When you consider the myriad special effects and elaborate
production design on display in gorgeous films like
Spider-Man 2, The Forgotten and The
Producers, you might be inclined to overlook one of
the key elements that holds the spectacle together: the
hair. Subconsciously, each of us realizes dozens of
technicians are responsible for making sure Peter Parker
glides smoothly from rooftop to rooftop as he battles Doc
Ock, but how many of us take note of the dozens of
stylists who tend to his every wisp when he’s romancing
Mary Jane? Without that subtle blend of style and realism,
these flights of fancy would surely fail to ring true.
Jerry Popolis (Interior Design, '83) is one of those
invisible artists who provides the glue that holds
Hollywood together. As a hair stylist on films as varied
as those mentioned previously, as well as The School
of Rock, The Stepford Wives and Their
Eyes Were Watching God, Popolis has sculpted the
coiffures of stars from Nicole Kidman and Oprah Winfrey to
Jon Lovitz and Matt Damon. Whether his work takes center
stage or melds seamlessly with the costumes and
camerawork, his eye for detail has helped him rise to the
top of his field.
Not bad for a guy who spent the first ten years of that
career as an interior designer in New York City, Florida
and Washington – a far cry from the salons of Beverly
Hills.
“In the early 1990s, my career took a turn,” says Popolis,
“or should I say, I decided that I needed a change: I
enrolled in cosmetology school.” The shift from floor
plans to hairlines might have been intimidating, but
Popolis was undaunted.
“I began working in salons in and around New York City,
all the while doing weddings, print jobs and any hair and
makeup jobs that I could.”
His initial break, doing hair and makeup for free on the
low-budget Lie Down With Dogs, led to further
work with that film’s producer on Digging to China,
where Popolis found himself styling Mary Stewart Masterson
and Kevin Bacon.
“That was all I needed to get my "days" to join the hair
and makeup union,” says Popolis, “and I started getting
work on a regular basis. During that time, I also worked
on Broadway for several years doing hair for Ragtime,
Fosse and Mamma Mia.
Having earned his way up through the system, Popolis can
appreciate the differences between large and small-budget
films, and is well aware that more money quite often
creates more challenges.
“Of course, the bigger the budget, the more pressure
[there is] on you to do more and to make it
bigger/better,” says Popolis. “The larger the cast, the
more hair stylists you have to hire and the more problems
you run into with achieving the look required.”
Popolis has managed to overcome those logistical
challenges and even achieve further control of the look of
his films, serving as the Hair Department Head on his most
recent feature, The Good Shepherd. How has the
move to management affected his workflow?
“It’s not that hard to manage a large team of hair
stylists if you have the right people working with you,
helping to make sure everything runs smoothly,” says
Popolis. “At 4 a.m., when you’re in the hair and makeup
trailer doing the stars, you need someone you can trust to
supervise the many (sometimes over 300, in my experience)
background actors, as well as the hair stylists who are
getting them ready. Clearly, you cannot be in two places
at once, so hiring someone you can trust is always wise.”
Organization is one thing; authenticity is quite another.
One of Popolis’s greatest artistic challenges comes on
period pieces, when evoking the style of a certain age is
integral to the believability of the film.
As Popolis explains: "Their Eyes Were Watching God,
an Oprah film for which we were nominated for an Emmy,
[took place in] 1906 to 1930; The Producers was
1959; The Good Shepherd was 1925 to 1960.”
How does an expert in modern style solve the retro
problem?
“I find old salon and beauty magazines on eBay, while
online photo archives are simply invaluable. We print up
the photos and make up large ‘research boards’ in the
extras' holding area, where our additional hair people do
those actors. They use the boards to copy the looks that
we want for the period we’re shooting that day. Some days,
we shoot two completely different periods, so we have to
clean up the actors who have been done for one period and
re-do them for another, all in the same day.”
Considering the vast difference between his initial career
choice and his current claim to fame, one might believe
Popolis had migrated far from his training at The Art
Institute of Pittsburgh, but that’s not quite the case.
“I think The Art Institute of Pittsburgh was an amazing
experience,” says Popolis. “I truly felt I was quite
prepared to go New York City at such a young age after
graduating. [And] I certainly use my rendering, design and
balance skills in my current film career.”
Ironically, perhaps Popolis’s most useful lesson of all
had nothing to do with art: “I learned quite a lot from
the teachers at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh,
especially Jacquie Folkes, who not only taught me design;
she also taught me manners and how to speak without the
Pittsburgh slang. I no longer use "yinz" in my vocabulary,
which goes a long way in any career where being provincial
is not necessarily an asset.”
Ford City beautician's son makes mark in Hollywood as hair stylist to stars
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By
Mitch Fryer Making movie actor Robert DeNiro look the part of a tough New York City detective was easy work for Jerry Popolis. "He had to have a severe look to him," said Manhattan hair stylist Popolis, 44, formerly of Ford City and a 1981 Ford City High School graduate. "It's Robert DeNiro." Popolis has been the hair stylist on the sets of many Hollywood big-time movies and is DeNiro's personal hair stylist. He recently worked with DeNiro on the set of the soon-to-be-released movie "Righteous Kill." In it, DeNiro and Al Pacino play veteran detectives investigating the connection between a recent murder and a case they thought they had solved years before. "His hair was cut close and straight back on top," Popolis said of DeNiro's "Righteous Kill" character. "When he was in a fight, his hair could never move." Popolis said DeNiro likes to let his hair grow long until he does a film and then has it cut according to the role he is playing. In the 2006 movie "The Good Shepherd," a 1950s through 1970s period piece about life in the CIA starring Matt Damon, DeNiro directed and had a supporting role. Popolis styled DeNiro's hair and was the hair co-department head for the movie as well. "For the '50s, his hair was cut with a close buzz in the back, longer on top, parted on the side and slicked back with ('50s 'a little dab will do ya' hair cream product) Brylcreem," Popolis said. Popolis didn't start out to become a hair stylist to the stars. Although he grew up around his mother Rose's beauty shop in Ford City, where he developed an early appreciation for well-styled hair, he enrolled in the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and graduated in 1983 with a degree in interior design. For 10 years he was an interior designer working in New York and other major cities. In the early 1990s, Popolis enrolled in beauty school. "I had a career change," Popolis said. Popolis soon broke into the movie business as the key hair stylist and makeup artist in 1995's "Lie Down with Dogs." In the Kevin Bacon and Mary Stewart Masterson 1960s period film "Digging to China," Popolis found his niche while styling both actors' hair and working on the set as assistant hair stylist. It was in "Digging to China" that Popolis developed a speciality for period-piece movie hair styling. "It takes lots of research," Popolis said. "I buy old yearbooks on eBay to find the normal look of a period." Period pieces can be hard work for a hair stylist. "It's not as exciting and glamorous as you think," Popolis said. "They're challenging and rewarding with incredibly long hours. You're up at 4 a.m. with the actors. You're the first one there and the last to leave. You're with them all day, before each take, touching them up." In "The Good Shepherd," Popolis had to age the actors from their 20s through their 40s. "That involved a lot of shaved hairlines, receding hairlines, thinning, balding and wigs," Popolis said. "There are always continuity issues." In the 2004 "The Stepford Wives," Popolis was the main hair stylist and worked with actors such as Bette Midler, Nicole Kidman, Faith Hill and Matthew Broderick. "The characters in the movie were robots," Popolis said. "The women had to look like Barbie dolls. No hairs out of place. They had to be perfect." Before he was the personal hair stylist for DeNiro, Popolis held the same job with Julianne Moore. He was her stylist in the 2004 thriller "The Forgotten" and the 2007 crime drama set in 1972, "Savage Grace." Some of his other movie credits include "Michael Clayton," "The Producers," "Annapolis" and "Spider Man 2." Popolis did some work on the Martin Scorsese-directed film "Ashcliffe," a drama about the investigation of a hospital for the criminally insane set on an island, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Michelle Williams. He is in the process of doing some reshooting work on it and on "Righteous Kill" and will be taking some time off before joining DeNiro in September for the start of his next film. "I'm happy with my career," Popolis said. "Being the personal hair stylist for one actor is great. Being the hair stylist for Bob DeNiro is great." "In real life, Bob is a shy, quiet and generous person," he said. "When someone asks him to repeat his line 'Are you talking to me?' he does and everyone chuckles." |