Behind the scenes of Vietnamese indigenous makeup in Kong: Skull Island

Expert Tuan Tu is one of the Vietnamese people who collaborated on makeup with the Kong: Skull Island film crew when they came to Ninh Binh to film at the end of February 2016.

Tuan Tu and a group of domestic experts worked on set for four days, when the film was filmed with the participation of Vietnamese extras playing the roles of indigenous people.

According to Mr. Tu, the makeup process begins with the artists using silicone makeup molds shipped from Australia. They are glued to the actors' bodies with a layer of glue..Then, the experts remove all the borders and have to redecorate, see if there are any missing spots to add more.

Next, the actor had to transform from a light-skinned person into a wild native. Freckles, age spots, and even every millimeter of the character's face were carefully taken care of. Each toenail and fingernail was also blackened to match the role. After filming, removing makeup with warm water and removing the patterns took up to 30 minutes. All of this was done under the close supervision of the foreign team.

Anh Tu and another expert focused on the makeup of a Vietnamese girl - playing the role of a female native who leads the main group of characters. This is the most important character in the group of extras with many takes and lines.

The process lasted for two days. The first day after the make-up, the Vietnamese actors went out for rehearsals, and the real performance took place the next day. The natives who were filming long scenes only needed light make-up, but for the actors who were filming close-ups, the time for each person was about 4-6 hours.

Makeup artist Tuan Tu applies makeup to a Vietnamese actress at the Ninh Binh studio. Photo: Tuan Tu.

Anh Tu said the salary he received from the Hollywood film crew was equal to the salary he earned from several days of work with many Vietnamese film crews combined. In return, he went through an extremely strict working process and adhered to time down to the minute.

"When we got to the set, every morning someone would wake us up, take us to the car to have breakfast, then go to the office to work, take a short break at noon and continue working in the afternoon. The members from Vietnam all had to sign many contracts to ensure confidentiality. Each position on the set was always monitored by someone and those who took pictures were required to delete the photos immediately," said Mr. Tu.

There were up to ten chefs and five containers serving food to the film crew. Hollywood stars like Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson were all friendly and sociable. They ate with the whole crew, from the technical team to the Vietnamese extras.

However, there is an "unspoken" rule that stars are not allowed to be disturbed during meals. Due to lack of experience working internationally, many Vietnamese people come to ask to take souvenir photos. The stars still smile, but they leave messages for the bodyguards to intervene.

The indigenous village set in Ninh Binh in "Kong: Skull Island".

Filming for the blockbuster Kong: Skull Island began in October 2015 in Hawaii (USA). In December, the film crew moved to Australia and worked there for a month. Vietnam was the final destination. The crew began shooting in Phong Nha - Ke Bang (Quang Binh) on February 23, 2016 and finished the last scene in Ha Long - Cat Ba at the end of March. The production budget of this blockbuster is 190 million USD.

Kong: Skull Island is scheduled to be released to audiences on March 10 with the title Kong: Skull Island.

According to VNE