IT'S NOT EASY BEING GREEN

Lora Byrne-- Marvel Comics

         I saw both Lou Ferrigno and Arnold Schwarzenegger for the first time in the splendid documentary about bodybuilders, "Pumping Iron." A fine future in television or films was predicted for the charming egotistical Mr. Schwarzenegger. Not much if I remember was said about Mr Ferrigno. For myself, I felt sorry for him. At this time he still had severe problems with his hearing (this has apparently been mostly corrected), was overly dominated by his father, and seemed a helpless and bewildered victim of Schwarzenegger's not always compassionate mischief. He seemed tormented. I saw "Pumping Iron" three times, and each time Lou Ferrigno made more of an impression on me because of his unhappiness. Watching that movie, I thought to myself that it must be very hard being Lou Ferrigno. Ah! But this was before Marvel's very own Incredible Hulk made Lou Ferrigno independent, wealthy, and successful. His hearing had improved, and he'd met a young lady and was going to be married. Plus, his job as The Incredible Hulk seemed easy enough--slap on some green paint and a couple of bushy eyebrows, and Hulk SMASH! Hulk DESTROY! styrofoam walls and look mean. At last, easy street for Lou Ferrigno! Well.... Yes and no--- Being Lou Ferrigno might be easier these days, but there is nothing easy about being GREEN! Ferrigno, unlike Kermit the Frog is not made of felt. He is a person. Persons are not naturally green, and Lou Ferrigno doesn't actually have that heavy over brow and thick nose he sports as The Incredible Hulk. So how does huge but sensitive Ferrigno get turned into the green and rampaging monster? It's a long long ordeal. Just how long, and how much of an ordeal it was, we found out from Norman Leavitt, Ferrigno's make-up man. First of all, Lou's hair is pulled back under a rubber cap, and a little vaseline is put on his eyebrows and right along the hair line, so that we don't get spirit gum sticking in his hair. Then I use alcohol to remove any oil from the skin on his forehead. I'll take spirit gum which has been evaporated so that it's almost solid, and paint a stripe across his forehead--like a T, one line across, one down the nose, and get it real tacky. Then I do the same thing for his appliance-- the thing that goes on his forehead. I use spirit gum to get the same shape, and make sure it's also very tacky. Then I put the appliance on his forehead. Theres an elastic band that goes around the back of his head, just to keep it on. "When the piece is on pretty securely that way, I go around the edges-- along the line of his eyebrows, temples and nose--- with a brush, using some spirit gum on a brush. I very carefully roll those edges right down onto his skin. The ideal is that the edges should totally disappear. "Once thats done, I take the nosepeice, first wiping his nose with alcohol and painting a line down the center of his nose with spirit gum and down the center of his nosepeice also. I wait until they're very tacky, and then carefully place the nosepeice so it's straight. Then I lift each side of the nosepeice and paint every part of his nose-- particularly the nostrils--- with spirit gum, and then carefully roll the sides down to his skin. "I have to make sure it's stuck real securely, since sometimes he has to wear it for fourteen hours. Then I go along the fine edge, making sure it disappears into the skin. I then take a latex adhesive-- it comes in a tube, the same thing people use to apply false eyelashes-- and, using a sponge, stipple this all over the edges of the appliances, again, to make the edges disappear. According to how good the appliance is, this might take one coat or several. In between each coat I dry it with a hair drier and powder it to get a matte finish. "The entire process takes about 45 minutes. The initial popping on of the appliance with spirit gum doesn't take too long-- that takes about fifteen minutes-- but the final finishing, trying to cover up all the edges takes the longest time. Sometimes you can see the edge, sometimes not. You have to be really careful, especially around the nostrils. If it starts to come up during the day, it's almost impossible (once the grease makeup is on) to clean off the makeup, pull up the edge, and try to get it on securely again. So it's just really important that the appliance goes on really good in the beginning. "after the appliance is securely on and latex is over the edges I take the grease makeup and put that all over the appliances. You have to use a rubber grease on the rubber; anything else attacks the rubber, and it just doesn't look right. So this castor based makeup is applied all over his appliances and his face, down to the base of his neck. It's then powdered all over to get a matte finish, and the eyebrows are put on. "At this point the face is done." "Lou wears hearing aids so it's important not to get any paint on the hearing aids or in his ears--  if it gets in his ears, he's liable to get a serious infection. So he places a sort of green bubble cover I made over the hearing aids and I carefully paint his ears. He dries that with the hair drier. "Usually, Lou now puts on whatever costume he's wearing for the day, and we start with the body makeup. That goes pretty fast, this makeup is water based and has a texture almost like clay. I take a ball of this in one hand and spray and a spray bottle with hot water in it in the other, and put it on almost like finger painting. It takes about a half hour to put it all over his body, and to make sure there are no streaks, and to let it dry. "The green makeup sort of flattens out everything, removes some of Lou's muscles, so when it's dry I go over it, stipple on some darker green paint, cut in some muscles so they'll show better on TV. Then theres a fixture spray-- sort of like hair spray--that goes on over the makeup to keep it from coming off. I do his hands and feet last. During the day, of course, his makeup has to be retouched quite a bit. If it's a hot day and we're outside, he sweats and the makeup comes right off. "There have been days when I've started making him up at 5 o'clock in the morning, he's ready by seven, and he goes and makes one shot. then he goes and sits in the waterhole for 10 hours and comes out at night to do another shot. This is pretty crazy, since appliances aren't made to stay on that long. So by the end of the day I pretty much have to make him up all over again because he looks like hell. Even then it never really looks right when it's re-done." As serious as cosmetic problems are (simply keeping Mr. Ferrigno looking right) are the practical and comfort problems. Although, according to Norman Leavitt, the makeup adheres relatively well once its on, its also quick to come off on whatever touches Ferrigno or is touched by him. For instance, if a scene calls for the Hulk to pick up a girl, she has to have four or five changes of clothes, and Ferrigno's makeup has to be touched up in between each scene. On hot days, or when Ferrigno has to do a lot of physical work, the makeup closes his pores, making him feel hotter, and eventually, becomes marred by sweat lines. The "appliances" he wears on his nose and forehead act as sponges to soak up sweat. Then they become cold, so that Ferrigno is left wearing what probably feels like a heavy, wet, dead jellyfish on his face for twelve to fourteen hours. Although some weeks of shooting consist of "only" twelve to fourteen hour days, there have been times were both Ferrigno and Leavitt (who is always on duty when Ferrigno is on the set) have spent seven or eight days on the set without a break: the one hour pilot required Ferrigno to be made up and ready for twenty consecutive hours. Because of the makeup and appliances Ferrigno's skin becomes irritated, especially on the areas where the spirit gum is used. When I asked Leavitt if he had to be there for the entire shooting day, he laughed ruefully. "Yeah-- sometimes our call's for 3:45, 4:00 in the morning. It's the nature of the business: the directors want to have everybody there and everybody ready in case they want to change something or do a shot. So quite often we'll have an early, early call, I'll make Lou up by 7 a.m.-- and then they don't use him until tomorrow. That gets pretty frustrating for Lou." When I'd first talked to several friends in Los Angelous about doing this story, one had mentioned problems with Ferrigno's makeup men. "I was at this party," he said, "and talking to a guy who'd been Ferrigno's makeup man, and this guy said that they were about to get started with the makeup when Ferrigno demanded that his makeup man fry him a dozen eggs." The makeup man refused. Ferrigno insisted, and finally got his way. the makeup man resigned shortly thereafter. Now this is just gossip--- and party gossip at that. But it isn't unbelievable given the fact that it is difficult for Ferrigno to do anything once those appliances and the greasepaint have been applied, and that includes eating. And, to plague them all, athletes-- and body builders in particular-- have a problem keeping their weight up. So, looking at this gossip from Ferrigno's viewpoint, one might see it as a case of self preservation: lose the bod, lose the job. From the makeup man's point of view, it would have been nicer if Ferrigno had said, "Hey! I'm going to fry myself a coupla dozen eggs. Want one?" Whatever the reason for the early and rapid turnover in makeup men, as of this writing Norman Leavitt seemed happy. From our telephone conversations I would judge him to be an amiable, basically relaxed person who looks at the world--and his job-- with a humorous eye. Leavitt mentioned the problem with makeup men of his own: "In the first eight months of the show they ran through six makeup men." But his conversation would tend to point to economic and scheduling factors--rather than Ferrigno's personality--as the cause. When I asked him if the Incredible Hulk was the only show on which he worked, he replied: "Yeah. The problem is, if we only film three days a week, I lose money. So I'd go out and find another job for the rest of the time, and generally I'd come back." Now he's payed for a full week, no matter how many days he is on call. "when somebody works out, when he's reliable, it pays for them to keep him around, to avoid any problems, especially with a special kind of makeup." And so, when shooting is on Norman Leavitt and Lou Ferrigno arise well before dawn to turn a man into a monster. "Would," as the Jamaicans say, "I were a fly on the wall!" For what must it be like for Lou Ferrigno, just arisen from the realm of sleep, with a background full of frustration and agonizingly won achievement, to stand and allow himself to be turned into such a creature? Another rumor I've heard is that Lou (as The Hulk) wants to talk-- just as, in Marvel Comics, the Hulk talks. I think they should let him. I really want to hear what he would say.