00:14When I was really young, my favorite film that I used to love to watch the most was The Mummy.
00:19It was freaky and fun and absolutely beautifully done.
00:22Boris Karloff was so frightening.
00:24I was fascinated.
00:26I always thought when I grow up, I either want to be a makeup artist or I want to be
00:29an archaeologist.
00:30Funny, right?
00:32Most interesting.
00:33I'm V. Neal, and I am a makeup artist for film and television.
00:37I specialize in makeup effects.
00:40You may have seen some of the films I've worked on.
00:42I've done big franchises like Pirates of the Caribbean and The Hunger Games.
00:47I've also won three Oscars.
00:49My first one was for Beetlejuice.
00:51My second one was for Mrs. Doubtfire.
00:53And my third one was for the film Ed Wood.
00:56It's alive, it's alive, it's alive.
01:00I would imagine that I watched all the Universal Monster movies at least 50 times when I was a kid.
01:05And my parents couldn't figure it out ever.
01:07I was kind of obsessed with being scared.
01:09I liked it.
01:11As a young child, I really got firsthand information about being a makeup artist.
01:16My friend's father was a makeup man.
01:18I would watch him do makeup on us for Halloween.
01:20And I always used to say to him, I want to do what you do when I grow up.
01:23And it was always like, yeah, sure, kid.
01:26Because, you know, back then, women were not makeup artists.
01:28You know, how am I going to get to work in the movies?
01:30They tell you you can't do it because you're a...
01:32Could you have done to make them treat you like that?
01:35The mummy itself terrified me.
01:38I used to love to watch this film and try to figure out how they did that makeup.
01:42Jack Pierce was a legendary makeup artist who inspired so many of us.
01:46It was just absolutely genius, the things that he came up with.
01:50It took him eight hours to do that mummy makeup and two hours to take him out.
01:54Good heavens, what a terrible curse.
01:57He got these old linen wraps and he boiled them down so they were just literally almost falling apart.
02:02And then he laid them on with spirit gum and clay.
02:06So when the mummy actually started moving, the clay would start popping.
02:10It was just freaky.
02:12What a fantastic job.
02:14And he also glued rice paper onto Boris Karloff's eyelids.
02:18So he just looked like he had that little tiny slit.
02:21Karloff said that it was probably one of the most painful things he had ever endured.
02:27I didn't catch your name.
02:29Ardeth Bay.
02:30Even just as terrifying was the character that he was afterwards, the Ardeth Bay character,
02:35when skin was all shriveled up.
02:36Absolutely stunning.
02:38I don't think one would forget meeting you, Ardeth Bay.
02:41There's these really great close-ups.
02:43I mean, like this, with raking lights and beautifully lit scenes.
02:47That's really scary for a little kid.
02:49Do not be afraid.
02:50And these were old movies when I was watching.
02:52I can only imagine what the people who were watching them originally in their 30s must
02:57have been thinking.
02:58That hadn't been terrifying back then.
03:00Never saw a mummy like that.
03:02Neither I imagined was anyone else.
03:04One of my favorite scenes is one of the only times you see him wrapped up in those wrappings.
03:09They show that close-up of him inside the sarcophagus still and his eyes open.
03:14And it's like, oh my God, that freaked me out so bad.
03:18That was the coolest thing ever.
03:21I am so lucky to have had such an amazing career.
03:26And I am so fortunate to have worked with so many brilliant directors, fantastic actors.
03:31And I have conversations with young women all the time now because they look up to me because
03:36I basically broke down that wall between men and women being able to do makeup.
03:41And wow, you know, I'm living the dream.
03:51You know,
