Quebec’s Adrien Morot snags Oscar nomination for his work on ‘The Whale’

Adrien Morot, a Montreal-born make-up artist, woke as much as an e mail Tuesday morning from his “good buddy: Brendan Fraser.”

The Hollywood actor was writing to congratulate Morot on his Oscar nomination for his work on The Whale.

“I used to be nonetheless very groggy. I used to be like, ‘What’s occurring right here?’,” Morot mentioned.

Earlier than replying to Fraser, nevertheless, Morot had some issues he wanted to do.

“I went to take a look at the information to see if he was nominated in order that I might reply rapidly and he was,” Morot mentioned, including the pair exchanged a number of jokes.

Fraser snagged a nomination within the Finest Actor in a Main Function class, for his portrayal of Charlie — a 600 lb man, who tries to construct a relationship along with his estranged daughter Ellie, performed by Sadie Sink.

Morot was nominated within the Make-up and Hairstyling class and is accountable for Fraser’s radical bodily transformation.

Morot mentioned when he was first approached by The Whale director Darren Aronofsky, with whom he’s collaborated previously, he was instructed he had a five-week window during which to develop the character.

After studying the script, Morot began constructing a picture financial institution of what individuals with Charlie’s situation would appear like. He additionally researched what different make-up artists earlier than him had executed.

“It’s at all times a place to begin,” he defined, including that’s the way you study what will be executed and the way far you’ll be able to push issues.

However what rapidly struck him was that films during which overweight characters had been depicted had been usually comedies or science-fiction films.

“Each time these sorts of make-up have been executed previously, it was at all times just like the character was the butt of the joke,” he mentioned.

That’s when Morot realized he would want greater than 5 weeks to have the ability to do the character and the storyline justice.

“It’s a heavy drama,” he mentioned of the movie. “It will possibly’t be a joke. It can’t be. It can’t be any of those different films that I’ve seen.”

It was essential to Morot to strategy the the subject from a spot of empathy.

So he did what wanted to be executed and bought down on his knees and begged for extra time.

“And so we ended up with 12 weeks to construct the entire physique prosthetics and facial prosthetics for the character,” Morot mentioned.

Constructing the prosthetics is just one a part of the problem. The subsequent one is placing them on.

The primary make-up check, the place Fraser was reworked into Charlie, took seven hours.

Morot recollects how Aronofsky then prompt that possibly it wasn’t essential to make use of all of the prosthetics and that possibly padding might work.

Morot, nevertheless, argued towards and received his case.

The group ultimately managed to get make-up all the way down to lower than three and a half hours, not together with the time it takes on the finish of the day to take away all of it — a course of that takes about an hour.

Furthermore, the prosthetics can solely be worn as soon as and must be consistently remade, which could be a painstaking course of.

At first of the film, Charlie sports activities what Morot described as a “scruffy beard.”

“To try this within the prosthetics, all these hairs should be punched in one by one.”

Morot dispelled any fantasy in regards to the job being glamourous.

“It’s very onerous work,” he mentioned, joking that the interview requests he obtained Tuesday morning are about as glamourous because it will get.

However he’s OK with that. Morot mentioned he’s happiest when he’s busy operating round with issues to do and stuff to repair.

Actually, whereas profitable an Oscar may be good, Morot is a bit of apprehensive.

“I’m hoping that I’m not going to must stroll on stage and make a idiot of myself,” he mentioned.

Whereas Morot is predicated out of Los Angeles for work, he divides his time between L.A. and Montreal, the place his spouse and two sons reside.

He credit his hometown for jumpstarting his profession and says as a result of Montreal’s movie group is small, it could possibly do the identical for others.

“I believe that you’ve much more probabilities of impressing large title producers and administrators that may be coming … from out of city. And for those who can impress them and or impress them sufficient that they keep in mind you, nicely, that may be a fantastic launching pad for a a world profession.”

That is Morot’s second Oscar nomination. He was nominated in 2011 for the movie Barney’s Model.

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