Interview: Tegan Taylor - Avatar and Steven Spielberg to the Yellow Submarine

Ultra-creative and extremely resourceful make-up artist to the stars Tegan Taylor has been on the cutting edge of something fierce for over a decade now. Her meticulous work on the Oscar sensation Avatar helped put her on the Hollywood map, but it was not the first you’ve seen of her work. You may remember a small little film by the name of The Polar Express. It also won’t be the last you’ll see of her work (she has a slew of high-profile projects currently coming down the pipeline including The Adventures of Tin-Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn with Steven Spielberg at the helm).

When the make-up application trays and products on the set of Avatar were lacking in imagination, Tegan took it upon herself to create her very own line called Mo Cap FX. Creation, artistic integrity and thinking outside of the proverbial grid are a way of life for Tegan both in front of and behind the camera.

Tegan took some time out of her busy schedule to chat with me about her past and present work, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Daniel Craig and life on Mars!

Sarah Toce: You have an amazing body of work. Let’s start with The Polar Express. What an outstanding film.

Tegan Taylor: Oh, thank you! The Polar Express was the first 3-D feature that was done with the full motion-capture and face-capture system so it was quite cutting edge at the time. A big group of us were called in. I was familiar with Tom Hanks’ make-up artist [Dan Striepeke] and he brought about 50 make-up artists to test and to learn the process and out of those people, a few of them were selected for this movie. I was one of them. I was pretty intrigued by the technology. That was the first movie that we did with the facial-capture system. Since then, the technology has come quite a long way. It led us up to Avatar – which is a pretty amazing film.

Writers were excited when Avatar surfaced. We couldn’t wait to interview everyone! How were you involved with Avatar?

Avatar is amazing. I worked on it for two years. All together it took about five years for them to shoot it and edit it and all of that. It was an amazing experience and was very exciting! I was the Department Manager on Avatar. There was a whole team of make-up artists and the entire process was extremely cutting-edge.

How do you make the film look so real and authentic to life?

Going from something that doesn’t look real to something that does look real – that is the hard part. All of the action is shot with real actors doing what they would normally do. It’s just that what we do to them makes them look how they end up looking on the screen. It’s getting the technology up to speed so that what the directors and producers want it to look like comes across to the audience at the end of the project.

Can you walk us through the make-up process on a typical day of shooting?

Basically, we paint a grid on the actor’s face that consists of hundreds of specifically placed marks. Every day the actor works it has to be absolutely identical. I created my own make-up label called Mo Cap FX because on Avatar the products that I needed just didn’t exist. So I created these amazing phosphorescent glow-in-the dark paints. They are completely stable and don’t move when the actors move or sweat. The computers pick them right up and they are really cool. Because these products didn’t exist when I started Avatar, I went and had them created. That was one of the really challenging parts of my job as Department Manager. All of the tools from our brushes to the application trays are completely unique to the process. When I go to crew up my department, I have to find artists who are very skilled in fine detail. So, to the outside someone might say, “What are you doing?” but when it comes down to the work, you have to be a very meticulous artist.

These films wouldn’t be what they are without the make-up artists involved. I can’t even imagine having to work with color and make-up. I’m such a words person.

[Laughs]. One of my jobs on these types of movies is to work in conjunction with the visual effects artists – the computer guys – and they are extremely technical. In a traditional movie, there would just be the make-up artist and they would send the actor out on the stage and that’s that. In this process, I actually work in conjunction with the computer people to make sure that I am meeting their needs as well. It drives some people a little crazy, but I’ve just learned that I have to do it and it works. You know, that’s our jobs as women – we have to please everybody!

How was it working with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson on The Adventures of Tin-Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn?

Well, that experience was amazing! Working with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson in the same room! It was like a dream come true. Then you throw in James Cameron and Michael Bay! Daniel Craig was one of the lead actors and he was amazing! He was really hot! Andy Serkis was also one of the actors and he was in Lord of the Rings. Jamie Bell was also incredible.

Where else can we see your work?

The Polar Express was the first movie that I did and then I jumped onto Monster House, A Christmas Carol and Beowulf. What I’ve got coming up is The Adventures of Tin-Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. Then there is Mars Needs Moms! which was directed by Simon Wells and stars Seth Green and Joan Cusack. I’m also in pre-production for Yellow Submarine which is going to be directed by Robert Zemeckis. That one should be start later this year. Every one of them is very different and they are all going to be very cool! Yellow Submarine is in the development phase right now and is based off of the Beatles’ cartoon by the same name and it will include some great Beatles’ music!