Interview With Greg Nicotero (main special effects MUA on The Walking Dead)

Q: Frank described how hot it’s been in Atlanta. How does that affect your make-up?

A: The make-ups that we’re doing are relatively bulletproof. But when people start sweating or rubbing their necks, you do have to go in and touch people up. It’s tricky. I can’t remember when I’ve worked under these circumstances, especially shooting in the daytime. Most zombie shows like this, they’re shot at night. So to have a zombie TV series in broad daylight, running down Peachtree Avenue in downtown Atlanta, it’s challenging. Everything has to stand up to pretty tough scrutiny.

Q: What kinds of dos and don’t did you come up with?

A: Here’s a perfect example: There’s a fine line between gluing a wound on someone’s cheek and making them look like they’re decomposing. So the first thing that we did is I had our sculptors create some prosthetic pieces that would go over the brow and onto the cheekbones. So it would make the eyes look a little more sunken in and make the bone structure look more pronounced — we’ve been using those pieces a lot more than we were last season. So we’re getting more of a skull-like look to the walkers. Now we have a lot more ammunition in our arsenal. You look at the graphic novel and there’s always exposed teeth. So instead of having to make dentures for everybody, we came up with a way to be able to put teeth in any zombie that we want in order to make them look like that grinning skull where their lips are rotting away.

Q: Tell us about the zombie decomposition that’s happening in Season 3. How are you changing the ways the zombies are portrayed from season to season?

A: Well one thing I always think about and the rest of the crew can attest to is just how grueling the weather is in Georgia. The sun literally will bake you if you stand out in the sun too long. And one day I’m thinking about it and I’m like, “OK, what would happen to these creatures that have no actual ability to protect themselves from the elements?” So you can only imagine how horrible the smell would be, and what we felt it was important to play up is the idea that these things are becoming dried up and disintegrated and leathery.

Q: What’s been your favourite episode to direct thus far?

A: Each episode I love for a different reason. The first episode I did in Season 2, where Dale gets killed, is the first piece of television I had directed. And I don’t think I told anyone else except Andy Lincoln, but I was scared s—less because I had one walker and this gigantic, huge, emotional episode… And then the second episode I did, 305, was so action-oriented. It was like four episodes in one because we had Rick going insane after Lori dies, then we had Michonne and Andrea’s story, and then we had Merle, and then we had the arena fights, and then we had the walker pits. 305 was really, really exhausting.

Q: Their eyes are haunting—how do you get them to look so dead? 
A: The eyes are the biggest visual cue. Contact lenses mute the color and the life out of them. We have 60 sets of contact lenses that have each been hand-painted. We design new lenses every season because the eyes become more dead-looking and cloudy.

Q: Are there any zombie special effects you’d be afraid to do?

A: The zombie baby thing, in our world, is tricky — they did it in the Dawn of the Dead remake, and they did it pretty well. I think kids and babies would be the first ones to be eaten because they’re more vulnerable and defenceless. It’s a little harder to imagine that they would have survived long enough to become a walker.

Q: How long does the whole process take? 

A: We have an assembly line of four artists that can finish 40 to 50 zombies in an hour. The first makeup artist shadows around the eyes and cheekbones, the next person does a lighter color over the highlights to accentuate the bone structure, the next person splatters blood, and then the last person puts conditioner in their hair.

Q: Speaking of blood, there's a lot of it. 

A: We go through 30 gallons of fake blood every three episodes. There are two kinds of blood: thick blood for dressing the set and thin blood for the gags—so it sprays. We use KY Jelly to thicken the blood. We also soak nylon stockings in blood and glue them into wounds to look like torn muscle and flesh. We usually clean out CVS and Rite Aid wherever we shoot.

Q: How do the actors react to the makeup? 

A: The walkers sit together during lunch. The bloodier they are, the less people want to sit next to them. I sit with them, and people will look at me like, How can you eat your lunch across from somebody with half a face?

Website references: 
http: //www.amctv.com/shows/the-walking-dead/crew/greg-nicotero-co-executive-producerspecial-effects-make-up-designer
http://www.allure.com/beauty-trends/blogs/daily-beauty-reporter/2014/10/walking-dead-zombie-makeup.html