Siân Richards: The Invisible Makeup of Sinners

Heart, soul, music, history, and of course vampires. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is the perfect bite of cinema: intoxicating and exciting, full of symbolism and ethereal qualities that leaves the viewer wanting for more while also having their senses satiated. A visual feast that captures not only authenticity but merges the past, present, and future through the power of music–attracting evil spirits that, in the vests of persuasive and animalistic vampires, bring the genre to a whole new level. It is a labor of love where every detail is taken with respect and care–from costume design to makeup, every department has beautifully translated Coogler’s vision onto the silver screen. “I really don’t know that Ryan knew what the Sinners world was going to look like. He was very focused on perfecting the story, and I think through Hannah [Beachler]’s production design, Ruth [Carter]’s costumes, and my mood boards he really started to be able to see the movie,” Siân Richards said. The makeup designer brought nearly 40 years of experience into the project, and having previously worked with Coogler on Black Panther–she had a clear vision for Sinners.

With over 100 hours of research for Sinners, Richards created mood boards to gather a visual understanding of both historical accuracy and the raw nature of the new vampires: “It had sharecroppers and Chicago gangsters, it had Chinese immigrants and people who went to the juke joints. Then, in order to show him the vampires, I had images of lions and hyenas after a kill because I really wanted the style of the vampire kill to be like a devouring of the person rather than just a dainty bite. I wanted them to [be] covered from the face down because they literally bury [themselves in their prey].”

Honesty of Skin

As part of the extensive research, Siân Richards studied skin through old photographs, noticing that “despite the poverty, the diet was so simple and clean that their skin was absolutely radiant. The skin became a metaphor for the people,” something the makeup designer called “honesty of skin”. To achieve that for the characters in Sinners, to bring that authenticity to the period film, Richards trained the team from New Orleans with her signature makeup techniques: “I’ve developed a silicon-based cream that puts a beautiful veil while still being translucent, and it doesn’t need powdering. If you imagine how you paint with watercolor or liquefied acrylic paints on a canvas, you can get color washes, and then you can build depth up through those color washes. If one layer has a little bit of gold shimmer in it, and then you paint another layer over it–you get the light reflecting through that layer and you create these levels which end up looking like skin and photograph beautifully.”

For Wunmi Mosaku, who plays Annie, Richards “mixed special reds and golds thinned right down so that we could illuminate her. Then we added plum and cedar tones to highlight.” She explained that for deep melanin of any shade (Saul Williams as Jedidiah for reference), knowing your color theory and understanding lighting was essential. Achieving that honesty of skin was such a delicate and meticulous process that the makeup designer confessed was often a matter of trial and error but also continuous education not just for the crew but also for the cast: “For example, on Jayme [Lawson], who played Pearline, when she arrived on set before shooting the scene when we first meet her character, the makeup was wrong. It was too heavy. It’s Pearline’s first look, we’ve got to refine it. And so we did. We pulled her aside and basically removed and removed and played and refined it … it took 10 minutes, and she was ready. But it had to be done. This isn’t about ego, it’s about doing our best work to tell the story historically accurately, tell it with love and respect.” She then added that another important detail about makeup is texture. For Hailee Steinfeld’s character, Mary, the right lipstick couldn’t use a silicon formula because it wasn’t available in that period–something the actress learned in the makeup chair.

The Smokestack Twins

The twins, Smoke and Stack, are an incredible visual achievement—part VFX, part makeup, and part performance. Richards named it an enormity of subtlety, creating a full body makeup that was fight proof for the stunt performer and authentic proof for Michael B. Jordan’s twin double Percy Bell. “How do I differentiate them to enable quick changes and also to give Smoke that weight and Stack that levity? It was two different color palettes, two different paint jobs entirely,” she explained. “Smoke is the troubled soul, overly measured–the older brother in a sense. His color palette has shades of mauve, greens and blues, neutrals and deeper shades of browns … it was like painting a portrait every day. His eyebrows were a little bit more translucent and disheveled, giving him a different type of definition right at the base of his lash and just taking it away, liquefying color so that you could just lose in drawing the depth from the sides of his eyes towards the temples, taking it out a bit just to change the dynamic, and also to put highlight and shade into his forehead to help emphasize the weight that he always carries. Oftentimes when people are in their heads a lot, chemically, their skin produces this pigmentation. This pigmentation is essential for Smoke’s character, carrying it through to the sides of his nose, a little bit onto his nostrils, softening his jawline, putting a highlight in a slightly different place than I did for Stack. Mike had his own barber, but when it came to dressing his hair and beard, I made it a little bit more open and fluffy and irregular–giving him that somber weight.” On the other hand, “Stack lives in the present moment, he’s the risk taker and the charmer. Color wise, if Smoke had mauves, Stack had shrimp pinks and pistachio greens in his complexion to lift. Pale, soft blue gray to emphasize other areas, but very minimalistically, because that would kill his complexion too much. The brow was more dramatic, painting a stronger brow with alcohol color and giving him a little bit more depth around the lashes. I kept the pigmentation more focused around his lash to make his eyes look more intently. Then with his jawline, painting it more definitely underneath to sharpen it and taking that line underneath his ear to give it even more strength–it’s a real subtle thing, but it reads completely differently.”

Vampiric Gore

When Stack gets ferociously eaten by Mary, all hell breaks loose in the juke joint–letting in the devil in the form of vampires longing for new members of the family. The feral bites and splattering blood (they used about 9 gallons a day for Stack’s death scene, pumped through a fire hydrant) was masterfully executed by special effects makeup designer Mike Fontaine, with Richards’ team then dressing around the bite marks. It was a challenge not just for the makeup artist but also for Michael B. Jordan: “He’s not a fan of getting sticky, so we would be mixing water and other types of things just to make him not stick to himself so much, because then that’s going to detract and distract him from his performance if he’s worrying about that. I would paint on him with an alcohol color sheared down then put some shine on it so that it wouldn’t be sticky and still read like blood. I would literally put on gloves and do it by hand on him, not a brush, because I wanted it to be organic. It was a huge undertaking.” She added, “One thing I loved using on his skin was Dr. Hauschka oils because they just penetrate without removing too much product. Because it smelled good as well, it was letting him know that I’ve got his back, that I’m doing everything possible so that he feels comfortable.”

Tapetum Lucidum

One of the most striking additions to vampire lore in Sinners is the new eye design—lenses with a tapetum lucidum glow, like an animal’s. Following Coogler’s idea, the makeup department felt the effect was best achieved practically, so they brought in lens-painter extraordinaire Cristina Patterson. “Cristina is a really modest artist. She’s a tremendous innovator. Creatively, we align beautifully,” Richards said. Ryan Coogler wanted lenses for Remmick, Stack, and Mary. He didn’t have any color stipulation other than having red for the main villain. The process for manufacturing them was particularly delicate–nine rejects for one working set of lenses that took two weeks to make.

Starting with Remmick, Patterson mixed gold into red with an additional translucent layer over it to get the right hue, then some iridescent paint to achieve that light refraction of the tapetum lucidum. For Stack, “Cristina painted a sapphire stroke with a silver undertone–utilizing holographic paints that beautifully played with light.” Out of three color options, that was the one the filmmakers picked, then for Mary an antique gold with a bit of rouge was chosen. Richards shared, “When Ryan saw those, the floodgates opened. Suddenly he wanted Cornbread to have them, he wanted Bo Chow to have them. Anyone that had been bitten had lenses. We ended up making nine sets of lenses for it, and we were down to the wire. Because of this high loss rate versus success rate, Cristina was working around the clock.”

The tapetum lucidum lenses were a cinematic first–an incredible visual and practical achievement that not only looked good on camera, but it helped the actor to step into these feral creatures “because it gives them a sidestep into that moment of the vampire. The first time you know that they are vampires is through their eyes–that is your first indicator,” Richards explained.

The Dream Sequence

The dream sequence in Sinners is a stunning blend of culture, history, and time. Once again, Richards created mood boards–looking at West African scarification, tribal paint, and even costumes. Makeup department head Ken Diaz then took on the sequence as a whole, looking at past and future ancestors, while Siân Richards focused on two particular characters: Monkey King and Water Sleeves. “How do you pay homage historically? It’s not just about a look–it’s about a texture. Makeup was different back then. Pigments were different. Formulas were different. I found a video of a Beijing opera performer with Monkey King makeup, and his brushstroke was like liquid, so exquisite to watch–it was hypnotic. We tried to get that same stroke in our makeup, to pay homage to Chinese culture in the right way.” Then she added, “Ken Diaz was so vigilant in making sure that the makeup for Water Sleeves was just right. They did three makeup tests for it alone, developing the texture and flow.”

Sinners has already made a mark in cinema history, creating an indelible experience for all senses. Make sure to follow Siân Richards on Instagram to discover more of her outstanding makeup artistry and don’t forget to re-experience Sinners–you will be sure to discover a new level of appreciation on every watch!