Aging actors via practical FX makeup is not new ground for the Terminator series, as the franchise has always dealt with the future – or showing us the outcome of certain life-changing events.
The first make-up artist to utilise aging in the Terminator franchise was Jeff Dawn, in collaboration with Stan Winston Studio, who handled the prosthetic applications for Dawn to work with. As with Bill Corso’s work on T:DF, the work Jeff Dawn did was great but just like CGI characters – it can sometimes go into uncanny valley territory and feel off, some things just can’t fool the human brain… not yet anyway but technology in the practical effects and digital effects fields have come a long way since 1991.
AGED Sarah Connor – Terminator 2: Judgment Day
In the special edition of Terminator 2: Judgment Day a deleted ending was restored showing that the future was saved, and an older Sarah Connor reflects on events as she watches her son John Connor (a US senator) playing in the park with his daughter.
The future war was indeed averted.
AGED John Connor – Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
The aging process was repeated on Actor Nick Stahl, to show a victorious General John Connor stood atop a destroyed Aerial Hunter Killer whilst surrounded by his Resistance soldiers.
Another flash-forward was also filmed with an aged Kathryn Brewster (Claire Danes) and aged John (Stahl) but it hit the cutting-room floor and has not been seen since.
AGED ‘The Commander’ Dani Ramos – Terminator: Dark Fate
The storytellers and “world builders” of Terminator: Dark Fate wanted to show a key plot point in the future when Grace (Mackenzie Davis) offers her life to go back and save the young Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes).
This sequence required an Aged Dani Ramos to help sell the scene.
Bill Corso worked in collaboration with Legacy Effects for the casts/prosthetics this time around, matching a process going back to the Terminator roots with Stan Winston and his studio delivering some of the best visual effects in Hollywood.
Makeup artist Bill Corso gave fans a glimpse of his make-up work on “The Commander” via his personal Instagram.
Bill Corso said:
The scene described by Corso was of course leaked online from the special features of the home release of Terminator: Dark Fate.
What do you think of the age makeup in Terminator: Dark Fate and the other Terminator movies (T2/T3)? Leave a comment…
(Take our poll) Which Terminator age makeup do you find most believable?
Source: Bill Corso
@terminator Dark Fate is now out to own on all media. Here’s a makeup that got lost in the editing process. Our heroine Dani( the beautiful Natalia Reyes), now 25 years later, in a subtle age makeup as ‘the Commander’. This was for a flash forward in which Grace tells her beloved Commander that she wants to be the one to travel back and protect the young Dani. I modeled her look on Salma Hayek who was the same age as we wanted her to be and Salma still looks great ( minus scars) Here you’ll see the final look, before, roughed sculpt of appliances and the my approved Photoshop design. #terminator #makeup #design #art #age #concept #prosthetics
*If you use any of the images of Natalia Reyes as Dani Ramos in this post please give credit and link back to Bill Corso’s Instagram.
