2024 was the year of dancing to Pump It Up while taking a mysterious green liquid known as The Substance. While audience members watching have become entranced by Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley’s go-for-broke performances in Coralie Fargeat’s sophomore feature, many left the film in awe of the prosthetics and special makeup used throughout the film. Offscreen Central had the opportunity to speak with Special Makeup Effects Designer Pierre Olivier Persin about his team working for 11 months in pre-production, deleted footage of Monstro Elisasue, and what he hopes the next generation of prosthetic artists learn from The Substance.

Leia Mendoza: Hi! I’m so excited to talk to you. I love The Substance so much. It’s just become one of my favorite movies ever, I literally think about it like every day. 
Pierre-Olivier Persin: Oh, that’s awesome! Thank you! 

Leia Mendoza: I think it’s probably because on so many levels, me and so many other people can really relate to it at some point in our lives. I feel like the older we get, we can relate to it. I just want to say congratulations on all of the success and accolades you guys are receiving. I’m sure it’s super crazy right now! 
Pierre-Olivier Persin: It is, it is! But I’m really surprised and happy that so many people are loving the movie from a very deep and personal level. 

Leia Mendoza: Yeah! I think when a lot of people talk about The Substance, a lot of people always sort of associate it with being very bloody and dark, especially towards the final scenes. I think it’s something that Coralie [Fargeat] made that has pushed the boundaries of special effects and prosthetics with your team. I saw that you had been working on the film for 11 months before the film was actually shot. As you were beginning to sketch and figure certain things out, how much of the prosthetics stayed the same when you started your initial conversations with Coralie? 
Pierre-Olivier Persin: There were so many different characters and stages and different kind of things, so it depends. Some of them we found relatively quick with the design and Coralie agreed on them. We were able to move on from that and Coralie was coming from the workshop from time to time to see what we were doing, and she was asking sometimes for some tweaks. So, some of them were quite straightforward, and others like Monstro, the design took us much longer. Also, we shot the movie more or less in the order of the script, so we started with Demi [Moore] with nothing, normal Demi, and then we had the old age makeup starting with the finger to when her body is completely old. And then we finished the movie with Monstro in the theater with all of the blood. And then, at the very end, we did the most complicated special effects. It was more or less shot in the same order as the script, so we were also making and building stuff that was going to be shot at the end of the movie, like the theater. So, we did more or less what was planned. 

Leia Mendoza: That’s good, that means you guys had a vision and stuck with it! 
Pierre-Olivier Persin: Yeah! Basically, that was it. 

Leia Mendoza: I was thinking about this when I was rewatching it, but I almost feel like when you’re watching it with an audience or even just by yourself, I feel like there’s certain textures on screen that truly feel so real. There were moments where I know this is absolutely disgusting to think, but I just want to touch it! 
Pierre-Olivier Persin: No, that’s good! Coralie would be so happy to hear that. That’s why she wanted practical effects. 

Leia Mendoza: I feel like there’s just something so beautiful about the way they sew each other up, and the way the final transformation happens that in a way, it almost feels like you’re physically there watching this happen at the present time. And so, for you and your team, since I mentioned textures, what was that process like about creating formulas and different molds? Because I feel like there’s so many different stages of the transformation, that I’m sure everything felt different. 
Pierre-Olivier Persin: Yeah! That’s a good question. It was really important to us to go into every little detail. The shape of the character was as important as the smallest detail. We worked really hard. I knew Coralie was going to want to shoot in tight close-up of the creations. We spent lots of time really finding every little pore, skin texture, wrinkle, vein and different layers of silicon. If it wasn’t good enough, we were starting over again. So yeah, it was pretty much a 24 hour and 7 days a week—no, maybe not that, it was crazy but pretty close! 

Leia Mendoza: I have to give props to you and your team, you guys were working! 
Pierre-Olivier Persin: Yeah, my team is amazing! 

Leia Mendoza: Both Elisabeth and Sue wear prosthetics. Everyone knows about Monstro Elisaue, but obviously Elisabeth’s finger is prosthetic, Sue’s body is a “perfect” body with prosthetics, and you and your team looked at their transformations as beautiful. Even though a lot of people will brush off the body horror element to be seen as ugly. As I was watching the film, obviously there’s a lot of technical aspects to creating something beautiful even if the audience doesn’t really think it is. What kind of technical aspects did you bring into the film? 
Pierre-Olivier Persin: I agree with you. With my team, we loved our characters. We aren’t making fun or we weren’t talking about some breasts hanging, that was never the spirit at the workshop. We were like “Oh wow, that’s a really cool shape!” to “That’s a really good reference!” and if it shows on screen, I’m really happy. What was really interesting was what could be achieved with prosthetics, which means something that you can glue on the cast and the actresses. What could be done with a silicon version of Demi, or a sophisticated puppet or maybe using everything within the same sequence. We could use the silicon and puppet it, and then we could go to the actress wearing the big prosthetic and then cut back to the silicon and see the head growing. Many times in a few shots, you could see the puppet head and Demi. You would have the stunt double wearing a mask and then the third shot would be the actress wearing prosthetics. In three shots in a row, we have three different techniques and Coralie was always up to it. She loved doing that. We shot a ton of footage that is not in the movie. 

Leia Mendoza: Oh my gosh. Can I ask what was the footage shot that never made it in? 
Pierre-Olivier Persin: Almost everything is in the movie, but for instance, when Monstro’s head explodes, the new head grows back. We shot tons of footage of that. We had two different heads growing, and you see them in the movie, but we shot for half a day with two heads! 

Leia Mendoza: I wish that made it in! I’m sure everyone would’ve loved that. But, I think it’s a perfect film regardless if it didn’t make it in! 
Pierre-Olivier Persin: Yeah! I have some of the footage. I loved it. 

Leia Mendoza: I think Coralie is such a hands-on director. I just recently saw that Mubi put out a behind the scenes video of her directing the New Year’s Eve event, and she was actually wearing parts of the Monstro Elisasue costume. I think with your collaboration, you guys are at the forefront of making these projects that are very extreme. I love that there’s such a clear emphasis on it being very prosthetic heavy. I think you guys really honor and own that. With your work on The Substance, what do you hope that the next generation of those interested in prosthetics or special effects learn?
Pierre-Olivier Persin: Aw, I like your question. I got emails and even Instagram messages from people saying “I’ve just watched The Substance, and I’m 16 years old, and I want to do that!” or “I want that to be my job when I grow up!” and I think that’s fantastic. I like technology, we used cutting edge technology like 3D printing and scanning and digital sculpting, but in a world of AI where the human creation is in danger and in jeopardy, to have very practical and hands-on things built in the workshop. Just doing crazy things in the workshop, I hope that they will keep the love for making stuff with their hands. Creating and finding not the easy way, and if you have to write something, don’t ask AI to write it for you. Just open a book or try to imagine a story yourself, and look around you. Be fed by everything surrounding you. Not just the easy way, and if it helps. I’m not sure if I’m being clear. 

Leia Mendoza: No, you are! I agree. I think with things like AI being at the forefront, we can’t make a film like The Substance with AI. We have to be hands-on, and collaborate and work together. We also have to figure things out physically rather than having a laptop figure it out. 
Pierre-Olivier Persin: Exactly! And like you said, if you want to touch the things you see on screen, that’s really great! It’s such a good reaction! 

Leia Mendoza: I swear there’s so many moments while I was watching this where I was like, “I know there’s blood everywhere. I know there’s guts and I know that there’s 25,000 pounds of blood that just dropped on everybody, but I just want to touch Monstro Elisasue,” I just wanted to feel the texture! It’s just such a cool thing to be able to see your work on screen like that.  But, thank you so much! I’ve raved about this movie to everybody and made everyone in my life watch it. My parents watched it for the first time and they absolutely loved it and adored the prosthetics.  
Pierre-Olivier Persin: Awesome! 

Leia Mendoza: Congratulations on all of the accolades you and your team are getting, it’s just so rightfully deserved. I’m so excited to see what you guys do next and I’m anticipating your next project. 
Pierre-Olivier Persin: Thank you so much! 

The Substance is now back in select theaters and streaming on Mubi.
You can read our review of the film here.