Makeup Head Doug Morrow On Creating the Origins of Esther’s Evil for ‘Orphan: First Kill’

When I sat down for Orphan: First Kill, I didn’t know what to expect. As a huge fan of the original, I was intrigued by how the filmmakers were going to pull off a prequel with an actress in her mid-twenties as a seemingly murderous youngster. From the first frame, I was sold. The fact that Isabelle Fuhrman could realistically pull off the persona of someone at the age of ten or eleven is a marvel.

Makeup department head, Doug Morrow, details how he was able to trick the eye into thinking Esther is the age she is claiming. Morrow details some original plans in order to de-age Fuhrman for the anticipated sequel. After all, if we saw something wrong with Fuhrman’s face, we wouldn’t buy that there was something wrong with Esther. Thanks to Morrow, Fuhrman once again becomes a terrorizing tyke.

Awards Daily: I have to admit that I was not ready for what this movie was going to do. I don’t remember the last time a horror film changed my allegiance halfway through, and I was not prepared for it. I had such a fantastic time with it, and I imagine that audiences have been having the same experience.

Doug Morrow: It’s been getting such a great response that it’s very gratifying to be a part of it.

AD: What is your first reaction when you realized that this was going to be a prequel to a movie that came out over a decade ago, and that they were casting the same actress in the lead?

DM: I looked it as a big challenge, but it was worrisome. The initial discussions weren’t automatically about if Isabelle [Fuhrman] was going to do this. We needed to test it to see if it was even viable. I know William Brent [Bell] wanted to use her if we could. Obviously, she wanted to do it as well, but we all had the realistic notion in our mind whether this was feasible ourselves. We were worried that we were going to shoot ourselves in the foot. Everything had to be thought out, including the shots, to make it look like that Esther was nine of ten years old. We thought things out probably more than your standard film. It’s why I have no hair now. The original movie was so well loved that we didn’t want to screw anything up.

AD: How many prosthetics is Isabelle wearing, and how does that change throughout the film? I read some things about teeth and contacts to make her eyes bigger.

DM: I got a call saying they wanted to use the original actress, so, in my mind, I looked at pictures of Isabelle online. When we get older, we lose that baby fat on our faces. It gets chiseled and then it comes back. When kids are that young, they have that cherubic face, so that was the first thing we tested on an actress here in Winnipeg. I built some prosthetics to make her face look like that, and we did an intensive photoshoot in my shop to have a before and after sort of thing. When Isabelle came to Winnipeg, we tested various things. She actually put on some weight for the part, so we ended up not using any prosthetics for that part of it.

AD: Really?

DM: It was all light and shadow. The contacts were Brent’s idea. When kids are born, their eyes are full-sized. We had contacts made to make her iris bigger to give the illusion that her eyes were big. That was the thing that gilded the lily on the whole makeup look. It really made her look that much younger. We did build dentures, but we ended not using them. You wouldn’t have seen them as much. The thing that really sold it is Isabelle’s performance. There are two things that made this movie. I don’t think you could’ve done this prequel without Isabelle. It wouldn’t have worked. The other thing was her commitment to this part. To me, it’s not overdone in trying to act like a ten year old.

AD: You telling me that it’s light and shadow blows my mind. And I feel like actors tend to act “through” the makeup, but she doesn’t do that.

DM: I agree.

AD: In terms of Julia Stiles’ character, she is a person who has a lot of money, but I was curious what you could tell me about that design.

DM: The main goal with a character like that is that she needs to fit into that world without overdoing it. She can’t have soap opera glam makeup on. It has to look real. More often than not, that’s always how I approach makeups for films. You shouldn’t see the makeup unless it’s supposed to be seen. Julia is so beautiful, so it wasn’t difficult to give her an upper crust look while making it look natural. That was all done by my key makeup artist, Kristy Greig.

AD: For a character that is so stripped down like Esther, does that make it harder to hide the makeup? Kids don’t wear makeup, so does that add another layer?

DM: That’s part of the skillset that you should have as an artist. Throughout my career, I think I’ve gotten good at doing what I call, “No Makeup Makeups.” I did a show about the Pinkerton Detective Agency in the 1860s, and the lead actress wasn’t supposed to look like she had anything on her face because of the time. It’s a delicate skill of blending and highlighting to make it look like they aren’t wearing anything.

AD: I was a huge fan of Station Eleven this last year.

DM: Oh yeah.

AD: I just wanted to know what your favorite part of that experience was? I think that show should’ve gotten more awards love in general, I will say.

DM: I was called in to do a lot of old age makeups, and that’s my all-time favorite thing to do. I love stories like that where you can see a progression of the character. To be able to do that was a lot of fun and very challenging. Like with Isabelle, with aging, you shouldn’t see them aging. It’s all about performance. Being part of that production was amazing.

Orphan: First Kill is streaming now on Paramount+.