Michael Westmore is the Make-up Supervisor for
Enterprise. In this 2002 interview, we found out about how he came up with the designs for the new alien races.
When did you start working on Enterprise and how long did it take for you to come up with the concept for what the make-up would be like on the new show? I finished on whatever the last shooting day of Voyager was, and the next day I was on Enterprise. With other departments I wouldn't doubt there was an overlap. [Costume designer] Bob Blackman and myself, we both had things to finish up on Voyager before we could get started on it. There wasn't a lot — maybe a little bit of thinking going on — but not any real physical work. As soon as our responsibilities for Voyager were over, we started on Enterprise. Of course my two big assignments right away were to come up with a design for Phlox and to come up with a design for the new Suliban character — the new troublemaker on the show. And then there were a few other things, other races, that we had in the first episode.
Then we're into some of the races that [the crew] would encounter along the way. But none of those were as demanding to have to put together as Phlox and the Suliban. And I know that with Phlox it was a matter of literally trying to find — not to cover him up as we did with Armin and Odo and Neelix — but to find a humanoid character where they have enough of a design that you know that it's not a human. What his character will wind up doing over the period of the show we'll have to see, but we tried to come up with something to change his anatomy around without making him into something as far out as a Talaxian or a Ferengi or something like that.
How closely do you ever work with somebody like visual effects producer Dan Curry or Bob Blackman or the other visual departments?
I have to work close with them. If I'm going to make something that's going make a neck larger I have got to be able to check with Bob and let him know how much larger it's going to be so he can accommodate for the costume. For the Klingons he wanted to open up the collars to keep them from walking around like humans beings. We now have a Klingon collarbone — a small appliance that has to go on the collarbone and breastbone area of the Klingons so that they don't just look like normal human chests.
After doing well over 500 hours of Star Trek, the challenge of coming up with new stuff has surely got to be great.
It's fun. Literally I would say it's easier to come up with new stuff now than it was after 200 episodes. Because at that point you figure "Gee I've thought of everything that there is that can be done there's nothing more." And then you realize I've got a file here that I can keep going the rest of somebody else's life. You could keep coming up with ideas and concepts. There's just so much material to be able to draw from, so many patterns. There is so much available on Earth you can get ideas from — out of the reptile, insect, microscopic, bird — there's so much to draw from research to come up with new combinations and concepts. There're a million different ideas.
What about the technology of the applications? Where is that today, compared to when you were working on TNG?
That's come a long way. I mean, even the adhesives we use now are silicone as opposed to the spirit gum. And that allows us to make up an actor over and over and over again without winding up with skin problems because it's an inert adhesive as opposed to spirit gum, which can burn you, if you apply an appliance over it wet without really letting it dry out, if you have sensitive skin. The adhesives we use now don't have any solvents or chemicals in them that can create a burn. They also come off easier than spirit gum. They clean up easier than spirit gum. So in the application process, the adhesives are able to speed up the process and be gentler to the actor's skin. Also in the past, for painting a prosthetic, the rubber had to be sealed up totally and then you would paint on top of it with old formulas of rubber paint and greasepaint. And that's the way TNG started. And now we actually have sealer-based paints and we don't use that much grease any more on an appliance. And every make-up artist that works at Star Trek knows how to use an airbrush. By having knowledge of airbrush it speeds up the whole process. So now instead of somebody having to sit in the make-up for hours, the airbrush speeds the process up. Plus we can pre-paint things, like we had with a Talaxian episode on Voyager where we had fifteen Talaxians. All those heads were pre-painted and the spots were all airbrushed on them ahead of time. So when the actor sat in the chair, the head could just flip on. Then, when you put the nose and the cheeks on, all you had to worry about was the front face. Just blend it in because the back of the head was all done. Of course, to do the whole head, you could add another hour, hour and a half on your make-up time.
Do you have to do more make-up on a film than TV because of the resolution?
No. All the make-up artists I use here are the same make artists I use when we do the films. They are quality make-up artists. They've got the techniques down. Even for our new character, the Suliban, the application techniques are very similar to a Borg. It's a totally different look in texture and color and everything, but as far as application goes it's even more involved than a Borg because it's got the entire head and hands that have to take on this special skin texture.
It was interesting [re: the Suliban] in figuring out the development of it because the actual picture of research for their skin was a computer generated surface and we had to figure out how to duplicate that computer generated surface on the skin. There are actually three different layers in there. It just isn't like little dots on top of something, there's a low spot, a medium spot and a high spot.
To date, what would say is one of your favorite make-up creations?
There are so many of them. Going way back the one - because I had a lot of involvement in the one as far as cleaning the guy up and getting him into it — was Leonard Crowfoot on Next Generation. That was a whole body. There wasn't any wardrobe involved. No wardrobe no hair, nothing. Head-to-toe make-up on Leonard Crowfoot when he played the android in "Offspring." To the day that's still my number one favorite make-up.
Are there other make-up artists that you admire, or are influenced by?
I apprenticed with John Chambers, who was the man who did the original "Planet of the Apes." I was John's first apprentice. And I would say, as far as work ethic and how to attack problems and create solutions, I would have to credit John with my roots in the business.
Do you sometimes wish you had an unlimited budget and you could do whatever you wanted to do?
Actually we do. We do what we want to do. I've never been really restrained with money. It's a time factor. Nobody ever says, "You can't do that." If Rick Berman and Brannon Braga want to do something, we do it. There is a time factor in that you're not going to be able to put together a giant, full-figured type of an alien with mechanics in it and everything because of this time factor. Even where we're redesigning the Andorians and we only had eight working days to get it done, and they literally had moving antennas. And the wigs had to be made. Everybody had to coordinate their piece of it to get it ready and it was all done in those few days. It would be great to have had a month. We did a make-up test the day before, but it wasn't a full make-up test because the mechanics weren't ready until late the day before it was supposed to work. We showed them what the mechanics looked like, we showed them what the make-up was going to look like and then we had to pull the whole thing together. I'd say that money hasn't been a real problem since it's not an outside shop and I don't have to worry about overheads. And the people that work in here are make-up artists and I get double-duty out them because they'll apply something and they'll sculpt and they'll make molds and they'll paint. I have this ready-made staff so I don't have to go out and have specialists sitting around. This is the way it's actually worked since 1987.
Do you ever have to make any casting suggestions, like, "I need somebody with a big head"?
No. It seems like you can say that but still the final decision is up to Rick, Brannon and Ron Surma, what they want. And it's happened in the past where a script has called for a large person and casting-wise they just preferred having a small person instead. That's why a lot of times I can't pre-make something ahead until it really gets closer to the actual time. I can't make something ahead of time because I don't know if they're going to all of a sudden hire the guy that played Majel's butler or somebody that's a lot shorter.
Do you ever get guidance from the script or the production office about the make-up?
I get the script and I will come up with concepts and ideas. I then take them to Rick and Brannon and we discuss it to see how far we want to go, or they'll tell me to go further. I pull back, being conservative, and they'll tell me, "No, go do more."
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