If you don’t watch Face Off (and by the way, you definitely should start) you will recognize her work from such iconic titles as Beetlejuice, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The Lost Boys and recently her work on the world of The Hunger Games movies. That’s right aggressors, Ve Neill is responsible for every single covetable makeup look and effect, from district 13 to the Capitol itself.  

I had the utter privilege of getting to sit down with one of Hollywood’s most talented makeup artists, Ve Neill. Each makeup she designed for The Hunger Games was directly influenced by the costumes and character she was creating for.  Fun fact- She has been nominated for and won more Academy Awards for make-up than any other woman. With three awards, she is tied with Greg Cannom for second most wins by any gender, behind only Rick Baker, who has won eight times. As well as this, she has been nominated eight times, behind only Cannom with nine nominations, and Baker with eleven. (Want to learn from her? She currently has a Los Angeles based ‘Master Class‘.)

Some of her favorite looks were Effie Trinket’s (played by Elizabeth Banks) over the top statement looks. One of her favorites being the incredible Butterfly look. She stated that a lot of her best work came from time crunching and “just doing, not thinking” and she commented that was indeed how the lovely Butterfly look came about. The bold yellow and black coloring of a Monarch butterfly seemed a ‘no-brainer’ she added.

Also on her favorites list was Effie’s soft, glowing “Party Look” that focused on blue and purple as their centerpieces.

Asking where she drew inspiration for the bold and unusual looks of Capitol citizens, I inquired whether she had used Kabuki makeups as an influence. She looked a little surprised and commented that “it’s always in the back of my head somewhere, but I never really think about it!” Neill’s process for gathering her inspiration is a lot like what many of us do on Pinterest, but in real life. She collects images of all sorts of things, swatches of color, and pictures of her actors, and pins them all together on a wall in order to get an idea of her vision for a look.

Neill has been working in Hollywood as a makeup artist since her start in the late 70’s, and special effects makeup and formulas have advanced significantly since that time.  I was curious to know if she could go back through her catalog of work, what she would like to redo or remake with modern techniques.

She immediately cited Mrs. Doubtfire and all of the prosthetic work to create Robin William’s iconic look from that film. Neill said that Williams had been an absolute joy to work with, warm, funny, and absolutely willing to sit still as long as needed to get every prosthetic in it’s place. They developed such a rapport, that by the end of filming she could bring Mrs. Doubtfire to life in 40 minutes, down significantly from the first 4 hour session!

She went on to talk about her work on Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Galaxy Quest with Alan Rickman. Neill feels the loss of both Rickman and Williams keenly, as she enjoyed working with both of them and thought of them fondly as friends. In fact, during the filming of Sweeney Todd Alan Rickman insisted on having her over for dinner, making a large meal ending with a handmade cake. To Rickman’s delight and surprise, Neill announced that it was the loveliest birthday she had ever had – she had told no one that it was her birthday and the cake was merely lucky happenstance.

I then asked Neill what were some of her favorite makeup brands to work with, and if there was any difference to what she used on film versus real life. Neill stated that each actor has difference preferences, but are usually more than happy to trust her judgement when it comes to brands. Her favorites include MAC, Makeup Forever, and NARS. She added that she is a big fan of Armani foundation for certain difficult to match skin types. Neill is more than happy to use everything she works with on set, in her real life, and does most of the time.

Neill was a wealth of information, warm, kind and fascinating to speak with, I got to chat with her inside the recently opened “The Hunger Games: The Exhibition” at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.  If you are a fan of The Hunger Games, you will most definitely enjoy the exhibit. Everything on display is screen used, every single prop, costume and set piece – it is truly an impressive overview of the world of Panem. If you’ve longed to see some of the impressive costumes up close, this is definitely the exhibit for you! The gift shop is also very impressive and incredibly tempting, treat yourself to a wine glass from the Capitol or bread mix from Peta’s Bakery.

The exhibit will be be on display in San Francisco until September 5th, 2016.