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Netflix's American Primeval uses horror movie makeup in a western... and it shows
American Primeval star Dane DeHaan and makeup head Howard Berger get raw (ew) about the "real Frankenstein stuff" in Netflix's brutal new western.
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Minor spoilers for American Primeval follow.
Well, that was a hell of a pilot. Sorry to all the Dane DeHaan fans that had to see that.
I'm talking about the first episode of American Primeval, Netflix's brand new western drama. In the very first episode, DeHaan's character Jacob Pratt, who is a Mormon settler heading across Utah, is caught in the crossfire of a deadly land dispute. Though he survives, Pratt is grabbed during the struggle and, in full view of the camera, partially scalped - a scene which DeHaan himself calls "one of those magic moments."
DeHaan's comment comes from an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, which he participated in along with makeup department head Howard Berger. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 star adds that that colleagues and friends were so impressed with the scalping scene, they'd send him pictures of the gory event.
"I had to be like, ‘I know that we’re all proud of ourselves,'" DeHaan said, "'but everyone, please stop.’"
In order to pull off (ew) the grisly scene, director Peter Berg originally wanted to add blood in digitally. But when he didn't feel he was getting what he wanted, Berg called upon Berger and his studio, the Oscar-winning KNB EFX, to achieve the effect practically.
Berger describes the actual blood gag as a two-part device, "a piece underneath that had the blood bladder and looked like the top of his skull, and a piece with a full wig that glued down onto Dane that we could cut and pull up." Just reading about it makes one queasy, and it manifested exactly that quease on set. In fact, Berg was so happy with the result of the blood gag's first usage, he decided to cut the scene after just one take.
Handling the aftermath of the bloody event was FX artist Jamie Kelman, who had collaborated with DeHaan previously in applying the "old man" makeup for the latter's role in Oppenheimer. Working under Berger's direction, Kelman applied the prosthetics for the worsening status of poor Jacob Pratt's pate, which DeHaan says reflects the worsening of the character's soul.
"His stage one is the actual scalping that we did," Berger says, "and then there are later stages as he gets worse and decomposes. That was a combination of different prosthetics and different contact lenses. I wanted his eyes to look hemorrhaged."
And even though it's Kelman that applied the makeup, FX director Berger also credits Mr. "Magic Moment" Dand DeHaan with a pretty important assist.
"Those two work together really well because Dane has a keen eye," Berger explains, "If continuity was off, Dane would point that out and go, 'Oh yeah, that’s not where the blood is. It’s more here.'"
My kinda guy.
American Primeval is streaming (ew) now on Netflix.
Fade to credits, then a pop-up of what to watch read next - just like Netflix:
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