Here's How The Mother Actor Looks Without All That Creepy Makeup in Barbarian
It looks like the Barbarian makeup team did a really good job creating Mother, a repulsive hairy female character in Zach Cregger's horror film that hit theaters this fall and caused quite a stir among horror fans.
In a recent interview with Variety, the Mother actor Matthew Patrick Davis (here's his Instagram) shared what it was like to play the mutant monster and how much effort the team put into creating her.
One of the strangest experiences Davis had was when he had to shave his entire body.
"I did Veet my entire body, which was a fun experience that I had never had before, but I asked if I could not shave my eyebrows because he was going to cover them with prosthetics," he said, explaining that the Mother's look consisted of a headpiece with a wig and facial prosthetics.
A special false jaw was made to push the actor's mouth and disfigure his face. Contact lenses were used to change the color of Davis' eyes, and there was a lot of body paint and fake scars. His body was made to look pale and covered in dirt.
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Davis said the hardest part was having "dirt" under his toenails – it was almost impossible to "get out" after the shooting was over.
Transforming Davis into Mother was a rather tedious process, but it was fun. Since the makeup covered most of the actor's body, Cregger insisted that all the close-ups be shot in the morning as he "stepped out of the makeup trailer" while the makeup was still fresh.
"As soon as I start moving or sweating, that's when you'll start to see the seams, so for any close-up work, they would make sure to do that first," Davis recalled saying that wide shots were filmed later in the day.
One of the least convincing pieces of prosthetics was the buttocks, and Davis said that the effects people "a cast of my butt during one of the makeup tests", the fake butt looked so bad that it was decided to use it only with thongs.
The actor recalled that when he was on his way to Bulgaria for the shoot, he could not imagine what he would have to go through. He said he never saw any renderings of the character, which is otherwise standard procedure. Once he was on the set, he realized that Mother looked a bit cartoonish, but the whole team, including the filmmaker, put their heads together to make it look just right.
The film was an instant hit when it debuted in September, with critics praising its unorthodox twists and utterly terrifying scenes that are sure to impress the most avid horror fans. They praised Zach Cregger for creating a very suspenseful and ultimately crazy rollercoaster ride.
Cregger is best known as one of the members of the comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U Know and he was able to bring a bit of comedy into an otherwise socking horror movie. The director just really understood that his audience loves to laugh as much as they love to be scared, fans argue.