Makeup Guru

Samuel L. Jackson Did His Own Makeup In The Spirit

Director Frank Miller rewrote the Spirit script to accommodate ScarJo and let Samuel Jackson improvise — and even reinvent his character's look. We met the director and cast, and learned just how much they collaborated.

Samuel L. Jackson has revealed that he picked up make-up tips from Scarlett Johansson while they were on-set of their latest movie 'Spirit'.

The actor even borrowed her eye shadow so he could enhance his scary look in the comic book adventure.

At the presser Samuel L. Jackson was asked about if he was cautious about bringing to life a character that had never before been seen on film or in the panel. In the comics, the Octopus was always just a pair of ominous gloves. He explained that he created most of his character's look himself, in the makeup chair.

It's quite an honor to actually be able to walk into a situation and put flesh and blood into a character that's only been a pair of gloves. And I thank Frank for that opportunity. He gave me license to be as demented and as genius and as goddamn funny as I wanted to. So I kinda took that as my license to do all the things that I ever wanted to do in a film, chew as much scenery as I felt like chewing, and not be criticized for it....."

Also, the Octopus' notorious smeary makeup? All Jackson.

The big discovery for me was, Scarlett and I shared a makeup trailer. So when I would go in in the morning and they'd be making her up and I'd look at her and those beautiful colors of eye shadow on her and I'd go "Wow, I should try some of that." So I got my makeup artist to start experimenting with eye shadow and I would put it on then I would run in there and go "Frank!" and he'd go "I love it!" so then I'd go back to the trailer and go, if I'm wearing a Nazi outfit I should have lightning bolt eyebrows! And I'd go "Frank!" and he'd go "I love it!". And from that point on it was all just a matter of me just kinda me running in and doing as much as I can to myself, even down to the little ermine eyebrows, which I thought was kinda cool.

You just said a mouthful, Sam. While Jackson as a Nazi cat-killer in an SS Uniform may be full of win, seeing him leaking makeup just takes away from the character. There should have been someone on set saying, "Whoa, now we're getting ahead of ourselves let's all just think about what we're doing here for a moment."

"I showed off what we did to Frank Miller, and he said, 'I like it,'" he added.

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