Silvia Baker sat in a dark wooden studio filled with mannequin heads wearing wigs and masks placed on countertops.
Among the makeup brushes, hairpieces and a Frankenstein head figure, the film and television hairstylist fluffs a blonde wig that was part of her Halloween costume as Harley Quinn from “Batman.” For her job, she works on hairstyles that contribute to the distinctive look of film characters seen on screen.
Baker was announced as the 2016 MAC Cosmetics Artist in Residence in Make-up and Hair Design in April. The company is contributing makeup supplies to support her class Theatre C122: “Character Development through Makeup and Hair Design” this quarter, which she has already taught two times at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.
Her credits for hairstyling in films include “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock,” “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” and the 1983 drama film “Silkwood”,starring Meryl Streep.
Baker, who started off working as a hairdresser in ahair salon in Marina del Rey, said the start of her career can be credited to the high demand of film hairstylists in Hollywood in the ’80s.
After work, she spent hours on film sets watching the film crew and absorbing the atmosphere. One day, the president of Local 706, the official labor union for makeup artists and hairstylists in film and television, took down her number after Baker told him that she was a hairdresser interested in working in films.
She said she never expected to hear back from him but two weeks later, her phone rang and she was offered ajob by Warner Brothers as John Travolta’s hairstylist in the Western movie “Urban Cowboy” in 1980.
Baker, who received no professional training in film hairstyling, said she was thrown into the deep end but nevertheless accepted the job and spent several months in a Texan desert working on this film.
“It was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” she said.
Since then,Baker said she has taken on one job after another and advanced her skills by learning from professional hairstylists in the business like Gail Ryan. Baker worked with her on the set of the television show “Donny and Marie” in the late ’70s and invited Ryan asaguest speaker in her class last Tuesday.
Baker said the most rewarding film she has been involved with was “Into the Night” from 1985. On the busy set of the film, she worked with stars like David Bowie and Michelle Pfeiffer and met her husband, the Academy Award-winning makeup artist Rick Baker.
“I always felt lucky,” Baker said. “I love that people thanked me for what I was doing and that I helped them to feel comfortable in their look, which strongly contributes to the credibility of an actor’s performance.”
Although she retired 25 years ago after a 17-yearlong career as a freelance hair stylist in the film industry, Baker agreed to teach an introductory class on makeup and hair design at UCLA.
Although Baker is not trained as a professional makeup artist, she includes film makeup in her class by showing pictures and tutorials of famous makeup looks in combination with hair design. For Baker,the twowork closely together.
Ysabel Riina, a third-year theater student with a concentration on costume design,said sheappreciates Baker’s teaching style, which emphasizes the intersection between makeup, hair and costume design.
“It has been very helpful to look at the creation of a character from a makeup and hair designer’s lens,” Riina said. “You are gaining a second set of knowledge that will help you with your costume choices.”
Baker said she enjoys showing her students how one creates a movie character through hair and makeup styling, which is a new field to many of them.
Her passion forhair and makeup design isobvious in her class, saidJulia Nelson, a second-year theater student with a focus on costume design.
“We sometimes complain about having to be on set, but hearing professor Baker’s enthusiasm and seeing how passionate she is about her job is so inspiring and motivating,” Nelson said.
Baker is aware that many of her theater students are new to hair and makeup styling in film and television, but her goal for her students is to understand that hair styling and makeup are part of making the movie into a believable story.
She said she wants the students to understand how the quality of a hair and makeup look can either ruin or distract from an actor’s performance or draw the audience into the story.
“I am not teaching them to be a hairstylist or makeup artist,” Baker said. “But once introduced to that work you can’t help but appreciate the hair and makeup you see on screen.”