Lady Gaga had to go makeup-free during her audition for A Star Is Born (and while filming), but her director and co-star Bradley Cooper really had to layer on the product for his role as rock star, Jackson Maine, who battles alcoholism and drug addiction.
In a new interview with Refinery 29, the film’s makeup department head, legendary makeup artist Ve Neill, revealed what it took to turn Cooper into the tired singer/songwriter who was supposed to look “gritty, distressed, and like he’d been riding a motorcycle during a heat wave,” the website writes.
“I tanned him every day,” Ve Neill said. “I had him do full-body [spray] tans every other week, then every morning I would re-tan him in the chair.”
Wondering what magical product gave him that sexy cowboy tan? Ve Neill relied on Vita Liberata pHenomenal 2-3 Week Tan Mousse, which is supposed to last 15 days or longer after just two applications.
To complete his look, Ve Neill used Tom Ford Bronzer and a MAC gray-green eyeshadow in Ashbury. But on the days he was to look “really messed up” she applied [Premiere Products] glazing red gel at the top of his eyelids and bottom of his lash line “so it looked like he’d really been up all night drinking,” Ve Neill said.
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But to really nail the look, she used menthol to make his eyes look bloodshot. “I blew it in his eyes all the time so he’d look high and drunk. We did everything we could to make him appear worn out.”
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Leading up to the film’s premiere, LA Times reported that Cooper actually wiped off Gaga’s concealer, mascara and lipstick with a makeup wipe during her audition to see her “completely open” and with “no artifice.”
And throughout the film, Gaga kept her makeup look simple, wearing just lip balm and moisturizer every day. “It put me right in the place I needed to be, because when my character talks about how ugly she feels — that was real,” Gaga told the the LA Times. “I’m so insecure. I like to preach, but I don’t always practice what I preach.”
