When Stranger Things season 4 hit Netflix, one of the biggest talking points was the dramatic transformation of David Harbor. His character loses a lot of weight while being held prisoner in Russia.
Behind the scenes, his 75-pound weight loss was decidedly “heartbreaking” to watch…even though the actor actually looked “really happy” in real life.
Metro.co.uk recently spoke with Amy L. Forsyth, head of makeup at Stranger Things, and Devin Morales, co-head of makeup at Stranger Things.
Amy explains how difficult it was for her to see David change before her eyes, noting that Hopper is being put to the test by his “healthy regimen” for losing weight. Thinking about it, the department actually had to do more work to make him look as “weathered” as possible, he added.
When Hopper took off his top in front of Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder), fans were able to see how much of his body was still scarred from the torture and beatings. A prosthetic leg at customs during a shoot during the pandemic.
“But the change in him, because I’ve known him for so long, it’s crazy to see it in person,” Amy said. , it was just heartbreak for me.”
Nonetheless, 47-year-old David seemed to be in good spirits despite the arduous task of losing pounds.
‘He seemed really happy. He’s doing this to his body so he can play realistically as a hopper in the Gulag after being there for so long. His skin was glowing because the nutritional regimen was so healthy,” Amy explained.
“So we had to do a lot more to put it back together and make him look a little more weathered. You look good. You look really happy.” “Yeah…I’m hungry. But…”
“I think he had to put the weight back on for another movie, a Santa Claus movie. It does a lot to your body.”
David recently confessed that he’s struggling to lose weight again for Season 5, saying, “This ups and downs aren’t good for my body, so I have to stop now.
Each season of Stranger Things has continued to raise the bar since it premiered in 2016, and the show’s fourth outing will arguably come again, with the makeup team tasked with creating even scarier looks than ever before. I did.
One such example was in a Russian prison when Hopper and Joyce came across a policeman whose face was slashed by the Demogorgon.
Amy revealed that that particular makeup idea was originally suggested at the end of season 3 for the Terminator-like character Grigori (Andrei Ivchenko).
Another obstacle they had to face during Season 4 was the creation of the Hawkins Laboratory Massacre. Several children are seen bloodied and killed after a rampage by Henry Creel, aka Number One (Jamie Campbell Bower).
However, the challenges the makeup department dealt with in that sequence may not be for the reasons you’d expect.
Of the actors who played the kids in the lab with Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Amy said “they all had a great time” and after smearing the kids with “eye blood” “It’s off.
“We were trying to do everything in a way that was like, ‘Okay, these are the kids. We’re going to set this look. I hope it lasts all day.’ As we go, they’re peeling stuff off their faces and saying, “Fun!” And I was like, ‘Oh, no, no, no, it’s not funny,’ she remembered and laughed.
She added that while she may have had to rework after stripping the child actors’ makeup, she laminated pages to all the kids’ rings, so “it was better than starting from scratch.” . Makeup pattern corresponding to each numbered character name.
Amy and Devin had “no information” to share about Season 5, which is currently being written, but stressed just how big the show will be with each new episode.
“Every season gets bigger. This season, on top of the bigger season and bigger needs of the show, there were additional challenges,” Amy said.
“We were in different locations, different units, so all that sort of thing worked and added Covid on top of that.
Stranger Things is available to watch on Netflix.
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