rene Elam. She turned it down, too. Then the producers called me back… I pitched to them that in order for the department to be successful, I would need to co-department head with Michelle. We have worked for each other on many projects, and we knew each other’s superpowers.
Michelle’s her organizational skills, managing a team, and being able to break down a script meticulously, creating a comprehensive spreadsheet. We called it our “Bible!” It took her three days to break down, in the midst of meeting actors and finding photos of the characters being portrayed. Her room looked like a scene from NCIS … schedules and photos sprawled out all over her bed. With no desk in the room, she stood for hours, working on her computer which rested on stacked books on her dresser.
As for my superpowers, it’s my neurodivergent brain. I have ADHD, my letters as I call them, which allows me to hyper-focus, have unlimited energy, and a unique talent of problem-solving and a fearlessness, especially when it comes to designing hair.
We had two gifts waiting for us when we landed in Guthrie. Ruth Mitchell and Alex Ford. Ruth Mitchell was our wig guru. She came from a theater background and was our historical meter for our historical hair styles. She confided in us early on that she felt intimidated and insecure about working on this show. We could not have done this movie without her or had such beautifully styled wigs that withstood the elements and hours we had on Reagan. Her fingers never stopped, nor has our friendship with her!
Alex Ford was our key hair and she not only barbered and styled exceptionally, she did the hiring and worked with the COVID team to get testing done for our stylists. Alex also DH’d the childhood years of Reagan, back in Oklahoma after we had wrapped.
Oh … did I mention that our equipment didn’t land in Oklahoma until three days before filming? The cube truck downloaded our 45-plus bins to load another department’s equipment on it! Yeah, that was a bummer…
Of the 21 wigs used, only two were custom for Penelope Ann Miller who played Nancy Reagan, made by Natascha Hahn. We also had a rental from her, making only three wigs for Miss Penelope that had to be styled for each era she filmed. Ruth and Michelle worked together to create her looks through the eras.
Pat Boone landed the day before to play Rev. Ottis, who had a thick head of silver hair. Pat did not … but … we had a John Blake “Halo” in silver and a synthetic silver man’s wig. I cut the Halo into pieces and had it sewn together with the nape of a man’s synthetic wig! The next day, he told us stories of the scene he was to be in as he was actually there! We surprised him by putting on his music and he bubbled up with joy, serenading us as we finished fitting his wig.
That same evening, we had to color a wig from my stock to create a young Pat Boone. Luckily, we had the perfect technical advisor in our trailer to give us styling tips!
Every day was a different version of this day! I always felt we had “Angel, Trailer, Fairies” aiding us, keeping us healthy, and giving us inspiration to create iconic looks and somehow having just what we needed in that cube truck that we never got to properly unload! Kevin Dillon played Jack Warner. I felt so thankful finding again that I had a wig that looked the part and with a little alteration, looked beautiful over the bald cap that Jennifer Aspinall did. We designed four wigs for Mena Suvari, who played Jane Wyman. Darker for her younger years, and the blonde for the later. Because of time restraints, one evening, the producers didn’t want us to change her wig as planned. The design she had on was a longer finger-waved look. Ruth and I looked at each other and we rolled up her lengthy wavy hair into a hair net and decorated it with leftover pearl Christmas ornaments we used to make Nancy Reagan’s Inaugural Ball accessories. We created a pearl snoot with a garnished accessory in the back. It was just enough to show a passage of time and we marveled at how we had to pivot and created a gorgeous style!
My biggest challenge was taking mid-back length wavy hair on stuntman Mark Kubr, who played Herb Sorrel, and putting it under a short-groomed man’s wig. Scott Wheeler and I transformed Dennis Quaid together, along with Beth Lee’s make-up. She watched him on set with me too, as Scott consistently was helping build other characters and making prosthetics throughout the show. It’s always nice to have someone on set that cares as much as you do!
I kept Dennis’s hair a dark brown, coloring every other week so that I could control the eras just by diverse styling and adding silver when needed to help age him. I took his hair from soft finger waves to his asymmetric pompadour he is known best for, styled by blow drying, then adding Brylcreem for that period shine. Dennis appreciated us using what Reagan actually used!
Daily we had challenges, but it was the team spirit that made us all shine. •
