'Euphoria Makeup Artist on "Rebellious, Brave" Looks That "Defy Gender Norms"
The HBO drama's avant-garde beauty helps express the inner turmoil of every Gen Z character, challenging artist Daniella Davy to approach makeup "as an extreme sport."
The daring makeup on HBO's Euphoria has inspired a wave of beauty trends and even influenced the runway at NY Fashion Week, but makeup artist Daniella Davy doesn't want to wish all the credit. "I got many my inspiration by scrolling through Instagram," she tells The Hollywood Reporter. "I think Gen Z is doing amazing things with makeup, using it in these rebellious and really brave, unconventional ways during which defy gender and makeup norms."
On a typical show, each character features a base makeup look which may change for special occasions but remains relatively equivalent. On Euphoria, each of the women had a New Look for each costume change, leading to many intricate designs that Davy developed with the assistance of her assistant Kirsten Coleman. With quick turnaround times and much of winging it, Davy said performing on Euphoria was "kind of like makeup as an extreme sport."
Euphoria creator Sam Levinson encouraged her to push the boundaries of how makeup is often utilized in storytelling and thus the way it can liberate the characters, instead of defining them. a significant example was Rue, played by Zendaya. "I initially thought Rue could even be an entire tomboy and junkie and she or he or he or he doesn't wear makeup, but Sam was like, 'No, no, I'd like her to wear makeup. I'd like her to possess glitter on for these parties,' " says Davy. "I realized there should be no rules or stereotypical sensibilities portrayed in our show. It was this chance to defy the boxes that we use to define ourselves or to define different types of individuals ."
Levinson had a vision, Davy says, sometimes right right right down to the attention shadow color he wanted for a specific scene. The colorful eyeliner and glitter eye shadow are not just a frivolous addition to the characters' costumes, either. Rather, their makeup is usually used because of the thanks to reflect their emotional journey throughout the show. "The makeup for each character is often seen as quite a mood ring," she says. "It's reflective of what they're browsing ."
Manifesting these characters' emotions — sometimes traumatic ones — through their makeup wasn't easy. And one moment, especially, stands bent Davy: when Sydney Sweeney's Cassie gets an abortion.
The scene jumps between her procedure and fantasy in her head during which she's living out her dad's dream for her, which was to become a knowledgeable ice skater. within the fantasy, Sweeney's face is ornamented with rhinestones and blue tones, giving her face a dreamlike quality. "I had much trouble deciding Cassie's search for her skating moment," says Davy. "It was really important for that look to feel so fantastical and thus the opposite of what I'd imagine it would wish to be getting an abortion. It needed to be the magical moment that she was holding on to urge through subsequent 10 minutes of her life."
The avant-garde beauty looks were just the tip of the iceberg, too. The Euphoria script also involved everything from prosthetics to body ink. "That's quite where my training ground is, the gritty, naturalistic computer graphics work and character work," says Davy, who comes from indie films including Oscar winner Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk. "It's so refreshing to urge to undertake to those beauty looks, but where my soul is with makeup is with this more gritty stuff."
With such a horizontal bar set, Davy says she's trying to reimagine the boundaries of what makeup can do once more for season two. "Makeup getting used as a sort of self-expression has existed for several years. I do not desire I invented it. I feel more like I, with Sam's encouragement, pushed it into the mainstream arena," she says. "I desire our bravest, most original artistic souls in our society have always been doing this."