Excerpt from Michael Caine’s awesome book Michael Caine – Acting in Film: An Actor’s Take on Movie Making
The first port-of-call is makeup and hairdressing — a department where everyone is trained to make you as happy and relaxed as possible. Obviously you have already thought about the way your character should look. If your part is large enough, you will have had prior discussion wtih the director and with makeup and hair artists. If your part doesn’t measure up to that kind of attention, the director will have already given that department some indication of what he wants. These guys are experts, so unless you’re related to Max Factor it’s best to let them get on with it…
If you’re feeling particularly sensitive about the bags under your eyes or the pimple on your chin, go on, point that out. If you’re fair and have blond eyelashes, as I have, you ask for mascara (because if you’re in a movie and you have blond eyelashes, you might as well be in a radio play).
