Twenty Four years later the arena is welcoming audiences back for Gladiator II. The visionary himself Ridley Scott has assembled quite a team of frequent collaborators to continue his version of Ancient Rome on a more bloody and brutal scale than ever before. With a scale more epic than the first, Offscreen Central had the opportunity to chat with Hair and Makeup Team Jana Carboni and Giuliana Mariano about the transformation of actors’ appearances to match their characters, emphasizing a balance between realism and theatricality, and the challenges of shooting in hot, humid conditions for continuity.

Jillian Chilingerian: Hi, nice to meet you!
Jana Carboni: Nice to meet you.
Giuliana Mariano: Nice to meet you.

Jillian Chilingerian: I’m so excited to talk about the hair and the makeup because everyone looked so good, but also didn’t feel like it was them.
Jana Carboni: That’s amazing!
Jillian Chilingerian: So many amazing actors are in this with their iconography, but I feel like watching them in this, there are such subtle transformations, whether it’s hair color or grime on their skin or just the ways that they become these characters. I want to start with the process of how you wanted to transform them.
Jana Carboni: Well, I think, Ridley didn’t want to repeat himself which was good fun and interesting for us. The key point was about really making everything very opulent, edgy, and rich, but even a little bit disturbing thinking about the emperors, of course. It was very important to give this strong definition about each character, like you say, which is great that you noticed that. So to make a strong definition and difference between, the people who were in power and the poor people and the gladiators.
Giuliana Mariano: Very strong images here for each one of them, which is nice that everyone is very recognizable.
Jana Carboni: With Paul, of course, it was about his journey starting in Numidia. Paul has an amazing face and, an amazing persona, but it’s very much Irish. Our goal was to become him more like a Mediterranean with skin tone and hair color. We didn’t use any spray tan, but we went straight to body makeup because I wanted to have a very specific color, which was more reddish and deep tan. On top of that, we have to cover a lot of tattoos, all the scars, and like you see in the movie, breaking down all the blood for all the different battles.
Giuliana Mariano: For the Numidia part, it has to be dusty and use different products to give a texture that is rough and matte but as real as possible.
Jana Carboni: Especially because we shot in Morocco and Malta and the elements were totally against us. It was hot, and humid because of the naval battles in the water, so lots of water, lots of sweat, lots of blood. We also have to be sure to do things in a technical way that we can control during the long day of shooting as well. I think it was important to give a definition between Numidia, which is more matte and dusty Then going Rome, which is shiny, and dewy.

Jillian Chilingerian: I like that through how he looks, you can see the journey of he’s from Rome, but he’s gone away, then he comes back. The irony of, oh, that’s Lucilla’s son there are those facial similarities.
Jana Carboni: For us that is one of the biggest compliments was people coming to us saying, oh my god, you make characters so when you see the actor, you don’t see the character, you see the actor. They’re so different, but in a very natural organic way, still cosmetic, of course.

Jillian Chilingerian: Going on to the continuity of the grime being built up because he’s on this path of vengeance. I love that the characters are always dirty and as you’re watching it, you feel the grime and as it continues to build up and build up.
Jana Carboni: We started with a script, and I’m quite old school, so I got my little book with my notes, and I tried to plan the movie in my notebook. As well as you have to be careful, because you know they’re going to be five battles by the end of the movie. So it was a lot of planning and I have to say, I’m quite pleased with myself because I’m happy with what I planned in my head and it’s read the script, plan properly, and have a good approach to the vision.
Giuliana Mariano: A lot of work on set as well to be with him constantly for 15 hours every day in the 40 degrees in Malta, with the wind incredibly strong.
Jana Carboni: We always say you can make an actor look fantastic in the chair in the morning, but then actually, you make the movie on set.
Giuliana Mariano: On set is the, is the place where you are, have to be there and make sure that he looks right from battle to resting and then dusty again, and then dirty again.
Jana Carboni: With Ridley, it’s amazing because you never get bored. He’s so fast, so sometimes you find yourself shooting different scenes on the same day, you can have him starting bloody for one scene, and then you have to be clean for the next scene, and then you have to be like wounded. It’s intense, it’s fun, because there is never a dull moment, but you have 15 cameras as well and Ridley doesn’t do many takes, so you have to be sure that he looks right all the time.
Giuliana Mariano:Sometimes you don’t have a second chance.

Jillian Chilingerian: Oh my goodness. There’s this huge gap between wealth and tyranny that’s going on with the emperors. Their looks are so iconic in their own right as they are playing two sides of the same character and how they work together. What was it like designing those looks and collaborating with the actors?
Jana Carboni: The first conversation we had with Ridley was that he said, I want them to be opulent and edgy. The reference was Johny Rotten from the Sex Pistols, that was the stepping stone. We looked into the Renaissance. I think Ridley was quite strong about the color of the hair.
Giuliana Mariano: It was quite a big job over the weeks because we went through different stages of coloring to the final you can see in the movie. We always need to consider the actor that is wearing that color so it’s always find a balance between what you’ve been asked and what you would like. At the same time to fit the face. In this case, Joe and Fred, that they have to wear it. So it’s, it was kind of a long process. In the end, we were, all very happy, and we were happy as well with both actors.
Jana Carboni: They embraced it. In the beginning, it was a big change and was quite bold looks. It was like, okay, and then especially when we started to play with the makeup because the wig has to fit the skin tone. It was a really strong collaboration between us. When I was speaking about Caracalla l in my head, maybe you’re not going to see that on the screen also, but, we applied some prosthetic pieces to make acne skin texture on top of that, we put the makeup and so for him, I always thought that the makeup was going to be more like an armor, something to protect him. It’s a more gentle look compared to Geta, which gets more cosmetic and vain, to show his power. There are little like golden teeth as well so it was lovely because then they start to enjoy and embrace and they love this so much. With Joe, we did so many different looks for his journey and his character, especially when there is the fight with Lucius, we wanted him to look almost in a trance. So we made his eyes very black, and his face even more white and red under his eyes.
Giuliana Mariano:The hairstyle is typical Roman. Fred was more messy, going to the punk.
Jana Carboni: It was so nice when we did the first test and we showed the photo and we started talking about it and then something clicked, and they said, Okay, we got it. Yes, absolutely. We had so much fun. I mean, it was a tough job, because a lot was going on with a big cast and difficult scenes, but it was such a fantastic vibe, because all the artists, all the actors, they were so happy to be there. That was an amazing collaboration between all of us.

Jillian Chilingerian: We always think of just the core cast that you’re doing, but it’s so much more than that. Every piece needs to fit in the puzzle right. This movie is so immersive taking us back to this part of Rome.
Jana Carboni: It was a lot of planning, a lot of organization, a lot of having the right people in the team. We had between 700 and 1000 extras a day with different looks of patrician slaves, gladiators and and we started, like in Malta in Morocco. We had a fantastic team of local people in Morocco helping us, plus, of course, our team. We moved to Malta, and again, we had a massive team there as well. We did tests for each kind of look to set in stone, what we wanted and how we wanted. Something super important for us, was the party scene because the vibe had to be perfect. So I feel one of the biggest was a long prep. We want makeup and hair to show and to be celebrated in the scene. There is a massive contrast between the beauty and the opulence of the rich, and then the brutality going on there with all the blood.
Giuliana Mariano:We applied gold on the hair, gold threads, and all the accessories and everything that was very opulent in that scene.

Jillian Chilingerian: Well, thank you so much for this time to dive more into your work on it, because I love how everyone looks like themselves, but also doesn’t.
Giuliana Mariano:Thank you so much.
Jana Carboni: Thank you and we’re very happy that you noticed those things.

Gladiator II is available to watch in theaters
You can read our review of the film here.