When Oscar-winning make-up and prosthetics artist Matthew Mungle held his first Skype interview with director Lee Daniels to discuss plans for this Friday’s civil rights epic “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” he knew he faced a tough job. Not only would he have to transform a cast of very recognizable actors into the most famous political figures of 20th century America, but he’d have to do it in temperatures pushing 100 degrees with the standard tools of his trade — buckets of silicone, latex, even fast-melting gelatin.
“I told Lee, ‘You’re shooting a heavily prosthetic movie in New Orleans, in the summer, in the heat and the humidity?’ ” recalls the Hollywood veteran of the picture, filmed last July and August in swampy Louisiana.
“Lee rolled his eyes and said: ‘Yup!’ So I said, ‘Well, here we go then!’ ”
He promptly signed on for the movie, starring Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey (in her first major acting role since 1985’s “The Color Purple”), which tells the story of former White House butler Cecil Gaines, a character based on the real-life Eugene Allen, who served during seven presidential administrations between 1952 and 1986.
Mungle and his team spent two-and-a-half months of “craziness” prepping Robin Williams, James Marsden, Liev Schreiber, John Cusack and Alan Rickman for cameo roles as five different commanders in chief. There was less use for prosthetics, but they also turned Jane Fonda into Nancy Reagan and Minka Kelly into Jackie Kennedy.
LOU LUMENICK REVIEWS “LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER”
“It was a tricky one because everyone knows what the presidents look like and have certain expectations,” says Mungle, who won his Academy Award for his prosthetics work on “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” in 1993. “But I’m very proud of the production because of everything we achieved with the budget and time constraints.”
Here Mungle, costume designer Ruth Carter and some of the A-list stars share the secrets of their behind-the-scenes transformations with The Post.
jridley@nypost.com
Robin Williams’ bald cap came from his 2004 role in “House of D.”
Neck, jowls and mouth were keys to capturing the Gipper for Rickman.
It was all about JFK’s “beautifully coiffed hair” for Marsden.
LIEV SCHREIBER as LYNDON B. JOHNSON
Schreiber received the most intense makeover of all the presidents.
“Because LBJ had a fuller face with big ears and a big nose, to fill in Liev’s features we made a full wraparound silicone prosthetic which goes from one cheek to the other and down into the neck,” Mungle says. “We made a bald pate and a wig to cover it up to make it look as if his hairline is receded.”
As for LBJ’s wardrobe, Carter opted for wide-legged pants because the Texan president famously eschewed the trendy narrow-legged designs favored by his modish predecessor, JFK. “He was a tall, big guy and we gave him a looser, more manly pant,” says Carter.
Before one scene, the costumer and actor had an intense discussion over the placement of the tabbed collar on LBJ’s shirt. Liev “wanted it moved an eighth of an inch upwards,” says Carter. “He’d studied a lot of visuals and recordings and wanted to get everything exactly right.”
ROBIN WILLIAMS as DWIGHT EISENHOWER
‘We used the same bald cap I’d used to age Robin for the movie ‘The House of D’ in 2004, which I still had in my tool box,” recalls Mungle. “For Eisenhower, it was mainly about the hair — or lack of it. He’d lost his hair on the top and had a little fringe on the side and back of his head. Luckily, Robin didn’t have a tan at that time and had pale skin. We just did a regular ‘paint and powder’ look.”
Adds costumer Carter: “Eisenhower was the last five-star general and dressed formally in white bow tie, white piqué vests and tailcoats. Robin’s shirt was from the early-to-mid ’50s and had a very distinctive curve of the collar.”
Williams, meanwhile, focused on studying Eisenhower’s gentle manner and idiosyncratic voice. “He’s an interesting character and not somebody people would [generally] say I could play,” says the 62-year-old actor. “[They’d say]: ‘You could play Truman, sure!’ It was a tough job for me. He’s kind of a quiet ego among large egos. That was his whole role during World War II, dealing with Montgomery, Churchill and Patton. His voice [was a challenge to mimic] — it is somewhat high-pitched, but it also has a resonance.”
JOHN CUSACK as RICHARD NIXON
Cusack immersed himself in his role and had strong opinions about Nixon’s appearance. The politician appears in the movie twice in his career — he looks middle-aged when he is running against Kennedy in 1960, and, 14 years later, more elderly and downtrodden when he is impeached as president.
“We got a face cast of John two days before we started filming,” says Mungle, who molded a pointed nose tip for the actor out of gelatin and fitted dental plumpers inside Cusack’s mouth to make him seem jowly.
“We did most of the transition into him looking haggard with makeup — darkening the area around the eyes and pointing out the wrinkles in his face,” says Mungle. “But it was mostly how he acted, of course. He really was great in the role.”
JANE FONDA as NANCY REAGAN
‘At first, Jane wanted higher [prosthetic] cheekbones as well as a new nose, but Lee is a less-is-more kind of director,” says Mungle. “I very cautiously and delicately talked her out of it, and only broadened her nose a little and gave her a small tip.”
Costumer Carter enjoyed dressing Fonda in ’80s-style power suits and sweeping long gowns designed by Bill Blass and James Galanos. “Jane wanted to wear the real vintage pieces,” says Carter. “There is a lot of fire-engine red because that’s the color Nancy is known for.”
The famously left-leaning Fonda, meanwhile, laughs off claims that it’s insulting for a star formerly known as “Hanoi Jane” to appear as the revered Republican first lady.
“The idea that I could play Nancy Reagan was just too much to resist,” she says. “I thought it would be fun. I know that people say: ‘Oh my gosh, Jane Fonda is playing Nancy Reagan.’ But I don’t think whatever difference may be in our politics really matters.”
ALAN RICKMAN as RONALD REAGAN
‘Originally, Alan and I had planned on doing a full, wraparound prosthetic like Liev’s,” says Mungle, who again made a face cast of the actor and sculpted Reagan’s characteristic features out of silicone. “Reagan was all about the neck and the jowl and the area around his mouth.”
But on set, Rickman felt the prosthetic was too restrictive.
“I had to think on my feet and I said: ‘Ok, let’s make a little neck wattle,’ ” recalls Mungle. “We created the two prominent tendons down the neck and did a little stretch and stipple, otherwise known as aging, around the mouth. The rest is character makeup, pointing out Reagan’s distinctive eyebrows, and a beautiful wig with a high hairline.”
Rickman says his goal was to master Reagan’s trademark start-and-stop speech pattern. “He was someone who was aware of how to hold his audience,” Rickman says. “How to hold them and also how to give himself time to think.”
MINKA KELLY as JACKIE KENNEDY
Kelly’s Jackie look was created with makeup, brown contact lenses for her doe-like eyes and a chestnut wig. Her fashionable clothing was made by Carter’s team based on the vintage, mostly Oleg Cassini designs the first lady favored during her husband’s brief time in office.
“I had to source all the items very quickly and felt the vintage pieces lacked the freshness of the new items Jackie would wear,” says Carter. “Minka tried on many pieces that had the same look and the same cut — the wide open-mouth neckline — which we used as mock-ups and then we remade everything.”
Kelly found filming in sultry New Orleans a particular challenge because of the heavy garments she was required to wear, including the famous bloodied pink bouclé suit Jackie reportedly refused to take off after JFK’s assassination in November 1963.
Another issue was nailing Jackie’s distinct accent. “I think she spoke in a way she thought she should speak, so getting that down was hard,” revealed the actress. “There’s a musicality and rhythm to the way she speaks.”
JAMES MARSDEN as JOHN F. KENNEDY
‘We met James early on and I knew he needed a more aquiline nose, which we made out of gelatin because his wasn’t structured like JFK’s,” says Mungle. “He also needed a wig as he’d cut his hair real short for another role. It was all about the beautifully coiffed hair and the hairstylist and wig-maker Candy Neal did a brilliant job.”
Mungle’s biggest challenge was caused by Marsden shedding a few pounds between their first meeting and the start of shooting. “He was originally quite full in the face, which was rather nice, but when he came down to New Orleans he’d lost weight,” he recalls. “Overnight in the makeup trailer, I had to make up some plumpers from dental acrylic which fit around the teeth, between the teeth and the gums, and push out the cheeks.”
The actor pored over news reels and video clips to learn JFK’s mannerisms, dialect and posture. He always leaned forward because of his stricken back.
“I wanted to get all those down so I could concentrate on the dialogue, the humanity of the character, and not get hung up on whether my accent is working or the hair looks exactly right,” Marsden says. “I wanted to get those so ingrained that they became autopilot and I could be present in the scene.”