The actor Jamie Campbell Bower37, faced an exhausting preparation routine to play the villain Vecna to series “Stranger Things“.
The Netflix hit’s makeup and effects coordinator, Barrie Gower, opened up about the grueling process the British star underwent for years to play the role.
In an interview with People magazine, the professional detailed the schedule: “We had to start at 1am or 2am to get it ready for 8am or 9am. It was a full day of shooting of maybe 10 to 12 hours. Then, we spent two hours at night removing everything from him.”.
Despite the workload that bordered on, the production team put together a strategy to avoid the actor’s total exhaustion.
“Tudor Jones, one of the producers of the fifth season, who was the first assistant director on the fourth, organized the filming so intelligently and carefully that we never filmed with Jamie two days in a row,” explained the makeup artist.
Barrie recalled that everyone ended the day “exhausted”, but planning provided additional rest.
“We would normally have a super long day on a Monday, for example, but then we might not shoot again until Wednesday or Thursday. So there was an extended recovery period.”
For the fifth and final season, Jamie’s routine became a little lighter. and featured more computer graphics effects (CGI), which drastically reduced the actor’s time in the makeup chair.
“The way we manufactured the makeup was very different from season four. We used different materials and molding procedures. We spent about three hours with him in the chair, maximum,” revealed Barrie. He even joked about a practical improvement in the new episodes: “It was a lot easier for him to go to the bathroom this season too.”
The removal process also sped up. While in the fourth season it took up to two hours to clean the actor, in the new year the task is done in less than an hour. “We have three of us taking off our makeup at the end of the day. It took us about 45 minutes to an hour to take everything apart, clean it up, put out some hot towels and send it home,” the pro concluded.
