Suicide Squad Is Officially An Oscar Winning Movie

The actors who wore the costumes and put on the makeup might have put in questionable performances, but those responsible for their aesthetic have just made Suicide Squad an Oscar winning film. Taking the category for Best Makeup and Hairstyling against A Man Called Ove and another major blockbuster, Star Trek Beyond, the DC installment can now put the golden label on their Blu-ray and DVD copies.

Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini, and Christopher Nelson went up to accept the award, making mention of their Italian heritage and what it means to be an immigrant coming to America. Dressing up Jared Leto and Margot Robbie as the Joker and Harley Quinn respectively was a task and a half. And, coming up against only two other features in the category, Suicide Squad has now made history.

Leto Joker Was About Making Something New

Joker and Harley in Suicide Squad

Speaking with Vanity Fair, Bertolazzi explained that director David Ayer and his team went out to create something unique in Jared Leto's portrayal. Following in the path that Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger made infamous, with the Australian winning a posthumous Academy Award for his role in 2008's The Dark Knight, the makeup artist outlined the challenge in bringing the character to a 2016 audience.

“Warner Brothers gave me all the comics to read,” remarked Bertolazzi before his Oscar win. “That didn’t help, because the character was too iconic, and looking through all the different looks would have been too complicated. They had already made an amazing, beautiful Joker before me (in The Dark Knight). And now I had to create something that was different from the previous Jokers, but (incorporated) the rules and paid respect to the iconic Joker.”

Joker a Romantic At Heart: Bertolazzi

Joker in Suicide Squad

Coming to a conclusion that the comic book villain was really a lover deep down, the artist argued that his look was all about attracting the eye of Miss Quinn. He also credited the silent horror flick The Man Who Laughs for inspiration.

“He’s a poet. He’s in love—sick love, but still love... So I tried to find something to make him super scary, but at the same time romantic. He’s in love with Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), who is also crazy. I always loved that contrast of a poet, a romantic, and a devil all at the same time . . . He’s a bad, bad guy, but in the movie, he’s something different. He’s a virus jumping around and moving the story in Suicide Squad.

Source: Vanity Fair, The Verge

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