A generation of heavy metal fans were introduced to Mötley Crüe with their raucous hit “Looks That Kill,” and now thanks to a new Netflix movie, audiences can relive the band’s killer looks.
The infamous hair metal group gets the biopic treatment in “The Dirt,” streaming Friday. The flick follows bassist Nikki Sixx (Douglas Booth), guitarist Mick Mars (Iwan Rheon), vocalist Vince Neil (Daniel Webber) and drummer Tommy Lee (Colson Baker, better known as rapper Machine Gun Kelly) as they rise to ’80s superstardom. Director Jeff Tremaine explores the personal struggles of each band member throughout the hard-partying journey, including more than a few calls upon “Dr. Feelgood.”
It was up to costume designer Christine Wada and makeup artist Corey Castellano to believably morph the four actors into the iconic musicians. Each started with massive amounts of research, from magazine clippings and YouTube videos to time spent with the band members themselves, who turned out to be surprisingly polite and professional.
Mötley Crüe in their “Looks That Kill” costumes in 1983.WireImage
“It wasn’t sort of what you would think when you hear the band Mötley Crüe,” says Castellano, with a laugh.
“I created sort of a huge timeline on my wall,” says Wada, “and when Nikki and Tommy came through . . . it was really fun to show them that timeline, to sort of see their wonderment of how much they have been through.”
For scenes requiring casual wear, Wada — who worked in the ’80s as a bartender at the legendary NYC punk club CBGB — sourced tees from vintage shops. But she also borrowed shirts from a friend of hers, Howie Pyro, who has a collection dating back to the ’70s. Even Wada’s own closet got raided, with her white leather jacket ending up on Webber in the film.
Re-creating performance outfits — such as those worn in the “Looks That Kill” music video — was a bigger undertaking, with the explosions of vivid colors, studs, chains and straps.
“It really is just such a collage of different materials,” says Wada.
Across roughly 64 costume changes for each band member, Wada’s toughest challenge was pants. The band favored skintight trousers, often in unforgiving leather, so Wada found herself tossing gender labels to the side.
“Most of the guys from that era wore their girlfriends’ pants, and even to this day, to get that kind of rock ’n’ roll swagger fit, you’re better off using women’s pants,” she explains, noting that the concept took the actors some getting used to.
And then there were the heels. Wada says that the real band members bought stripper boots from shops on Hollywood Boulevard, but she made custom ones for Booth, the actor, so he’d be more comfortable.
Douglas Booth as Nikki Sixx, Daniel Webber as Vince Neil, Iwan Rheon as Mick Mars and Colson Baker as Tommy Lee.Jake Giles Netter/Netflix
Meanwhile, Castellano brought the band’s twist on glam makeup back to life, including war paint under Booth’s eyes (MAC waterproof eyeliner) and a hard-edge cheek contour for Rheon. (A piece of cardboard helped create the straight lines.) Several wig changes for each guy, courtesy of Anne Morgan’s hair department, topped off the looks.
Tattoos were Castellano’s biggest ordeal. Because of copyright issues, he had to create re-imagined versions of Mötley Crüe’s actual tats. He then had to mine the rockers’ memories to figure out when in their lives they’d accumulated them, so he could progressively add the tats throughout the movie’s timeline. The actors’ existing ink also had to be completely covered up.
“Machine Gun Kelly is tattooed from chin to ankle, basically,” says Castellano. “So every day, his was the longest process, bar none.”
All the hours of prep proved worth it for the uncanny transformations. Castellano vividly remembers the first time the four actors all saw each other done up in the hard rockers’ concert ensembles.
“They looked at each other . . . and you could just see that mental switch get [flipped]. They were there,” he says. “All of a sudden, you’re staring at a band that you went to see 30 years ago.”
