LMC: Talk about growing up on a farm in Connecticut.  How did that inspire you to head out to Hollywood?  How was farm life different from the hustle and bustle of the big city?

MM:  I didn’t much like growing up on a farm. I spent my early childhood living in a suburb and moving to the farm at age 9 was my parents idea.  There wasn’t much to do and my little greasepaint makeup kit was something exciting to do other than feed chickens.  My mom is a sculptor so I always had an artistic background. My dad is a scientist so I had a good science background as well.  That’s helped a lot because I read the ingredients on makeup and FX materials and I know what the stuff is and what it does.  I could formulate (and have) some of my own stuff.  I did my first  lifecasting in the farm as well. Alginate wasn’t really available, at least I didn’t know about it, and so my first face casting was done directly in plaster. I think my eyebrows are still growing in.

LMC: Were you able to learn and experiment with the makeup craft back home?

MM:  I eventually found a store in Boston called “The Makeup Place”. It was a godsend. It was run by a guy named Dennis Curcio, he eventually moved the business to Glendale and then vanished. I bought the Lee Baygen Book and my first R&D Foam latex kit.  I read and read and finally made my version of Roddy McDowall’s makeup from Planet of the Apes.

LMC: Neat, how did it come out?

MM:  Surprisingly, it came out pretty well.  The hair came from the Dick Smith Ape from his gelatin monster series… but it was my first time working in Foam.  After looking at it now, I have no idea  how I ever got that mold apart.  I think it cracked the third time I baked it. The appliance was glued on with Stein’s Spirit Gum, painted with regular Liquitex, and blended with the most awful color of Mehron RMGP.. I’m still not sure how they ever made a color that bad. To say the least, their formula has improved. In my opinion, it’s some of the best RGMP made now.

LMC: Talk about some of your early work.  The various odd jobs you had electrician, magician, carpenter.  Your fire-eating skill J.                    

MM: At about the same time I really started getting my teeth into makeup, I also started doing the same thing into magic. Magic was a good living and the ultimate part time job.  It was good money, great training both to cure shyness and develop self-esteem.  There are principles in magic that also helped me later as a scenic artist and later on, even as a makeup artist. After performing as a magician for a decade, I worked for David Copperfield for a while, but got burnt out on his schedule. Fire eating was something I started because I lied to someone and told them I could do it.  It’s not that hard once you know the rules.. I’d never encourage anyone to try it at home..

Once I moved to San Diego, makeup wasn’t something that you could really make a living doing, so I worked in theatre.  I think I’ve been one of the only people ever to work at the Old Globe Theatre  in San Diego as an electrician, carpenter and in wig department all in one season

LMC: Wow, how was working with Copperfield?  Any fire eating mishaps?

MM: David was great. The whole cast of that show was such a family. We had one guy that some didn’t get along with.. but even he was very nice to me. David was  a bit taken aback when I told him that I’d been a fan of his since I was a little kid. Probably not the best phrase, since he’s only 11 years older than I am. (BTW, he lies about his age now, which I think is funny)

I was very lucky eating fire.  I  have several very good friends that have been badly burned. I never even got so much as a blister. Don’t try it at home. It’s dumb and I don’t do it anymore.

LMC: Did you improve gradually, or were there any events or training in your background that really improved your talents?

MM: I try to learn continually. The best training I got was actually not in the SF FX part of the field, but in beauty makeup. I went to work in the early nineties for a company called Freeze Frame (sort of a high end Glamour Shots) and did over 5,000 makeovers in 3 years.  I learned how to work with every ethnicity hair, face, skin type and personality… There’s a makeup artists named Robert Bennett that taught me so much. He’s one of those sad cases where he had so much talent and destroyed his life with drugs.

LMC: Where did your big break into the FX business come?

MM: I’ve been really lucky, I’ve had some really good jobs.. but have not yet had that “big break”. My work on the Chronicle (Sci-Fi Channel 2001-2002 season) was fun, but didn’t get the exposure it could have, I do have a film I worked on with Steven Soderberg as Executive Producer called Able Edwards.. but no one will see that for a year or so. It may very well be a film that revolutionized the film industry the way that the Blair Witch Project did a few years ago. It’s going to look like a 60 million dollar film, but I’m going to keep the budget secret for now. It was VERY low.

LMC: Who have you worked for?  Any comments on the studio?    

MM: I was part of the Titanic Team.. Tina Earnshaw was our department head.  I do a lot of smaller independent stuff, some of it actually gets released! I’ve been lucky. I was department head on a film called Poor White Trash. I see it all t he time when I go to my local Video store.. it’s sort of a cult hit.. I still get  a thrill out of seeing movies I work on on the video store shelves. Now if my union would only negotiate a residual for us!

LMC: Are there other pros out there that you look up to or admire?

MM: So many! Without Jack Pierce and John Chambers I would have never wanted to do makeup. Rick Baker, Steve Johnson, Brian Penikas, Rich Redlefsen, Bill Corso, Victoria Woods, and so many more have all been inspirations in their own ways.

LMC: Any makeup/FX work that totally astonished you?

MM: These days, any work that’s not computer generated is a good thing.

LMC: What are your thoughts on CGI?  What about blending CGI with makeup?

MM: I thought that the work on Blade 2 was amazing!  It was the PERFECT blending of makeup and CGI… I am working in the Edge FX shop right now and have talked extensively with some of the guys on that project.. and even they had a hard time telling where their effects left off and the CGI began.  It put something like American Werewolf in Paris to shame.. (Then again, the effects in the Power Rangers are better than in that film)

LMC: Talk about some of your work on commercials

MM: Commercials are a very different animal than anything else I’ve worked on . There are so many people that need to approve your work. There’s the production company that hired you. The art director, the Client, the Client’s mother, and any one of them can change their mind for any reason and all you really can do is say “Yes Sir”  and fix it the best you can in the time available. Thanks goodness for digital cameras. I’ve saved so much time getting sculptures approved online rather than transporting them back and forth to the production company.

LMC: What about the speed of commercials?

MM: It’s not as fast as you’d think. There are so many cooks.. everyone has an opinion and everyone has to approve every shot.  A friend of mine was in a commercial the other day.. After shooting the whole day with one guy as the lead,, the client picked him to say the line… and they only had an hour to pretty much reshoot the commercial with him in the lead.   That’s no typical, but it’s not unusual for major changes to be made on a whim.  When it’s a wig or a makeup job.. it can be disturbing.  One job I worked on had to have a prosthetic literally resculpted ON THE SET!

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