Robert Picardo: The Man Behind the Monster Makeup

VOYAGER's holographic doctor appears at Chiller Con, celebrating his work in horror films.

By Anna L. Kaplan     April 13, 2000

Just finishing up with STAR TREK: VOYAGER's sixth season, Robert Picardo (the Doctor) takes some time to talk about his upcoming visit to his first horror convention. He says, 'The Chiller Theater Convention, in Rutherford New Jersey, goes three days, and I will be there. This is my first ever horror convention. I have been in some classic makeups, Eddie in THE HOWLING (1980), and Meg Mucklebones in LEGEND (1985), the alien character Wak in EXPLORERS (1985) and his father, who I guess had no name. I've also been in 976-EVIL (1988). I'm the head of Johnnycab, the robot cab driver in TOTAL RECALL (1990).' Picardo's feature film genre credits also include INNERSPACE (1987), JACK'S BACK (1988), and GREMLINS 2 (1990), among others.

Picardo explains that it was his friendship with makeup artist extraordinaire Rob Bottin that led him to many of his rolls in makeup. He says, 'I met Rob on THE HOWLING, which Joe Dante directed. I certainly worked with Joe Dante a number of times, in his films, but I also worked with Rob in movies that he did with Joe and other directors like Ridley Scott. He just likes working on my face. Rob used to say that I was, 'an actor that you could put anything on, and he would still do the job.' Some actors, when they get buried in makeup, and from the exhaustion of being awake that many hours, getting their makeup put on, when the time came to perform and the cameras rolled, that the actors sometimes were intimidated or exhausted under the makeup, and their performance wouldn't come through it. He thinks I have a special gift for communicating through the makeup and making the makeup look good, and performing well as an actor. He was my biggest fan in that area. It's difficult work; it's grueling and claustrophobic.'

Performing under so much makeup is so difficult that it is hard for Picardo to say exactly which job was the hardest for him, the transformation in THE HOWLING, the father in EXPLORERS, or the water-logged Meg Mucklebones in LEGEND. Recalls Picardo, 'In THE HOWLING I had a bladder glued to my neck. When you put an air bladder on your neck and inflate it, it completely closes off your windpipe. You can't breath. That was really unpleasant. When they glue those little bladders to your face and to your neck, and then inflate them, it feels like they are tearing your flesh off, because you have something glued to your skin. As it inflates it pulls your flesh away from you face, so that is not a pleasant experience. But the worst single day I had in makeup was playing the father character in EXPLORERS. The weight of the assembly on my headeven though there was a framework that supported it from behind me, still, it torqued. As I twisted my head it moved, and I got open lesions on the top of my head from the weight of that thing. That was the worst day of my life, I would say.'

The actor laughs heartily, 'None of them were easy, but I think that the EXPLORERS experience was the low point. I remember after 21 hours when the crew took a second meal break, they left me up there like a tree because they couldn't move me. I was standing there, and I think I had tears rolling down the inside of the makeup, going 'I don't want to do this anymore.''

Although Picardo had snakes on his head during LEGEND, that was not the most challenging part of the job. He remembers, 'Playing Meg was difficult because [I was] in a prosthetic makeup that became engorged with water. It was like wearing a huge sponge, so it was very heavy. Originally, Ridley wanted me to come out of a trap door from under a clear pool of water. There were three feet of water, and then under the trap door there was like another fifteen feet of water, in order to lower me down low enough for the one trap door to pass through the false stage floor. The two metal plates of the trap door passing by the stage floor pass by each other. It's a three by three foot trap, and I'm on this little thing that supports me by the butt. My body, which is covered in rubber, engorged with water, my upper body is acting like a big flip-flop as it's pushed up through the water. I said, 'If you lower me that low, if I get pushed up fast enough and my body flops over off the trap door, as the two metal plates are passing each other, you could shear my arm off. You could decapitate me.' I said this to the first A.D. and he said [using an English accent], 'Yes, yes, you're right. I suppose we should rehearse then.' I said, 'I don't want to do this. I think this is not a good idea.' We decided not to have me come up from under the water. Instead they would have this turmoil of water, like this whirlpool in front of me and I would come from behind that. That way I wouldn't have to be immersed, and I'm glad. Since I've had my subsequent career after that movie, it would have been a shame to end it all. That was the hardest part about doing that one, I have to say. You're doing something that they haven't done before. You have to just watch out and make sure that everybody is putting safety first.'

What about the snakes on top? Laughs Picardo, 'They did put snakes on my head. I forgot about that. I had snakes on me, but I was so covered with rubber, who gave a [thought] about the snakes?'

Later, Picardo would go on to audition for the part of Neelix in VOYAGER, a role that ultimately went to his friend Ethan Phillips, sparing Picardo from wearing the claustrophobic makeup. He says, 'The great irony of my VOYAGER experience is, I wanted to play Neelix. I tested for Neelix. I came within a hair's breadth of playing Neelix. I probably would have gone insane and murdered seven or eight people had I played Neelix. I think we are all better off the way it all turned out. I have nothing but admiration for the actors on VOYAGER who perform in makeup all the time.'

Picardo will be playing up his horror roles Chiller Theater Convention, including the homicidal werewolf from THE HOWLING. He says, 'I will of course be featuring Eddie at the Chiller Con. In honor of it, Jeff Yagher, actor and famous garage model sculptor, is doing an original sculpture of Eddie Quist, which will be also there on display. I will be signing Eddie pictures, and also I'll have some STAR TREK photos.'

He laughs, 'But this is my first horror [convention], and who knows, depending on how this goes, maybe my last. So I recommend HOWLING fans come out.'