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Kazuhiro Tsuji's amazing journey to Hollywood
[Wed 09/07/2008 01:58:23]
By Rodney Appleyard
After being discovered by Dick Smith via his make-up course, Kazuhiro Tsuji has quickly developed into one of the most talented special effects make-up artists in the world.
Despite fighting US visa problems initially, Smith brought Kazu to the States from Japan and introduced him immediately to his peers. Thanks to his incredible ability, it was not long before Kazu was working alongside Rick Baker on major Hollywood projects such as Planet of the Apes, Men in Black and Click.
Both Smith and Baker gush over Kazu’s amazing attention to detail, which they say makes his work unique. In Part 1 of our two part interview with Kazu, he explains how he rose from obscurity to the heights of Hollywood after being inspired to become a make-up artist at the age of 17.
What made you decide that you wanted to become a make-up artist?
As a child, I enjoyed creating things, sculpting, painting, modelling and I was fascinated by mechanics and dissection. I also loved to disassemble clocks and radios, which annoyed my parents, but the curiosity of a child is boundless. At the age of six I would visit a nearby junkyard and peruse its treasures in wonderment, disassembling things and putting them back together.
At that age there was really no greater pleasure. But on certain occasions such curiosity almost killed the cat – as I knew no limitations. I lived by the theory that I would try anything once. So even at the age of six I tried cigarettes and other stupid and dangerous stuff.
I was also fascinated by nature. I made various reference books with hand drawn illustrations containing descriptions of all the insects and animals that I observed.
But ultimately movies and special effects became my raison d’etre. Star Wars was a major inspiration. Starting at elementary school, the Japanese curriculum is geared towards passing exams to enter college. But I had no interest in college and I was ready to start my career when I was in High School.
I considered different professions like architecture, industrial design, pottery, culinary arts, photography etc. But special effects had such a wide range of possibilities that interested me. I was initially turned off by special effects make-up because as a teenager in the 80’s, gore heavy horror movies seemed to be the zeitgeist of the make-up world. But discovering the work of Rick Baker and Dick Smith was an utter revelation!
Even in my prior ignorance of make-up -- I knew that their work was the pinnacle of the craft. One day I found a Fangoria magazine that featured Dick Smith making up Hal Holbrook as Lincoln, and I thought -- this is it! I was profoundly inspired.
So the next day I went to the library and checked out a book about Lincoln. I took a life cast of myself and attempted to transform myself into Lincoln, which was all the more difficult considering I’m Japanese.
I made many variations of myself as Lincoln, hoping to improve with each attempt. I sent the pictures to Dick Smith and he gave me really good constructive criticism. But that pretty much cemented my aspirations in the field of special effects make-up.
Who were your biggest heroes?
In the make-up field, Dick Smith and Rick Baker.
How did you pursue your career?
It started as a hobby. I am from a poor family and we did not have enough money for college. So I worked at a bread company making price tags and banners. All the money I made went towards buying materials for make-up. Almost every day after school, I came home and did some kind of make-up, or made appliances.
I sent Dick a letter asking him how I could come to the US and work in the industry after I found his PO box in a magazine. He replied to me incredibly fast. Usually, mail from Japan to the US is glacier paced, but I think I got a response in like 10 days.
He basically told me that it would cost too much money to go to the States and attend school; so he recommended that I should stay in Japan and self-teach myself to hone the craft.
Subsequently, whenever I created something new, I sent Dick photos and he gave me advice. In one letter he wrote that next year he would be the Special Effects Supervisor for a Japanese film and he offered me a position. I emphatically agreed, and a week after graduating from high school I moved to Tokyo to start the job. The first film I worked on was Sweet Home directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
Can you describe how you first met Dick Smith and how he helped to develop your career?
We first met when Dick was visiting Japan for a Halloween contest, which was approximately 5 months after we started our correspondence. On that visit he was also having a primary meeting about - Sweet Home. We spent two hours sharing discourse in his hotel room.
He was warm and eminently kind. I was handicapped by my limited ability to understand English, and I did not sleep the night before from the nervous anticipation of meeting Dick Smith, plus I had to prepare for exams.
He brought with him his course, which (I’m sure most of you are familiar with) is basically a textbook where he had compiled all of his knowledge of the craft. He gave me this book, which normally costs several thousand dollars, and told me that I could pay him whenever I could afford it.
I started my own make-up shop at 20 years old, Dick recommended me to Richard Gere for Akira Kurosawa’s Rhapsody in August. It was a great honour to work with Richard and Akira Kurosawa.
I was casually talking with Dick over the phone about this new school starting up in Tokyo called the Yoyogi Animation Institute. Dick was visiting Japan twice a year as an honorary professor. At that time, he was not sure who would be teaching on a regular basis, and he told me that if I were interested, he would mention my name. I told him I would consider it.
Ten minutes after I hung up with Dick I received a call from my friend asking me to teach at the same school. So I started teaching at the Yoyogi Institute when I was 23.
Dick was there for me at every transition in my career; it seems like the timing was always perfect. Some people gave me the nickname the “Japanese Dick Smith”, but I was embarrassed by such a comparison because of my inferiority. Dick’s genius is profound (almost celestial); he is that distant peak that all artists strive for. He is generous with his knowledge and a great teacher; without his compassion I would not be here.
What age were you when you started to turn heads with your skills?
The Japanese special effects industry is small; I started to get recognition in Japan at around 20. In Hollywood, I’m not sure but maybe after Men in Black. I was 26 years old.
What has been your proudest creation to date?
That is a tough question, maybe Dick’s portrait. It was the first project where I had complete freedom. I made it for Dick’s 80th birthday. I really enjoyed watching people’s reaction to it when I displayed it at the make-up Trade Show.
Even the security guards would switch positions with each other so they could get close enough to see it. That type of audience feedback is direct, tangible, and very rewarding. When I showed it to Dick he started crying and kept saying, “Impossible, I cannot do it, amazing, beautiful”. Rick kept saying “F**king cool”! They each spent at least 20 minutes looking at it, and I was so happy to see their reactions.
Could you describe how you made the life like version of Dick Smith's head?
First, I made a core out of Styrofoam, then I started to put clay on the surface and sculpted it to match the life cast of Dick -- but two times bigger in scale and eight times bigger in mass.
Then I opened the eyes and shaped out the eye sockets, I changed the neck position and the expressions. I finished by putting in texture and made a two-piece mould. Rob Freitas and Hiroshi Yada helped me make the mould, and I made a shirt, eyeglasses, and eyeballs.
I ordered a turned wood piece for the base and Brian Morishita made the bottom base. Then the skin was cast out, seamed, painted, and Sylvia Nava helped me punch in the hair. Strangely enough the hair took less time than if it were life sized. The basic process was the same as making a life-sized portrait. The most difficult aspect was adjusting the scale and perspective to account for the size difference.
What original techniques did you use?
Just about everything was original because I have never done a project like that before. But I’m sure I will utilize different techniques with the next portrait I make.
Where is that head at the moment?
It is in my living room, it was too large to ship to Dick.
I want to keep making more portraits in this style and maybe some day have an exhibit.
Do you use techniques that nobody else knows about?
No, I don’t keep secrets .
What is the secret to your amazing work? Does it have something to do with your meticulous attention to detail and the hours you put in, or another technique?
Yes, and I approach my objective with respect and dedication. I do it for the satisfaction of accomplishment and the pleasant reaction received from a job well done.
How did you get as good as you are?
I don’t think I am good enough yet. I always shoot for a star and wind up satisfying 65% of my expectations. I aspire to constantly improve and innovate my techniques, to constantly better myself. I don’t like rules so I try to do something differently each time.
Basically, our job is recreating nature and our art is realism. What nature can do is simply amazing. It is impossible to create something better than nature can. So we are more like interpreters or translators. A good artist knows the subtlety and language of nature.
The difficulty is in transcribing those nuances into our work. Without expressing too much of ourselves, we should express the beauty of nature. This is why I love Rick’s work, it is creative yet realistic. I am trying to live up to those standards but it is very difficult.
