Silvina Knight and James Mackinnon (‘Star Trek: Picard’ makeup artists): The bonds formed with actors are ‘always the best part’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
“That’s always the best part,” reveals makeup artist James Mackinnon about the bonds formed between actors and makeup artists on a big budget show like “Star Trek: Picard.” For our recent webchat with MacKinnon and collaborator Silvina Knight, he adds, “There’s not one moment in three seasons where I went, ‘oh, crap! We could have done something different or better.’ It was always executed to its best by our team and by ourselves, because of prep and with Terry Matalas, our showrunner. He’s a brilliant writer, producer and showrunner and that made it so smooth as well.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
SEE 2023 Emmys: Complete list of nominees
“Star Trek: Picard” is the continuation of the story of “The Next Generation” captain Jean-Luc Picard (Emmy nominee Patrick Stewart). The show’s third and final season sees Picard reuniting with the former command crew of the USS Enterprise (with “Next Generation” actors LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Brent Spiner and Marina Sirtis reprising their roles) and the USS Titan crew (including Todd Stashwick as prickly Captain Liam Shaw and “Voyager” alum Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine). They’re being hunted by Vadic (two-time Emmy winner Amanda Plummer), a new villain with links to the Dominion. A rogue element the Federation’s formidable adversary of genocidal changelings has stealthily infiltrated every level of Starfleet as pawns in the planned re-emergence of the invading hordes of Borg, the greatest ever threat to humanity.
Knight and Mackinnon represent two facets of the makeup and hair department on the sprawling sci-fi series. While they and their respective teams work closely together to bring the show’s characters to life on screen, Knight spearheads the team’s focus on non-prosthetic makeup, while Mackinnon leads the prosthetic side. Emmy voters noticed their impressive work this year, nominating the show in two out of the three makeup categories, with Knight nominated for non-prosthetic contemporary makeup for the series’ penultimate episode “Vox,” and Mackinnon nominated for prosthetic makeup for the series finale “The Last Generation.”
In “Vox,” a devastating revelation about Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) alters the course of Picard’s life forever, uncovering a truth that threatens every soul in the Federation, while the final battle begins as Picard and his crew race to save the galaxy from annihilation. When asked why she chose this episode to submit for Emmy consideration, Knight says that she “wanted to use an episode that had all the characters in it,” adding that, “Shaw is not in the last episode and I felt he was an important part of our makeup.” As for Mackinnon’s submission, the series ends on a high point with finale “The Last Generation,” as Picard and generations of crews, both old and new, fight together in a desperate last stand to save the galaxy from the greatest threat they’ve ever faced. It was “the most amount of iconic make up,” Mackinnon explains for why he wanted to submit it as the best representation of his team’s work on the series, adding, “everybody was represented in it.”
This is Knight’s 15th career Emmy nomination to date (including nominations for each of “Picard’s” three seasons, with two wins for Ryan Murphy productions “American Crime Story” and “American Horror Story,” and Mackinnon has racked up 14 Emmy nominations to date, with six wins for “American Horror Story,” “Star Trek Discovery,” “Nip/Tuck” and a milestone first ever Emmy win for “Star Trek: Picard” Season 1.
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