The Joker has gone through dozens of different looks over the last seventy-odd years, with artists making him more horrific or cartoony as they re-imagine him. With a new bust depicting the Clown Prince of Crime, special effects make-up master Rick Baker joins the roster of creators who’ve re-imagined the DC Comics villain. Of course, his Joker looks really sick, in all senses of the word.
Rick Baker has racked up a slew of awards—including seven Oscars—over a decades-long career working on classic projects like An American Werewolf in London, the video for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” Men in Black, and Videodrome. Months ago, DC Comics commissioned him to put his stamp on the Joker for a new collectible bust that comes out today. I spoke with Baker this summer at San Diego Comic-Con and, in the edited and condensed conversation that follows, he talks about his career and his favourite on-screen Joker.
I remember when you did that group cosplay with your family a few years ago, where you all became different versions of the Joker. What is it about the Joker that fascinates you?
Rick Baker: I always thought the Joker was kind of a cool character but that family Halloween really piqued my interest in the Joker. When I saw him in a film, I always thought “that’s not quite how I’d envision him,” or, “not quite what I would have done.” But also I know from doing this kind of work, there are so many things that affect the final outcome. Whether the actor is willing to wear it, how much he has to do with it…
The inspiration for the Joker, which was Conrad Veidt from The Man Who Laughs is the best Joker, to me. And if somebody said, “make a good Joker,” I would do something like that. In the ‘20s, they didn’t have a lot of materials so they couldn’t do a lot of different things. But you look at the make-ups that Lon Chaney did with the materials that he had and they’re iconic and incredible. It’s all prosthetics and the limitations helped, I think. You see so many things now, they’re just too much.
People put too much rubber and too much shape, you lose the actor, you lose all that, you know? I always kinda prided myself on trying to make the right decision for the film I’m working on. But the Joker, just to answer your question, the Joker is just a cool character. And I just thought, “to me, the Joker should be insane and fucked up and scary as shit,” and so if somebody just looked at him, you’d want to run. You know? And that’s what I was hoping to do with this.
There’s a generation of fans embarrassed that was the popular version of the character for so long, but now I feel the pendulum has swung the other way. Even before Adam West’s passing, the way we think about these characters has changed. There’s a continuum of interpretations.
Baker: I’ll watch it now on MeTV and enjoy it. But as a—whatever age I was—a kid, that wasn’t the Batman I wanted to see.
Let’s say you were doing An American Werewolf in London today — what would you do differently?
Baker: Well, if I did American Werewolf in London today, I would take advantage of the digital technology. I wouldn’t do it all digitally. I would like to do a nice marriage of the techniques, practical and digital. But Max Landis, John’s son, is doing a version and I wouldn’t want anything to do with it. I did it once. I personally think it’s going to be hard to top that movie. It was ahead of its time in a lot of ways. I think it’s a mistake to try to do it.
Do you feel like digital special effects have made make-up a dying art?
Baker: It’s not quite a dying art. I thought it was going to die when digital happened, but there’s probably more make-ups going on now than there has been in many years. TV has created a lot of that. They do a lot of great make-ups on Game of Thrones. They do everything great on that show. The digital work, the costumes, everything’s great. And you’ve got Walking Dead and so many fantasy and horror and genre TV things that utilise make-up. It’s not a dying art. It’s just the motion picture industry has changed so much.
I was surprised to hear you say you’d use digital…
Baker: I embrace technology. I do a lot of digital work and I have fun doing it. To me, it’s all about the creativity. It’s not really the material so much. And I have fun learning new things. A lot of this [attitude] comes from [history].
Jack Pierce was the make-up artist who did the Wolfman, Frankenstein’s Monster, and he actually also did The Man Who Laughs make-up. He created these iconic images and saved Universal Studios. But, when the new regime came in the ‘40s, he was kicked out because he was using old-school techniques when everyone else was using foam rubber. He didn’t progress with the times. I made a note of that and I’m not going to let that happen. So I was the first make-up artist that I know of using digital designs with Photoshop 1.0. Now it’s commonplace. I was the first one to use ZBrush. On the ZBrush forum, which I joined anonymously, I had a big fan following. They didn’t know who I was. And it was kind of nice to know they appreciated the work. Not just the name. But yeah, I learned from Jack Pierce’s mistake, and I just like trying new things.
One of the things I like about my job is it’s always different. Maybe one day I’m making up Eddie Murphy as an old, white Jewish guy and I’m doing another movie where I’m doing a Bigfoot and making a likeness of somebody else. It’s not boring. I don’t want to do the same things every day. So, pushing clay around is fun, doing digital clay is fun, too, when you get tired of the other one.