All posts tagged: Baker

Hollywood Makeup Guru Rick Baker Addresses AI, CGI, Eddie Murphy

Hollywood Makeup Guru Rick Baker Addresses AI, CGI, Eddie Murphy

Published by Daniella Wilson

Rick Baker, who holds a record for being a seven-time Oscar winner in the makeup field, now also holds a Golden Leopard, which he can add to the collection of fantastical creatures he has created over the course of his career. After all, he just received the Vision Award, bestowed upon him on Wednesday evening during the 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival and presented by Ticinomoda. “Rick Baker was responsible for a Copernican revolution in cinema: visionary and revolutionary, he opened new paths for the imagination of entire generations, showing what it truly means to witness physical transmutation on the big screen,” said Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro when he first unveiled the honor. Given Baker’s experience and track record, Hollywood folks, including those outside the makeup world, are surely curious how the maestro feels about technology and other much-discussed issues, which THR recently talked to him about. Asked about the rise of AI, Baker compared his take to his feelings about the rise of computers and CGI, recalling: “We instantly became dinosaurs, people [said]. But at that time, the computer …

Rick Baker Recalls Jim Carrey Grinch Makeup, ‘Thriller’ Video: Locarno

Rick Baker Recalls Jim Carrey Grinch Makeup, ‘Thriller’ Video: Locarno

Published by Daniella Wilson

The 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival will have Oscar royalty in the house on Wednesday evening – well, on its big 8,000-seat square, the Piazza Grande, to be precise. It will bestow its Vision Award, presented by Ticinomoda, upon Rick Baker, a seven-time Oscar winner, a record in the makeup and hairstyling field, and the creator behind some of cinema’s most fantastical creatures. While at the Swiss festival, Baker is also presenting two key films from his career, namely An American Werewolf in London (1981) and The Nutty Professor (1996). The former marked his first Oscar win in 1981, followed by Harry and the Hendersons (1987), Ed Wood (1994), The Nutty Professor (1996)Men in Black (1997), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) and The Wolfman (2010). You also know Baker’s work from Michael Jackson‘s famous Thriller video, in which he also played an on-screen role. “From his early make-up work on genre films in the 1970s to his sophisticated creature and character designs for large-scale studio productions, Rick Baker has forged a new visual grammar for cinematic metamorphosis, earning him a record …

Tom Chadbon death: Doctor Who actor favoured by Tom Baker dies, aged

Tom Chadbon death: Doctor Who actor favoured by Tom Baker dies, aged

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Tom Chadbon, an actor known for his memorable roles in Doctor Who and Peep Show, has died, aged 80. The news was announced by Fantom Films, an organisation that holds Doctor Who-themed events, which Chadbon often attended to meet fans. “We are sorry to hear the news that Tom Chadbon passed away last weekend,” an announcement on its social media pages read. “Tom was a familiar face to many from his numerous television and film credits. He was always a warm and friendly man to work with and we send our condolences to his family at this sad time.” Chadbon, who also appeared in Game of Thrones, played the detective Duggan opposite Tom Baker’s incarnation of the Doctor in 1979 serial, “City of Death”. Duggan is commonly considered to be one of Doctor Who’s greatest one-off characters. Baker reflected on his …

Malia Baker Talks New Descendants Movie, Future Dream Roles

Malia Baker Talks New Descendants Movie, Future Dream Roles

Published by Daniella Wilson

As Descendants enters a new chapter, so does Malia Baker. The 19-year-old Botswana-born actress returns as Chloe Charming in Descendants: Wicked Wonderland, stepping back into the Disney franchise, not as the newcomer who once idolized the original cast, but as one of the faces leading its next generation. “It’s like entering this world as camp counselors this time instead of these nervous campers that we were the first time around,” Baker tells The Hollywood Reporter on a recent Zoom. “We put so much pressure on ourselves just because we loved the movies so much. They were so integral, not just for my formative years, but my peers as well,” she continues. “You hold so much respect and love for them, so it was a really big deal. But it was still so much fun to film.” Returning for a second film also meant welcoming a new group of cast mates, who quickly turned into some of Baker’s closest friendships. She’s excited for the “world to fall in love” with her friends and the new characters. …

Matt Baker launches new Petcast podcast with guest Bill Bailey

Matt Baker launches new Petcast podcast with guest Bill Bailey

Published by Daniella Wilson

Matt Baker’s brand new podcast celebrating the special relationship between people and their pets has officially launched, with comedian, presenter and author Bill Bailey joining him for the first episode. In episode 1 of Matt Baker’s Petcast, produced in collaboration with Radio Times, Baker brings the Petcast caravan to Goodwoof, the popular dog show held at the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex. Bailey arrives with Chocho, a six-month-old rescue Japanese Chin who was originally found as a companion for his 93-year-old father. The pair sit down for a relaxed and frequently surprising conversation exploring how animals have shaped Bailey’s life, from the dogs he knew growing up to the extraordinary collection of creatures he has cared for as an adult. Bailey recalls childhood pets and family memories, as well as his time living on a houseboat with Rocky, a terrier he describes as a “latchkey” dog. Rocky was given the freedom to roam and even became an unexpected part of Bailey’s comedy career, wandering onstage during some of his gigs… The Strictly Come Dancing champion …

Rick Baker Recalls Jim Carrey Grinch Makeup, ‘Thriller’ Video: Locarno

Rick Baker, Oscar Winner, Makeup Artist, to Get Locarno Vision Award

Published by Daniella Wilson

The Locarno Film Festival will bestow its Vision Award, presented by Ticinomoda, upon Rick Baker, the seven-time Oscar winner behind some of cinema’s most fantastical creatures. Baker will receive the award in the Swiss town’s Piazza Grande on the evening of Wednesday, Aug. 12. He will also present, within the festival program, two key films from his career, namely An American Werewolf in London (1981) and The Nutty Professor (1996). “From his early make-up work on genre films in the 1970s to his sophisticated creature and character designs for large-scale studio productions, Rick Baker has forged a new visual grammar for cinematic metamorphosis, earning him a record number of Academy Awards for best makeup and cementing his status as a reference point for generations of artists,” said Locarno organizers. “Over his long career, Rick Baker has transformed Michael Jackson into a zombie in Thriller and turned Jim Carrey into the Grinch.” It concluded: “He has been responsible for crafting unforgettable werewolves to some of the most realistic gorillas ever created for film, each time redefining the audience’s sense of what is real and what is imagined on the big screen.” …

The Bob Baker Marionette Theater Pulls Strings Back Into Zeitgeist

The Bob Baker Marionette Theater Pulls Strings Back Into Zeitgeist

Published by Daniella Wilson

Not long ago, Hollywood’s beloved Bob Baker Marionette Theater was hanging on by a thread. In the final decades of its eponymous founder’s life — he died in 2014, at the age of 90 — the puppetry organization was in perpetual dire financial straits, its longtime downtown L.A. playhouse in decay, particularly as the rise of CGI sapped its workshop’s film and TV gigs. Yet recent years have seen the revival of BBMT, known for cabaret-style shows whose whimsical bygone aesthetic is drawn from vaudeville and carnival midways. Today a non-profit, the theater has been string-pulling its way back into the Zeitgeist, its puppeteers performing to a massive crowd at Coachella this spring, its merch adorning Rachel Sennott’s talent manager on HBO’s I Love L.A. Now, for its next act, BBMT is attempting to purchase the historic Highland Park stage it took over in 2019 and mounting the company’s first original show in more than four decades. “It’s a rare heart-warming story in the time we live in right now, this little glimmer of hope,” …

Doctor Who’s Tom Baker reunites with K9 star for Sherlock Holmes story

Doctor Who’s Tom Baker reunites with K9 star for Sherlock Holmes story

Published by Daniella Wilson

Doctor Who legend Tom Baker has reunited with his former co-star John Leeson for a brand new Sherlock Holmes adventure. Baker, who played the Fourth Doctor in the BBC sci-fi series, has returned to the role of Sir Sherlock Holmes for Sir Sherlock: The Sickle and the Sea, a new original audio adventure from AUK Studios. The project sees Baker starring opposite Leeson – best known to Doctor Who fans as the voice of the Doctor’s robotic companion K9 – as Doctor Watson, with the pair joined once again by Katy Ashworth as Emily Lestrade. A behind-the-scenes photo from the production show Baker and Leeson back together for the new mystery, which follows on from Sir Sherlock: The Red Letter Day, released earlier this month. Tom Baker and John Leeson record a Sherlock Holmes audio drama. AUK Studios Written by Kenton Hall, The Sickle and the Sea finds Sir Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson and Sergeant Emily Lestrade returning from a clandestine visit to the new Soviet Union on behalf of His Majesty’s Government. However, the trio …

Why Rosebud Baker Left Saturday Night Live: Exclusive Book Excerpt

Why Rosebud Baker Left Saturday Night Live: Exclusive Book Excerpt

Published by Daniella Wilson

It was fitting that I found out I was pregnant at 30 Rock, because that’s where I learned how to operate with zero sleep, and learned that no matter how badly you want something, it might not happen for you when you want it to. Convinced after two miscarriages that my uterus was basically decorative, I had started IVF during season 48 — a fun little process that made me want to murder my husband. I was storing fertility drugs in my office mini fridge, hiding used needles in my office trash can like a drug addict, bloated like a tick, hormones turning me into a werewolf, and what was Andy’s contribution? Jerking off into a cup while scrolling through his phone. “Good luck, honey!” he said to me while handing his sample to the nurse. Then, after all the needles, the hormones, and the money we’d never see again, I got pregnant the old-fashioned way: spousal rape. I’m kidding. It was consensual. (But I love a historically accurate joke!) The IVF had nothing to …