đź’ Kevin Yagher for ODDA Magazine
This article first appeared in the ODDA Magazine 19th Issue “You, Me, and Everyone We Know”.
KEVIN YAGHER
Legendary special effects makeup artist Kevin Yagher has been putting nightmares in the heads of television and movie-going audiences for decades. He is the mastermind behind Chucky, he transformed actor Robert Englund into Freddy Krueger for the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise, brought to life the Crypt Keeper for the infamous “Tales from the Crypt” TV series and he just wrapped “Bill & Ted Face the Music” where he teamed up with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter for the third time. Here, he talks about how creating monsters was a way for him to escape abuse as a child, how having a great mentor can change your life and his battle of the wills with Bob Weinstein.
JESSICA MICHAULT. Can you tell me what got you into this field in the first place?
KEVIN YAGHER. My older brother and I started doing things like eight-millimeter films back when we were kids, before video. And we’d dress my brother up like a werewolf or a mummy or whatever when we made these old films which segued into animation. So we took our G.I. Joe action figures and started animating those things one frame at a time, but it took so long. I kept thinking that there’s got to be something else that’s quicker. So that’s why I got into make-up. My brother was also doing it. He would buy all the magazines and supplies, and I got to piggyback on that. I would learn from his mistakes. Later, when I was about 20, I wrote to Dick Smith. He is a legend in the special effects makeup industry. He did “The Exorcist,” “The Godfather,” “Taxi Driver” and a bunch of other films. In the letter, I sent him photos of some of the stuff that I had done. I did the “Planet of the Apes” makeup, and then old age makeup on myself. He immediately wrote back and said “Listen, I’m going out of town. When I get back, give me a call.” So I eventually got on the phone with him and he said, “Listen, if you are serious, you have got to come to New York or L.A.” So I convinced my mom to move to L.A. after she got divorced from my dad which was in 1983. There’s never been anybody like Dick Smith. He was a guy that would reach out. He’d give all his secrets away. He invented the lipstick that turns up for Max Factor and didn’t take any credit for it. He was just the nicest guy. He shared information over the years with everybody, and tried to help every single kid that called him up. Even if it was late at night, he would always get on the phone. I still miss him.
J.M. Did you take a page from his playbook? I mean, do people reach out to you now, and do you try to help them out?
K.Y. Yeah I do. It’s easier now to connect than it was back then. I would recommend schools, try to encourage people and stuff like that. But thingshave slowed down since computer animations. CGI has taken over. My business deals with monster stuff and it’s gone way down. I mean, I still do Chucky and makeup like Freddy, but as far as big creature suits and stuff like that, we don’t do that anymore. Although last year I made a short film. I produced it with a young filmmaker. She had been abused by her father in real life, and so she wanted to do a story about abuse and how monsters saved her life. When I was a kid I was abused, not sexually, but my older brother and I were physically abused by my mother. We would hide away in the basement, and we would do these creature things just to stay out of her hair. Or we’d go out to play all day, and we’d pee on the side of the house just so we wouldn’t have to go inside. She wasn’t angry all the time. She’d be happy and then sad, show love and then suddenly just flip out. You never know who you were going to get so we were always walking on eggshells. She’s a sweet old lady now. She’s 80. She’s fine now.
J.M. The woman you were working with, you and your brother, you all use monsters to a certain extent, to escape.
K.Y. Yes exactly.
J.M. Do you still want to direct? I know you did a couple of episodes of “Tales from the Crypt,” and then had a terrible experience directing your first feature, “Hellraiser: Bloodline” where you ended up taking your name off the final film as it had been completely re-edited and reshot against your wishes. Did that experience turn you off the idea of directing?
K.Y. I mean, that was just a Weinstein debacle. You know, those two guys, and I can say this more openly now, it was nuts. I worked with some tough, crazy producers over the years. I’ve worked with just about everyone that’s got a reputation. But Bob [Weinstein] just took it to another degree. It was the worst experience of my life. Absolutely.
J.M. That sounds insane! But even if the directing path didn’t happen as you wanted, you still had a huge career as a special effects makeup artist. Can you just tell me a bit more about how that actually happened?
K.Y. Ok, well when I got to L.A., I called up a makeup artist that Dick Smith had given me the name of; Greg Cannom who had done Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” with Gary Oldman. I started working with him. I got work on Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which was great. I got to be in the video chasing Michael around. And I was working for Rick Baker. He’s done everything; “The Howling” and “American Werewolf in London.” Those films are what got me into makeup effects. I also worked on “Cocoon” for Ron Howard. It actually pushed me into getting my own business. And eventually, I connected with Jack Sholder who was directing “Nightmare on Elm Street 2,” and that’s where I got to do Freddy.
J.M. I understand that your makeup for “Nightmare on Elm Street 2” is considered to be the best take on the Freddy makeup. Walk me through your approach as you were taking on the makeup of a character that had already been established.
K.Y. Makeup artist David Miller did the first film; and he just put kind of scar tissue on Robert [Englund, the actor who plays Freddy]. I wanted to give him more bone structure, so if you look at it now, I gave him more cheekbones. I always thought of him [Freddy] as a sort of male witch. I tried to make more realistic looking scars and stuff like that. The makeup does affect people, like Robert is just the sweetest guy, joking, all that stuff. Butwhen we started to do makeup, half an hour into it, he’d begin to get quiet, and then he would start getting nasty. By the end of the thing, nasty remarks would just come out of his mouth. It was him getting into character. He would metamorphosize into Freddy.
J.M. Does doing scary makeup ever freak you out? I mean, do you have nightmares about some of the things you have created, or is it all cathartic for you?
K.Y. I have a standard answer to that, which is no. I have night- mares about making house payments!
J.M. You said that Robert would turn into Freddy. Does putting on that prosthetic always help actors get into character?
K.Y. Yes, I think so. And I’m hoping that things like old age make-up will never go to CGI. They have done them before, kind of successfully, but I think it’s important for the actor to wear that because they can go look in a mirror and practice their lines.
J.M. What was it like being back on “Bill & Ted” set again with everyone after all these years?
K.Y. I really enjoyed myself. It was great because I’d done the first two. When they called me up and offered it saying “we don’t have a whole lot of money,” I’m like “that’s OK” and I just basically took whatever they had because I just didn’t want anybody else to do it. In the film, they go back in time and find themselves in different places. One time, they’re in prison and you see them in muscle suits I created and they’re all tatted out. And then they go back and they’re just losers at this Holiday Inn playing in the lounge, and that’s when they’re made up to look overweight. And then we aged Bill and Ted to like 95 years old. It was great getting the whole team back together.
J.M. At one point you stepped away from working on films and turned to TV. Why did you make that choice?
K.Y. Well, I got the TV show “Bones,” and was in charge of creating all the victims, and we did animals on that; we did rats and deer. It was great because I could stay at home. My daughter was still young, still in high school, and I wanted to be closer to home for her, not traveling the world on film sets. It was a really great job as I was always having to be inventive and come up with new things. And each week we would try to outdo the last one. I remember one time a skeleton was found in a big giant chocolate bar or something. Anyway, I did that for 12 years.
J.M. Let me ask you this. I saw on your Instagram that you had all of these faces and masks on the wall. I spotted Charlize Theron, Nicolas Cage, Johnny Depp and a whole bunch of others. Was there a face that you really enjoyed creating a mask out of, and is there a face that you really want to get your hands on?
K.Y. I always get frightened by doing the really old guys. I think, one time, we did Don Ameche for “Cocoon.” And I thought “what if he just, you know, dies in the chair?” He was, I think, 73 at the time. Some people play jokes or will actually fall asleep in the chair. Most people say it’s pleasant; it’s like a mud mask. Do you know the actor Pete Postlethwaite? He was great. And Johnny Depp’s a really, really sweet guy. Nick Nolte, John Travolta, all great guys. Charlize is… she’s kind of like a guy. She’s tough, a little like a sailor. I think Gary Oldman seems like he would be a great actor to work with. He just seems like so into makeup; he’ll come up with ideas to make it more painful for himself. Like in “Hannibal,” there’s burn makeup, Greg Cannom, my old boss, did. It’s one of the best burn makeup I’ve ever seen. I mean, he twisted his face, pulled down his eye, lifted his lip and did all these things that were so uncomfortable that most actors would never want to do. And he is so it, and he’s one of them. I’d love to work with him because he would be open to any ideas that he came up with.
J.M. Besides Freddy and the “Tales from the Crypt” Crypt Keeper, you also famously brought to life the killer doll Chucky in “Child’s Play.” What do you think it is about Chucky that resonates with people so much?
K.Y. I’m happy to say I’ve done these three horror icons. And I was able to direct Pinhead in “Hellraiser.” I didn’t do the makeup for that, but I was able to be part of the film. Also when I was just starting out, I did Jason’s makeup on “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.” So it was nice to be, you know, a part of the history of five different horror characters. But my favorite of all the Chucky movies I did was “Bride of Chucky” because I got to do the Tiffany doll as well. Brad [Dourif, the voice of Chucky] and Jennifer [Tilly, the voice of Tiffany] were great. We got all the dialogue given to us. However, it’s seven puppeteers per puppet and I had to coordinate all that. It was kind of neat, I was able to be like an acting coach. All of the stuff you see in Chucky, it was me acting things out for them. It was a blast.
J.M. You have accomplished so much in your career. So what is it that you love most about what you do?
K.Y. I just love to create. I mean, you obviously have challenges. This may sound like a cliché answer too but, you know, I love to be able to take a concept that’s either in your head, drawn on paper, or whatever and then create it. Creating something that didn’t exist, and then you bring life into it. It’s thrilling.
Photographer TYLER ASH
Fashion Editor ABIGAIL JONES
In conversation with JESSICA MICHAULT
Images courtesy of KEVIN YAGHER
