Gwyneth Paltrow knows about good skin care.
The Goop founder plays fading movie star Kay Stone in Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme, a role in which she hones her acting skills and cuts back on the glamor.
Makeup artist Kayla Panchenko, who previously worked with Safdie on Uncut Gems, exclusively told Page Six Style that the filmmaker “doesn’t like to see makeup” on screen. So while a 1950s “Supreme” setting typically calls for eyelashes, bright lipstick, heavy foundation, and powder, Panchenko had to get creative with “very sheer” natural-looking products.
“I think we were trying to hide the fact that she’s from Los Angeles, so she was a little tanned and we tried to neutralize that,” she says.
There’s even a moment in the movie where the 53-year-old actress doesn’t wear any makeup at all. In one intimate scene, Paltrow appears bare-faced, her hair wet, fresh from a steamy shower with Chalamet.
“[Paltrow said]’Okay, I believe Josh.’ I’m so glad Josh did that, and that was his vision, because it’s such a vulnerable moment,” Panchenko recalls. “And I think that vulnerability, with no make-up and messy hair, is what made that scene a little more powerful.”
The artist evened out the actress’ complexion with a facial massage, and what else could she have done? — Goop Skin Care. (She “actually really loves the products I make,” Panchenko admits.)
Paltrow wasn’t the only one who received the dressed-down treatment. Panchenko was also ordered by Safdie to tone down Fran Drescher’s famous face.
“He didn’t want her to wear any heavy makeup and didn’t want her to look like another character on ‘The Nanny,'” she said. “Not only because it obviously wasn’t a 1950s character, but he wanted people to think, ‘Is that Fran?’
However, unlike Paltrow, Drescher wasn’t keen on appearing makeup-free on screen.
“We’re sitting there listening to him talk, and she’s like, ‘Okay…but I want to get my eyebrows done,'” Panchenko recalled.
The film’s makeup has been a hot topic throughout awards season. Chalamet’s fake acne scars were so realistic that Paltrow even offered Chalamet skin care advice.
“She came into the makeup room and was like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe this isn’t real. It’s amazing,'” Panchenko said, calling her reaction “the ultimate compliment.”
Mike Fontaine, nominated for an Oscar for his work on “Sinners,” was responsible for the lifelike prosthetics that Panchenko later enhanced to ravage Chalamet’s good looks.
“What I love about the way[cinematographer]Darius[Konji]shoots movies and the way Josh shoots movies is that everything is shot close up,” she explains. “So that was a non-negotiable. We had to create something incredible that would blend into his skin and become his skin.”
Fontaine made a mold of Chalamet’s face and used it to sculpt five prosthetics, which ended up being scratched, gouged, and marked.
Panchenko said the 30-year-old actor also said he didn’t want his cheeks to widen any further, so the team focused the prosthesis along his jawline rather than the top of his midface.
Next, she made Chalamet’s eyebrows “double thick” and joined them in the middle, creating a bushy unibrow.
“Eyebrows really change the shape of the face, so it was just to change his look. He’s not the handsome leading man Timothy that everyone knows,” says Panchenko.
To complete the look, she used wig glue to place individual eyelash extensions one at a time between Chalamet’s eyebrows. She also used Korean brand Maki Eka’s ultra-fine $10 eyebrow pen in several different shades to draw in individual hairs (filling in the bare areas of Chalamet’s mustache).
Panchenko and Fontaine worked simultaneously to transform Chalamet from smooth-faced A-list star to blotchy ping-pong player in just an hour, with the actor shaving his face daily to maintain the perfect mustache length and shape, and the two pros filling in every hairy detail.
The thick frames he wore for the film actually worked, as Chalamet wore contacts that blocked his vision.
“This was really intense,” Panchenko said. “It wasn’t the most fun experience for him, but it was really part of the character because it made his eyes shrink and his big, bright eyes gave him a completely different face.”
And, as Panchenko says, when you have a lot of prosthetics on your face and you have to actually do a sweaty exercise scene, it’s “a little bit problematic.” She used professional products on Chalamet’s face, but to “moisturize” the rest of her body, she used a simple drugstore staple: Vaseline body oil.
“I love it because I always take care of my skin during this whole process. I was always careful to make sure Timothy’s skin never got irritated,” she says, adding that other mixtures makeup artists use to create fake sweat can clog pores.
Marty Supreme is set for some of the funniest moments on air this Sunday, as it’s nominated for nine Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Actor for Chalamet.
