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your niche Monsters and Princesses Film makeup artists must be ready for anything by Rebecca Jones Sue Cabral-Ebert bursts out laughing when asked about her ���glamorous��� life as a Hollywood makeup artist. ���Are you out of your mind?��� asks the Hollywood veteran, who has won numerous awards for her work. ���It���s being up at two or three in the morning. You work eight hours, then you go to lunch. Then, you work however many more hours, usually another eight. It���s a tough, tough business.��� In the next breath, though, CabralEbert is describing her work for some of Hollywood���s top stars and directors. She���s worked on movies such as Erin Brockovich, The Perfect Storm, and Dead Poets Society, and TV series including Dallas and LA Law. She began, however, as a salon esthetician in 1974, doing facials and eyebrows while taking night classes at what, at the time, was the only film makeup school in the country. Salon esthetics bears only a passing resemblance to Hollywood makeup. ���What we do is create characters,��� Cabral-Ebert says. ���We can make someone look older or much younger. We can make someone into a drug addict, or a fairy princess, or a monster. You name it, we do it.��� Until the mid-1970s, all union makeup artists in Hollywood were men. At first, Cabral-Ebert only found work on nonunion horror films. ���Then, the federal government stepped in and said no, you have to open up your ranks,��� she says. ���I was in the right place at the right time.��� She made history as one of the first women in the Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild, and is now president of the union���s Local 706 in Burbank, California. Sue Cabral-Ebert, shown here with actors on location, began as a salon esthetician. Michael Key won two Emmys for his makeup work on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The Extra Mile Potential earnings range from minimum wage to millions. ���In motion pictures, the scale is $35���$40 per hour,��� Key says. ���If you���re working on a $100 million movie, you may be making quite a bit more. Or if you���re tied to an actor, if you���re part of their contract, you can make very good money. It���s not unheard of for someone to get $3,000 a day. But those are people at the top of the game.��� Location obviously counts. Those interested in local theater can probably find work wherever they are. Television and movie work requires being where the studios are: New York and Los Angeles. Key suggests a good way to learn more is to attend the International Make-Up Artist Trade Show (www.imats.net), held six times per year in cities around the world. Upcoming shows are in Los Angeles, January 19���20, and New York, April 6���7. How often does lightning strike for estheticians who dream of Hollywood? It can, Cabral-Ebert says, but only for those willing to expand their skills. ���There are too few jobs,��� she says. ���If you just do beauty makeup, well, so does everybody else. But if you���re highly qualified, have a great work ethic, do your networking, and step up your abilities, chances are you can work.��� That advice is echoed by Michael Key, a retired Hollywood makeup man and editor of Make-Up Artist magazine. ���I���ve interviewed hundreds of makeup artists, and the common denominator is that they���re willing to go the extra mile,��� Key says. ���The job doesn���t come to find you.��� Key, who has been nominated for five Emmy Awards���and won two, both for his work on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine���says the crazy hours, constant travel, and lack of steady employment pose challenges to family life. ���But if you���re able to live like a gypsy, then the adventure can be very enticing,��� he says. Rebecca Jones is a longtime newspaper reporter and freelance writer based in Denver, Colorado. Contact her at killarneyrose@comcast.net. Get connected to your peers @ www.skincareprofessionals.com 11