March 23, 2023 • 46 mins
Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please! There is an 8-time Emmy winner on the pod today. Make-up artist, producer and special effects artist Eryn Krueger Mekash joins ATWYRM to tell us literally what we really missed!
It's no secret that actors often spend hours in the make-up chair so it can’t help but turn into a mini therapy/dish/b*tch session!
Find out what Eryn knows, what she didn’t enjoy and what caused her down right Glee PTSD.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
And That's what You Really Missed with Jenna and Kevin
an iHeartRadio podcast. Welcome to and That's What You Really
Missed podcast. It's guest time. I'm Kevin M. Today we
have sorry, I'm just excited. Today we have the og
(00:24):
head of the entire makeup department on Glee, Aaron Krueger
mcsh She is so good, so talented, was sort of
like a parent to us or like a like an
older sibling to us on the set. Yeah, and put
together an incredible crew of makeup artists that were there
(00:45):
for almost the entire run of the series the show. Yeah,
and get to talk to her because she's also just
gone on to do incredible, incredible things since Glee, I
mean wild incredible things, and as she should. She's the
most the coolest person to work with, so talented, so normal,
so awesome. And also makeup is such a particular um
(01:10):
thing for actors in particular and for us, like they
are kind of like the liaison. They're like your advocates
in a lot of ways, or at least they were
for us only because we were so young. We talked
about that a little bit, but um, they're there with
us the first thing in the morning, throughout the whole day,
and you're like your buddy. Um, and a lot of
them have stayed friends. We've stayed friends with so um.
(01:33):
We're just so grateful to have Aaron here. Should we
get to it, let's do it. Here's Aaron. Aaron Krigger. Hello, welcome.
I'm so happy to see you guy, so happy to
see you. Thanks for doing this, thanks for being You're honored.
I'm happy to deal. We're in the presence of makeup Royalty.
(01:55):
I mean, truly you are. Come on, I mean, let's
let's be gross. You're probably gonna be embarrassed. I don't
know how many Emmys have you won? Eight but remember, yes,
I was had one any so I was like, and
(02:17):
you had twenty eight or something, but it's like thirty nine.
But it's it's one of those things like I was
just happy to get to go to the party that
people were still kind of like going like, yeah, you're nominated.
I was like, Hey, it's gonna be so fun. Like
I never had any kind of like felt like I
had to have any pressure to win anything. I was
just so stoked that my peers were going, yeah, good work,
(02:39):
thumbs up. So it's true. You never like talked about it,
and I think maybe like Kelly or somebody's one that
mentioned it to me because we didn't know you were
not like I have been nominated X amount of times
and I still haven't won, and we're like, oh, we
get to go to this party, right, absolutely? Yeah. It
was so I mean to get to go to the
party and you know, get dressed up and be with
(03:02):
your friends. It was so cool. And there's a moment
like when they're like announcing your category and you're look, oh,
and then and then and it goes to you know,
Buffy or whatever the show is, you're our car track
and you're like, oh, well, you know, moving on, like
am out of time. It's just like you're kind of like, ooh,
Champagne is still is good. It is a little diffol
(03:24):
when you win, though, I have to say, is it
walk us through that the first time you won? What happened?
What was it? And what was it for? It was
for Ryan's um movie. Um uh, the Normal Heart was
you know, it was mostly out of Kits stuff and
(03:45):
it was like it was a lot of it had
to do with you know, everybody's look. It was a
time period it was, you know, the early eighties and
everything that was mostly from Matt Bohmer's look. I think
is because he he was like beautiful and then he
you know, was sick and he was dying and so
we did all that kind of stuff on him and
and so it was for that, I think, mostly probably
for that look. But yeah, when they when they said
(04:07):
the winner, it was just kind of like, it was
so shocking. I was so I was so used to
not being the one that they called, so I was
just goin, like, let's get to the pot something. And
then when they called it and I almost stabbed my
husband in the eyewa because he was on the ballot
with me, and they have those we said those big
pointy things and I almost like I was like, you
(04:28):
like almost like cooked high with it. It was that level.
But it was it was It was so amazing. It
was so much fun. And then it's still any time
you get nominated, it is still a shock. It's still
super cool. People have said to me, like you can
turn it a lot. It's like, no, it is so cool.
It is the coolest thing ever. So it is really cool. Yeah,
(04:50):
and you deserve it, every single one of them. So
Aaron was the head of makeup Key Makeup on Glee
and then about any anything Ryan does basically you get
to do um. Yeah. But also like for people who
don't know, like makeup becomes like your therapy, like make
your makeup artist becomes like your bff. You're with them
(05:13):
all day long. They follow you around to make sure
you look good and like you're always there with us.
You're the first, yeah, really in the grocery, like, please
cover all these pimples in my dry skin. Um, and
you do, and we get to we we got to
have a lot of fun only but there is a
very intimate and like deep relationship that you get with
(05:35):
them because they're also right in your face all morning,
you know, like the first people you see in the
morning and they're literally like in your face and so um,
it's a really special bond that like we got to
get and then you go in the makeup trailer and
you get to start your day that way. M Yeah.
So it's definitely, Ah, you know, I don't even know
(05:56):
if it's more than hair because hair's a lot of
times behind behind you. But with make up your country
right right there. I do remember very specifically when you
would say, oh, I found my eyelashes and you would
literally run out of the trailert and you would come
back in like three seconds later with full lashes on it.
I was like, she wins the award for the fastest
(06:16):
eyelash application ever. I was always so impressed, you know.
And it's a lot of it has to do too
with like any kind of maintenance stuff that you need,
Like there's you know, I dropped situation, there's I felt
for my knee, my my feet are store from dancing
for one hundred hours, or someone from the weekend. Here's
(06:37):
the fans, so you guys, I got a new stattoo
over the weekend. And there's putty and a period. It's
it's just yeah, you know, I'm I'm thirty six years
into it, and I love every bit of it. I
still love taking care of people and helping and figuring
out you know kind of like it's like figuring out
(06:59):
puzzles all the time, like why a person's breaking out,
Like why is that? I mean this issue, and you
can sometimes you figure it out and it's like, yes,
I did it. I wanted to talk and I talk
about Glee. I wanted to talk about like the relationships
we had with you guys, and you building the trailer
out and like picking your team, and um, like how
(07:20):
you got the job? Yeah? How does that all work?
From the moment you find out you get the job
to assembling all of that team. It's what It's one
of my favorite parts is the beginning part is that
I was on I was on Niptuck and I was
the first job I've done with Ryan. And Ryan said,
I'm doing this other show. It's about a glee club
and high school and it's going to be all musical
(07:40):
numbers and and it's going to be all these uh
these like new amazing kids. And I was like, oh, great,
you know, let's do it. So, um, I kind of
a lot of my jobs of Ryan, obviously, I've been
handed because he's just wanted me to do to do it,
and you know it's having This year is twenty years.
I haven't that I've been working for him. The last
(08:01):
year or so. I haven't worked on his shows because
he's moved to New York for the most part, so
I kind of I still kind of oversee a little
bit answer questions and things like that, but for the
most part, most of his stuff is moved to New York.
He's he just wanted, you know, like a different view
and stuff. So um, and that's fine too. I'm doing
other other things and um, it's all nominated movies, No
(08:22):
big deal, that's fine, you know, a little something, just
a little some of the world. But it's all good.
It's it's amazing, it's it's all good stuff. But so
in the beginning, you know, it starts off with especially
with Ryan, and a lot of people I work for
is that they have and some people I don't. I
(08:44):
work for the others like don't do whatever you want.
But you're kind of like it's more fun when it's
like a group thing and you're like he's like this
person is going to look like this, and this person
shouldn't look like this. And as you know, Jenna, yeah,
there's like a really specific look for your character. And
I think you got a little tired of that after
a while. Yeah, yeah, everything, But you know, in the beginning,
(09:05):
like this is what her look is, and this is
this person, and this person is at me. I remember
on the pilot, uh Leah's Leah had what looked like
a like crazy big makeup that was like I wanted
he wanted her to be like a big like idva, right,
really theatrical, glamorous, like over the top, and it just
(09:26):
didn't work. So we ended up changing that up for
the for the first stepisode, for like the second episode,
they just kind of do these like really cool uh
you know, research and stuff. A lot of time with
period stuff, there's there's specific rules for period looks and
things like that, but um, for the most part, it's
a it's a collaboration and and you know, Ryan will
(09:48):
start with with one Idana and I'll sort of say
what do you think about this? And that He's like, oh,
that's kind of cool. I like that. Let's try that,
you know. So with one of the things I always
loved about working for Ryan was that he was very
much which wanted you to bring your ideas, you know,
to make a better um, a better vision and all that.
So he but he always had really specific ideas about
(10:10):
what he wanted to do, which was great. I always
left that, especially with all the themes and stuff we did.
My god, it's so and that was always so much
fun to um, you know, the rocky horror stuff and
the Madonna and all that so yeah, because we had
some pretty basic like makeup for kids right when we
were in school, and it was very basic and it
(10:32):
got more glamorous the years went on, but everybody started
requesting longer. I latch started to get famous outside of
the show that came back inside the show, like I
have notes. I had this person to do these lashes
on me, and I think that's what I want to wear.
It's the feather ones. Yeah. We did get to do
(11:02):
so many different looks, right, like the Gaga we started with.
I remember we just watched that episode and recap that
and um, the kiss, like the kiss looks that the
guys got. That was really crazy because let me see
if I can get this right because it's been a
few years now. They they didn't. They wanted to, like
(11:23):
like Jane Simmons owns all those looks and so we
couldn't do them exactly. So so Mike kind of he
and I kind of came up with a like a
variation of each one and then um, somebody was a panda.
Oh my god, it was. But we had like a
little variation on all the looks just to kind of
(11:45):
like try not to step on the on the patented, right,
that's right. Yeah, so we did. I mean, that was
one of those things that you just do, um, you're
kind of you know, rolling with it um, and that
was that was one of my favorite episodes. That was
really really fun. Um. But those you know, a lot
(12:06):
of that stuff too, is like because it was episodic,
you were just kind of every week was something different
and you were just really keeping on your toes on
coming up with fresh looks and and fun ideas and stuff.
You know. The Rocky Horror one was was different. There
was I don't remember there was too many times where
Ryan said like, oh I don't like that. Looks that's
change it. I mean like the the Leah Michelle one
(12:27):
in the beginning was one of them. But yeah, there
was not that many that he said like oh I
don't like that. I mean, like we were the Twilight
one when we had like the Twilight lenses and oh
my gosh, and then like um, so much stuff where
I was like, oh, where am I going to get that?
Where am I going to get that? There was the
other thing too, it was like everything was like last
A lot of it was last minute where you want
(12:49):
to do these gigantic extravagant looks like we started shooting
in two days. Good luck to you. Well we talk
about Mike. Mike is your husband. Yeah, and Mike does
makeup as well, more specifically like this, like the special
effect makeup. Right, he does a lot of special effects stuff.
He also does. He's also a really good beauty makeup artist,
(13:09):
so he does, but he mostly does affect stuff. He's
on a show called The Sympathizer right now. He's doing
Robert Downey Jr. And he's in Bangkok right now. He
was gone, so he'll he'll be back in like a month.
Yeah right, Oh, yeah, you know we have we have
a lot of fun working together. We have a ton
(13:31):
of fun working together. We enjoy each other's company a lot.
He and I both have different ways of doing things.
He's he's not quite as um. He has a more
specific way of approaching things where I kind of a
little bit better and multitasking and it just is a
good complimentary thing. So um uh. There'll be times when
(13:52):
he pushes me to be a better artist where I'm
kind of like, I've got six thousand things to do
and he's like, let's do this and trying this different
that's good, a good idea, and so we just kind
of we're good at at you know, each shaking on
our strengths and stuff. So which is really good. And
I mean that's part of the thing you mentioned about
team and like picking team members. It's you have to
(14:13):
pick people that are you know, as good or better
than you because you want to be able to send
somebody off to set or be able to happen unit
or do something that you know is going to be
done the right way. You never want to pick somebody
that's not as good as you, at least because then
you're then you're setting yourself up to sail. That's silly, right,
I know some people don't like that kind of I
(14:36):
think that it's i don't know, an ego thing or threatened. Yeah,
I'm always just like get better people in there. They're
always going to make you look good. So like Achilles
like amazing, you can do anything. She's incredible. She should
be another great wind to have one. Yeah, but she's
(14:56):
she's never around. She's like always traveling around the world too. Yeah,
for years, I just talked to her once in a while,
like on on my phone or you know, like texting
or or something like that. But but yeah, you have
to you always have to have great, great team members,
and you know, you try your hardest to make good decisions.
Sometimes you do some work out, but that many episodes,
(15:20):
especially in that many looks, there's bound to be some
things that just don't go according to plan. Well, we
had a massive team. You know, there was you know,
the hair and the makeup because we had so many
cast members. At one point, you know, every every person
had two or three people and it was still like
a million of us and a million of you guys.
Can you explain how that works for like you were saying,
(15:42):
you know, if you're getting people ready and then you
send them off to set, you would have sort of
the three main chairs, right like in the Glee trailer
for example, getting us ready, and then when we have
to go to set, you would still be getting people
that were getting ready that we're maybe in the next
scene that we're in the first scene, and then there's
other makeuppodists that travel with them. Can you just explain
(16:03):
all that for people, like, how does that logistically work?
I think we even had like missus obviously pre COVID days,
because now we have to have a little bit more space,
but they'll probably go away. Yeah. There was like four
I think like four makeup working all the time and
four hair, So we had a great every chair filled
up and then we would switch around and then usually
(16:24):
guys would come in afterwards and start shaving, and like
we just had a thousand people in trailers like hair, yeah,
always music, yea coffee. Yeah. So once like the first
wave of people go, usually one person or two people
would go to set, so you end up having to
hire additional people too. So back you up to have
(16:45):
be able to have people on set being covered so
you can get the rest of the cast ready. I
remember one time we didn't have enough people or it
just kind of worked out that underestimated or something, and
like everybody was in the classroom at once, and it
was just me covering set, and I like gave everybody
their makeup bag and was like pull out your powder,
(17:07):
and I just like everybody and then girdled the bags
and went back and because they were so getting more chill,
it was like, oh my god, it was so crazy.
I was like, Okay, we're helping, we're helping Aaron. Everybody,
look here, pull out. I feel like I remember that
I feel like amber powdering me at some point. Oh yeah,
I feel like also, well, everybody gets their own makeup bag, right,
(17:29):
We're assigned our own makeup stuff, our own powder, our
own lips stuff, so you can actually share or not share.
And um, you after six years of like watching yourself
get done get done every morning, like I was a pro,
I'm bad now. I don't remember how to do my
makeup at all. But one you know, like I'd pull
out all this stuff and be like fifteen minutes and
(17:51):
I'd have like a full face of gland because you
watch every day you're getting ready, and so I was like, yeah,
we can powder ourselves, we can do our list and makeup.
Um yeah, at some point, yes, just who can help me?
Help you? Like, let's all do together. So yeah, it does.
It doesn't tend to be that way sometimes. Freshing it
(18:11):
was such a huge cast. I mean, I don't even
know if i've if i've maybe on some days on shows,
but not like every day. I mean we had like
almost every day. It was like sometimes on production you'll
have like you know, one or two actors in and
maybe some background people, but on Glee, it was like
almost every day. There was every every every day. Yeah,
so you would you say that Glee was like a
(18:32):
unique experience in terms of like how how many people
and just the chaos that ensued. I always this is
what I always say when people go like, well, there's
going to be this, When people I'm like, I did Glee,
Like this is nothing. This is nothing. And it's also
kind of like not necessarily a good you know, parameter
(18:53):
for that, Like you can be like, well, you know,
I've been drug through the mud before, so I'm good
with getting dirty, right, you know. But we say that,
like really, we always say that there were like any
job after this is gonna be it is. It's like
a piece of cake. I mean we Kevin and I
did RuPaul's Drag Race and always had its own challenges
for its own reasons. But like even that, we were
(19:13):
like are you dirvs No? You know it. No, We're like,
we've done this. This feels very familiar to a ten
hour day. Fine, You're like yeah, it halfway through the
day and you you know, you think back, like we
hear some song on the radio and you're like, oh,
(19:36):
all the words to that song and then uh, you know,
because it's like whatever it is. Somebody was playing like
pop like anthem music in the Trilia other day and
I was like, oh, yeah, you know, because everything is
seven thousand to day and you're like wh shot living
in coverage on the stage, like every single thing is
(19:57):
the same. I'm sure you heard that from Yeah, you're
nice way to put that. Every so many songs are
ruined forever for us. Oh yeah, ye them into the ground. Yeah,
you Like, there's sometimes I'll be out in public and
I'll hear a song and my arm will automatically just
go into the choreography, like what am I doing? Oh God?
(20:18):
If I hear don't stop believing as much. I try
to run out of the run. But yeah, I will
do that. Uh the like fist pump and I can't
a long time that off. I would turn it down. Yeah, yeah,
exactly for a number of reasons, just like much like
you're crying laughing. Yeah much, but it's a better now
(20:40):
that's I can listen to it. Now. What about the
super Bowl episode you got to bring Mike? Well you
get okay, Okay, let me just preface this. We're saying,
so we found out we're doing super episode, and I
want to hear from your perspective er it as well,
and I think you you leaned over at something like, well,
(21:04):
I think some of the some of you were going
to get to do like prosthetics, and I was so
excited you volunteered the tribute. I want you to give
me a full face of like zombie makeup like i've
and You're like, I don't know if Ryan's going to
approve that, because I think we'll probably want to be
able to identify some of you, you know. And then
(21:24):
lo and behold, I got it, and Mike is there
and we have like the dude who did like original
thriller makeup or something in the trailer working on it
as well. And I had that full face of thriller
makeup through bronchitis and the flu, and poor Aaron and
Mike and a whole team had to put up with me.
(21:46):
And anyway, I I dug my own grave on that one.
I begged you for it. Yeah, Like it was so cold,
it was like we were doing it. We were going
to do it right before break and then people were
sick and we canceled it. We went to January, which
was probably even colder in Los Angeles. Which people don't
(22:07):
think it's chili in La but at nighttime it can
be like in the thirties, especially in Long Beach, it's
chili and you guys are you know, in your in
your outfits and god um, but uh yeah, you had
a full face and it was like and then the
jaw was kind of offesome. You had so much everybody
(22:28):
else kind of had the what they called bandit um,
a bandit mask, which was like this much makeup, and
then the face was she wanted that swingy chin and
the whole thing, and um, it was super fun um,
but it was incredibly challenging. Um for the amount of
time that I mean, it was like I don't even
(22:49):
know how many it felt like it were. You guys
were in those looks for like a month, but it
was probably more like three or four days or something. Yeah,
the episode I think ended up being over twenty some
thing days, which is great. A normal episode took eight days.
Well on paper is supposed to take eight days and
ten days, but yeah, I took I think it was
well into the twenties. So we were in those looks
(23:11):
and then their varying degrees of those looks because there
were some scenes where they were just partially on m H.
We had to get ready seeing we have I remember
seeing pictures. It'll come up on your phone. You're only
oh my gosh, um the I know that it was
at We did it at Paramount. Maybe a couple of times.
We did it in Long Beach times, I think, but yeah,
(23:32):
it was at least four or five times. You guys
wore the were of that stuff. But it was for
such an extended period of time too. Yeah. You know
what's funny is that the guy who who he wasn't there,
but the guy who originally who created the thriller look
had kids that were huge Glee fans who are now
like you know, thirty one, thirty two. Yeah, And I
(23:57):
used to work for him, Rick Baker, years ago, like
in the Meaties thrillans too, and I had I was
at an event and he came running over to me
and he said, I heard you. I heard you doing
a Glee thriller tribute episode I or you did one
or something and I said, I said, yeah, he goes.
My girls are huge, huge, huge, huge Glee fans, and
I was and became because of that, we've become like
(24:19):
super good friends and and again like as adults though,
because before I used to work for me. He's my
boss and he's a power, which is fun. I started
with started back with Glee, and I was always kind
of like, uh yeah, we're grillery tranmute episode, I was
like all like nervous, like, oh god, but stuff looks
(24:39):
so good. I ended up buying one of the football
uniforms in auction, the Abby oh so cool, just to
kind of have because just for aum, just for like
a you know, a memento, and it's it's super cool.
It wasn't. It was like some auction They were, you know,
as they like to like get rid of everything. So
oh yeah, for sure. The most episodes that felt like
(25:03):
when you're a kid and you dream of like going
to Hollywood, That to me was the epitome of I'm
getting to wear all this like special effects makeup and
like like when you were a kid playing make believe
like you. I was getting the most high end version
of that possible, and so I was like, if we're
doing this, I don't know if I'm ever going to
get the opportunity to do this again, So like give
(25:25):
me a full face. That was my thinking. I was
just like a long time to do. It's about for
three hours. Oh my gosh. Every time, every time you
did it, three never came off like it. Of course
it didn't because it was like you know times you
know where you get like a little just from you know,
wear and tear, like little bits you have to touch up.
(25:46):
But like maybe because it was so cold outside, like
nobody's it was sweaty inside the mask. Let me tell
you it smells so gross, you know. I remember like
cleaning it so that Melissa Bull worked on Melissa, Yeah,
(26:07):
of course. It was one of the first ones she
worked on that she'd never done prosthetics before, and I
was like, this is the perfect opportunity for you, come
on and let's just do it. And she was like, okay,
we wouldn't leave after that. She probably had therapy after
that too. Blend Queen builds the Blending Queen. Yeah, she's
amazing that new Tina look um, yeah, what what was
(26:30):
your feeling about the slushies? As I'm the makeup perspective,
we always we kind of like started having them be
kind of like a challenge of how fast we could
turn people back over, you know, like to reset them.
It was like a peah. I mean there's a lot
(26:54):
of stuff like that that you do in makeup that
you have to reset where you have to do it
really quickly like that. But I was always just so
m I never knew do they ever get warm or
were they always just cold, cold, freezing? I don't. I don't.
I feel like there was no reason for them to
be cold. I feel like there was like can you
use like silicone? They try to try. It didn't the same. Yeah,
(27:15):
it didn't look as good on camera. We haven't really
talked about the slushies must much on this this podcast,
but when you would get slushied, we'd probably do it
well what two maybe two maybe three times at the most. Yeah,
but you couldn't move right after you got slushy. They
called cut and you couldn't touch your face because they
(27:37):
needed to get photos for continuity, and a lot of
the time that was makeup taking those photos, right, so
you guys had all these continuity photos of us, like
and right after we had gotten slushied with like our
ugly mugs, just like scorned and burned with cold slushies.
But they would be like my eyes, my eyes, so
(27:58):
you like don't touch it don't move, and then everybody
runs in had to do it again. It was the
end of the day. You guys would bring us nice, warm,
warm wash cloths to like wash our faces with, which
was very nice. Yeah, yeah, but still it was always
like oh God, like what you know, or somebody didn't
aim correctly. It was worse, just a little bit. You'd
(28:20):
have to like redo it. How did you know about
the shaving cream to get like the red that's right,
like we'd be rubbed down a shaving cream actuel, Like,
I don't know, I'm trying to think of who told
me that. It was probably someone like Michael Westmore or
somebody that's that had been doing it for a really
long time like that would take this and the stain
off of for fake blood. That's how it came off.
(28:41):
And then because it has a similar kind of dye
to it, I was like, oh, it'll take this, it'll
take the slushy off too. So but I remember you
guys coming in afterward, and even though we'd reset your
face and hair on set, you wouldn't necessarily get your
body reset on set Avatar the trailer and be like
just stained. All of this makes me think of like
(29:03):
you must not get grossed out by much because you
have to like be close to people. Intimately, nothing grosses
me out in person. But I don't know if you
guys are watching The Last of Us, but there was
an episode and Mike and I got to the work
on that last year, which was so crazy. We did five,
(29:24):
which was the Clickers Come Out of the Ground. Yes,
we were there for like we was like all those
nights that like Cold de Sac It's like and everything
was crazy, oh so much fun. How it was the
seventh episode where Joel is like being people up. Sorry yep, yeah, yep, yep, yep, yep.
(29:46):
I was so grossed out. I don't know why. I
don't know why. It just like it was so disturbing
to me. So sometimes I'll watch stuff and it'll bother
me watching it when I'm not part of it. But
for the most part, being um, being on step for
stuff doesn't really I'm more like I wanted to look
realistic or I wanted to look correct or yeah yeah, yeah,
(30:09):
So that doesn't really bother me. And like body parts,
like you know, putting sometimes you have to put like um,
you know, intimacy covers on for sex scenes. Or any
of that kind of stuff. That is I had done
it Tuck and that was a whole so much sex
on that right, So you'd be like, Hi, I'm erin,
I'm just gonna put this glue this um in there
(30:31):
you go bird cover your parts shows it's always right, right,
It's like certain shows that you get certain things where
you're seeing people's parts and I don't know, it just
doesn't like it's never been andustry, it's ever been like
a thing. It's just kind of it's just kind of
part of the job. So you did the Last of
(31:01):
Us a little bit, just a little I was on
a team. We were on a team. Yeah, but you
still get to experience that crazy craziness. And then before that,
do you do the Fableman's last year or the year before?
Whenever I did? I did the Fableman's in UM twenty
twenty one, Wow, we went, I was up. I prepped
that in April and then we shot in June till
(31:26):
October Wow in Los Angeles, and so I had a
big prep on it, and um, it was you know,
obviously it was all time period. It was like, I
don't know if you guys saw it or not, but
it's like nineteen fifty two to nineteen sixty five, right,
So it had a lot of different time period looks,
and Um and our other lead actor, Gable Belle wore
(31:47):
contacts the whole time and we did you know, there
were a couple of little like beat up scenes and
lots of little resets and a little bit of blood
work and you know, it's mostly just um. It was
very naturalists and lots of time. But it was an
incredible experience. Yeah, how was that? I mean, you've done
(32:07):
everything at this point, then you get to work with
like the epitome of the film, and I can't even
say it was a it was a dream of mine
to like work for Steven Stilber. It I can't even
say that it was a dream of mine. It was
so outer limits to me. Executive he was an executive
producer on separate films I worked on, but never worked
(32:29):
like directly for him. And Lewis Burwell, who was his
long time makeup artist, couldn't do the job. And so
I just got this phone call on my way to work.
I got this email that said I've got your name
from Lewis Burwell. I'm doing a project with great casting,
great director in Los Angeles and wanted to know your availability.
(32:50):
So I called her back. Her name was Carlo Roge.
She's amazing. And I called her back and we're chatting
on the phone. I'm driving to work and she said,
she says, oh, I'm sure you know this is a
Steven Spielberg film and I and I was so in
shock about it. I never been thought for a second,
why would Lois have me do? It was Spilburg film, right,
(33:12):
And I had to pull over and she goes, hello, Hello,
are you so here? And I said, oh, I'm here.
I'm just completely in shock, like I'm totally and she's like, oh,
you've come recommended from Lois and I was, oh, my god.
Like Lewis is a very well known, very very successful
makeup artist and has done almost a lot of Steven's films.
(33:33):
So um, I just was in such shock about I'm
kind of still in shock about it. And that was
two years ago, so um and so I did you know,
I just I just uh, she just kept saying old
her on the phone. I'd say like, she's like, hold
your own hold drown it's a you know, it's like
it's like a it's like a really loud family on set,
(33:54):
like they're always arguing and like, just hold your own
I can do that. So a couple of times I
had to trying to stand up myself and that was
it was challenging. I And it was like in the
summertime in Los Angeles, which was super hot, and it
was I can feel like the sweat rolling down my
arms just like like, yes, I am a professional and
(34:14):
I know what I'm talking about. Um, it was it
was great. Pass it was amazing. We had a fantastic time.
Everyone was was lovely. It was it was super challenging.
And uh, but to see him get to do a
project that he was, um, I mean obviously don't know
the man, but to get to see him be so
(34:35):
thrilled with seeing his I mean not only his homes
come to life again. Right, all of that was all
based on his like ninety eight percent of it is
his life. So there's only like a little moments that
were part of the other writer's life. They kind of
threw mushle it up a little bit, but it was
it's all it says, you know, loosely based or like
(34:57):
semi auto biography autobiographic, but it's it's it is, it's
all him. Yeah yeah, so recreate all that is to
see him and to see him see his parents again. Wow. Yeah,
very moving, very moving. So I was I was really honored.
And the people that that run amblin are incredible and
(35:20):
my bosses were incredible. He was incredible. Wow. I was
really honored to get to be to get to be
part of that. So um, I had a great team
and uh yeah, it was it was. It was a thrill.
It was a thrill. I just I'm still I'm still,
like I said, I'm still surprised I was part of
that and very down to earth people considering the caliber people.
(35:44):
You know, That's what I was just have to say.
You know, you were saying you were shocked you got
asked to do it, But it's like you don't get
to the level that you are and get to work
with so many gigantic people, and when people do work
with you, they hold onto you because you're so good
at what you do and you're so easy to work with,
(36:06):
like you're just a good, nice person and you're so
talented and creative. You know, how many people do we
work with who are ship heads and they don't you know,
you don't build either. You're like going along like this
is great, and then you find out that you're like,
oh right, great after all sometimes comes up later like
(36:29):
they started to let their defenses down in your lips.
Oh happy person. I mean you said, you've been doing
this one for how many years? Thirty something, very sick
thirty six years and you're still getting to do You're
working with Steven Spielwerk and so. And then before that,
you know, I got to work with I did this
movie I Held Billy Elogy, which I ended up getting
a combination for, which was another thing that was just
(36:51):
like you're on a roll. You know, anything you touch,
like the rest of us the biggest I mean, I
don't know about that. But it's been, it's been. It's
been lovely. I mean it's been so it's like so
surprising because like Hillbillyology ended up being kind of handed
to me as well, because it was a true sho
(37:12):
I'd worked with years ago. Um As my dad says,
never burn any prodiges. You never know when you're going
to need him again. Well, you can burn a couple
you're never going to go back to, right. But but
it was somebody that I worked with years ago, like
so many years ago, and then um, a friend of
mine was Amy Personal for a long time and she
(37:33):
couldn't do that film. So it just kind of was
like this phone call and it was like, Hey, we're
doing this project and Glent Glent close and prosthetics and
Amy Adams and I was like, oh wow, that sounds amazing.
So yeah, I can't really did some prospects on Amy
and you know, just like designed those and off to
(37:54):
the races. It was. It was crazy. So um that
was really fun too. It was just really fun, amazing project.
And sometimes I think that it seems like sometimes when
you get higher up with like the top people, there
seems to be a groovness. Maybe it's their age, you know,
(38:14):
like there, you know, people a little closer to seventy
are that kind of hip. They grew up in kind
of like a hippie area in time period. My parents
were like in their twenties in the late sixties and
early seventies, but like people that were teenagers then, you know,
they maybe just have a little bit more like I
(38:36):
treat people nicely, you know, or the communicators or I
don't know, the affected by all of the other stuff,
they've been treated badly and know that's not a good
way to do it. So I just feel like, really
been lucky that I've been working for people that that
are I don't know, just like really have it together,
(38:57):
and you never people that have they have the same
group like forever too. So, um, that's nice to do.
It's really super cool. Yeah, yeah, I'm super super excited
about all that. So what good? I mean, I'm crushing it.
It's been good. Couldn't happen? Kind of amazing. Um, sint
(39:20):
you worked on so much? What would you say? Do
you have a favorite? Oh? I mean, there's there's moments
of everything of each show that I really enjoyed working on.
Like there's a season of American Corner Stories. One of
my favorites as Asylum, which was the second season but
I loved I loved so much, Auditive was I loved
(39:40):
it so as as Popular, but like the Cult season
was one of my favorites. I love growing Up. There's
each one of them has a good different vibe, which
was one of the reasons why I loved working on
that show so much, is because every year was something
different and really appealed to my uh you know like
really like you're like I can do this for like
you know, five and then you're onto something else. Yeah. So, um,
(40:02):
I love loved that part of it. Um. I mean,
I loved creating a lot of stuff for Glee. Um.
I love to do a lot of the film work
I've been doing has been really fun um lately. Um,
and I always trying to find something that I love
out of each project I work on, because I think
that's the point is if you if you're if you're miserable,
(40:26):
you know on something that it's time to it's time
to move on. And it's uh, it's but there's there
was so much creativity on Glee. I just I mean,
I loved it. It was that part of it was, Um,
it was amazing. Um. I know though that you guys worked.
I've never seen anybody work harder than you guys. It's
it's just, I mean, it was just I was sometimes
(40:48):
I was coming well maybe a little maybe a little break. Yeah,
you're good about that. When you take a little break
and you can do something on your own, make your
own food, or take a little vacation or whatever, you
come back a little different right, really important because your
creativity comes back, and like that's why I'm able to
be with you guys today because I'm day playing right
(41:08):
now and so you have to kind of switch it
up a lot to like make sure that you bring
reboots and it's the next job. So um, that's what
I'm working on Santa Clauses too right now, which is
really fun, amazing. Yeah, it good show. I love I
love the movies anyways, but the show is really cute.
(41:28):
So it's just important too. I mean think going forward
is having you know, you always have to have like
a little a little moment, and I just always remember
you guys just never have had that, and and I'm
always I was always like, it just always broke my
heart that you guys never had any time to like
enjoy any of it or or a reset or anything
(41:51):
because you worked so so hard through lunches and after
you know, wrapped and weekend high. Oh god, it's true.
It's true. We felt very especially the makeup department because
the hair department changed out quite a lot. Yeah, but
our makeup crew stas the Dark Arts. The the makeup
(42:14):
crew was always the same, and like even when you left,
we still had all the same. It was your people
that you had put on right, so we always felt
very like protected and secure with your entire department, and
you guys would check in check in with us as well,
And I think that's why we also felt so attached
(42:35):
still to this day to all of you guys, because
you were on the level you know, we're exactly what
you're saying now. We could feel that like you guys
are right, like speak up if you need to, like
it was, and then you need people like that because
we were all very very green, young and to have
like freshly hatched, didn't feel like we had voices to
(42:57):
speak up or could say anything or knew that we could,
you know. And there's also something intimate about like where
the makeup and hair trailer was at base Camp two,
which is where we all were, is separate from where
everybody else is like the rest of the crew, and
like Ryan and Brad and Ian whenever they would come visit,
like no one ever really came to base camp like
(43:18):
that was our place. It was hair and makeup in
the casts where we could sort of just like n
hang out and therapies. Right um, before we let you go,
we ask all of our Glee people. What is the
feeling a word anything that Glee Lee left you with
(43:43):
overall experience? M hm. I mean there was definitely creativity,
resilience ms AT is a big one. Being resilient, um,
I think is is a is a you know, it's
also you know, I mean there's there was so much creativity,
(44:04):
but a lot of it was I think just being
resilient too, you know, bouncing back through especially after the
show wrapped. I mean, so many things have happened, and
just you know, coming through that and surviving all of
that is really a big deal. So I think even
even during definitely during it, but definitely after, I think
resilience is is. I think it really brought a lot
(44:25):
of people closer together the going experience of being ugly.
I don't think a lot of people realize how how well,
how special it was, but also how incredibly hard it was,
um uh mentally and physically and everything. So I just
I commend all of you for for all of your successes,
(44:46):
you know, postly because it's it was. It's a really
big deal and I'm so proud of you guys. We're
proud of you. Yeah, I mean, we love to see
things I watched and then we're like each other. Yeah, forever,
everybody's biggest fans. Thanks Aaron Bye. That she's a gem,
(45:08):
isn't she. I'm pissed we forgot to mention. Aaron and
her husband throw like the craziest Halloween parties, like dead
fake mannequin, dead bodies, out front skeletons. They do the
whole They go to the whole nine and obviously they
do professional makeup. A lot of their friends do professional makeup,
so everybody shows up in the craziest, most extravagant professionally
(45:30):
done like horror makeup. We went a couple of times
as a cast. I remember we rolled up in a
party bus and we were the characters from Rugrats. We
had a playpin. I was in a stroller with a
bottlefield of I didn't make it that year, but you
guys did it. You guys did it. Was remember the
first year we like made makeshift outfits at her parties,
but her parties were always like something to look forward
(45:51):
to when you're you were the gingerbread man. That's right,
it was the best. She's the best. Yes, She and
her husband Mike or like family, so and they talk
to her so awesome. It was nice to have her
here and nice to have our crew of peeps that
came back to chat with us. And you know, next
(46:12):
time you watch episode five of the Last of Us
or go watch the Fambleman's think of her, she's compassed. Yes,
thank you for being with us. Come back next week.
That's what you really missed. Bye, Thanks for listening, and
follow us on Instagram at and that's what you really
miss pod. Make sure to write us a review and
leave us five stars. See you next time.
And That's what You Really Missed with Jenna and Kevin
an iHeartRadio podcast. Welcome to and That's What You Really
Missed podcast. It's guest time. I'm Kevin M. Today we
have sorry, I'm just excited. Today we have the og
(00:24):
head of the entire makeup department on Glee, Aaron Krueger
mcsh She is so good, so talented, was sort of
like a parent to us or like a like an
older sibling to us on the set. Yeah, and put
together an incredible crew of makeup artists that were there
(00:45):
for almost the entire run of the series the show. Yeah,
and get to talk to her because she's also just
gone on to do incredible, incredible things since Glee, I
mean wild incredible things, and as she should. She's the
most the coolest person to work with, so talented, so normal,
so awesome. And also makeup is such a particular um
(01:10):
thing for actors in particular and for us, like they
are kind of like the liaison. They're like your advocates
in a lot of ways, or at least they were
for us only because we were so young. We talked
about that a little bit, but um, they're there with
us the first thing in the morning, throughout the whole day,
and you're like your buddy. Um, and a lot of
them have stayed friends. We've stayed friends with so um.
(01:33):
We're just so grateful to have Aaron here. Should we
get to it, let's do it. Here's Aaron. Aaron Krigger. Hello, welcome.
I'm so happy to see you guy, so happy to
see you. Thanks for doing this, thanks for being You're honored.
I'm happy to deal. We're in the presence of makeup Royalty.
(01:55):
I mean, truly you are. Come on, I mean, let's
let's be gross. You're probably gonna be embarrassed. I don't
know how many Emmys have you won? Eight but remember, yes,
I was had one any so I was like, and
(02:17):
you had twenty eight or something, but it's like thirty nine.
But it's it's one of those things like I was
just happy to get to go to the party that
people were still kind of like going like, yeah, you're nominated.
I was like, Hey, it's gonna be so fun. Like
I never had any kind of like felt like I
had to have any pressure to win anything. I was
just so stoked that my peers were going, yeah, good work,
(02:39):
thumbs up. So it's true. You never like talked about it,
and I think maybe like Kelly or somebody's one that
mentioned it to me because we didn't know you were
not like I have been nominated X amount of times
and I still haven't won, and we're like, oh, we
get to go to this party, right, absolutely? Yeah. It
was so I mean to get to go to the
party and you know, get dressed up and be with
(03:02):
your friends. It was so cool. And there's a moment
like when they're like announcing your category and you're look, oh,
and then and then and it goes to you know,
Buffy or whatever the show is, you're our car track
and you're like, oh, well, you know, moving on, like
am out of time. It's just like you're kind of like, ooh,
Champagne is still is good. It is a little diffol
(03:24):
when you win, though, I have to say, is it
walk us through that the first time you won? What happened?
What was it? And what was it for? It was
for Ryan's um movie. Um uh, the Normal Heart was
you know, it was mostly out of Kits stuff and
(03:45):
it was like it was a lot of it had
to do with you know, everybody's look. It was a
time period it was, you know, the early eighties and
everything that was mostly from Matt Bohmer's look. I think
is because he he was like beautiful and then he
you know, was sick and he was dying and so
we did all that kind of stuff on him and
and so it was for that, I think, mostly probably
for that look. But yeah, when they when they said
(04:07):
the winner, it was just kind of like, it was
so shocking. I was so I was so used to
not being the one that they called, so I was
just goin, like, let's get to the pot something. And
then when they called it and I almost stabbed my
husband in the eyewa because he was on the ballot
with me, and they have those we said those big
pointy things and I almost like I was like, you
(04:28):
like almost like cooked high with it. It was that level.
But it was it was It was so amazing. It
was so much fun. And then it's still any time
you get nominated, it is still a shock. It's still
super cool. People have said to me, like you can
turn it a lot. It's like, no, it is so cool.
It is the coolest thing ever. So it is really cool. Yeah,
(04:50):
and you deserve it, every single one of them. So
Aaron was the head of makeup Key Makeup on Glee
and then about any anything Ryan does basically you get
to do um. Yeah. But also like for people who
don't know, like makeup becomes like your therapy, like make
your makeup artist becomes like your bff. You're with them
(05:13):
all day long. They follow you around to make sure
you look good and like you're always there with us.
You're the first, yeah, really in the grocery, like, please
cover all these pimples in my dry skin. Um, and
you do, and we get to we we got to
have a lot of fun only but there is a
very intimate and like deep relationship that you get with
(05:35):
them because they're also right in your face all morning,
you know, like the first people you see in the
morning and they're literally like in your face and so um,
it's a really special bond that like we got to
get and then you go in the makeup trailer and
you get to start your day that way. M Yeah.
So it's definitely, Ah, you know, I don't even know
(05:56):
if it's more than hair because hair's a lot of
times behind behind you. But with make up your country
right right there. I do remember very specifically when you
would say, oh, I found my eyelashes and you would
literally run out of the trailert and you would come
back in like three seconds later with full lashes on it.
I was like, she wins the award for the fastest
(06:16):
eyelash application ever. I was always so impressed, you know.
And it's a lot of it has to do too
with like any kind of maintenance stuff that you need,
Like there's you know, I dropped situation, there's I felt
for my knee, my my feet are store from dancing
for one hundred hours, or someone from the weekend. Here's
(06:37):
the fans, so you guys, I got a new stattoo
over the weekend. And there's putty and a period. It's
it's just yeah, you know, I'm I'm thirty six years
into it, and I love every bit of it. I
still love taking care of people and helping and figuring
out you know kind of like it's like figuring out
(06:59):
puzzles all the time, like why a person's breaking out,
Like why is that? I mean this issue, and you
can sometimes you figure it out and it's like, yes,
I did it. I wanted to talk and I talk
about Glee. I wanted to talk about like the relationships
we had with you guys, and you building the trailer
out and like picking your team, and um, like how
(07:20):
you got the job? Yeah? How does that all work?
From the moment you find out you get the job
to assembling all of that team. It's what It's one
of my favorite parts is the beginning part is that
I was on I was on Niptuck and I was
the first job I've done with Ryan. And Ryan said,
I'm doing this other show. It's about a glee club
and high school and it's going to be all musical
(07:40):
numbers and and it's going to be all these uh
these like new amazing kids. And I was like, oh, great,
you know, let's do it. So, um, I kind of
a lot of my jobs of Ryan, obviously, I've been
handed because he's just wanted me to do to do it,
and you know it's having This year is twenty years.
I haven't that I've been working for him. The last
(08:01):
year or so. I haven't worked on his shows because
he's moved to New York for the most part, so
I kind of I still kind of oversee a little
bit answer questions and things like that, but for the
most part, most of his stuff is moved to New York.
He's he just wanted, you know, like a different view
and stuff. So um, and that's fine too. I'm doing
other other things and um, it's all nominated movies, No
(08:22):
big deal, that's fine, you know, a little something, just
a little some of the world. But it's all good.
It's it's amazing, it's it's all good stuff. But so
in the beginning, you know, it starts off with especially
with Ryan, and a lot of people I work for
is that they have and some people I don't. I
(08:44):
work for the others like don't do whatever you want.
But you're kind of like it's more fun when it's
like a group thing and you're like he's like this
person is going to look like this, and this person
shouldn't look like this. And as you know, Jenna, yeah,
there's like a really specific look for your character. And
I think you got a little tired of that after
a while. Yeah, yeah, everything, But you know, in the beginning,
(09:05):
like this is what her look is, and this is
this person, and this person is at me. I remember
on the pilot, uh Leah's Leah had what looked like
a like crazy big makeup that was like I wanted
he wanted her to be like a big like idva, right,
really theatrical, glamorous, like over the top, and it just
(09:26):
didn't work. So we ended up changing that up for
the for the first stepisode, for like the second episode,
they just kind of do these like really cool uh
you know, research and stuff. A lot of time with
period stuff, there's there's specific rules for period looks and
things like that, but um, for the most part, it's
a it's a collaboration and and you know, Ryan will
(09:48):
start with with one Idana and I'll sort of say
what do you think about this? And that He's like, oh,
that's kind of cool. I like that. Let's try that,
you know. So with one of the things I always
loved about working for Ryan was that he was very
much which wanted you to bring your ideas, you know,
to make a better um, a better vision and all that.
So he but he always had really specific ideas about
(10:10):
what he wanted to do, which was great. I always
left that, especially with all the themes and stuff we did.
My god, it's so and that was always so much
fun to um, you know, the rocky horror stuff and
the Madonna and all that so yeah, because we had
some pretty basic like makeup for kids right when we
were in school, and it was very basic and it
(10:32):
got more glamorous the years went on, but everybody started
requesting longer. I latch started to get famous outside of
the show that came back inside the show, like I
have notes. I had this person to do these lashes
on me, and I think that's what I want to wear.
It's the feather ones. Yeah. We did get to do
(11:02):
so many different looks, right, like the Gaga we started with.
I remember we just watched that episode and recap that
and um, the kiss, like the kiss looks that the
guys got. That was really crazy because let me see
if I can get this right because it's been a
few years now. They they didn't. They wanted to, like
(11:23):
like Jane Simmons owns all those looks and so we
couldn't do them exactly. So so Mike kind of he
and I kind of came up with a like a
variation of each one and then um, somebody was a panda.
Oh my god, it was. But we had like a
little variation on all the looks just to kind of
(11:45):
like try not to step on the on the patented, right,
that's right. Yeah, so we did. I mean, that was
one of those things that you just do, um, you're
kind of you know, rolling with it um, and that
was that was one of my favorite episodes. That was
really really fun. Um. But those you know, a lot
(12:06):
of that stuff too, is like because it was episodic,
you were just kind of every week was something different
and you were just really keeping on your toes on
coming up with fresh looks and and fun ideas and stuff.
You know. The Rocky Horror one was was different. There
was I don't remember there was too many times where
Ryan said like, oh I don't like that. Looks that's
change it. I mean like the the Leah Michelle one
(12:27):
in the beginning was one of them. But yeah, there
was not that many that he said like oh I
don't like that. I mean, like we were the Twilight
one when we had like the Twilight lenses and oh
my gosh, and then like um, so much stuff where
I was like, oh, where am I going to get that?
Where am I going to get that? There was the
other thing too, it was like everything was like last
A lot of it was last minute where you want
(12:49):
to do these gigantic extravagant looks like we started shooting
in two days. Good luck to you. Well we talk
about Mike. Mike is your husband. Yeah, and Mike does
makeup as well, more specifically like this, like the special
effect makeup. Right, he does a lot of special effects stuff.
He also does. He's also a really good beauty makeup artist,
(13:09):
so he does, but he mostly does affect stuff. He's
on a show called The Sympathizer right now. He's doing
Robert Downey Jr. And he's in Bangkok right now. He
was gone, so he'll he'll be back in like a month.
Yeah right, Oh, yeah, you know we have we have
a lot of fun working together. We have a ton
(13:31):
of fun working together. We enjoy each other's company a lot.
He and I both have different ways of doing things.
He's he's not quite as um. He has a more
specific way of approaching things where I kind of a
little bit better and multitasking and it just is a
good complimentary thing. So um uh. There'll be times when
(13:52):
he pushes me to be a better artist where I'm
kind of like, I've got six thousand things to do
and he's like, let's do this and trying this different
that's good, a good idea, and so we just kind
of we're good at at you know, each shaking on
our strengths and stuff. So which is really good. And
I mean that's part of the thing you mentioned about
team and like picking team members. It's you have to
(14:13):
pick people that are you know, as good or better
than you because you want to be able to send
somebody off to set or be able to happen unit
or do something that you know is going to be
done the right way. You never want to pick somebody
that's not as good as you, at least because then
you're then you're setting yourself up to sail. That's silly, right,
I know some people don't like that kind of I
(14:36):
think that it's i don't know, an ego thing or threatened. Yeah,
I'm always just like get better people in there. They're
always going to make you look good. So like Achilles
like amazing, you can do anything. She's incredible. She should
be another great wind to have one. Yeah, but she's
(14:56):
she's never around. She's like always traveling around the world too. Yeah,
for years, I just talked to her once in a while,
like on on my phone or you know, like texting
or or something like that. But but yeah, you have
to you always have to have great, great team members,
and you know, you try your hardest to make good decisions.
Sometimes you do some work out, but that many episodes,
(15:20):
especially in that many looks, there's bound to be some
things that just don't go according to plan. Well, we
had a massive team. You know, there was you know,
the hair and the makeup because we had so many
cast members. At one point, you know, every every person
had two or three people and it was still like
a million of us and a million of you guys.
Can you explain how that works for like you were saying,
(15:42):
you know, if you're getting people ready and then you
send them off to set, you would have sort of
the three main chairs, right like in the Glee trailer
for example, getting us ready, and then when we have
to go to set, you would still be getting people
that were getting ready that we're maybe in the next
scene that we're in the first scene, and then there's
other makeuppodists that travel with them. Can you just explain
(16:03):
all that for people, like, how does that logistically work?
I think we even had like missus obviously pre COVID days,
because now we have to have a little bit more space,
but they'll probably go away. Yeah. There was like four
I think like four makeup working all the time and
four hair, So we had a great every chair filled
up and then we would switch around and then usually
(16:24):
guys would come in afterwards and start shaving, and like
we just had a thousand people in trailers like hair, yeah,
always music, yea coffee. Yeah. So once like the first
wave of people go, usually one person or two people
would go to set, so you end up having to
hire additional people too. So back you up to have
(16:45):
be able to have people on set being covered so
you can get the rest of the cast ready. I
remember one time we didn't have enough people or it
just kind of worked out that underestimated or something, and
like everybody was in the classroom at once, and it
was just me covering set, and I like gave everybody
their makeup bag and was like pull out your powder,
(17:07):
and I just like everybody and then girdled the bags
and went back and because they were so getting more chill,
it was like, oh my god, it was so crazy.
I was like, Okay, we're helping, we're helping Aaron. Everybody,
look here, pull out. I feel like I remember that
I feel like amber powdering me at some point. Oh yeah,
I feel like also, well, everybody gets their own makeup bag, right,
(17:29):
We're assigned our own makeup stuff, our own powder, our
own lips stuff, so you can actually share or not share.
And um, you after six years of like watching yourself
get done get done every morning, like I was a pro,
I'm bad now. I don't remember how to do my
makeup at all. But one you know, like I'd pull
out all this stuff and be like fifteen minutes and
(17:51):
I'd have like a full face of gland because you
watch every day you're getting ready, and so I was like, yeah,
we can powder ourselves, we can do our list and makeup.
Um yeah, at some point, yes, just who can help me?
Help you? Like, let's all do together. So yeah, it does.
It doesn't tend to be that way sometimes. Freshing it
(18:11):
was such a huge cast. I mean, I don't even
know if i've if i've maybe on some days on shows,
but not like every day. I mean we had like
almost every day. It was like sometimes on production you'll
have like you know, one or two actors in and
maybe some background people, but on Glee, it was like
almost every day. There was every every every day. Yeah,
so you would you say that Glee was like a
(18:32):
unique experience in terms of like how how many people
and just the chaos that ensued. I always this is
what I always say when people go like, well, there's
going to be this, When people I'm like, I did Glee,
Like this is nothing. This is nothing. And it's also
kind of like not necessarily a good you know, parameter
(18:53):
for that, Like you can be like, well, you know,
I've been drug through the mud before, so I'm good
with getting dirty, right, you know. But we say that,
like really, we always say that there were like any
job after this is gonna be it is. It's like
a piece of cake. I mean we Kevin and I
did RuPaul's Drag Race and always had its own challenges
for its own reasons. But like even that, we were
(19:13):
like are you dirvs No? You know it. No, We're like,
we've done this. This feels very familiar to a ten
hour day. Fine, You're like yeah, it halfway through the
day and you you know, you think back, like we
hear some song on the radio and you're like, oh,
(19:36):
all the words to that song and then uh, you know,
because it's like whatever it is. Somebody was playing like
pop like anthem music in the Trilia other day and
I was like, oh, yeah, you know, because everything is
seven thousand to day and you're like wh shot living
in coverage on the stage, like every single thing is
(19:57):
the same. I'm sure you heard that from Yeah, you're
nice way to put that. Every so many songs are
ruined forever for us. Oh yeah, ye them into the ground. Yeah,
you Like, there's sometimes I'll be out in public and
I'll hear a song and my arm will automatically just
go into the choreography, like what am I doing? Oh God?
(20:18):
If I hear don't stop believing as much. I try
to run out of the run. But yeah, I will
do that. Uh the like fist pump and I can't
a long time that off. I would turn it down. Yeah, yeah,
exactly for a number of reasons, just like much like
you're crying laughing. Yeah much, but it's a better now
(20:40):
that's I can listen to it. Now. What about the
super Bowl episode you got to bring Mike? Well you
get okay, Okay, let me just preface this. We're saying,
so we found out we're doing super episode, and I
want to hear from your perspective er it as well,
and I think you you leaned over at something like, well,
(21:04):
I think some of the some of you were going
to get to do like prosthetics, and I was so
excited you volunteered the tribute. I want you to give
me a full face of like zombie makeup like i've
and You're like, I don't know if Ryan's going to
approve that, because I think we'll probably want to be
able to identify some of you, you know. And then
(21:24):
lo and behold, I got it, and Mike is there
and we have like the dude who did like original
thriller makeup or something in the trailer working on it
as well. And I had that full face of thriller
makeup through bronchitis and the flu, and poor Aaron and
Mike and a whole team had to put up with me.
(21:46):
And anyway, I I dug my own grave on that one.
I begged you for it. Yeah, Like it was so cold,
it was like we were doing it. We were going
to do it right before break and then people were
sick and we canceled it. We went to January, which
was probably even colder in Los Angeles. Which people don't
(22:07):
think it's chili in La but at nighttime it can
be like in the thirties, especially in Long Beach, it's
chili and you guys are you know, in your in
your outfits and god um, but uh yeah, you had
a full face and it was like and then the
jaw was kind of offesome. You had so much everybody
(22:28):
else kind of had the what they called bandit um,
a bandit mask, which was like this much makeup, and
then the face was she wanted that swingy chin and
the whole thing, and um, it was super fun um,
but it was incredibly challenging. Um for the amount of
time that I mean, it was like I don't even
(22:49):
know how many it felt like it were. You guys
were in those looks for like a month, but it
was probably more like three or four days or something. Yeah,
the episode I think ended up being over twenty some
thing days, which is great. A normal episode took eight days.
Well on paper is supposed to take eight days and
ten days, but yeah, I took I think it was
well into the twenties. So we were in those looks
(23:11):
and then their varying degrees of those looks because there
were some scenes where they were just partially on m H.
We had to get ready seeing we have I remember
seeing pictures. It'll come up on your phone. You're only
oh my gosh, um the I know that it was
at We did it at Paramount. Maybe a couple of times.
We did it in Long Beach times, I think, but yeah,
(23:32):
it was at least four or five times. You guys
wore the were of that stuff. But it was for
such an extended period of time too. Yeah. You know
what's funny is that the guy who who he wasn't there,
but the guy who originally who created the thriller look
had kids that were huge Glee fans who are now
like you know, thirty one, thirty two. Yeah, And I
(23:57):
used to work for him, Rick Baker, years ago, like
in the Meaties thrillans too, and I had I was
at an event and he came running over to me
and he said, I heard you. I heard you doing
a Glee thriller tribute episode I or you did one
or something and I said, I said, yeah, he goes.
My girls are huge, huge, huge, huge Glee fans, and
I was and became because of that, we've become like
(24:19):
super good friends and and again like as adults though,
because before I used to work for me. He's my
boss and he's a power, which is fun. I started
with started back with Glee, and I was always kind
of like, uh yeah, we're grillery tranmute episode, I was
like all like nervous, like, oh god, but stuff looks
(24:39):
so good. I ended up buying one of the football
uniforms in auction, the Abby oh so cool, just to
kind of have because just for aum, just for like
a you know, a memento, and it's it's super cool.
It wasn't. It was like some auction They were, you know,
as they like to like get rid of everything. So
oh yeah, for sure. The most episodes that felt like
(25:03):
when you're a kid and you dream of like going
to Hollywood, That to me was the epitome of I'm
getting to wear all this like special effects makeup and
like like when you were a kid playing make believe
like you. I was getting the most high end version
of that possible, and so I was like, if we're
doing this, I don't know if I'm ever going to
get the opportunity to do this again, So like give
(25:25):
me a full face. That was my thinking. I was
just like a long time to do. It's about for
three hours. Oh my gosh. Every time, every time you
did it, three never came off like it. Of course
it didn't because it was like you know times you
know where you get like a little just from you know,
wear and tear, like little bits you have to touch up.
(25:46):
But like maybe because it was so cold outside, like
nobody's it was sweaty inside the mask. Let me tell
you it smells so gross, you know. I remember like
cleaning it so that Melissa Bull worked on Melissa, Yeah,
(26:07):
of course. It was one of the first ones she
worked on that she'd never done prosthetics before, and I
was like, this is the perfect opportunity for you, come
on and let's just do it. And she was like, okay,
we wouldn't leave after that. She probably had therapy after
that too. Blend Queen builds the Blending Queen. Yeah, she's
amazing that new Tina look um, yeah, what what was
(26:30):
your feeling about the slushies? As I'm the makeup perspective,
we always we kind of like started having them be
kind of like a challenge of how fast we could
turn people back over, you know, like to reset them.
It was like a peah. I mean there's a lot
(26:54):
of stuff like that that you do in makeup that
you have to reset where you have to do it
really quickly like that. But I was always just so
m I never knew do they ever get warm or
were they always just cold, cold, freezing? I don't. I don't.
I feel like there was no reason for them to
be cold. I feel like there was like can you
use like silicone? They try to try. It didn't the same. Yeah,
(27:15):
it didn't look as good on camera. We haven't really
talked about the slushies must much on this this podcast,
but when you would get slushied, we'd probably do it
well what two maybe two maybe three times at the most. Yeah,
but you couldn't move right after you got slushy. They
called cut and you couldn't touch your face because they
(27:37):
needed to get photos for continuity, and a lot of
the time that was makeup taking those photos, right, so
you guys had all these continuity photos of us, like
and right after we had gotten slushied with like our
ugly mugs, just like scorned and burned with cold slushies.
But they would be like my eyes, my eyes, so
(27:58):
you like don't touch it don't move, and then everybody
runs in had to do it again. It was the
end of the day. You guys would bring us nice, warm,
warm wash cloths to like wash our faces with, which
was very nice. Yeah, yeah, but still it was always
like oh God, like what you know, or somebody didn't
aim correctly. It was worse, just a little bit. You'd
(28:20):
have to like redo it. How did you know about
the shaving cream to get like the red that's right,
like we'd be rubbed down a shaving cream actuel, Like,
I don't know, I'm trying to think of who told
me that. It was probably someone like Michael Westmore or
somebody that's that had been doing it for a really
long time like that would take this and the stain
off of for fake blood. That's how it came off.
(28:41):
And then because it has a similar kind of dye
to it, I was like, oh, it'll take this, it'll
take the slushy off too. So but I remember you
guys coming in afterward, and even though we'd reset your
face and hair on set, you wouldn't necessarily get your
body reset on set Avatar the trailer and be like
just stained. All of this makes me think of like
(29:03):
you must not get grossed out by much because you
have to like be close to people. Intimately, nothing grosses
me out in person. But I don't know if you
guys are watching The Last of Us, but there was
an episode and Mike and I got to the work
on that last year, which was so crazy. We did five,
(29:24):
which was the Clickers Come Out of the Ground. Yes,
we were there for like we was like all those
nights that like Cold de Sac It's like and everything
was crazy, oh so much fun. How it was the
seventh episode where Joel is like being people up. Sorry yep, yeah, yep, yep, yep, yep.
(29:46):
I was so grossed out. I don't know why. I
don't know why. It just like it was so disturbing
to me. So sometimes I'll watch stuff and it'll bother
me watching it when I'm not part of it. But
for the most part, being um, being on step for
stuff doesn't really I'm more like I wanted to look
realistic or I wanted to look correct or yeah yeah, yeah,
(30:09):
So that doesn't really bother me. And like body parts,
like you know, putting sometimes you have to put like um,
you know, intimacy covers on for sex scenes. Or any
of that kind of stuff. That is I had done
it Tuck and that was a whole so much sex
on that right, So you'd be like, Hi, I'm erin,
I'm just gonna put this glue this um in there
(30:31):
you go bird cover your parts shows it's always right, right,
It's like certain shows that you get certain things where
you're seeing people's parts and I don't know, it just
doesn't like it's never been andustry, it's ever been like
a thing. It's just kind of it's just kind of
part of the job. So you did the Last of
(31:01):
Us a little bit, just a little I was on
a team. We were on a team. Yeah, but you
still get to experience that crazy craziness. And then before that,
do you do the Fableman's last year or the year before?
Whenever I did? I did the Fableman's in UM twenty
twenty one, Wow, we went, I was up. I prepped
that in April and then we shot in June till
(31:26):
October Wow in Los Angeles, and so I had a
big prep on it, and um, it was you know,
obviously it was all time period. It was like, I
don't know if you guys saw it or not, but
it's like nineteen fifty two to nineteen sixty five, right,
So it had a lot of different time period looks,
and Um and our other lead actor, Gable Belle wore
(31:47):
contacts the whole time and we did you know, there
were a couple of little like beat up scenes and
lots of little resets and a little bit of blood
work and you know, it's mostly just um. It was
very naturalists and lots of time. But it was an
incredible experience. Yeah, how was that? I mean, you've done
(32:07):
everything at this point, then you get to work with
like the epitome of the film, and I can't even
say it was a it was a dream of mine
to like work for Steven Stilber. It I can't even
say that it was a dream of mine. It was
so outer limits to me. Executive he was an executive
producer on separate films I worked on, but never worked
(32:29):
like directly for him. And Lewis Burwell, who was his
long time makeup artist, couldn't do the job. And so
I just got this phone call on my way to work.
I got this email that said I've got your name
from Lewis Burwell. I'm doing a project with great casting,
great director in Los Angeles and wanted to know your availability.
(32:50):
So I called her back. Her name was Carlo Roge.
She's amazing. And I called her back and we're chatting
on the phone. I'm driving to work and she said,
she says, oh, I'm sure you know this is a
Steven Spielberg film and I and I was so in
shock about it. I never been thought for a second,
why would Lois have me do? It was Spilburg film, right,
(33:12):
And I had to pull over and she goes, hello, Hello,
are you so here? And I said, oh, I'm here.
I'm just completely in shock, like I'm totally and she's like, oh,
you've come recommended from Lois and I was, oh, my god.
Like Lewis is a very well known, very very successful
makeup artist and has done almost a lot of Steven's films.
(33:33):
So um, I just was in such shock about I'm
kind of still in shock about it. And that was
two years ago, so um and so I did you know,
I just I just uh, she just kept saying old
her on the phone. I'd say like, she's like, hold
your own hold drown it's a you know, it's like
it's like a it's like a really loud family on set,
(33:54):
like they're always arguing and like, just hold your own
I can do that. So a couple of times I
had to trying to stand up myself and that was
it was challenging. I And it was like in the
summertime in Los Angeles, which was super hot, and it
was I can feel like the sweat rolling down my
arms just like like, yes, I am a professional and
(34:14):
I know what I'm talking about. Um, it was it
was great. Pass it was amazing. We had a fantastic time.
Everyone was was lovely. It was it was super challenging.
And uh, but to see him get to do a
project that he was, um, I mean obviously don't know
the man, but to get to see him be so
(34:35):
thrilled with seeing his I mean not only his homes
come to life again. Right, all of that was all
based on his like ninety eight percent of it is
his life. So there's only like a little moments that
were part of the other writer's life. They kind of
threw mushle it up a little bit, but it was
it's all it says, you know, loosely based or like
(34:57):
semi auto biography autobiographic, but it's it's it is, it's
all him. Yeah yeah, so recreate all that is to
see him and to see him see his parents again. Wow. Yeah,
very moving, very moving. So I was I was really honored.
And the people that that run amblin are incredible and
(35:20):
my bosses were incredible. He was incredible. Wow. I was
really honored to get to be to get to be
part of that. So um, I had a great team
and uh yeah, it was it was. It was a thrill.
It was a thrill. I just I'm still I'm still,
like I said, I'm still surprised I was part of
that and very down to earth people considering the caliber people.
(35:44):
You know, That's what I was just have to say.
You know, you were saying you were shocked you got
asked to do it, But it's like you don't get
to the level that you are and get to work
with so many gigantic people, and when people do work
with you, they hold onto you because you're so good
at what you do and you're so easy to work with,
(36:06):
like you're just a good, nice person and you're so
talented and creative. You know, how many people do we
work with who are ship heads and they don't you know,
you don't build either. You're like going along like this
is great, and then you find out that you're like,
oh right, great after all sometimes comes up later like
(36:29):
they started to let their defenses down in your lips.
Oh happy person. I mean you said, you've been doing
this one for how many years? Thirty something, very sick
thirty six years and you're still getting to do You're
working with Steven Spielwerk and so. And then before that,
you know, I got to work with I did this
movie I Held Billy Elogy, which I ended up getting
a combination for, which was another thing that was just
(36:51):
like you're on a roll. You know, anything you touch,
like the rest of us the biggest I mean, I
don't know about that. But it's been, it's been. It's
been lovely. I mean it's been so it's like so
surprising because like Hillbillyology ended up being kind of handed
to me as well, because it was a true sho
(37:12):
I'd worked with years ago. Um As my dad says,
never burn any prodiges. You never know when you're going
to need him again. Well, you can burn a couple
you're never going to go back to, right. But but
it was somebody that I worked with years ago, like
so many years ago, and then um, a friend of
mine was Amy Personal for a long time and she
(37:33):
couldn't do that film. So it just kind of was
like this phone call and it was like, Hey, we're
doing this project and Glent Glent close and prosthetics and
Amy Adams and I was like, oh wow, that sounds amazing.
So yeah, I can't really did some prospects on Amy
and you know, just like designed those and off to
(37:54):
the races. It was. It was crazy. So um that
was really fun too. It was just really fun, amazing project.
And sometimes I think that it seems like sometimes when
you get higher up with like the top people, there
seems to be a groovness. Maybe it's their age, you know,
(38:14):
like there, you know, people a little closer to seventy
are that kind of hip. They grew up in kind
of like a hippie area in time period. My parents
were like in their twenties in the late sixties and
early seventies, but like people that were teenagers then, you know,
they maybe just have a little bit more like I
(38:36):
treat people nicely, you know, or the communicators or I
don't know, the affected by all of the other stuff,
they've been treated badly and know that's not a good
way to do it. So I just feel like, really
been lucky that I've been working for people that that
are I don't know, just like really have it together,
(38:57):
and you never people that have they have the same
group like forever too. So, um, that's nice to do.
It's really super cool. Yeah, yeah, I'm super super excited
about all that. So what good? I mean, I'm crushing it.
It's been good. Couldn't happen? Kind of amazing. Um, sint
(39:20):
you worked on so much? What would you say? Do
you have a favorite? Oh? I mean, there's there's moments
of everything of each show that I really enjoyed working on.
Like there's a season of American Corner Stories. One of
my favorites as Asylum, which was the second season but
I loved I loved so much, Auditive was I loved
(39:40):
it so as as Popular, but like the Cult season
was one of my favorites. I love growing Up. There's
each one of them has a good different vibe, which
was one of the reasons why I loved working on
that show so much, is because every year was something
different and really appealed to my uh you know like
really like you're like I can do this for like
you know, five and then you're onto something else. Yeah. So, um,
(40:02):
I love loved that part of it. Um. I mean,
I loved creating a lot of stuff for Glee. Um.
I love to do a lot of the film work
I've been doing has been really fun um lately. Um,
and I always trying to find something that I love
out of each project I work on, because I think
that's the point is if you if you're if you're miserable,
(40:26):
you know on something that it's time to it's time
to move on. And it's uh, it's but there's there
was so much creativity on Glee. I just I mean,
I loved it. It was that part of it was, Um,
it was amazing. Um. I know though that you guys worked.
I've never seen anybody work harder than you guys. It's
it's just, I mean, it was just I was sometimes
(40:48):
I was coming well maybe a little maybe a little break. Yeah,
you're good about that. When you take a little break
and you can do something on your own, make your
own food, or take a little vacation or whatever, you
come back a little different right, really important because your
creativity comes back, and like that's why I'm able to
be with you guys today because I'm day playing right
(41:08):
now and so you have to kind of switch it
up a lot to like make sure that you bring
reboots and it's the next job. So um, that's what
I'm working on Santa Clauses too right now, which is
really fun, amazing. Yeah, it good show. I love I
love the movies anyways, but the show is really cute.
(41:28):
So it's just important too. I mean think going forward
is having you know, you always have to have like
a little a little moment, and I just always remember
you guys just never have had that, and and I'm
always I was always like, it just always broke my
heart that you guys never had any time to like
enjoy any of it or or a reset or anything
(41:51):
because you worked so so hard through lunches and after
you know, wrapped and weekend high. Oh god, it's true.
It's true. We felt very especially the makeup department because
the hair department changed out quite a lot. Yeah, but
our makeup crew stas the Dark Arts. The the makeup
(42:14):
crew was always the same, and like even when you left,
we still had all the same. It was your people
that you had put on right, so we always felt
very like protected and secure with your entire department, and
you guys would check in check in with us as well,
And I think that's why we also felt so attached
(42:35):
still to this day to all of you guys, because
you were on the level you know, we're exactly what
you're saying now. We could feel that like you guys
are right, like speak up if you need to, like
it was, and then you need people like that because
we were all very very green, young and to have
like freshly hatched, didn't feel like we had voices to
(42:57):
speak up or could say anything or knew that we could,
you know. And there's also something intimate about like where
the makeup and hair trailer was at base Camp two,
which is where we all were, is separate from where
everybody else is like the rest of the crew, and
like Ryan and Brad and Ian whenever they would come visit,
like no one ever really came to base camp like
(43:18):
that was our place. It was hair and makeup in
the casts where we could sort of just like n
hang out and therapies. Right um, before we let you go,
we ask all of our Glee people. What is the
feeling a word anything that Glee Lee left you with
(43:43):
overall experience? M hm. I mean there was definitely creativity,
resilience ms AT is a big one. Being resilient, um,
I think is is a is a you know, it's
also you know, I mean there's there was so much creativity,
(44:04):
but a lot of it was I think just being
resilient too, you know, bouncing back through especially after the
show wrapped. I mean, so many things have happened, and
just you know, coming through that and surviving all of
that is really a big deal. So I think even
even during definitely during it, but definitely after, I think
resilience is is. I think it really brought a lot
(44:25):
of people closer together the going experience of being ugly.
I don't think a lot of people realize how how well,
how special it was, but also how incredibly hard it was,
um uh mentally and physically and everything. So I just
I commend all of you for for all of your successes,
(44:46):
you know, postly because it's it was. It's a really
big deal and I'm so proud of you guys. We're
proud of you. Yeah, I mean, we love to see
things I watched and then we're like each other. Yeah, forever,
everybody's biggest fans. Thanks Aaron Bye. That she's a gem,
(45:08):
isn't she. I'm pissed we forgot to mention. Aaron and
her husband throw like the craziest Halloween parties, like dead
fake mannequin, dead bodies, out front skeletons. They do the
whole They go to the whole nine and obviously they
do professional makeup. A lot of their friends do professional makeup,
so everybody shows up in the craziest, most extravagant professionally
(45:30):
done like horror makeup. We went a couple of times
as a cast. I remember we rolled up in a
party bus and we were the characters from Rugrats. We
had a playpin. I was in a stroller with a
bottlefield of I didn't make it that year, but you
guys did it. You guys did it. Was remember the
first year we like made makeshift outfits at her parties,
but her parties were always like something to look forward
(45:51):
to when you're you were the gingerbread man. That's right,
it was the best. She's the best. Yes, She and
her husband Mike or like family, so and they talk
to her so awesome. It was nice to have her
here and nice to have our crew of peeps that
came back to chat with us. And you know, next
(46:12):
time you watch episode five of the Last of Us
or go watch the Fambleman's think of her, she's compassed. Yes,
thank you for being with us. Come back next week.
That's what you really missed. Bye, Thanks for listening, and
follow us on Instagram at and that's what you really
miss pod. Make sure to write us a review and
leave us five stars. See you next time.
Host
Jenna Ushkowitz
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