Flow dramas don't usually light upward the internet while they're in production, but Darkest Hour was a unique instance due to the insane physical transformation of lead actor (and current Best Player Oscar frontrunner) Gary Oldman. The film chronicles a testy menstruum of fourth dimension in Winston Churchill's life, and director Joe Wright wooed Oldman to take on the challenge of filling the role. Merely instead of packing on the pounds and shaving his caput, Oldman had another idea for physically embodying the famous British politician: makeup.

Indeed, the starting time images of Oldman equally Churchill were released when filming on Darkest Hour began, and the globe was shocked to encounter how uncanny the resemblance was. This was 100% due to a astounding makeup job, and to go the wait just right, Oldman and Wright enlisted famed makeup designer and artist Kazuhiro Tsuji. Tsuji's talents were well-known in Hollywood circles, just the designer had somewhat sworn off applying makeup himself after a traumatizing experience with Jim Carrey on 2000's How the Grinch Stole Christmas . He'd pop upwards here and there, notably spearheading the designs on Rian Johnson's Looper , but Darkest Hour is Tsuji'due south first movie in five years, equally he spent a lot of fourth dimension creating his own sculptures and art.

As Tsuji and Darkest Hour are currently in the running for the Best Makeup & Hairstyling Oscar, Focus Features has released a new behind-the-scenes video that offers a fantastic wait at exactly how the makeup transformation for Oldman worked. The film is the heavy frontrunner to win, and while one only needs look at the terminal consequence to see why, this video offers some intriguing insight for those curious to see how an insane design similar this comes to life.

Check out the Darkest Hr behind-the-scenes video below, and look for Tsuji to take the phase on Oscar night in one short week.Darkest Hour is available now on Digital and hits Blu-ray and DVD on February 27th.

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Image via Focus Features
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Image via Focus Features
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Paradigm via Focus Features

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Adam Chitwood (15941 Articles Published)

Adam Chitwood is the Managing Editor for Collider. He'due south been working for Collider for over a decade, and in addition to managing content also runs point on crafts interviews, awards coverage, and co-hosts The Collider Podcast with Matt Goldberg (which has been running since 2012). He's the creator and author of Collider's "How the MCU Was Fabricated" serial and has interviewed Neb Hader about every unmarried episode of Barry. He lives in Tulsa, OK and likes pasta, 90s thrillers, and spending like 95% of his time with his dog Luna.

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