Ayla Ruby
Lawmen: Bass Reeves is the latest and greatest western from Paramount+, where David Oyleowo (interviewed here by Joey) stars as the legendary lawman who inspired many a US Marshal. It’s not easy making people from 2023 look like they’re in the late 1880s, but Vonda Morris and Wankaya Hinkson, the makeup designer and hair department head, were up to the challenge. Not only did they successfully take us back to the time of the renegade lawman, but they did it with an authenticness grounded in research and an eye for the little things. The talented artisans sat down with us over Zoom to chat about the show, working with David Oyleowo, and so much more.
Vonda Morris assembled a team of people to create the makeup and hair for Bass Reeves, and she talked about bringing together that team, including Hinkson. Morris shared how she aged Bass as the years went on, and Hinkson talked about bringing details to the hair from photographs she saw at the African American Museum. It was an exciting conversation, and the chat shows how even the littlest details – including sweat stains and mustaches – were factored into their work. Read on for the full interview, or listen to the audio below.
Ayla Ruby: I want to talk about how you first heard about the project. And Vonda, I know you have this really long history with David. Did that play into the project?
Vonda Morris:
Yes. Oh, yeah. Well, you know what? I was just thinking about this. And how David and I first met, I was doing… And it kind of really set the tone for Bass. I was doing Ava DuVernay’s breakout movies. And when I did it, I was doing hair, makeup. It was just me. I was the trailer. And I Will Follow was the first one. And then she did Middle of Nowhere, which David was in. And that’s when he and I met. And on that show, it was just me doing hair, makeup, effects, whatever Ava needed done. And now that kind of gives you the history of David and Ava, and how we all met. We all kind of came in to this together. So doing that, I established a over 13-year relationship with David doing different films like Selma and all these other great films with him.
And David got a chance to really see… Matter of fact, I think David really admires and appreciate what I could do more than I did myself. And he saw something. And so what he did was, he told me about Bass when we were doing a film in Canada. And he told me he wanted to do this. This was after Selma, when he did King. And it was just like, this is amazing because we get a chance to do this again. And I just love the men that he chose to portray because these are stories that really need to be told. And David is just so awesome that he takes any…
He could take on any character and make it his own. So when he decided to do this, we talked about it. And what David really wanted for me was to be able to create a team that really displays everything that I know how to do. So when we started talking about it, and he wanted me to formulate the team, hair, makeup, special effects, he gave me the opportunity to build that team so we can kind of all work together to be able to get the best product. And I think it really worked because it really shows on Bass Reeves.
Ayla Ruby: Now, Wankaya, is that how you… Is that kind of how the team is assembled, with you as doing hair on it? Or can you talk about how you also got onto the project?
Wankaya Hinkson: Yeah, no, sure. So me and Vonda’s worked together several years ago on this project with this ring out in Cleveland, Ohio. And we just kind of created a bond out there just from me having Jamaican parents and Vonda exploring… And Vonda’s history goes way back, let’s put it that way. She’s an OG in this. So she’s worked with many legends. So we kind of bonded closely on that and work on a project, a recent… Well, a couple of years now before Bass Reeves. A Christmas movie. And she came to me there and was like, “I have this project coming up out in Texas. Do you want to do it with me? I think you’ll be a great fit to the team.”
So I was like, “Oh, of course. I’ll come out and give it a try.” So once we did the paperwork and the interviewing, and they went through that whole vetting process, we began to start the journey of Bass Reeves and dive into the researching and all that good stuff to make sure that we bring the authenticity to this project. So once I got on board and met David and everyone, it was just literally glory and glorious from there, honestly.
Ayla Ruby: Vonda, I feel like for you almost, this was like assembling the Avengers because this is a really big period film and there’s so much to get right with presenting the characters.
Vonda Morris: It was. But what I did was, for me, in my experience over 30 years in the industry, what I thought would be great for this, and since David was allowing me this opportunity, I wanted to bring in people that really hadn’t had this experience. So what I did, my team was… I’m not saying that they hadn’t done anything in the industry, but nothing of this caliber. So for me it was like, let’s bring in someone that really want to be here, who want to learn, where… Because I’m very particular in I want… I’m a realist, so I really wanted everything to really look authentic. And what I loved about working with Wankaya is because Wankaya was like she likes to do… She was in there doing all the research. But what I do when I’m working, because it’s a process. And what I’ve learned over the years is that, our makeup, we can look at pictures all day, but it really doesn’t tell our story because it depends on the color.
And when we go period, it didn’t really give us too much. But I like to go to wardrobe. I like to see what they got going because then you could tell what level and where you need to take the makeup, and if it’s up or down. And see, with Wankaya, she dived right in there. She was excited about it. So it made it such a great thing because I was like, “Okay, she’s got that.” If she’s excited like that, that’s what you need to make a great team. And then on my end with the team that I brought in, they were all young girls, green. So when it was time for me to be able to say, this is what I want done and this is how I want it done, there was no pushback. It was like, let’s do it. So when it was time to get out there, and I was like, “listen, you got to get dirty.”
“This is not the Instagram world right here. This is getting out there, putting your hands in that dirt and getting dirty. Put on those boots, get your tent. I don’t like bugs either, but we are going to do this.” And that’s what made the team really great because everybody was young and fresh, and they wanted to make this project the best project. And it was an experience for us all. And it was an experience for me to be able to have a team like that, to be able to give them direction and to see them execute it on every level. It was just phenomenal.
Ayla Ruby: Now, Vonda, you mentioned the research part of this. And that it wasn’t so much research because photographs don’t really capture the reality of the situation. Can you talk about how… Like what’s your reference point or starting point, but in addition to the wardrobe, to how to bring these designs to life?
Vonda Morris: When David first started talking to me about it, all I could really think about is all the pictures on my great-grandmother’s walls, and to reflect on that. And what I was looking for, and it was the texture of the skin. What I wanted to see was the texture that… You could see it in the film where along with the age, you could see whether the skin was a little weathered. And for African-American, we don’t age the same, but you can also see it through the texture of the skin. So for me, when I would look at my great-grandfather’s picture on that wall, I could see he still looked youthful, but I could see that texture. And it was always this moisture in the skin. And I wanted to make sure that we portrayed that on Bass for… Especially for Bass’s character.
Ayla Ruby: Yeah. Wankaya, with designing the hair, can you talk about your approach to that? Because that’s such a huge undertaking.
Wankaya Hinkson: Yeah, a huge undertaking. And I think it’s been done so many-
Vonda Morris: I’m sorry.
Wankaya Hinkson: Prior to working to this, I had a chance to work on The Color Purple. And that kind of in a sense was in the same realm of this period piece, Bass Reeves. So I was able to kind of, I guess you’ll say, practice a bit over there and kind of learn to say, okay, rolls were done differently in the 1920s than they were in the 1840s. So kind of just researching, I bought so many different books as well as… For me, I’m a big Googler, Pinterest. So I went down that whole research, screenshot all I could and then start building boards from those screenshots. But what I couldn’t find as much of is the raw, authentic, natural, everyday people. The pictures that we see most of the time on the internet is pictures when they’re in their glam look or when they’re taking portraits.
So I kind of needed to figure out how could I get the ear croppers and how could I get the authentic slaves. And not just the ones that we always see, but just different kinds. So I visited the African-American Museum. And once you go through there, they have so many different levels of history and photos. And some you see on the internet and some that I’m sure you’ll never see. So it kind of gave me a little bit more of a deeper dive into building out the looks, the different hair textures. We also had a Native American advisor, so that helped me with the different tribes. So once I kind of was able to collaborate the looks of each tribe, I could break down the characters within the tribe. Then also just with… I know Esme’s character, just the description of her character, I wanted some strong, powerful women to be an example of what she was.
And in her mind, she’s one of them in a sense. So I looked at the Ida B. Wells, and Madam C.J. Walker, and those beautiful women. And their hair, it was over the top, but it was also still every day. I don’t know how to explain that portion, but I was able to build out each character just from each images, and put together vision boards for each character. And basically, every scene, for every trial or tribulation that they would go through, I would have an image of what it should look like. So example, like when Jennie was inside the slave… The flashback in episode six when she was inside the slave camp. And I wanted her hair to be a reflection of what we’ve been doing to Sally’s hair majority of the season. So it’s kind of a reflection on why Sally’s hair would look like that and where the plaits come from.
And with Sally coming to age and now starting to crush on boys, of course you don’t want to wear the plaits anymore, you want to snatch your hair up a little bit more. So little thoughts like that is what I went through. And I’m grateful that I had the creative freedom to be able to explore each character and develop each character as they went on. And with David, that was all a pleasure in itself because again, they worked so hard and had this for so long that they were able to give direction in which way we wanted him to, well, Bass to look from when he was younger to when he was, by the end of it, worn out and live the life of the sheriff.
So yeah, that was my creative thought into building each character. It was just making it authentic, making sweat marks look like sweat marks from hat stains, having hair stick to foreheads because we’ve been at war and battling all day. Just different things like that that would naturally occur, I took time to put extra detail in because I felt like that’s what would make it look the most authentic.
Ayla Ruby: That’s awesome. Vonda, this was… Can you talk about… Like were there any really big challenges or was there anything that was just really fantastic and really gratifying professionally to pull off, to have come together? Because this is, again, this huge, huge project.
Vonda Morris: What was gratifying for me was… Working with David… Excuse me for one second. I’m working on a film that we just got a room where everybody is like… I don’t know what was going on yesterday. So we all have allergies. But working with David and knowing the excellence that he comes with, it was very important for me to make sure that every area was nothing but excellence. Making sure… It was great that Wankaya had the creative vision also as well. But for him to make sure that that was right, making sure that the effects were right. Just building Bass’s character from the beginning to the end, and making sure that that youthful look was youthful.
I did different techniques to make his skin tight, to make him look very youthful. I did non-prosthetic techniques to age him along the process. I used Gary Archer prosthetic teeth to tell the different years in his teeth, staining them as they came along, went along. We stained them. We used about four different mustaches, and the difference in the mustaches were the timeframe.
Ayla Ruby: Yep.
Vonda Morris: So when he started to grow them. And it was very difficult because seeing that I was there and I created that image of him with Dr. King, I had to also make sure because I don’t give him that King mustache. So every time I would look at him, I’d be like, okay, wait a minute. I have to do something. But what also help that was to be able to put in the teeth, which also changed the structure of his mouth. So with David… And then what I started using is, the same technique that I used to tighten the skin is the same technique I used to age his skin.
Ayla Ruby: Oh.
Vonda Morris: So yes, I took those techniques where it would tight, I put it in certain areas to make him get natural lines, to make him look aged, and without doing a prosthetic piece along with the texture of his skin. And when we started getting branching off into the different characters, like Dennis Quaid who played Sherrill, Deputy Sherrill. And we took him and we grunged him up, we aged him. We put so much dirt and grunge on every aspect of the body because for me and my team, it was very important that you cover, leave no stone unturned because any angle get caught, you could see that it’s makeup. He needed to show the years of being out there on that horse, being an outlaw looking for these guys and showing it in his skin. So we really took the time to weather and stain his teeth as well. We really had Dennis. If you saw it, Dennis transformed. And it was great to see both of them because we had two great actors in our trailer who trusted us.
Ayla Ruby: Yeah.
Vonda Morris: And who believed in us. And we gave them everything we got, and they did. It showed on the film because they went out there. And to see David, for me, it’s always in awe for me because when we did Dr. King, he would… It was almost… Sometimes I would be in the room and saying, oh my God, I feel like I’m there. For David to get out there and get on that horse… First of all, a year prior to that, he was on that horse. When he was riding that horse, sending pictures, showing how he was preparing, I was like, look at this man, he’s dedicated. With that dedication that he had, I couldn’t come with anything less.
Ayla Ruby: Yep.
Vonda Morris:
So I had days where I was running from one place to another, making sure everything was good, helping out from prosthetics to Wankaya with the hair trailer to my team. I was all over the place for that. And I did it because, how he trusted me, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t disappoint him. And it was very huge. We did it. And we did it. We did it with… It’s one of the most amazing accomplishments that I can add to the list for myself. It really was.
Ayla Ruby: You both did a wonderful job. It feels like you’re very much in what I imagine the world to be like. It feels there’s nothing that takes you out or makes you think you’re in 2024. It feels like the past. And I think that’s just an amazing accomplishment.
Wankaya Hinkson: Yeah, that was definitely a goal. I didn’t want it to look like we were watching something in the 1870s. I want it to feel like you were in the 1870s and get lost in that world and see it in a different light.
Vonda Morris: The authenticity of it was very important. It was very important. And like I said, working with… Working with… Like Wankaya and I worked just a film just prior to this. So when David wanted me, when I was building this team, and I was like, okay. And I thought about, I had a whole list of people, but then we were working together already. And when I said that, I said, okay, she can handle these wigs. But I also knew that since we had this ability to work together, and I know how David wanted us to combine the two, that we could communicate. And I can make sure that the texture of everything was okay, make sure that that makeup and the hair kind of blend and made sure it was okay. And then I also had an effects’ girl that I had working with me with effects.
So I had a chance to design some of the effects. The branding. The branding on David’s back is something that I sculptured. And I sculptured that on set. And I felt like, for that, I really wanted to show, to tell the story of how the skin on an African-American, how it keloids. And at first, they were like, “Well, we don’t know. It’s too high.” I said, “But this would really tell the story.” And once you see it and everybody that sees it go, oh, wow. It just really tells the story of the trueness of the branding at the time. And I really wanted that to come across and make it as real as possible.
Ayla Ruby: I know we’re just about at time, so I guess I’ll ask both of you, and I’ll start with you Wankaya, is there anything else you want people to know about this project, your work on it? And then I’ll get to you Vonda as well.
Wankaya Hinkson: I just think the time that was put into this project, the hard work, the dedication, the love, the sacrifice, all of that stuff I think also should be put into consideration with this project. The team that I had that really gave their all as well. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them. They executed each talent. They had the trust of each talent. Donald Sutherland, for example, hasn’t ever received a haircut from anyone else. I think within the last 30 years, he told us, before meeting us. And was comfortable enough to have my barber Wayne, who’s also phenomenal and done so many other great projects as well. But trusted him to be able to cut and style his hair for the show.
So just to know how much dedication we all put into this, the love we all have for each other in this project. And I think that’s what showed up. The talent that was there. The cast was phenomenal. Every day, they gave their all and their best, and they showed up. They had opinions about what they should look like because they’ve been studying this for so long. Lauren was phenomenal to work with, with her ideas and all. It was just a great project. It was a really, really great project. And I feel like, I hope that it’s shown through the work that it was definitely a lot of work. And we put our all into it.
Ayla Ruby: And Vonda, is there anything you want people to know or that you want to leave with for Bass Reeves?
Vonda Morris: I would like to say that I have had a incredible career for the last over 30 years in the business. And to be working with someone like David and to have the relationship that I had for someone to really believe in you and trust you to be able to create and build a team, and still allowing me to build my team and grow with him, to see the work that was put into Bass Reeves, to take him from the young Bass Reaves to the older Bass Reeves, to have a great team. My hair and makeup, my team I had working with me, they were great. Everybody was there to put in the work. And it was a great experience. It was a great experience. And what I like to say about it all is, no matter what you’re doing and when you’re doing what you love, it’s never work, it’s an experience that you can have. And it was cherished forever. And I thank David Oyelowo for always giving me great memories to cherish. Wankaya Hinkson: Yes. And being a phenomenal human being and showing up with, every day, with grace and commitment and dedication. And I’m sure he was exhausted because he worked every day. And you could just never tell. Attitude was always phenomenal and positive. So thank you with all my heart, David. I definitely appreciate David and Vonda for this experienceAnd I want to thank you guys again personally for this.
Ayla Ruby: That’s wonderful. And it absolutely shines through in all your work
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
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