For Amsterdam, director David O. Russell needed a hair and makeup team ready to take on the challenge of shooting during Covid. When she was initially busy with another project, Lori McCoy-Bell, a longtime collaborator with Russell, called in Adruitha Lee to help out with the hair. As Covid hit and she became available again, McCoy-Bell and Lee became co-hair department heads. Makeup department head Nana Fischer was nervous and excited when producer Anthony Katagas brought her name to Russell, but her work spoke for itself as the three worked seamlessly together on the film.
Amsterdam follows Burt (Christian Bale), Harold (John David Washington) and Valerie (Margot Robbie), three friends who are framed for a murder they witnessed. As they strive to prove their innocence, the trio uncovers one of the most outrageous plots in America history.
The story takes place from the 1910s to the 1930s, which gave Lee, McCoy-Bell, and Fischer distinct looks to create. “Every decade has something that defines that decade,” says Lee. “1918, we had World War I, where Margot started out as a nurse and she was very artistic, so her look could be more on the fringe for what was in that period.”
“We looked at Hollywood stars from the day, like Myrna Loy, to replicate certain looks, but we also looked at a book of America’s most wanted from 1870-1970, like prisoners of the day,” says McCoy-Bell. “Our whole cast is a very eclectic group of people that are all outsiders in their own way. They’re all in the proper period style, just maybe not the most popular style of the day.”
Some of Fischer’s work had to be a bit less on the fringe side, as she needed mark the passage of time through the scars of the veterans. In the 1930s, “We are almost 15, 20 years later, so the open scars would have healed up,” says Fischer. “There’s reminiscence of old scars, the aging of the scars and some discoloration.”
Click the video above to watch the full interview.
