(New York) Professional hair and makeup artists work like artists in the shadows of celebrities to make them sparkle on red carpets. But the historic strike of American screenwriters and actors is emptying their appointment books and their savings, against a backdrop of a deeper crisis in their profession.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Brooke Shields, Keri Russell, Anna Kendrick, among others, photos of stars from series and cinema parade in the portfolio of Matthew Monzon, a 52-year-old celebrity hairstylist, established in New York since 1997.
But since the screenwriters, and especially the actors, have completely stopped working to obtain better remuneration from the studios and supervision of the use of artificial intelligence in creation, practically depriving him of all activity, his concerns have not are nothing glamorous.
“There’s really not much left in my bank account,” he summarizes. “I’m lucky, I was able to pay my health insurance and my rent. I’m doing well, but finances are dwindling,” he describes, while lending his support to the movement, because “actors and authors must be paid what they deserve.”
Costume designers, makeup artists, manicurists, stylists, hairdressers… the shutdown has ripple repercussions on an entire ecosystem that depends on the Hollywood industry, from its premieres and red carpets to tours to promote new films and series in talk shows.
Negotiations resumed this week between studio bosses and screenwriters, but the resumption is slow. Actress Drew Barrymore was scheduled to resume her Drew Barrymore Show on CBS last Monday, but she ultimately backed out, accused of lacking solidarity with the strikers.
In these conditions, the daily life of fifty-year-old Rebecca Restrepo, jumping from a TV studio to a hotel, her “30 kilo” makeup and lighting suitcases in her arms, was completely turned upside down.
“Since July there has been no work. Zero. There, I have a personal client, she’s a billionaire. But it’s extremely rare,” explains this makeup artist, who lives in Queens, New York.
“The situation is really difficult because with the pandemic we stopped for a year and a half. We were trying to live day by day, and now the strike is killing us,” she says with alarm.
They talk about their work as an art that adapts to circumstances. “A premiere is super glamorous, an evening talk show is a little more chic, more “cocktail”, a morning talk show, you want to look more fresh and natural,” explains Rebecca Restrepo.
But today, they describe increasingly tough competition, increasingly difficult working conditions and wonder about the future of their profession.
“It’s the Wild West,” sums up Rebecca Restrepo.
“With Instagram, the filters, the touch-ups, everyone thinks they are a makeup artist,” a development that she believes is driving prices down.
“The prices [paid by productions] have been reduced to a tenth of what they were” before the arrival of streaming platforms, also points out Matin Maulawizada, a makeup artist established in New York for 26 years, and who has worked, among others, for Angelina Jolie or the star of the series Homeland, Claire Danes.
At 59, he hopes to join the New York broadcast and theater makeup and hair stylists union, to benefit from the standards negotiated with production studios or Broadway theaters.
He also launched an initiative on Instagram, “beauty4beautyproject”, to encourage beauty brands to support professionals affected, like him, by the strike.
Marco Santini, who styles actresses Lucy Liu, Uma Thurman and Jessica Chastain, is more disillusioned, convinced that artificial intelligence will be a fatal blow to his profession.
“When you have an avatar, you don’t need a hairdresser,” he says. “This activity still has five, maybe ten years ahead of it” before disappearing, he assures.
