TV

Behind the Scenes in Hollywood

AfterEllen.com has interviewed countless lesbian and lesbian-adjacent actors, writers and directors over the years. But behind every star, film and TV show, there are hundreds of artists and professionals working to make it all happen. Enjoyed the sex scene in Bound, did you? You have dozens of people to thank, including the crew people who picked up and moved parts of the set mid-shot, as the camera swung around on Jennifer Tilly showing Gina Gershon how to “see again.”

Production jobs, commonly referred to as “below the line” in the biz, require creativity, stamina, gifted hands and the desire to wear a baseball cap to work every day. It’s a match made in career heaven for lesbians. Here are five such women who work behind the scenes, all of whom have stories to tell, brushes with fame and some of the coolest jobs ever.

Tami Lane, Prosthetic Makeup Artist

Tami Lane with Howard Berger Photo Credit: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Tami Lane is an Oscar-winning prosthetic makeup artist. From her first job on Rescue 911 for a local TV station in Peoria, Ill. – where she created makeup effects for accident re-enactments of limbs caught in brush cutters, among other things – to her latest project, the upcoming film Surrogate, starring Bruce Willis, Lane has worked on some of the biggest fantasy/adventure films ever imagined, including The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.

AfterEllen.com: What is a prosthetic makeup artist? Tami Lane: I paint people’s faces and bodies for a living. I scare people. I make people laugh. I age people. I get to work with amazing people, over and over.

AE: How did you break into your field? TL:I was an art major in college and did a lot of theater as a hobby, volunteered at haunted houses and things like Rocky Horror Picture Show. My first blood was made of ketchup, barbeque sauce and something like maple syrup. It’s gross.

AE: And strangely, that’s also my signature marinade. How did you get from Peoria to Hollywood? TL:I came to L.A. on a class trip [during] my senior year. I toured K.N.B. EFX Group, a creature shop famous for From Dusk Till Dawn, Evil Dead 2 – the big slasher films of the ’80s. And I met the owner, Howard Berger, who said to me, “Go back and graduate, move to L.A. and call me.” So I did. He interviewed me, a length of time went by, and finally, he called and said, “We have this big show and I need some people in the shop – some grunt workers – sweep the floors, clean the molds out.” So, they hired me. That was in 1996.

AE: And a mere 10 years later, you won the 2006 Oscar for Best Achievement in Makeup for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. TL: That was a dream come true. It’s indescribable. It was literally 10 years from the time I knew nothing, to being on that stage.

AE: Did you think you would win? TL:Everyone thought we should win, but we were up against Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. And I thought, “Aw, they’re going to give it to Star Wars.” Beating out Star Wars was pretty cool. [laughs]

AE: Beating anyone would be cool. Where do you keep your Oscar statue? TL:My mother has it. She has it on the mantle at home.

AE: What was it like working on Narnia? TL: I was the key prosthetics makeup artist, overseeing 40 makeup artists, [doing] quality control. I also had key characters that I would do every day. I did Mr. Tumnus, the faun [James McAvoy], and Ginarrbrik, the White Witch’s little minion. We’d go to work at 2:30 a.m. in the morning, and probably get home at 10:30 p.m. at night, five, sometimes six, days a week, for seven months.

AE: How long did it take to make up Mr. Tumnus and Ginarrbrik? TL:Mr. Tumnus took three and a half to four hours, [with] a couple of us working on him, because we had to glue body hair all over him. Then, I did the face. But all of the makeups would generally take two hours to four hours.

AE: Do you ever have actors falling asleep on you? TL:Oh, all the time. I prefer them coming in hung over and just wanting to sleep. They don’t talk. But sometimes, they twitch, so you have to be ready.

AE: What films were the most fun to work on? TL:My favorite has to be Lord of the Rings. I spent four years working in New Zealand on the Creature Unit. It was, creatively, the best working environment because we had no idea what the Orcs [characters] looked like. Usually, they were made for close-ups, which meant they were going to get killed by the good guys. So, we’d have a box of chins, a box of foreheads, a box of noses.

AE: A lot of women in Beverly Hills have the same thing in their bathrooms. TL:[laughs] I know. I’m trying to patent that. “You want a new nose today?”

AE: Well, you’d have your day nose, and your evening nose. TL:Yeah. We could create new creatures every day. It was exciting. And we were getting choppered everywhere. In the morning, I would be at the studios in Wellington, and in the afternoon, the character would be required on the other side of New Zealand. So, I’d climb aboard a helicopter and get choppered out there, film the last part of the day, and get choppered back to Wellington.

AE: Are there many women in the prosthetic makeup field? TL:No. There’s a lot of female, regular, straight makeup artists, but as far as the blood and guts and creatures, it’s all men.

AE: It’s a boy thing. TL:Yeah, it’s a boy’s club.

AE: Has being the only woman on the team ever been an issue for you? TL:No, because I can out-drink any of those guys. [laughs] No, seriously, I’ve proved myself over and over again. At least that’s what they tell me.

AE: Do you get calls from friends on Halloween asking, “Tami, can you make me zombie tonight?” TL:Yeah, it depends. My real friends don’t ask me because they realize it’s work. Plus, I have enough problems getting my own costume together. It’s a lot of pressure to be an effects makeup artist on Halloween.

Amy Rowell, Freelance Production Associate

Amy “Trails” Rowell has worn many hats over the years as a freelance production associate, otherwise known in the industry as a “day player.” Her credits as a field producer, cast coordinator, assistant director or production assistant are as varied as the places you’re likely to find her working: on the back lots of CBS, Paramount, Fox and ABC; backstage at an MTV Awards show; or in a house full of crazy, back-stabbing models.

AfterEllen.com: What’s your job du jour? Amy Rowell:Right now, I’m a research coordinator for Most Daring, a clip show on truTV. I was on Most Shocking, for the same company, last season. But I moved up to Most Daring.

AE: What’s the difference between Daring and Shocking? Nudity? AR:They’re not that different, but Most Shocking clips are primarily police-related. Most Daring is “anything goes.”

AE: So, basically, you get to watch video clips of girls going wild all day long. AR:Actually, our first episode for this season is called “Wild Women.” And women are pretty wild; wilder than I ever thought they could be, until I saw it captured on video.

AE: You’ve seen your share of wild women – you worked on America’s Next Top Model. How was it dealing with a house full of model wannabes? AR:Cycle 7 was my first stint with Top Model. I was the Key House PA, so, I stayed at the house in the overnight, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. My job was [to] coordinate what to do with the models after they got back to the house, and whatever happened between then and the morning.

AE: How much is there to do while the models are sleeping? AR:You get prepared for the next day, primarily. But you also monitor what’s going on in the house, because even though it might not have made it to air, sometimes there’s some drama going on.

AE: What did you see that didn’t make it to air? AR:One night, they found something in the hot tub. And I can’t remember which model it was, but one of the girls was freaking out, screaming: “It’s an alien! There’s an alien in the hot tub!”

AE: What was it? AR: It was just a lizard. It died in the hot tub. So, there was a whole crazy production of the models trying to scoop the lizard out and slap it on the side of the hot tub.

AE: Hard to believe they cut that. That cycle had twin sisters, Amanda and Michelle. Wasn’t it Michelle who was questioning her sexuality that season? Did we miss anything there? AR:No, they covered it pretty well. She was questioning it then, but she [might be] full-fledged now. I’ve seen her a few times since [then].

AE: You’ve worked on everything from the MTV Movie and Music Video Awards to The Vagina Monologues. How well do you get to know the celebrities and cast over time? AR:Well, years ago, I was stage-managing a theater production in Washington D.C. And for about six weeks, I worked with a very well-known film actress. At one point, we started [having] an ongoing flirtation – it went back and forth, on and on, for weeks.

Then, there was a break in the performance schedule and during that time, I got my eyebrow pierced. It was something I had always wanted to do. After the break, the show resumed as usual. One night, the actress and I were sitting outside during a show, smoking a cigarette between acts. She asked me, “Why did you get your eyebrow pierced?” And then she said, “Because I really wanted to f— you, until you did that.”

And I’m sitting there in shock, with the craziest face, and I think I said: “Well, we can turn the lights off – I don’t know – I can rip it out right now, or -” I was stumbling! I was somewhat new to the lesbian scene back then, mind you. But boy, oh boy, if that had happened now, things would have turned out very differently. [laughs]

AE: [laughs] That’s the best near-miss story I’ve ever heard. AR: [laughs] Yeah. It was years ago. I don’t know if she’s out, but I believe she’s living with a woman, and that is her life now.

AE: Since then, you’ve shifted from theater to TV shows. Name one of your favorite TV jobs. AR:The Courteney Cox series for FX, Dirt, was one of my favorite sets.

AE: How hot is Courteney Cox in person? AR:Very hot, but also professional and very nice to everyone. During that job, I [worked on] a sex scene [on a] a closed set. My job was to convey the director’s notes to the stand-ins [during rehearsal]. And then, Courteney came to set in a bathrobe with a black bra and panties underneath. Her character was such a powerful woman, who’s totally in control. And that was awesome.

Chris Hulen, Production Designer

Chris Hulen is a production and lighting designer for theater, film and television, with credits that include The Apprentice and High School Musical, the TV series, but her real passion is independent film. Lesbian audiences have seen her skills as art director on the feature film, Itty Bitty Titty Committee.

AfterEllen.com: What does a production designer do? Chris Hulen:We’re responsible for the overall “look” of a show and setting what the visual style will be to tell the story.

AE: What are you working on right now? CH:My day job is production manager at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. As a production designer, I’m contracted. I just finished with High School Musical, the TV series, in Utah. I was assistant art director.

AE: How was Utah? I’ve heard its known for its diversity. CH:Yeah, I actually wrote a blog about going to the mall and not seeing anyone of color and being a little freaked out by it.

AE: Do you do more TV or film? CH: In terms of production design, I mainly do independent film. I was art director on Itty Bitty Titty Committee. The titles “art director” and “production designer” are interchangeable. I worked on lots of reality TV like The Apprentice. TV pays the bills, but I like to do indie films, because it’s more creative. But reality shows pay the bills.

AE: Once the set is done and the “look” is established for a TV series, is your work on the show complete? CH:It depends. The production designer also oversees costumes, hair, makeup and set dressing. On High School Musical,I was on-set the whole time, because there was a different set every week.

AE: How did you get into the business of “show”? CH:Immediately out of grad school [with a] dual major in lighting and scenic, I got hired on a film. It was a good time. I ended up staying [in L.A.]. I’m concentrating more on production design than lighting, but I still do lighting design as well.

AE: Does your house have really flattering, awesome lighting? CH:[laughs] Everyone looks really beautiful in my house.

AE: Can I come over? CH:[laughs] My favorite work story is when I was doing theater in San Francisco. The lead actress had to be topless in the play. She came up to me and asked, “Can you make my B cup a C cup?” and I’m like, “No problem.”

AE: You can really do that? CH:It’s all about shadows.

AE: Do you have actors also begging you, “Don’t make me look old,” or “I’m hung over, please help me.” CH:You do get that. I do a lot of lighting for the music industry. I’ve done Norah Jones and Moby and stuff. There are certain people, I won’t mention which ones, but they say, “Make me look younger.”

AE: You can’t really blame them. Everything is being recorded on HD now. High definition picks up every single pore. Plus, the image is going to be huge. CH:Yeah.

AE: How was working on Itty Bitty Titty Committee? CH:It was almost all women, almost all gay.

AE: Did everyone’s cycles sync up during the production? CH:[laughs] Oh, no. Actually, every crew was different. It’s weird, because you don’t work with a lot of them [directly]. The art department was very close and cohesive, and we don’t really see the other departments, not until the wrap party, anyway. I’ve been on some films where different departments just hated each other. But [Itty Bitty director] Jamie Babbit’s production was a good one.

AE: What other lesbian films have you worked on? CH:I did Directed by Dorothy Arzner, which is not a feature yet, but it will be. A Woman Reported by Chris Russo was at Sundance. And D.E.B.S. for Angela Robinson, the short film, not the feature, though.

AE: Do you have any good gossip you can share? CH:[laughs] Well, I found out one actor was gay – she’s not really out, so I’m not going to say who – but she hit on me in a car on location. She said, “Get in my car and ride with me, because you have a radio, in case they call me.” So, OK, we drove around for a half-hour. At one point, her hand moved to my knee. No one ever called on the radio; she wasn’t in the shot. Later, she said, “Maybe we can go out and do this or that.” At the time, I had a girlfriend, and I was like, “Uhh [trails off].”

AE: Was this actor on your gaydar? CH:No! After that, I heard she had hooked up with people, but I don’t think she’s out.

AE: I’m going to buy you a drink and get it out of you. CH:[laughs]

Keisha Knowles, Producer

Keisha Knowles is a close, personal friend and confidante of Tyra Banks. OK, not really. But as a former associate producer on The Tyra Banks Show, Knowles distinguished herself as a no-nonsense staffer who had no qualms about telling Tyra like it is. Knowles has also worked for Nancylee Myatt on the web series, 3Way, and has just completed a pilot for Lifetime called The Week the Women Went.

AfterEllen.com: Let’s talk about The Week the Women Went. Where did the women go, Keisha? Keisha Knowles:[laughs] That’s exactly what I want to know. The show is an American version of a British show. We took three families, we put them in a spa in Beverly Hills, and we kept the husbands and the children separate and followed them to see if they could do what their wives did.

AE: How did that work out? KK:Well, actually, not that bad. It was a lot of fun. My one family was great. This guy did everything: He could clean, he could cook, he did the cheerleading camps and all that. We had one woman miss her family so much – it was too insane for her to be away from her husband, her kids – we had to drop that family.

AE: Has the show been picked up? KK:We don’t know. We won’t know for a while. That’s the nature of the business.

AE: So what are you doing in the meantime? KK:I’m down right now. That’s part of the business, too. You work for months and months straight and then you have down time.

AE: You’ve also done talent coordinating for reality shows. KK:Yeah, I’ve done that a few times. The Tyra Banks Show was the longest [job.] Here’s what I would say about it: I like working with celebrities more than real people because celebrities have a buffer called an agent or a manager. So, if there’s a problem, you go through them, and once it’s fixed, it’s done. Real people? Real people have your phone number, your email – they call you.

AE: Reality show people can be a little kooky. Who else would want to be on a reality show in the first place? Frankly, some of them are so impressed with themselves for getting on TV, they think they shouldn’t have to wait in line for the bathroom anymore. KK:Exactly. Real people are just real people.

AE: A little too real. KK:A little too real.

AE: What was it like working for Tyra Banks? KK:I love working for Tyra. We got along great. I’ll tell you one of my favorite stories. I’m working at my desk one day and this shadow – as anyone knows, Tyra is tall – and this shadow appears over my desk.

Actually, there were two shadows, one of them was Tyra’s assistant. And the assistant said, “Keish, Tyra wants to talk to you.” And I said, “What’s going on?” And I looked up, and there’s Tyra, towering over me saying, “I was at City Walk and I thought of you.”

Now, I’m obsessed with Angelina Jolie, and anyone who knows me, knows this. Tyra said she saw an artist drawing a sketch of Angelina Jolie. And she said, “So, I got this for you.” She had bought me the sketch. It’s hanging in my house now. It’s one of my favorite things, ever.

AE: Tyra Banks bought you a picture of Angelina Jolie? KK:[laughs] Yeah.

AE: How hard do you rock? Tyra Banks thought of you. KK:Hey, I’m a memorable kind of girl.

AE: Apparently. KK:When [her talk] show was down, I told Tyra I needed another job, so she got me a job on America’s Next Top Model.

AE: Were there other lesbians at The Tyra Banks Show, or Top Model? KK:You know the most hysterical thing? Anyone who watches Top Model knows it’s all about fashion, and models, and all this makeup and hair? That was the most lesbian-friendly place I’ve ever worked in my life. [On the show] there were 10 of us girls in rotation, working at the house, and six of us were gay. It was the most phenomenal thing I’d ever seen in my life. It was a great feeling. It was the first time I met so many lesbians in this town.

AE: What are you going to do? Lesbians are drawn to hot girls. Which model was your favorite? KK:I’m so not that girl. Honestly, there was so much production crap to deal with, I got tired of all the models. I didn’t care who they were, or who won. No. I want this cycle over. I’m tired.

Audrey Fisher, Costume Designer

Audrey Fisher is a costume designer who recently wrapped the first season of the new HBO vampire series, True Blood, the much-anticipated show by Six Feet Under creator, Alan Ball. When she’s not dressing the show’s star, Anna Paquin, or sending people out on clothes-shopping expeditions, Fisher is admiring the wardrobe pieces she’s kept over the years.

AfterEllen.com: What are vampires wearing these days? Audrey Fisher: True Blood is set in contemporary, rural Louisiana. And Alan [Ball] really wanted vampires not to be creepy, unusual people. They are average folks who walk among us, [so] the emphasis is on making vampires part of the society we live in.

AE: So, they wear mom jeans and sweater vests? Say it isn’t so. AF: Well, there’s a bar in the show called Fangtasia, a vampire-owned and -run business. So, when the vampires are at the bar, they kind of vampired-out. That’s when you see the more traditional, Goth, scary, black vampire look. But other than that –

AE: So, they have their regular day clothes and their going-out clothes. AF: Except, of course, they can’t go out during the day. But it’s something like that. They have their vampire wear, if they need it, but usually, they’re just living among us.

AE: How much creative autonomy did you have on the show? AF: This show has been such an incredible blessing. I work with Alan very closely on the costumes, and he’s very supportive. It’s the most creative control that I’ve had in a TV environment. I come [from] theater design where I had a lot of control – television and film are usually different. You’ve got to satisfy a bunch of different producers and directors. But this has been different, because Alan has been so supportive.

AE: What other television or film have you done? AF: I worked on We Are Marshall. I was the Assistant Designer on That ’70s Showright before it went down. That was really fun. And That ’80s Show, which was very short-lived, Twenty Good Years was on for one season. I assisted on that. And a Christopher Guest pilot that didn’t make it. That was very sad. That would have been fun.

Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer in True Blood

AE: How do costumes come into existence? Do you send people shopping, or is everything created from scratch? AF: On a contemporary show like True Blood, a lot of the costumes are, indeed, shopped. That could mean [shopping at] Goodwill, or Macy’s. But we custom-made certain pieces specifically for Anna [Paquin], the lead character. We also have to do a lot of duplicates, triplicates and quadruplicates of certain items because of the blood or certain stunts. Period shows or historical productions; that’s where you get to build a lot of things. And it’s more fun – building is fantastic.

AE: What size do female actors come in these days? AF: Two.

AE: I’ve been told that a size six is considered plus-size now. AF: [laughs] That’s tragic.

AE: I know. AF: If [an actress] is cast as “the pretty girl,” she’s a [size] two. If she’s a four, I’m surprised.

AE: Has the standard dress size been going down steadily over the years? AF: It’s been going down. The actresses are definitely tinier that ever before. On True Blood, we have more statuesque women, and that’s refreshing. I think our show doesn’t want to cast for that 90210 look, those perfect people. We have a nice selection of normal-looking, fabulous character actors who have incredible faces.

AE: That’s good, because vampires are not tiny. I think it’s all that iron in their diet. AF: [laughs] That’s right. They get a lot of good nutritional support.

AE: Are there any lesbian vampires in the story arc? Because you know how much we love sexy, powerful vampires. AF: [laughs] You know, in grad school, I wrote a whole paper in one of my performance studies classes about lesbian vampire mythology. I think my teacher didn’t know why I was writing it. [laughs]

AE: [laughs] I’m sure it was a good paper. AF: I think it goes to that whole vagina dentate thing; there was that movie, Teeth. I mean, come on!

AE: Well, we’re all killers, right? Frankly, I don’t know why some lesbians take offense to being fictionally stereotyped as killers. I don’t mind at all. AF: Yeah, I agree. It’s fun to be the badass. So, why not? If people are a little bit scared, maybe that’s good?

AE: So, are there no killer lesbian vampires in True Blood? AF: Not yet. But I’m working on it.

AE: [laughs] You’re working on it? AF: No, I’m kidding. No, not yet. Although the vampires are all very pansexual. It’s just part of the characters on the show.

AE: Well, maybe someday. What happens to the clothes after a show is over? AF: It’s pretty anti-climactic. They have a garage sale, basically. People on the show, at the studio, are offered the chance to buy some pieces. Some of it goes into storage at the studio. And some of it ends up at thrift stores.

AE: Do you ever keep clothes from shows you’ve worked on? AF: Oh, sure. There are always little things that I inherit. Not necessarily things that I wear, just things that hang there forever. I have some shoes and belts from the That ’70s Show.

AE: Whose shoes? AF: I have some of Mila [Kunis’] shoes. I think I’m her shoe size. So I got a couple of beautiful pairs. Some of those things were very high-end, incredibly beautiful pieces that are timeless.

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button