Dean Of Make-Up: Richard Dean

Leading ladies such as Julia Roberts have come to rely on Richard Dean to develop looks based on the psychology behind the character.

The first time Richard Dean did Julia Roberts’ makeup was for Sleeping with the Enemy in 1990. The actress did not request Mr. Dean for this project; she was expecting a different artist. The movie was scheduled to be shot in California, at the last minute, however, the location was changed to North Carolina. Principal photography had not started. “We were there for test shots,” says Dean. “I could tell she was surprised to see someone she didn’t know. But she was polite, and said, ‘We don’t have much time to do this.’ I put away a lot of my supplies and just did a basic beauty makeup. I worked very fast. When I was finished I said, ‘I think you’ll have a bit of time before the test.’ She looked up, seemed surprised, thanked me, and went to wardrobe to change. Later she said to me that the costume designer told her that her makeup never looked more beautiful.”

That was the beginning of a working relationship and a friendship for Richard Dean and Julia Roberts. The two have now worked on a total of 14 movies together, most recently Closer. But the beginning of Richard Dean’s impressive career started long before this.

Dean, a Michigan native, graduated with a master’s degree in theater and speech from The University of Michigan, before making his way east to New York City. 

Between 1978 and 1979 Dean began doing makeup for fashion shows. “They weren’t the extravaganzas of today,” he says, “makeup artists were not that widely used.” But Dean did a show at the Rainbow Room for Dan River Fabrics where several designers were showing sleepwear collections. “It was great because I got to make the models look very glamorous in a 1940s way.” Make-up of a particular period was something that Dean would use throughout his long career. 

While he really enjoyed fashion, Dean knew he wanted to do film and TV. He enrolled in a one-week course, (or more accurately a five-day course) with Bob Kelly. “I loved it. After the course I hung around a bit and learned to ventilate—even though it took me a week to do a mustache.” 

Bob Kelly got offered a job that he couldn’t do, so he sent his new protégé, and Dean’s learning curve spiraled forward. “It was a photo shoot for McCall’s Magazine; they wanted to have models made-up to look like Norman Rockwell paintings. I needed to put a bald cap on a man whose head seemed the size of a fist. I had no idea what to do with the excess, so I just grabbed it and held it together with a close pin at the back of his head—good thing it was for a photo! As the saying goes I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I was learning on my feet.”

 By 1980 Dean had learned enough to key a low budget independent movie starring Deborah Harry, called Union City. Shortly after he was admitted into local 798, and went on staff at NBC for six years. There he worked on everything from Nightly News, Another World, and Saturday Night Live, where he would learn all there was to know about bald caps and more. At the time, NBC had a policy of letting their staff make-up artists take a leave of absence for a movie opportunity; in 1982 Richard Dean was earning a credit on Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club. It was on this production that he met costume designer Milena Canonero. Dean didn’t know it then, but this was the first of several projects that he would work on with both Canonero and Coppola. The movie, which was not released until ‘84, was a huge production and there were many artists listed on the credits. Richard Dean’s credit was fourth on the list. He was responsible for the meticulously artful makeup on Diane Lane who played Vera Cicero. Dean says, “Sometimes Melania would examine the makeup on Lane and say, ‘It’s gorgeous, but that eyebrow needs to be a millimeter longer.”’ Dean wasn’t just following direction when he extended that brow, he agreed with Canonero, but more importantly he began to understand something about character and how it can be revealed through even the slightest nuance of make-up.

After The Cotton Club Richard Dean’s list of credits grew quickly. There was Desperately Seeking Susan starring Madonna; and Wise Guys starring Danny DeVito and Harvey Keitel. And in 1986, Something Wild, starring Melanie Griffith, Jeff Daniels, and Ray Liotta where the makeup was less nuanced, but instead deliberately graphic. Dean says, “The script called for blood and bruises. I used an assortment of gel-blood products and spent a lot of time painting and matching.”

But it was the art of nuance that brought to life, the unforgettable character of Alex Forrest, played by Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. “When I met Adrian Lyne he showed me a tape of Glenn; I said we can’t photograph her straight on. Glenn is much too honest and open to look like a seductive, secretive psychopath. We dealt with that by never trying to balance anything. What we do as make-up artists is try to achieve balance on the face; with this character we made every mistake in the book. She was always shot with her hair over one eye. I accentuated any asymmetry. I made one eye darker and appear smaller. Glenn has very pronounced bows to her lips; we were using some opal lip gloss and pencil, and the last thing I would do is put a smudge across the two bows—suddenly she looked bruised—or like she’d been kissed too much, and that’s how we would leave the mirror each day.”

This is the kind of attention to detail that Dean brought to Tucker: The Man and His Dream, starring Joan Allen and Jeff Bridges. Dean was now working on his second project with Coppola, and costume designer Milena Canonero, who recommended him for this movie. Dean says, “The movie was set in 1947 and we wanted to capture that 1950’s optimistic vision of America. In those days the clothes were more formal, you couldn’t really tell if someone was in their thirties or forties;  we wanted to be bold in a subtle way.” Dean wanted the character of Preston Thomas Tucker, played by Bridges to look authoritative, which can translate into older. But rather than doing more traditional ageing techniques like shading or highlighting, Dean came up with the idea of shaving the actor’s hairline. “Jeff had a head of thick hair with a youthful hairline and by trimming it with a thinning shears then flatting the longer hairs that were left, it changed his appearance in a way that did not diminish his vigor, but made him appear more appropriately serious.” For Joan Allen’s character Dean applied the same principle. He says, “Women in the 40s sometimes looked overly glamorous because of the red lipstick and manicured hairstyles. This character was a housewife, so what we did was to keep everything more sheer, including her foundation. It was always subtle.”

In 1990, Milena Canonero recommended Dean again, now the work was big, bold and cartoon like—for Madonna’s character in Dick Tracy. And he last worked with Coppola on New York Stories: Life with Zoe starring Sofia Coppola.  

 Between Sleeping with The Enemy and Closer the only time Dean did not work with Roberts was when he was unavailable. When Dean is given a script he always approaches the character from the interior, then decides how this will be reflected on the exterior. With Roberts’ Oscar winning performance in Erin Brockovitch he did the same careful character analysis that he did with Glenn Close for Fatal Attraction. Dean says, “At the beginning of this film, Erin Brockovitch has no money, and three kids from three different fathers. She’s had a terrible automobile accident; she tries to sue and loses. She is nowhere in her life.” But Dean noticed something early in the script, which says that Brockovitch once won a small beauty pageant.” He says,  “That was the one moment in her life where she felt beautiful.” It was with this understanding that Dean designed the makeup. He says, “I figured out approximately when this short moment of happiness happened in her life, and decided that the makeup she had in her purse would be the remnants of that moment—a little chunk of a black eye liner pencil, a cheap pink lip-gloss—which she applies as she’s driving her broken down car.” He adds, “As the character becomes more successful she only buys a better version of these same cosmetics.” Dean’s understanding of this psychology goes beyond the character of Brokovitch. He says, “Sometimes we laugh at people who keep a hairstyle from the 1980s; what they’re really doing, however, is trying to hold on to a time when they felt most beautiful, or the most sexually successful.” This, combined with his talent to execute what he envisions, no doubt has a great deal to do with his success. But it probably also has to do with Richard Dean being so genuinely charming and nice. Joe Campayno (featured in this issue for his work on the new play Spamalot) worked with Dean at NBC. He says, “I think if it wasn’t for working with Richard Dean I might have left the business. He taught me about make-up, but being around him was such a pleasure; he is just a great human being. I learned so much from him.”

These days Dean is teaching many people about make-up. It seems Julia’s famous smile is making him famous too, and not just among other make-up artists. 

After Roberts and Dean made Mona Lisa Smile, Dean was asked to become a Max Factor movie make-up artist. Essentially what this means is that he introduces new products, sometimes in a TV commercial, the way he did for a stay-put lipstick soon after Mona Lisa was released. For the humble Dean, who hardly ever keeps a picture of himself with a celebrity, (in fact it was a challenge for him to find some for this interview) the liaison with Max Factor has little to do with exposure. Dean is honored to be associated with Factor. He says, “When I was asked to do this I read up on Max Factor. I think many people don’t realize that he was a person; some think he was just a name like Betty Crocker, who is a picture on a box. But Factor had a remarkably interesting life, and he really was the first to bring commercial cosmetics mainstream.” Dean’s enthusiasm about Max Factor is contagious, as is he enthusiasm for his work. 

His last project was Hitch; he worked with Eva Mendez and Amber Valletta. At the moment Dean is in Canada working again with Michael Douglas on a new film.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
3 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Business dicker
Business dicker
2 months ago

Business dicker I’m often to blogging and i really appreciate your content. The article has actually peaks my interest. I’m going to bookmark your web site and maintain checking for brand spanking new information.

minihints
minihints
2 months ago

no entanto, você fica nervoso por querer estar entregando o próximo mal, inquestionavelmente, volte mais cedo, já que exatamente o mesmo quase com muita frequência dentro do caso de você proteger esta caminhada

BaddieHub
BaddieHub
2 months ago

BaddieHub I very delighted to find this internet site on bing, just what I was searching for as well saved to fav

3
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x