by Mary Anne Butler, Reporter/Photographer
Founder/Mastermind behind Illusion Industries, Inc (www.illusionindustries.com) Todd Tucker took a few minutes out of his crazy busy schedule to talk to Mab of ComicsOnline a little bit about his past makeup/visual effects creations and his upcoming projects.
Mab: Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule
Todd: Oh of course, thank you for the time for the interview.
Mab: I’m so excited to get to talk to you, I’m a huge fan of your work, actually. Hannibal is one of my favorite films, and the fact that Manson Verger is some of your effects work is incredible. It was such a crazy transformation, to know that’s Gary Oldman under all that make up, the only thing that gave it away was his hands.
Todd: You know, it’s a funny thing too, because Gary came to us, and it’s the first time I’ve had an actor say this to me, he said “This character and this makeup you guys are going to do for me have to be relatively painful and uncomfortable because this character himself is constantly in pain because of what he’s done to himself, so you’ve got to do something to me that’ll hurt.” I’ve NEVER in my life had an actor tell me that. So we did stuff like putting tabs underneath his eyes, and opening his eyes as wide as they could go, and we put these big lenses in, and covered him all the way. I mean we did some stuff to him most actors would never put up with. But Gary is just so amazing and method in his acting, that he wanted to be in that position, it was really cool.
Mab: And it was SOOOO perfect, having read the book and everything, the description of what he looks like, and how he reacts to certain things, and yeah the pain aspect of the character just came across so perfectly on film.
Todd: The thing is too, Gary is just one of the best actors there is. So anytime you put him in a makeup, and I was fortunate enough to work with him back on Dracula you know back in the day, I got to tell you, when you watch Gary take a makeup and transform into that character it’s magic. It’s really cool when an actor can make the character that you created believable.
Mab: That’s got to be such a neat experience, seeing something you’ve worked on come to life like that.
Todd: Oh yeah. And I mean there’s been times where I’ve put makeups on people and they don’t pull it off. You can really see the difference. And a good makeup isn’t going to save a bad performance. So if the actor doesn’t have the chops, it doesn’t really matter how good the makeup is, it won’t fly.
Mab: I’m looking through the various galleries here on www.illusionindustries.com going “Oh yeah I know this one, and this one, and oh they did THAT one?”
Todd: I actually started back in 1990, a good portion of those credits are all my personal credits over the last 20 years. When I opened Illusion Industries 3 years ago, all the films we’ve worked on since I opened the company are all coming out this year. So, I have 7 films coming out this year, all studio films, and finally people will be able to hear our name and see our work.
Mab: Well Iceman sure looks fantastic!
Todd: Iceman is an amazing film. I saw it at the Toronto Film Festival, and I’ll tell you this, Michael Shannon the actor, other than Gary Oldman, is one of the most intense actors I’ve ever worked with. And the performance in Iceman is chilling. (Ha, I see what he did there) And Chris Evans too, the actor who plays Captain America, MAN does he give a great performance. I don’t think people realize how good he is also. I think this movie will really shine for these two guys. The rest of the actors too, with Winona Ryder and Ray Liotta, it’s an amazingly intense and well acted film.
Mab: I cannot wait! I saw the poster for it, and who was in it, and I’m sold. And I know you can’t do a lot of talking about the new G.I. Joe film, but maybe you can tell us what it was like to work on it?
Todd: The best part of G.I. Joe was that Jon Chu the director, really understands how to make this kind of movie. And he was really interesting to work with. I always study different directors when I work with them, because I’m also a director myself, and it’s always a great experience for me when I work with someone knowledgeable and understands that type of film. We did all KINDS of makeup across the board for this film. The hardest part about this film was that it was shot in Louisiana during the hottest most humid part of the summer. So the actors and the makeup and everything had to have a little extra care to keep up with the heat. But at the end of the day, the experience was great, the actors were amazing. It’s just going to be a fun film, and I think the fans are really gonna dig it.
Mab: I also see you’ve done a lot of talking about transforming Hank Azaria into Gargamel.
Todd: I gotta tell ya, Hank Azaria is such a cool guy. When we put him into that makeup and he becomes Gargamel, he is just such a great physical comedic actor, it just makes it fun everyday to sit and watch for 15 and 16 hours and watch him perform. And when you’re on set for that long, for 3 months in Canada, because I was putting him in the makeup every day. And if you’re working with someone not good at what they do or not cool about it, it really drags out. The entire crew, the cast, the director on Smurfs 2, I have to put it up there as one of my favorite experiences, really positive, and Hank was really cool.
Mab: He’s such a good actor, sometimes I feel like people don’t appreciate him as much as they should.
Todd: Well, he hasn’t really been put into that place where he’s been a lead enough for people to realize how good he really is. And not just at comedic stuff, he’s a great dramatic actor, he’s really good across the board. People know him from all the characters he’s played, all the voices he’s done for The Simpsons and different films, so. I think you’re right, I think he’s very underrated for what he’s capable of. I think people are seeing it now, and I think the Gargamel character really shows how funny he is.
Mab: I don’t think anyone else could have brought that character to life like he did. I was very happy when they announced that’s who was playing him in the live action film.
Todd: He wasn’t originally scheduled to play this, he kind of came in the last minute, they had someone else. And when I found out who they had before and who they changed out and then they brought Hank in, I was so happy. Because the other guy would have pulled it off, but I think Hank took it to a level I don’t think anyone else would have.
Mab: What project are you most looking forward to having everyone see? I mean you said you have so many things coming out, but what of them coming out this year are you the most proud of?
Todd: The thing I’m the most happy about is all 7 films we have coming out this year are completely different across the board. We’ve got Smurfs 2 which is a family film, we’ve got G.I. Joe which is an action/fantasy, Iceman which is complete drama and realistic, we’ve also got a couple of horror films we did. We did Fright Night 2, The Dyatlov Pass Incident which is total horror, and then we also did a couple of drama films, one called The East and the other called Fort Bliss where we did trauma makeup. So we’re in every genre this year which I think is really cool because we’re not just doing monsters, it’s everything from old age to characters to trauma to monsters, it’s everything across the board on really good films. So I’m excited about all of them, because I get to showcase something different in every one. And we also have a movie out right now, that I directed a few years ago that I’m really proud of, it’s a family film called Monster Mutt. I made it for little kids between 5 and 10, it’s kind of a throw back to the old E.T. or Dark Crystal kind of movies. I made the monster very practical, like a big giant lovable character. I didn’t go ultra realistic, because I wanted kids to see it as a lovable fantasy character. It ended up doing really well, it got world wide distribution, you can actually buy the video at Wal Mart, Target, and Amazon, and you can download it from DirectTV, iTunes, and Voodoo. And it’s just a good little film, very sweet, nothing really scary about it. And we also have another film that I’m directing this year, it’s an in-house project that we’re doing that is a supernatural action film, and it’s going to be really cool. So on top of all the studio makeup effects, we’re also doing those in-house projects as well this year.
Mab: Wow, you really have your hands in everything, don’t ya?
Todd: (laughs) Yeah, I just have way too much energy.
Mab: Some of the best projects come from the people that have that restless energy.
Todd: I just love what I do. If I were a construction or a pool guy, I’d probably still do all this on the weekend. The fact that I actually get paid to do this is amazing.
Mab: I’m so glad you do, because then we get to see these fantastic creations that you come up with.
Todd: It really is a lot of fun. It’s a real passionate thing for me, and my crew too. I’m only as good as my crew, and I have a truly wonderful group behind me, and we’re all really passionate about what we do. If it’s alright, I’d love to give a shout out to my crew because I spent years and years being the guy behind someone else, and I always wanted to make sure that once I got to this position, that I would always give credit where credit is due. So I wanted to thank my business partner Ronald L. Halvas, and my two key artists Martin Astles and Joe Colwell. And my two production coordinators, Adam Walls and Jane Finster. They are my support team, and they are really the reason this all works. I truly appreciate them.
Mab: That’s really awesome, that you took the time to make sure people know you value your team. I wish more people would do that.
Todd: Eh, it’d be a nicer world, wouldn’t it? (laughs)
Mab: I know you have a lot of other people to talk to today, so I wanted to say thank you again for your time.
Todd: No problem, no problem, if any of your audience/readers want to check out our stuff, we have a lot of it up on our website, and there’s also the Illusion Industries facebook page and twitter, with all kinds of cool stuff to check out.
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