I was brought onto Poor Things by Makeup and Hair Designer Nadia Stacey to help flesh out ideas on visuals for Dr. Baxter’s facial scarring. Poor Things was a fantastic opportunity to play with strong silhouettes, while also respecting what prosthetic makeup needs in order to work. With realistic facial scarring and disfigurement, the challenge is always to push the shapes far enough to make the character feel memorable, without losing the actor’s own features.
Dr. Baxter — facial scarring, thumbs and apparatus explorations.
Yorgos Lanthimos spoke about Dr. Baxter having deep, well-defined scars — something precise rather than messy — contrasted with somewhat groomed hair. There was also the idea that his hands had been experimented on, especially around the thumbs, so I explored a few options using real injuries (including my own) and surgical references as a starting point.
Alongside the makeup ideas, I also started looking at ways to push his silhouette beyond the face, with costume-adjacent pieces such as a partial head and neck support apparatus.
Dr. Baxter — facial scarring shape explorations.
A sample from the many sketch explorations I produced for Dr. Baxter’s face. Some were heavily influenced by post-WWI blast injuries, while others drew from complications linked to difficult surgeries.
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