Gwyneth Paltrow knows good skincare.
The Goop founder plays fading movie star Kay Stone in the Josh Safdie-directed “Marty Supreme,” a role that saw her polishing up her acting chops and paring back the glam.
Makeup artist Kyra Panchenko, who previously worked with Safdie on “Uncut Gems,” tells Page Six Style exclusively that the filmmaker “doesn’t like to see makeup” onscreen. So while the 1950s setting of “Supreme” would typically call for eyelashes, bright lipstick, heavy foundation and powder, Panchenko had to get creative with “very sheer,” natural-looking products.
“I think we were trying to cover up the fact that she’s from LA, so she had a little bit of a tan and we were trying to neutralize that,” she says.
There are even moments of the film where the 53-year-old actress wears no makeup at all. In one intimate scene, Paltrow appears barefaced with her hair wet, straight from a steamy shower with Chalamet.
“[Paltrow said,] ‘Okay, I trust Josh.’ And I’m so glad Josh did that and that was his vision because it’s such vulnerable moment,” Panchenko recalls. “And it’s that vulnerability of having no makeup on and her hair just kind of a mess that really just made that scene, I think, a little bit more powerful.”
The artist prepped the actress’ complexion with facial massage and — what else? — Goop skincare. (She “actually really loves the products that she makes,” Panchenko confirms.)
It wasn’t just Paltrow who got the dressed-down treatment; Panchenko received orders from Safdie to tone down Fran Drescher’s famous face, too.
“He really did not want her to have heavy makeup at all, and he really did not want her to look anything like her other character [in] ‘The Nanny,’” she said. “Obviously not only because that was not a 1950s character, but he really wanted people to go, ‘Is that Fran?’”
Unlike Paltrow, however, Drescher wasn’t exactly eager to appear makeup-free onscreen.
“We’re sitting there listening to him. She’s like, ‘OK … but I would like to have a little eyebrow,’” Panchenko recalls.
The movie’s makeup has been making headlines throughout awards season — thanks to Chalamet’s faux acne scars that were so realistic, Paltrow offered him skincare advice.
“She came into the makeup room and she’s like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe that’s not real. That’s amazing,” Panchenko says, calling her reaction “the highest compliment.”
Mike Fontaine — who is nominated for an Oscar for his work on “Sinners” — was responsible for the lifelike prosthetics Panchenko then enhanced to rough up Chalamet’s pretty looks.
“The way [cinematographer] Darius [Khondji] shoots a film and the way Josh likes a film shot is everything is in close-ups,” she explains. “So it was non-negotiable. We had to do something that looked incredible, that just melted into his skin and became his skin.”
Fontaine made a mold of Chalamet’s face that helped him sculpt five individual prosthetic pieces, which would eventually get scarred, scraped and marked.
The 30-year-old actor offered input as well, noting that he didn’t want to make his cheeks any wider — so the team focused the prosthetics along the jawline rather than higher in the midface, Panchenko says.
She then made Chalamet’s eyebrows “twice as thick” and joined them at the center to create a bushy unibrow.
“Eyebrows really do change your face shape, you know, so it was just to make him look different — not the the leading man, handsome Timothée that we all know,” Panchenko says.
To accomplish the look, she used wig glue to place individual eyelash extensions — one hair at a time — between Chalamet’s brows. She also used a super-thin $10 eyebrow pen from Korean brand Maki Yika in several different shades to draw individual hairs (and to fill in any bare patches on Chalamet’s mustache.)
Panchenko and Fontaine worked simultaneously to transform Chalamet from smooth-faced A-list star to blotchy ping-pong-baller in just one hour, with the actor shaving his face every day to keep the perfect mustache length and shape and the two pros filling in all the hairy details.
Chalamet even wore contacts that obscured his vision, so the thick frames he wore for the film were actually functional.
“This was really intense,” Panchenko shares. “It wasn’t the most pleasant experience for him, but it really was a part of the character because it shrunk his eyes — his big, bright eyes — giving him a completely different face.”
And when you have a face full of prosthetics but have to perform real, sweaty athletic scenes, that “poses a bit of a problem,” as Panchenko puts it. She used professional products on Chalamet’s face, but turned to a simple drugstore staple to add “moistness” to the rest of his physique: Vaseline body oil.
“I love it because I’m always trying to take care of the skin during this whole process. I was always making sure that Timothée’s skin never got irritated,” she says, adding that other mixtures makeup artists use to concoct faux sweat can clog the pores.
With “Marty Supreme” nominated for nine Oscars this Sunday — including best picture, best cinematography, best costume design and best actor for Chalamet — expect some supremely entertaining moments during the broadcast.
