It is a feat to take on one character in a biopic, but Billy Zane found himself transforming into Marlon Brando and a litany of people he had played for his latest film, Waltzing with Brando.
The actor, 59, spent a painstaking amount of time in the make-up chair as he was turned into the likes of Vito Corleone from The Godfather and Paul from Last Tango in Paris as well as his characters from TV shows including Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett.
Speaking to the Daily Mail about portraying the late screen icon, Zane said: ‘Playing him I guess was the initial daunting responsibility, and then I had to dispatch with that right away by simply embracing the fact that this was a loving portrait and a reclaiming of his legacy around his passion.’
When cameras were rolling, the Titanic star, who also produced the upcoming film, approached his character the same way Brando did his, which was ‘to not really give a d**n.’
‘He holds on loosely and approaches it like a jazz musician and just react to what is and stay as off balance as possible until it was show time,’ he continued.
He said he didn’t have time to allow the nerves to kick in, adding: ‘I was too busy hiring and hauling boxes out of the way, and, averting disaster up to the moment I had to perform, which was really good because it kept me distracted. I didn’t stay in character, obsess. I found by keeping it loose, it was authentic somehow.’
Billy Zane told the Daily Mail that he approached his character Marlon Brando in his latest film, Waltzing with Brando, the same way Brando did, which was ‘to not really give a d**n’
The 59-year-old actor transformed into multiple characters played by Brando (pictured as Brando in 1968 on The Dick Cavett Show)
Zane usually wore a wig on set (pictured as Brando’s character in 1972’s Last Tango in Paris)
Zane sat in the make-up chair for up to three-and-a-half hours each day as part of his transformation into Brando, who was famed for his plump jowls in The Godfather – a role which earned him an Oscar award for Best Actor.
Recalling the painstaking process, make-up artist Mike Mekash, said: ‘On any specific day, the looks changed from scene to scene – at least in the initial shooting days, when we did almost all the callbacks to previous movies or TV interviews.’
Each day started out with putting on the prosthetic nose as well as having to place prosthetics to cover Zane’s tear ducts down to his chin and back to his ears. Paint was then used to ‘blend seamlessly’.
He also had ‘jowl plumpers’ that were used by Brando ‘to add more gravity to the side of the face pulling down the cheeks to add a gauntness,’ Mekash explained.
Furthermore, Zane’s eyebrows sometimes had to be thickened by gluing small pieces of hair onto his own brows to create the ‘Brando brow.’
In addition, depending on the time period, ageing and de-ageing techniques were used, which included ‘bronzer, some highlight and shadow.’
The ‘biggest look’ was from The Godfather, which incorporated prosthetics designed by special effects makeup artist Jerry Constantine.
The six-time Emmys Award winner said: ‘It’s one thing to do a likeness makeup on an actor and another to do a likeness makeup and also a character makeup on top of that. Then add in that the makeup you’re trying to pull off is one of the best known makeups by the master and “Godfather” of your prosthetic craft.
The on set makeup artist, Mike Mekash said that it took up to three-and-a-half hours each day to transform Zane, depending on the type of character he was playing that day
Wig designer Diana Choi told the Daily Mail, ‘We created just one wig and adapted it to transform into five or six different looks’
Each day of getting into character started out with putting on the prosthetic nose
‘I’m sure Billy would agree there was just a slight bit of pressure to get it right!’
Wig designer Diana Choi felt the same pressure, adding: ‘The smallest inaccuracy would not be forgiven, so it required the utmost attention to detail.
‘Recreating a real, well-known individual is the most challenging of all.’
Choi, who recently won an Emmy for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for HBO Max’s The Penguin, said: ‘When designing this particular wig, we had to account for the fact that Brando’s look shifted between two to three distinct hairstyles and colors.
‘We created just one wig and adapted it to transform into five or six different looks.
‘When Billy first tried on the wig, the resemblance to Marlon Brando was so striking that it felt like seeing Brando himself in front of us—that was an unforgettable moment.
‘Seeing Billy embody Brando so convincingly was a testament to the power of detail, research, and collaboration.’
During Future of Film Association’s OPTIX Series in Las Vegas, director Bill Fishman told the Daily Mail that Zane had ‘agreed to do the film right away’ because the Day of Reckoning actor has ‘always been told he looks like Marlon Brando.’
The biggest transformation was recreating Marlon Brando in 1972’s The Godfather
Mekash said, ‘I’m sure Billy would agree there was just a slight bit of pressure to get it right!’ (Zane pictured as Brando in The Godfather for Waltzing with Brando)
Zane and the cast spoke with the Daily Mail at Future of Film Association’s OPTIX Series at Sahara Las Vegas (pictured is Billy Zane, producer Dean Bloxom, Tia Carrere and Jon Heder)
‘He’s been asked to do things with Marlon Brando, but this period of his life was the time that he wanted to do and it happened to be the same period that we were doing, so that worked out great,’ Fishman insisted.
Jon Heder, who plays Brando’s architect Bernard Judge, couldn’t agree more.
He said: ‘When I was getting ready for this, I saw Billy going through this amazing transformation where he looked, sounded just like Marlon Brando, who everybody knows, so my initial reaction is like, “All right, I’m going to start studying this Bernard Judge character who the film is based on and the book is written by him.”‘
Aside from his fame, Brando was passionate about environmental rights, something that bosses wanted to drive home in the new film which sees Brando recruit a Los Angeles architect (Heder) to build the world’s first ecologically perfect retreat on a small, uninhabited island in Tahiti in the 1970s.
‘Well, it was very interesting to discover beyond what we had known about his personal life and his passion for civil rights and indigenous rights – the little known fact that he had championed environmental rights to the level that he had,’ Zane said.
‘Basically positioning himself as the Godfather of environmentalism really as far as the movement was fascinating and that came through the book that the film is based on by the architect whom he hired to build the first echo compound at the time.’
The film also stars Zane’s daughter Ava, George Psarras, Rob Corddry, Alaina Huffman, Tia Carrere and Emily in Paris star Camille Razat.
Waltzing with Brando hits theaters on Friday, September 19.
