Maxance Vincent
Makeup Designer Alexei Dmitriew, who is nominated for an Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup Emmy for his work on Disney+’s Ahsoka alongside Cristina Waltz and the rest of the team, had previously stepped into the world of Star Wars with the second season of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, in which Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) makes her live-action debut.
But Ahsoka takes it up a notch by introducing more characters who exclusively appeared through the animated Star Wars: Rebels into the live-action Star Wars sandbox. Speaking to Awards Radar on his work on the series, Dmitriew describes the process of translating animated characters into live-action as a massive challenge:
“We’ve watched the shows and are big fans of it, too. We feel a lot of pressure to get it right because we want to get it right for us. We want to get it right for the fans and our bosses. We try to be very particular about ensuring that every little detail is correct. For example, Ezra’s scar has to be in the right place, and it’s the right thing. You have to have the actor in mind as well. When Eman Esfandi comes in, we’re using his face and beard on him to make sure it’s right, but it’s also the right size of what was in the animation. We approach every character that way. Not everything in animation will translate perfectly to live action, but we can take the essence of all of it and push into it. It’s a great challenge, an enjoyable process, and unlike anything I’ve ever done in my career.
For Dmitriew, the pressure of working on such a series has pushed him and the rest of his team to become better artists in the process of designing each character for the show:
“I feel the pressure when we’re doing it, of “we have to get this right,” with Cristina Waltz and myself. We’re very perfectionists in that way, and our team is the same. We push everybody to get it right, but it’s not a big push because everybody wants to do it correctly. I think it’s a fun pressure or a “push-yourself” pressure.
I remember that after the second season of The Mandalorian, we got to make so much stuff, and we were always painting and building. It felt like I was a better artist at the end of that season. Working on that show, The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka, has been an exceptional experience because you enter knowing what you know and bringing what you can bring to the table. Still, you leave, I think, a better artist because you push yourself to elevate your artistry to make these characters correct.”
We also had the chance to discuss the evolution of his designs of Ahsoka Tano from The Mandalorian to the current series, working with Ariana Greenblatt to create Young Ahsoka for episode five, the process of designing some of its most extensive prosthetics, and the look of Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen).
You can listen to my full interview with Alexei below and stream all episodes of Ahsoka on Disney+:
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