Creature and Prosthetics Maestro Arjen Tuiten on Raising the Dead in “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy”

Over 20 years ago, the Academy Award-nominated creature and prosthetics designer Arjen Tuiten (One Battle After Another) did a stunning portrait of Boris Karloff as The Mummy. Ninety-four years after the release of that Universal horror classic, Tuiten creates a creature of his own with Lee Cronin’s The Mummy.

Cronin’s film presents a new vision of the titular character completely in its own universe, in which a young girl, Katie (Natalie Grace), is kidnapped and found eight years later in a sarcophagus. This mummified little girl is possessed by a demon that wreaks pain and havoc on her family.

Tuiten, the owner of R-E-N Studio, based out of Los Angeles, began his career learning from some of the greatest monster makers of all time, including Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London) and Stan Winston (Predator). It was Baker who encouraged Tuiten to open his own shop and run his own crew. Recently, from R-E-N Studio, the prosthetics designer for Lee Cronin’s The Mummy took The Credits behind the scenes of reimagining a classic monster anew.

This is a completely new version of a mummy film, but is there anything about Jack Pierce’s classic makeup for the original Mummy that inspired you? 

Yes, especially when it comes to textures. He was the first to come up with those kinds of images. To this day, I still look at his work. Rick Baker and I talked about it recently as well. 

What is it about the quality of those textures that maybe sets a gold standard when you’re working on Lee Cronin’s The Mummy?

Back then, he tended to build up stuff from his kit every day. You would grab the collodions and cotton and tissue paper, and he would build up all these makeups out of nothing, really. Whereas today, we are a little bit more toward prosthetics, which gives it a specific look. But if you really look at Jack Pierce’s makeup work, God, you’d have to put an actor through that today. I don’t know if they would, because that’s a lot every morning.

All those chemicals, too.

But it does leave a lasting image. It’s a texture thing to me. I tried to incorporate that a little into this film, but Lee Cronin was very specific about what he wanted. He was very detail-oriented on this.

What did he want, and how did you want to achieve it for him?

I did the first concept, and the word back was, “Well, that looks too much like a mummy. Don’t do that.” We had to dial it back. In the story, Lee’s argument was that they had to be able to take the girl home. We had to find a balance between the two worlds, really, where it’s enough to go, “Okay, we’re going to take her home, we’re going to take care of her, but she has this skin condition, it seems.” 

How far did you go with the original design?

I carried it quite far. I have plenty of references to real mummies. I actually have a real mummified head [in the office] as well.

When you started dialing it back, what elements of mummification did you still want to maintain in Katie’s design?

Some of the coloration. There are really interesting colors in mummies. I also looked at bodies preserved in ice over several centuries. In the film, there are different stages. We start off with Katie, very pale and smooth in texture, when we first open the sarcophagus.

And then, as the story progresses and the UV light hits her, her skin begins to deteriorate. By the end of the film, she looks completely different. There are three stages of makeup.

How did the bodies kept on ice influence you? 

It’s how skin reacts to the environment and how it droops, but it was mainly the colors I incorporated into Katie, with the darker mouth area and the nose. And then what’s normal? For example, like bone highlights: instead of always going lighter, I went darker. I reversed everything in the makeup, which I thought was a cool effect. I hope some of it comes through in the film.

For the three stages of transformation Katie goes through in the film, can you break down the practical side of getting that work done?

Lee wanted a very pale look for when she’s found alive. We’re looking at about six hours of makeup, including legs, arms, head and shoulders, wig work, lenses, and teeth. There’s a lot, including her toenails, which are long and curly. The same with stage two, which is most of the film, but within that stage, it progresses and disintegrates in color. She becomes darker, her lenses change. Towards the end [spoiler alert], we find out that the skin condition we think she has is actually human skin. She’s wrapped in a very thin strip of human skin with writing on it.

Six hours of makeup is no joke, especially when you’re working with a child. They’re literally growing in the process. You probably had to keep adjusting your designs, right?

It was tough. Starting this project, first of all, I can say this: they started too late. My team and I were scrambling to get everything done on time and shipped to Ireland. Natalie Grace, of course, is a newcomer and an amazing talent. I warned her when I met her, “I hope you understand what you’re getting yourself into because the title is called The Mummy. Have you seen any of the other Mummy films?” Because she wasn’t aware what this was going to take. I remember a day before filming, Lee changed the costume. Instead of a three-hour makeup, it became a six-hour makeup because we suddenly saw all the arms up to the shoulders and legs all the way up. It’s a lot, but Natalie was a trooper. 

When you’re working with a performer with that much prosthetics, do you have any tips for them on expression and communication?

Just maintaining the nails or her hands—those were delicate. Many days, they wouldn’t get to her until hours later, and I would have to guide her a little bit in the sense of preserving stuff. But at the same time, I also told her, do what you need to do because that’s what makes it great. Don’t be afraid to move your face, to push it.

How did she do with the contact lenses?

Jessica Nelson designed the lenses, who has done many lenses for many projects, including my projects. She’s an amazing contact lens painter. They’re custom-made, so they’re perfectly fitted to the actor and measured. If Natalie had stunt work, we took the lenses out so she could see; they could digitally alter the lenses after. Most of the time, she had the lenses in.

You have your own studio in LA. When you first came to the city, you had amazing mentors in Rick Baker and Stan Winston. Now that you have people working for you, how do you try to guide them in the business?

I’m kind of picky as to who comes in here, and I guess Rick was always the same way, too. I can quickly tell when somebody truly has talent but also has the right personality to follow up with it. I was once told by Dick Smith (The Exorcist) many years ago: “You have to have the dedication of a ballerina.” If you really want to do it and want to do it on a certain level, you have to be willing to put in that time and effort. Aside from the talent, you have to really work at it. The business has changed a lot since Rick and Stan’s days, too. It’s a lot more global, but the principle stays the same. Sometimes people reach out, and I do always give them the advice I can because I got that same help when I came up.

Any other words of wisdom from Dick Smith that stay with you on jobs like Lee Cronin’s The Mummy?

When Dick got older and was in a home, Rick and I would pick him up every two weeks or so and take him to lunch. I remember driving with Rick Baker next to me and Dick in the back, and I’m like, “I better not get in a car crash.” I started corresponding with Dick in 1997, so there was lots of advice. I still have his belt buckle here, actually. It’s the bronze one. I know Rick really wants it. He’s not getting it.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is in theaters now.

Featured image: Caption: NATALIE GRACE as Katie Cannon in New Line Cinema’s, Atomic Monster’s and Blumhouse’s “LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY.” A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures