Becoming Burly

From February to September 1999 Jeremiah Birkett, Dawnn Lewis and myself were transformed into Bluebell, Blabberwort and Burly, the Trolls. This amazing prosthetic evolution was designed and executed by the talented special effects team of Gorton & Painter, a London based prosthetics company.

The process began with a full facial plastic cast, which acted as the base for the prosthetic and makeup designs. Then, two to three times a week for six months, we underwent the early morning application that took between 1 1/2 to 2 hours to complete.

My personal makeup artist was a very talented, patient and droll English bloke by the name of Stuart Conran. Stu would begin by gluing the prosthetic pieces in place: the forehead, nose and ears. After that was done and the glue was dried he would apply a rich palette of makeup to the remaining exposed facial skin. Then we’d drop by the hair department where Mary Hillman would lock our wigs in place and presto! Burly the Troll, "Nicey...nice".

On set we’d wait until we’d rehearsed the scene, the lights had been set and we were ready to role film before we’d hear the director, David Carson, cry out "Teeth in....shoot!"; we’d pop in the specially designed troll teeth, glue them into place and breathe bad troll breath into the lives of three dysfunctional, but lovable, trolls.

All day long Stu would follow me around mopping the sweat and touching up the warpaint. Needless to say, Stu and I spent a lot of time together. He was by my side constantly looking for any drip or drop to touchup. His eagle eye missed nothing; and his patience, talent and sense of humor during some very difficult moments made the experience that much more bearable. My hat’s off to Stu and the entire makeup staff of Gorton & Painter who made our characters come to life with such vivid imagination and hard work.

Dawnn Lewis’ makeup was done by Caitlin Tanner, Jeremiah Birkett’s by Tania Wanstall. Ed O’Neil’s makeup artist was Steve Painter.