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Behind the Masks of Doug Jones
May 14, 2007

Jones

Though character actor Doug Jones has been in some pretty well-known movies, including Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy and critically acclaimed Pan’s Labyrinth and the highly anticipated Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, if he were to pass you on the street, you probably wouldn’t recognize him. That’s because most of the time, Doug is acting behind layers of makeup and costume. On Pan’s Labyrinth, in which Doug stars as the Pale Face Man and the Faun, the behind-the-scenes featurettes reveal just how complex the film’s costumes were. I recently spoke with Doug about the challenges of being a character actor and wearing those crazy costumes in the film, which New Line is issuing on DVD on May 15.

VB: Last night I watched Pan’s Labyrinth’s behind-the-scenes featurettes on the costumes for the Pale Face Man and the Faun, and I was amazed by how elaborate the costumes were!

JONES: I would say elaborate is an understatement! I would say these were among the most exquisite things I’ve ever been able to wear. Each character took about five hours to get into with a team of people working on them. The Faun character was quite complicated with all of the different elements that had to come together with the mechanics at the top of my head to make the eyelids and eyebrows work, the ears flap and also the glued on prosthetic parts of my lower face were actually glued on to my own skin and neck. The body suit had to be put together in different pieces so that it would move correctly and not strain too much in any one area. And also the legs were quite a contraption.

VB: The legs were thinner than yours, right? It looked like they CGI’d a part out.

JONES: The only CGI they used on my legs were from the knee down. They had to make that part of my leg disappear. And then they built the funny zig-zag thing out from my own leg, so I was carrying around the real legs on set.

VB: I was amazed when you described the Faun costume as the most comfortable you’ve ever worn.

JONES: Well, they painstakingly did a fitting that would tweak every little bit. And I think it’s because instead of being one bodysuit that fits all together, bringing weight down on my shoulders, it was made of several different pieces so that the weight was dispersed so differently, or so evenly, that I came out of it everyday without any pressure points or red marks. It was the first time that I’ve ever worn something that elaborate and didn’t have red marks.

VB: Why do you think filmmakers continue to use costume and makeup rather than having CGI characters put into the film?

JONES: Probably for a couple of reasons. One would be money. Money is always involved in decision making, and computer-generated characters are extremely expensive. But for artistic reasons, they keep people like me around wearing monster suits because when you have a real-life person giving the performance, I think the audience members can connect with that character a little bit better. I know that I do. As an audience member myself, I like to watch other people. I think that when a performance is being given and a character is being portrayed, you want to be able to tap into his heart and into his soul. And I think a live person will give you that. Computer graphics have come a long way and they are getting better and better all the time, but that’s my personal preference, and I don’t think I’m alone in that.

VB: Yeah, I agree. CGI characters look great but are missing that human element.

JONES: I’ve had so many people tell me about Pan’s Labyrinth that they were very organic beings. The reality of it was what sold them on it.

VB: Right. I felt like the Faun had a full range of emotion, and I was never really sure if it was a good or bad character.

JONES: That’s what you were supposed to think! I guess I did a good job then! That’s what was so delicious about that character. I couldn’t tell if he was good or evil until the very end. So playing him on screen was very fun. I had to turn on my playful side, taunting, sort of playful. I had to walk a tightrope between good and evil. Do you show too much good? Too much compassion? But you don’t want to be stereotypically evil either. It was kind of a middle ground. It was so much to play with and gave me such a wide range that I couldn’t wait to get into him. —Cheryl Cheng

The second part of this interview will be posted later this week. 

Posted by on May 14, 2007 | Comments (0)