The Jowling: How The Loudest Voice Transformed Russell Crowe Into Roger Ailes

Celebrities

The real Russell Crowe is barely visible in Showtimes new limited series The Loudest Voice. On the series—which is based on Vanity Fair special correspondent Gabriel Shermans 2014 book The Loudest Voice in the Room—Crowe plays Roger Ailes, the ultraconservative architect of Fox News who was hired by Rupert Murdoch (Simon McBurney) in 1996, and brought down after Fox & Friends cohost Gretchen Carlson (Naomi Watts) filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against him in 2016. Since he doesnt look much like Ailes in real life, Crowes face is encased in about six pounds of silicone and latex; hes also wearing a polyester-filled spandex bodysuit beneath his clothes. Sienna Miller is equally unrecognizable as Ailess reactionary wife, Elizabeth “Beth” Ailes: the usually stunning actress vanishes beneath a couple of pounds of facial prosthetics, a wig, and a bodysuit that erases her svelte shape.

Rather than limiting their performances, the two stars both told the Today show that they found their transformations freeing. “The makeup is doing a lot of the work for you, so you can just relax with it,” Crowe said. Miller agreed: “To look in the mirror and not recognize any part of you…I found it really liberating.”

But as dramatic as theirs and McBurneys transformations are—Watts and Seth MacFarlane as Ailess spin doctor, Brian Lewis, go prosthetics-free—turning the actors into their real-life counterparts had its complications. At least Adrien Morot, who supervised the series special effects makeup, had some experience in this arena: he pulled a similar trick transforming Steve Carell into Donald Rumsfeld for Vice, created Amy Adams scar-covered body on Sharp Objects, and has headed up makeup effects departments for films including The Revenant and the X-Men movies.

Morot joined the series with only weeks until shooting began. He had to modify and retexture an existing mold of Crowes face to create new prosthetics, which the Oscar winner wore for the first two episodes; he made a new mold for later episodes, which feature Crowe as an older, ailing Ailes.)

Crowes arduous makeover initially had him sitting in the makeup chair for six hours; the timing was later whittled down to four, and ultimately under three. (Crowe told V.F. that his shortest transformation was a mere 2 hours and 17 minutes.. )

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