Gordon Smith on Making Up X-MEN.

By: Rob Alstetter
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2000

Like the way Mystique looks in the X-Men movie? Think Wolverine's claws are cool? You can thank Gordon Smith, X-Men's makeup supervisor for all the magic. Smith, who spends a great deal of time in research and development, came up with a wide assortment of treatments and techniques for the film. 'My responsibilities were the design of each of the characters and they would need to turn them into the comic-book characters, whether it be wigs, eyes, prosthetics,' Smith said. 'That's kind of the effort, to make them look as natural as possible, and yet be super-heroes. A lot of the traits were established already by Marvel, but we wanted to humanize them a little and take them out of the comic-book realm..'

By now you've read all about Mystique and how Rebecca Romijn-Stamos wore nothing but the Smith-designed prosthetics. But Smith also revealed several other insights you might not have heard about.

* Ian McKellen wears a body suit as Magneto. 'Just to build him up, make him looked like he's pumped,' Smith said 'It turned out very well. Everybody just forgot that he was wearing a body suit. He liked it. He wanted to take it home.'

* Smith admits getting the right wig for Storm was a challenge. 'Trying to find the right material to make that wig out of and finding the right color to match her incredible face,' he said, referring to Halle Berry.

* One of Smith's favorite young mutants at the mansion that he designed he called Elizabeth. 'Kind of like Queen Elizabeth, sort of pink-pale skin, with frizzy hair and blood-red eyes,' Smith said.

* Toad's tongue was created with CGI. 'We built Toad's tongue, but they only used it as a reference,' Smith said. 'It was about six feet long and they stretched it to 12 feet.'

* More than 700 pairs of Wolverine's claws were made, and most of them were plastic. 'The biggest challenge was to give the actor nine-inch blades, three on each hand, and make it so that it was safe for him and the people around him,' Smith said.

In other X-Men movie news:This week's TV Guide features six different X-Men covers, including Professor Xavier, Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Mystique and Rogue. Hugh Jackman, who plays Wolverine, appeared on Live! With Regis & Kathie Lee on Tuesday. Jackman talked about his theater work and his excitement about working with Patrick Stewart. He also brought a big, inflatable Wolverine, which Regis Philbin bopped around. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, who plays Mystique, will appear on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Tuesday, July 18.