Last night, I was given the opportunity to interview Academy Award winner Howard Berger. He and Tami Lane took home the award for Best Achievement in Make-up for the Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He was the head of the Make-up department, and responsible for prosthetic design and application on the film. I’d like to take this opportunity to formally congratulate him on that award. It really is something, to be recognized by your peers, like that.
It was a pleasure to finally speak with him after all of these years following what they were doing with the film. I just did a little bit more research and found out that they did a lot of the special effects on The X-Files, as well as make-up and effects for the Spy Kids films, as well as many sci-fi and horror films from the past twenty or so years. With that amount of history and skill, it is no wonder that they were selected to do the same for Narnia. (Take a look at their long list of movies that they’ve had a hand in here at IMDb.)
I decided before the interview that I wanted it to be an a-typical interview, so I wrote down some questions that I’ve wanted to know about myself. Once we got going, however, it turned into a great discussion, with a lot of laughter. I wish I had the audio to share with you, but sadly, all I did was take notes on the conversation. Now, I’m going to do my best to relate to you what we talked about. It won’t be word for word, but you’ll get the idea.
The first thing I asked him, was if he had been to this website, to which he said that he has it bookmarked. I am honored and humbled. That wasn’t the first question that I had written, however. The first official question came to mind while I was watching the special features on the DVD.
“What happened if you were in a costume, and you had to use the bathroom?”
Howard Berger immediately responded with a funny story from the first day of the shoot. They had all of these Minotaurs, great big guys in these huge Minotaur costumes, and suddenly a great big minotaur came running at him. Understand, this guy is about 6 and a half feet tall, and tells him that he has to urinate, bad. Mr. Berger asks his assistant if they had put zippers in the front of the costumes for that, and it was a moment of revelation, as they realized that they hadn’t. They had completely overlooked that aspect of the costume. So they took a pair of scissors and, very carefully, cut the front of this guy’s costume so that he could urinate. After that, they took all of the costumes and put zippers in. They had about one hundred fifty huge guys in costumes that were very respectful of the costumes that they had been given. If they had to urinate, they’d remove their gloves and pin them to the costume, and then they’d be able to unzip themselves, and I gotta tell you, “It was quite a sight seeing ten minotaurs lined up, urinating, with their backs to you.” If they had to do anything else, they’d remove the costume.
That’s not all, though, with the costumes being as hot as they were, there was another problem. One that was a near disaster, during the filming of the Stone Table. One of the minotaurs, played by a really large blond haired guy, was wavering on his feet. Before the shoot, Mr. Berger looked at him, and he was sweating a lot and kind of pale, and he was thinking “that guy is gonna go.” Suddenly, the guy’s legs tighten up, and he starts to waver, and Mr. Berger shouts: “Get that guy’s [minotaur] head off!” And just as soon as they removed the minotaur mask, he vomited. It would not have been fun, if the guy had vomited inside of the mechanical minotaur mask.
“Did you have a cameo in the film?”
“Oh, you know what, I almost did. I was going to play a gorilla.” Mr. Berger was all set for one day during the shoot to play a gorilla, but after he was in the suit, he thought, “you know what, I’m too old for this,” and decided not to do it. To which, I must say, next film, go for it. Have fun with it, you’re never too old to be a child again, if only for a little while.
Next thing he started to tell me, was they had a plan to create a huge costume, one that was to be large and green, to use as a prank on the director, but they were really focused on what they were doing and just didn’t have time.
It was the next question on my list, if they had pulled any pranks during the filming. He said that while their weren’t any pranks in general, it was a very laid back set, and they joked like a huge family. They were really a giant seven hundred member family on the set of this movie, and everyone was really nice to each other, and just a joy to be around for so long. I can only imagine what it would be like to be a part of a movie like this, and to have everyone just get along so well, that it’s like hanging out with your best friends from dawn until, well, after dark.
He didn’t rule out the possibility of pulling that prank sometime during the filming of the next one, though. A particularly large green ogre mixed in with an army or appearing where Aslan would be. Classic.
“What was your favorite creature to work on?”
There were two answers to this question, because he said they separated the costuming into two groups, the good guys and the bad guys.
When it comes to the good guys, Mr. Tumnus was his favorite to work on. The character was great and they couldn’t have chosen a better actor to play him. Any other actor might not have been able to pull it off as well as James McAvoy. He was so fun to work with, that it made it easy to work with him for the duration of the shoot. They’d put the make-up on him for a few hours in the morning, and at night, they’d spend a few hours removing it, and in eight hours, be putting it back on him again. Plus, he was so cool about it. Because he did not complain about it, a lot of the pressure and the hardship was gone, and they could just work on the costume and have fun, and it made things go a whole lot smoother. He’s also got some great outtakes that are really hilarious.
When the movie was in post production, Andrew Adamson would come up to Howard Berger and say “Why don’t you come in and see what we’re doing?” and he’d reply that he wanted the first time he saw it to be when it was finished, he didn’t want any of the magic gone when he saw the final product. When he finally saw it, he was sitting in the theater with his kids, and he had not seen Mr. Tumnus yet, all that he had seen was James McAvoy in the green tights. When Mr. Tumnus first walked out, he let out a very loud gasp, and his kids turned to him and shushed him. He was in awe of what he was seeing. Seeing Mr. Tumnus for the first time.
As for the bad guys, General Otmin was his favorite. General Otmin was played by Shane Rangi, who was terrific in the role. He’d use Shane in anything. General Otmin was so cool, though. You’re creating a mythological beast, a minotaur, and bringing it to life, and Shane Rangi didn’t complain, he just went with everything and had fun doing it. You can really tell how much fun he had with the character when you watch the DVD. I suggested that there is a Centaur in Prince Caspian (Glenstorm) and that Shane could play the opposing role in the next one. I’ve also spoken with Shane and he’s a very cool guy and I hope that he does continue to do the Narnia films in one way or another. Howard Berger said that he’d work with Shane Rangi any time.
“What’s next for KNB Creature Shop?”
They’re working on a movie called “Grind House,” which is a couple of horror movies by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, another movie called “Prime Evil,” which he notes is “not for kids.” They’re also working on director Tony Scott’s film “Deja Vu” and Showtime’s second season of “Masters of Horror.” They did the first season of that show, too, and now they’re working on season two. Prince Caspian is a long way down the line, though. Andrew Adamson is working hard on it, getting everything together, but it won’t be gearing up for some time now.
“I do a mean Gollum.”
I mentioned that if they ever needed anyone to do any character work for them, I do great impressions of Gollum and Donald Duck. (I can actually do a lot of characters like Kermit the Frog and Gonzo, and more.) He then related to me a story about his son, who can also do a great impression of Gollum. When Peter Jackson was doing “King Kong,” he was holding auditions for the part of a young tribal person, which in the film was a young girl. (In the film, she holds her hand out. If you’ve seen it, you know the one.) Anyway, Howard Berger’s son was nine at the time, and Peter Jackson told him that he should come down and have his son audition for the part. So he goes there, and after his son auditioned, he started running around doing his Gollum impression, and making everyone laugh. It was really quite something.
“The Movie is really something.”
We brought the conversation back around to the film itself, which I said is head and shoulders above the old BBC version, and I had grown up watching the original animated version. He remembered wondering who it would be that would compose the score for the film, and when he heard it would be Harry Gregson-Williams, thought it was an interesting choice. He listened to the music before he saw the movie, and would wonder what the music would be like in the movie, and really thought it was quite wonderful. It added to the emotion of the movie in a way that wouldn’t have been possible without the music. The last five years have been really great for fantasy films.
“Thank you for taking the time to do this interview!”
So there you have it. We wrapped up the conversation in talking about how people are finally realizing that you’re never too old for a good fantasy story, and that is a very good thing. It’s something that J.M. Barrie knew when he was writing the play “Peter Pan,” and that J.R.R. Tolkien knew when he wrote his novel “The Lord of the Rings.” C.S. Lewis knew it, and fostered that in his Children’s series “The Chronicles of Narnia,” and in writing his science fiction epic “Space Trilogy.” I hope that you enjoyed reading this interview, even though it is just a retelling of the stories that he told me.
[Read our Interview with Shane Rangi]
[Check out information about the DVD and pre-order it! (Our review is coming very soon)]
