Wicked makeup artist and hair stylist reveals inspiration behind Glinda’s look

‘Wicked’ makeup artist and hair stylist Frances Hannon has revealed Ariana Grande’s Glinda look was done to help people connect with the character.

Ariana Grande’s ‘Wicked’ makeup was inspired by “old Hollywood”.

The 31-year-old actress plays good witch Glinda in the musical movie – which is based on Stephen Schwartz’s stage show – and the movie’s makeup artist Frances Hannon opted for “really simple” beauty techniques to enable audiences to “relate to the characters”.

In an interview with website, GoldDerby, Frances – who is nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling at the upcoming Oscars – said: “We kept her makeup really simple, very accessible.

“We wanted everybody to be able to relate to the characters, very much something that Jon had asked for.

“And quite iridescent or opalescent so that she had her own reflective quality.

“[When they appeared on camera],  the balance with the lighting worked extremely well, with Alice Brooks‘ lighting.”

The makeup artist – who won the coveted Academy Award for her work on ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ in 2014 – has said the film was the biggest and most challenging project she has ever worked on.

Frances admitted: “[At the table, there were] 88 speaking parts, and we had 3,500 supporting artists roughly, and 98 percent of those people wore wigs or fake hair or facial of some kind within the story,  so it was certainly the biggest film I’ve ever worked on and the biggest challenge.

“And I think one of the big challenges was to find all the different worlds within Oz but make them all believable and real and all connect to each other.”

By taking inspiration from “nature”, “buildings” and “in the sets” to make these “different worlds”, she hopes to make “the story all link and be believable” and make the film – a prequel to ‘The Wizard of Oz’ – timeless.

Frances added: “In 50 years when people are still watching it, they’ll still be involved and love it and it won’t be pushed away by being dated from any artistic point of view.”