8
October 1999
Chapter 1
You
never know where life will lead you, do you? Tess
Richmond thought to herself as she walked into the makeup room for the first day
of film rehearsals with a much-needed coffee in one hand and her papers in the
other. Who would of known six
months ago that not only was there going to be a major three film production
going on in New Zealand but that she would actually be working in the makeup
department.
She
was starting to get used to taking off to different parts of the world to work
on movies and had gotten noticed over the past two years to the stage where the
people in the industry were starting to ask for her by name.
She was completely over the moon when she had received the phone call
from her agent, Jen, asking if she would be interested in doing Lord of the
Rings in New Zealand for the next year and half.
She had read the books over and over again as she grew up and agreed to
it even before Jen had finished telling her all the details. What an opportunity, to work on a movie of some of her
favourite books of all time, she still could not believe how lucky she was.
She had arrived in Wellington five days before from Brisbane in Australia
to move into a unit with three other ladies in the crew, Kim and Lisa in
prosthetics and her long time friend, Carrie Hudson.
When she had found out that Carrie was working on the film as well she
had asked Jen to see if they could be put together in the same flat, which she
had been able to organise.
They had worked together on a few productions and had become good friends
over the years. Tess at 24 was only
six months older than Carrie but she thought of her like a little sister and
they kept an eye out for each other when they were far away from their families
and friends.
The makeup crew had spent the last three days in workshops with the major
makeup production people learning the methods they needed to cover the makeup of
the different actors and races. Even
though Tess was to specialise
on the more human makeup, like everyone else in the department she went to the
full workshops to learn the other creatures so she could easily move to cover if
they found themselves in need and on location calls.
They had had some fun in the workshop practicing on each other and
turning the other makeup, wigs and prosthetic people into the various creatures. Tess ended up being made into a hobbit and an elf, much to
the amusement of Carrie who in turn was transformed into a hobbit and one of the
riders of Rohan by Tess.
The night before they had been given their assigned chair and a full
breakdown on the actor’s races and information on their makeup styles needed
for the shoot. Tess was given the
second chair from the door with Carrie next to her.
The chair on the other side of her had been for the actor who played
Aragorn but there had been a last minute change and Stuart Townsend had been
taken out as Peter Jackson and others felt he would be too young to portray the
rightful King of Gondor. They still
had not been given word as to who was to replace him and a decision was yet to
be made and everyone was trying to guess who it was going to be.
When she had been given her test assignments last night she was
pleasantly surprised to find that both her and Carrie had been given some of the
principal cast along with a number of others.
She had worked with Hugo Weaving who was to play Elrond on a film in
Australia about three years earlier but she did not know the others, Billy Boyd,
one of the Fellowship hobbits, Pippin, and Orlando Bloom who was to play the
character of Legolas. Carrie showed her main test assignments were Elijah Wood
and Sean Bean. Tess hoped they would all be easy to get along with and not brats
like some she had worked with in the past.
Her practice was to try and make friends with everyone so they would
treat sitting in her chair as a fun and pleasant experience that in turn made
her job easier.
She checked her makeup
stocks and put things where she liked them as she sipped her coffee and went
over her run sheets waiting for the first of the cast to arrive.
Most of them had to go through prosthetics and wigs before coming to
makeup, especially the hobbits who had to spend ages having their feet attached
as well as ears and wigs.
Just before 9.00 the first of the cast began to file into makeup and made
their way to their places as they were told where to go. First to Tess’ chair
was Billy who had been to have his feet and ears attached along with his wig.
The feet had been finished in prosthetics and it was her job to blend the
ears into the standard face makeup for him before he went to the wardrobe
department. After she introduced
herself to him he settled into the chair as she spent some time working on his
makeup and turning him into the hobbit Pippin.
As she worked they chatted and got to know each other and joked about how
it was wonderful and strange to do something that was so much fun.
Tess could see that he would be perfect as Pippin as he had a whole
hobbit way about him, funny loving and full of mischief.
As
she was finishing Billy’s makeup she noticed Elijah come in and sit down in
Carrie’s chair next to her after they introduced themselves to each other.
He looked over and smiled at Tess as he extended his hand out towards
her.
“Hello,
I’m Elijah,” he told her in a cheery voice.
“Hi,
Tess, nice to meet you,” she answered as she shook his hand before continuing
on Billy as they all got acquainted with each other.
When
she had finished and the makeup department head had given the nod Billy left her
chair she turned to see how Elijah was coming along while she waited for her
next victim. He was beginning to
look like the drawings that she had seen in the last few days of Frodo. As Tess was speaking to Carrie she noticed Elijah looked
towards the door behind her.
“Hey Orli, come on in, who have you got for makeup?” Elijah asked the
newcomer.
“I’m not quite sure, I didn’t catch a name.” Tess heard a
pleasant, soft British accent from the doorway behind her.
“Tess, do you have Orlando on your sheet for makeup?” Elijah asked
her.
“Yeah, I think so, um…Bloom...Orlando Bloom, Legolas.
Would that be you by any chance?” she asked brightly as she turned
around.
Her first thought was that his blue eyes are so startling before she
remembered reading in her work sheets that Legolas as well as some other elves
were to wear lenses to make their eyes more intense and elf-like.
Standing at nearly six feet tall and being a rather slim build Tess put
him to be somewhere around 65kg in weight and was quite taken back by how good
looking he was. She had drawings of
Legolas in her work sheets but was quite unprepared for him to be as attractive
as this young man who was playing him was in person and without any makeup.
She noticed that he also seemed to be quite nervous and as she gave him a
reassuring smile she asked him to sit down. He had been into prosthetics and
wigs before coming into makeup and he had a blue patterned scarf tied around his
long blond hair to keep it in place until photography.
He also had two incredible horribly looking elf ears attached to the side
of his head that needed some serious work for blending before he left her chair.
“I’m Tess.” She shook his hand as he settled himself down in the
seat and looked directly into her eyes. “Orlando
or Orli, what do you prefer?”
“Either. Nice to meet you,
Tess,” he answered, his eyes wide and a smile playing on his lips as he
started to look a little more comfortable.
“So, is true what they say about the size of an elf’s ears or is that
just talk?” Tess asked seriously as she looked straight into his eyes.
He breaks into a big smile that lit up his whole face before breaking
into laughter along with Elijah who had also heard the comment.
“No, its all talk,” Elijah answers quickly with a giggle, “elves
are small in all ways.”
This sets off the two of them ribbing each other and calling the other
names. Tess could see that they had
become firm friends since they had come down to New Zealand to prepare for the
movie.
As she worked on Orlando’s makeup the four of them talked about various
things, slowly getting to know each other.
Orlando watched in the mirror as Tess transformed him into the elf
Legolas and as he watched he felt himself slowly becoming him.
About halfway through the process Elijah had been completed and Tess was
stunned to see that he had become Frodo in front of them, thanks to art team’s
and Carrie’s brilliant work. As
he stood to go outside he told Orlando he would see him out there before turning
to Tess to quietly tell her that he was pleased to meet her and Carrie as well.
As she went back to work on Orlando’s makeup she studied his face as
she continued to blend the ears in to his skin.
With his extremely high cheekbones, large eyes framed by long lashes and
his soft expressive mouth he was what could only be described as a beauty.
He was such an animated and energetic guy and as Tess and him chatted and
got to know each other she couldn’t help but like him and his enthusiasm for
life in general. She wondered where this zeal had arisen from and hoped that
over the time she would find out. She
knew there was a story there behind those eyes, no matter what colour they were
under the lenses.
Orlando was overwhelmed. How could life get any better than this?
He had gotten the part as Legolas just two days before graduating from
drama school and now here he was on the other side world about to start work on
this huge project. Then to finish him off he walks into the makeup department
this morning and not only does he see the most beautiful woman ever but she was
probably going to be in charge of his makeup for the shoot.
Even though she was just dressed in casual fit jeans, a Bon Jovi T-shirt,
and sneakers Orlando thought she would make a perfect elf.
Standing around 6” shorter than him she had a slim, healthy figure with
a light glowing tan that showed she enjoyed being outdoors.
Her long hair was mostly medium brown with the top layer dyed a light
blond with highlights throughout and most of it was swept up into a loose
ponytail to keep it under control while she worked.
Her pale blue eyes fascinated him and even he could see there was more to
this lady than a nice body and a smile that could light up a room.
When Tess was finished she stood back to survey her work with a smile
before she got the head guy over to approve the work.
As she waited for him to come over she looked back at Orlando who was
staring at his face in the mirror.
“Hey, there was an elf in there all along.
I thought so,” she said to him as her smile was returned.
“Thank you. I mean for the
work, it’s amazing how you do that.”
“Just lots of practice, I’ve been studying pictures and doing test
runs on each other all week like everyone else to work this out.” Tess
answered as the approval comes to her from the boss.
“Still, it’s very clever.” He
insisted, as he gets ready to get up.
“Thanks. Well you, my
dear, are done. You are ready to
fight Orcs for the Fellowship.”
He laughed gently and it is at this instance Tess sees with total clarity
as to why he had been cast as the elf. There
is a quality and grace that surrounded him that had begun to shine as he became
more comfortable around her and within himself as Legolas.
He got up to go out with the rest of the cast for the tests as she
started to clean up before the next person would come in.
He stopped and turned back towards her as he tilted his head to the side
with a smile.
“I hope you will be the one doing my makeup for this whole shoot, it
would be really nice if you are,” he said quietly before he smiled again and
goes through the door.
As he leaves Tess realises that her hands are trembling slightly.
My God, Tess what’s wrong with you.
You fool; he’s probably only about 16 or 17.
Incredibly cute, but come on, a little young.
Don’t get involved, friendship only on set.
I know you’ve slipped a couple of times the past…but come on; you are
only human after all. But you have
to not get distracted, especially right now, this is a great job, don’t blow
it.
“Guess who’s got an admirer? Damn, girl you get them quick!” Tess
spun around and threw a sponge straight at Carrie who was standing on the other
side of the room laughing at her.
“Oh shut up you. A little
young don’t you think?”
“I don’t know, I’ll find out.
Hey, he’s good looking and seems really lovely... and we’re all stuck
here for a long, long time.” Carrie over exaggerated the long.
“He was just about falling over his words sometimes when he was talking
to you he was so nervous,” declared Beth, the artist on the other side of
Carrie.
“Ah, maybe it’s because of the movie, it is his first big
movie…ever think of that?”
“I am certain that the movie was not on his mind when he was checking
out your ass.” Carrie laughed.
“He wasn’t, was he? Little rat and I thought he was sweet.” Tess
narrowed her eyes trying to remember when he could have possible done that.
“I’m sure he is sweet, in many ways.
Like on the floor, in the shower…where else, let me think.” Beth
pondered thoughts of what to do with a young elf.
“Agh…Beth, he’s probably almost young enough to be your son,”
Tess declared as the next group of people begins to arrive.
As she went to work on a continuing stream of different people Tess’
mind occasionally went back to the softly spoken Legolas. She was surprised that she had gotten butterflies in her
stomach after speaking with him and told herself not to be silly as there was no
way anything would happen beside friendship with that young man.