See how the hair and makeup specialists of Shōgun tackled the herculean challenge to prepare hundreds of actors and extras to meld seamlessly into the world of feudal Japan. FX's Shōgun is now streaming on Hulu.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 It's just amazing how every piece
00:08 has a lot of collaboration.
00:10 Hi, I'm Sana Sepidon, and I'm the designer of hair.
00:14 I'm Rebecca Lee, the makeup designer.
00:17 It's my second time working with Sana and also Rebecca.
00:20 You know, there was no hesitation in sharing ideas,
00:23 and I love them both.
00:24 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:28 [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
00:42 I grew up in Japan.
00:43 I was watching those Japanese samurai era movie or TV show.
00:47 I never thought I'm going to wear that.
00:49 I'm really proud to be on this show
00:52 because my background is Asian, and I've never
00:55 had a chance to work on a show with such representation
00:58 and an almost exclusively Asian cast here in North
01:02 America for a global audience.
01:04 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:09 Japanese society in the 1600s had a very specific look.
01:15 Hair played an important part in stature and hierarchy.
01:19 We have everything from people in the village
01:22 who work outside and have more of a tan, weathered complexion
01:28 to our lords and ladies in the palace
01:30 who have a much lighter makeup and a more refined, groomed
01:33 look.
01:35 Obviously, in 16th, 17th century,
01:37 they didn't have a lot of options for makeup,
01:39 so we had to play with the simple things like skin
01:43 and just lip color.
01:45 Authenticity is really important for this show.
01:48 Everybody wants to make a very authentic product.
01:52 And how do you make something that's authentic
01:54 when there are no photographs?
01:56 We studied a lot of previous films
01:59 and looked at what was working and what wouldn't
02:01 work in our society today.
02:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:10 You know, this bald part, we all used what we called habutai,
02:16 which is like oiled paper cloth.
02:18 That's a Japanese bald cap.
02:21 These are very fine pieces of silk
02:24 treated with a special type of Japanese wax,
02:27 and they're applied on the head like a bald cap,
02:31 wrapped with these straps.
02:32 Some days, we have hundreds of samurais,
02:38 and we weren't sure how we were going to do this.
02:40 Fortunately, the Japanese wig technicians
02:44 that came over to work on the show and our other advisors
02:47 had a solution to this.
02:49 The technicians came to teach our crew
02:51 how to manage these beautiful masterpieces.
02:54 The way they honor their craft, it just
02:56 becomes a piece of artwork.
02:59 [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
03:24 The stuff that we've learned from Japan
03:26 has been a real cultural exchange for us
03:29 within the hair and makeup departments
03:32 with our Japanese counterparts.
03:34 They work in this time period a lot, and they know it so well.
03:38 So it's incredible to have them just in the trailer next door.
03:44 So we work very closely with them.
03:49 Each one of these wigs, the hair is laid on,
03:51 and then it's styled.
03:52 And so there isn't a lot of room to play with the wig.
03:55 Once it's styled, it pretty much needs to stay exactly as is.
03:59 But we wanted to have a little more of our action
04:02 and adventure feel to our stories.
04:04 Yeah!
04:05 We wanted the hair to break down and to look
04:12 windswept at times and to look messy
04:14 and to go through what the character was going through.
04:17 We tried a lot of ways, especially
04:20 for the guy's [JAPANESE]
04:23 We finally decided mixing version,
04:27 so east meets west on my hair.
04:30 Here is Hiro Sanada's Hiro wig.
04:32 This is known as aohatsu mage, which
04:35 means that it is a full wig.
04:38 And this ponytail that stands up is known as the mage.
04:41 This is his colors, black and gold,
04:44 so all the cords match their costume colors, their costume
04:47 palette.
04:48 And then we have thousands of cords
04:52 and thousands of colors and textures
04:55 to create these very elaborate hair ties.
04:57 Here's our wig for Ochiba.
05:03 Ochiba's hair is so special, and it has these beautiful drapes.
05:07 All of this is handmade and then sewn into the wig.
05:10 And she has the longest hair because she
05:12 is the woman of the highest rank in our world.
05:15 [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
05:45 Mariko's hair goes all the way until my hip.
05:48 And for every kimono that I wear,
05:52 I was able to choose a beautiful ribbon that went well with it.
05:56 Sometimes we went with something that
05:58 was more vibrant so that we see the contrast.
06:01 And sometimes we just wanted to go simple so that the kimono
06:04 would stand out more.
06:05 The fun thing with Anna's hair was, you know,
06:13 you could easily rock this on the runway
06:15 as much as you could look completely, perfectly natural
06:18 in 16th century Japan.
06:20 It was a lot of fun.
06:21 It was a lot of fun creating her character.
06:23 This experience of Shogun has been monumental.
06:34 I mean, I think it's probably been one of the biggest shows
06:36 I've done ever.
06:40 The mastery, the artistry, seeing the sets,
06:43 and how incredibly cinematic and beautiful the show look,
06:47 this is an absolute high point in my career.
06:49 [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
06:51 Yeah, we'll never forget it.
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