Maison Gucci: Behind the scenes of Jared Leto’s transformation | Movies | Entertainment

House of Gucci was released on Blu-ray and DVD this week, immediately after earning an Oscar nomination. Bringing together an all-star cast including Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Selma Hayek, the film is wall-to-wall talent in front of and behind the camera, including acclaimed director Ridley Scott. Still, it was Jared Leto’s performance and look that grabbed the headlines when it premiered in cinemas in November 2021. Jared On Set’, Only Him.

Jared Leto is known for being a method actor, from the crazy stories on the set of Suicide Squad as the Joker to his total commitment to roles as a blind billionaire with a god complex in Blade Runner: 2049 to the HIV-positive transsexual, Rayon, at the Dallas Buyers Club.

He’s an instantly recognizable face in Hollywood, but when he was cast in Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci, the star was radically transformed into Paolo Gucci.

Leto stays in character for weeks or even months once he’s perfected his performance, so for many cast and crew members, they don’t meet the man behind the character until after the end. of filming.

That was true on House of Gucci, although Lundström was one of the privileged few to have seen both Leto and Paolo. Also nominated for Coming 2 America at this year’s Oscars, he’s known for such projects as Star Wars’ Rogue One, Wrath of the Titans and X-Men: First Class.

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He had help on set, however, as production was in Italy, hiring a diverse crew from around the world.

Lundström continued: “My assistant Federica Castelli is Italian. So when he was practicing his lines he had someone in the room who could actually see if he had any pronunciation issues, she could help him out, so that was just as well. So we heard it like creating Paolo. Well, partly he did a lot of work before we met him, but he was still working on the character while we were doing the makeup. So it was fun, it was really fun. And I think for everyone else, they never got to see Jared on set, just us. It was also fun.

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One of the main challenges Lundström had to overcome was the fact that he only met Leto after the makeup was done. It could have been disastrous had it not been for the 3D technology the team used to ensure they were ready for anything.

The design said, “There are always things happening that you don’t anticipate, you know, you sort of anticipate things are going to happen but you don’t know what’s going to happen, it’s never easy to do that stuff. So you have it in the back of your head as if we should have time for various issues. I know the thing we did on this one that was new to me was 3D printing because we didn’t get to see Jared and one of the things production told me was, I do this, I do it for my crust of head. And I was like, oh, okay, that’s another hurdle. I have never done that. Well, I was thinking more. They give me what they have. And that’s what it’s gonna be, you know, I can’t control it.

“I only met Jared on the first test. Without makeup. You want more than three weeks. You want time to change things. You don’t want an actor with very long hair to go bald. So all these things we have to overcome. And then when I look at it now, I like this system. But at the moment we are in the middle. It’s like being a war. Like I don’t know what it’s like to be in a war, but it feels like keeping your head down and just trying to do it and not overthink it. And just you know, go with your intuition.

The artist, who was also nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling for Border 2018, shockingly revealed that he only had three weeks between the call for entries and meeting Leto. With thirty years of experience under his belt, it was actually a challenge he was looking forward to taking on.

Lundström said, “I didn’t have time to think about the scary part. Because I got the phone call. I had an interview the next day, I got the job and there were three weeks left. So basically I didn’t have time to go there, and I wanted to come and do this job. It was, ‘Oh, okay, I’m doing this job. And how can I do that for three weeks? So, I said to myself, ‘yes, go for it’. What do I have to do?’

“Like, I know I can do a good job with this. But then you know, all these things that I think about, you know, you take one hurdle at a time and you don’t add them up. You can do that right now, but you don’t see them all at once. And now, when I talk about interviews, all the things that were kind of like a hindrance that we normally don’t want to like, we want to meet the actor. I only met Jared on the first test. Without makeup. You want more than three weeks. You want time to change things. You don’t want an actor with very long hair to go bald. So all these things we have to overcome.

Lundström is currently working on The Batman, where he oversaw Colin Farrell’s stunning transformation into The Penguin. Once again, he made an actor totally unrecognizable in the role.

House of Gucci is available to purchase on Blu-ray and DVD now and is also available for digital download on Amazon Prime.