Interview: ‘Respect’ hair and makeup designers Stevie Martin and Lawrence Davis on transforming Jennifer Hudson into Aretha Franklin

Stevie Martin and Lawrence Davis are two very well-established makeup and hair designers, having traversed the worlds of film and television with equal success and yes, respect.

Martin made her start in makeup designing when she started doing makeup for magazines before building her way to TV and film. She was one of the key makeup artists on projects such as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, then returning for Mockingjay – Part 2, The Nice Guys and Sleepless, where she grew a reputation of her minimalist style and using no prosthetics.

Davis comes from a very ranged background of work, having even won an Emmy for his work on Hairspray Live! He went on to being one of the key hairstylists for daytime and primetime TV shows and specials like the Grammys, the Academy Awards, American Idol. From this he went onto movies and became a key hairstylist for projects such as In Time, Flight and Dumb and Dumber To. Through all of this he started working frequently with Jennifer Hudson, which is how he landed the role of Hair Designer Head for Respect.

We were curious how they both went about the daunting task of transforming Jennifer Hudson and Marlon Wayans into their respective roles as Aretha Franklin and Ted White, especially when the filmmakers asked for no prosthetics. Benji Bury had a sit-down discussion with them about how they climbed this high mountain.

Respect is currently available to rent or buy wherever you stream movies.

Photo: Quantrell D. Colbert/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures

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Benji Bury

From a young age Benji knew he had a passion for all things movies, being able to use a DVD player before he could talk. When he discovered a thing called the 'Oscars' on the radio one morning, it changed his outlook on film and made him much more aware of the business side of things. He would stay up all night to watch the Academy Awards, and now that same kid gets to meet the potential/already nominees and meet some great inspirations of his.

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