Jason Docherty and Dan Perry (‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’) designed ‘individualized’ prosthetics to create unique, expressive orcs [Exclusive Video Interview]
“We decided that it was really important to acknowledge, honor and draw from what’s been done in the past,” says Jason Docherty of the prosthetic makeup for Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” He recently earned an Emmy nomination for his work in Episode 3, “Adar,” alongside collaborator Dan Perry. This installment tasked these makeup artists to concoct oodles of orc prosthetics. It was a fascinating yet familiar challenge for the pair, who previously worked on both “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” trilogies. As Docherty puts it: “we’ve spent a lot of our lives in Middle Earth.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.
This series explores more of the culture of orcs than the film ever did. “They’re less fodder, more character,” as Docherty notes. This shift in storytelling meant that the team had to think about orc living conditions and social hierarchies, but it also led to the creation of truly individualized characters. “The prosthetic makeups, they’re all very individual, custom made for each person,” explains Docherty. Some orcs have grisly battle scars or deformities, some are imposing army generals with wide, angry faces. The orc camp in Episode 3 is brought humming to life by the interaction of a platoon of these creatures, each one different from the next.
SEE Jason Smith and Ron Ames interview: ‘The Rings of Power’ visual effects
The actors underneath the prosthetics must be incredibly emotive in order to bring their distinct characters to life. Allowing an actor’s facial expression and eyes to “pop” through a heavy makeup job is the most important task for the prosthetic department. “It comes down to materiality, the actual mechanical design of something over and above the aesthetic design, and incorporating the two,” describes Docherty. “So the appliance will be thinner here or thicker here. And to allow more movement or less movement, the materials that these prosthetics are made of can be run in different densities.”
“Each makeup’s really individualized to the performer, whether it be fitting wise or material wise…but also coloration and paint patterns,” says Perry of the extreme attention to detail. “Even right down to the number of freckles and moles and scars and everything that they have on their faces.” He insisted that the same makeup artists be assigned to the same actors for the duration of the shoot, in order for each makeup job to grow more detailed and streamlined as time went on. Depending on the complexity of their orc look, an actor would spend two and half to four hours receiving their makeup application.
Designing specific prosthetics for actors was not just a factor for orcs, but also their “father.” Perry and Docherty had to create a scarred look for the orc-leader Adar (Joseph Mawle), an elf corrupted by evil influence. “The actual makeup that you see on the film went through a lot of iteration, a lot of changes,” admits Docherty. “He’s a very emotive actor so it was really, really important that we didn’t restrict his movement.”
Perry, who applied the makeup to Mawle each day, admits that the original prosthetic build didn’t allow the actor to convey the full range of torment and pain on his face that the actor required. So the team went back to the drawing board, eventually finding a solution with a type of “Bondo transfer.” This technique allowed Perry to apply a layer of detailed yet thin scarring across the actor’s face, with an elaborate paint job that stretched into his hair. “It was quite the challenge, but it was fun makeup to do,” he says. Docherty sums it up best: “Sometimes the simpler makeups are actually the more complex makeups.”
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