Terrifying clowns? Gruesome stab wounds? Scars? Call it a day’s work for Stacey Perry.
The Louisiana-native makeup and effects artist has spent 15 years in the entertainment industry, working her magic on an impressive list of TV shows and movies, including the television series “Twisted Metal,” which was filmed in New Orleans from May to August 2022.
All 10 episodes of the post-apocalyptic action-comedy series, based on a video game, were released on the streaming service Peacock in July.
From Louisiana to Los Angeles and back to Lafayette, Louisiana native Stacey Perry has worked as an effects and makeup artist on many major TV and film productions.
Serving as the show’s lead special effects and makeup artist, she called it “the most rewarding show” she’d been involved with.
“We worked really long hours,” she said. “We did it last summer in New Orleans, and you know how brutal the summer down there can be. … But the showrunner, the director, all those guys were so supportive. There were so many different looks, different characters. It just made every day going to work more enjoyable.”
Actors in “Where the Crawdads Sing,” “Greyhound” and “Green Book” have all felt the transforming effects of Perry’s transformative skills.
From Lafayette, Perry first became interested in effects as a child while dabbling in airbrushing at her father’s drafting company. Both art and acting, it turns out, are in the genes.
“It’s pretty much a family business,” she said. “My oldest brother has been an actor since high school, and both of my brothers have been involved in the film and TV industry. I’d always been helped out a little bit.”
“MC Outdoorz,” a low-budget show directed by her brother Scott and starring her other brother Josh, proved to be the turning point.
Perry called “Twisted Metal,” which was released to positive reviews earlier in the year, “the most rewarding show” she’d been involved with.
“Everybody pitched in, in every department, to get it going,” she said. “I realized that makeup and makeup effects was what I wanted to do. It went from there.”
Like most in the industry, Perry built up her career gradually.
“It was kind of a gradual progression,” she said.
“A lot of the time you start by doing smaller shows. … On a show, if they need extra help in the makeup department, you get hired to be an additional makeup artist. And depending on how big the show is, you might be there for several days, and if you do a good job you can get called for multiple shows and build up your resume that way.”
After a stint in Los Angeles, Perry moved back to Louisiana when the industry began expanding locally. Along with her work on film productions, she founded a couple of businesses of her own: Luxe Skin FX, an effects makeup line, and ParishFX, a “hub” for effects makeup, prosthetics and props for film productions.
These businesses have helped her navigate recent strikes that, otherwise, ground the film and TV industry to a halt. Though Perry has kept afloat — she said Halloween, with its demand for makeup artists, was a particularly busy time — others haven’t been so lucky.
“It’s had a huge effect,” she said. “Every job has been affected. After we came back from the COVID shutdown, we worked nonstop. Everyone in the New Orleans area and the surrounding areas worked from show to show to show, even moving out of one makeup trailer into another on the same day.
“So it’s gone from being extremely busy to a full stop. We’re all hurting right now.”
Different looks, different characters. It’s that sort of variety, the search to constantly try and nail down a new look, that makes the job so rewarding.
“There are new challenges for every new show,” she said. “Everyone is different. You have the basic same things you do all the time makeup-wise, but there’s always a new special effect or a new way to do something.
“A director might want something done differently that you’ve never heard of before. Like ‘OK, we want this to happen; how do we make it work?’ It’s really about figuring out ways to make something look realistic.”
Perry says the challenge is constantly working toward creating new looks. She says that while the writers strike has ended, the lingering actors strike has caused productions to remain at a continued standstill.