Persuade Langella to use wig and makeup

Challenge: Persuade Frank Langella to use wig and makeup in his Nixon transformation

“Finding a happy middle ground was probably one of the most difficult things,” says star Frank Langella’s makeup artist, David Anderson. “Frank wasn’t interested in wearing any augmentation. He performed the play with just the wig, and Ron Howard had a different opinion.”

Anderson made five stages of noses that ranged from a stage-one Langella nose up to a stage-five Nixon nose. Ultimately everyone picked the fourth-stage nose. “Once Frank saw it on his face and my ability to make it disappear to the naked eye, he actually embraced it that night and was very surprised.”

Popular on Variety

Anderson says that his original conceptual art was pretty heavy-handed, “but Frank was the master of subtlety and really helped me a lot.”

Colleen Callaghan, who did Langella’s hair, also praises the actor’s instincts: “Ron called and said, ‘You’ve got to come and help us out. Frank refuses to be seen in any of the wigs that we made for him.'”

Callaghan actually agreed with Langella, going back and making adjustments to the wig’s fit, hairline, wave pattern and grayness — minor changes that made a huge difference. “Every little detail was important,” she says.

Jump to Comments

More from Variety

Most Popular

Must Read

Sign Up for Variety Newsletters

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Variety Confidential

A Variety and iHeartRadio Podcast

ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9nfXGFjp%2BgpaVflsSivsOsZp%2Bqn6jBbrrIsaanZWRifnJ9lnJwcWhlaHw%3D