Prosthetic makeup artist Vincent Van Dyke is, this year, nominated against himself for three shows that couldn’t be more different. That’s just the way he likes it.
a trio of projects that could not be more different. It’s not the first time that this veteran creator has competed against his own work either: In 2020 he was nominated forSo while his work can be seen all over the small screen, Van Dyke says he’s often proudest when it goes unnoticed. “Often, my favorite stuff that we’ve ever done is the type of work that you have no idea that we were even there,” says Van Dyke.
Here, Van Dyke breaks down his nominated work, revealing the creative way he and his collaborators were able to bring aliens, politicians, and a 700-pound man to life.One of Van Dyke’s main tasks on the Peacock series about the L.A. icon Angelyne was aging starup and down for a series that follows the character from age 17 to 70. “It’s a huge, broad spectrum of age,” he says. “There’s never a look that Emmy doesn’t have some form of prosthetic makeup on.
It wasn’t just Rossum who had to be aged, but the supporting actors. And because Angelyne was known for getting plastic surgery, her character couldn’t exactly be counted on for showing the true passage of time. Van Dyke saysput it best when she said that some of these other characters are actually the benchmark of true aging. “You do have characters like’s character, who is aging much more naturally,” he says. “And it registers with you.
While Van Dyke also worked on Rossum’s chest prosthetics, he says that age makeup is by far his favorite part of his job, and the most challenging. “We all know what a human being looks like as they age. We’re around people every day. So it is very, very easy to create something that feels just slightly off, that doesn’t feel like it’s hitting the mark,” he says. “I think that because it’s so challenging is why I can continue to love it because I never feel like I’m hitting it.
Van Dyke was tasked with creating the prosthetic pieces after Kazu had designed them, and he put a lot of focus onNixon’s attorney general and chairman of his presidential campaigns. “It’s a brand-new set of prosthetics for every day—they get destroyed after that removal at the end of the day,” he says.