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January 09, 2004
L.A. makeup artist remembers her roots
By Betsy Hansen
The Fremont Tribune
After Kim Meyer graduated from the University of Nebraska with a degree in art, she went to Los Angeles to get her master's.
One night, when Billy Crystal was a guest on Saturday Night Live, Meyer heard Crystal talking about his makeup artist; and she changed her mind.
"I wasn't really even interested in business, and I saw that being a makeup artist could be a marketable artist skill. I wanted to be creative and to be paid for my work," she said.
It was a career move that has kept Meyer interested for 16 years.
"I am actually being creative on a daily basis," she said. "I have a paintbrush in my hand and I get to meet different people and go different places."
It sounds glamorous to Midwestern ears when Meyer speaks of working with Walter Matthau, James Garner, Ethan Hawke, Isabella Rosallini, Katey Segal and Martin Sheen. But the work has demands unique to the business.
"The worst location I was ever at was in Vernon, Calif.," she said. "We were shooting at night. The shots were inside and outside railroad cars next to a hog rendering plant. It was very cold (I had to pull out all my old Nebraska clothes) and it stunk really bad. Think railroad cars next to Hormel."
A co-worker of Meyer's summed up the life of a makeup artist on the set.
Her observations: "You live in a trailer because you work in a trailer and you work incredibly long hours. You pee in a can because you use porta-potties. You carry around your own chair (everybody carries their chair. It's always a topic of discussion — where did you get your chair?) You spend a lot of time doing stuff like mopping sweat off people and digging out eye boogers."
Maybe it's not as glamorous as it would seem.
Meyer is currently working as a makeup artist on "West Wing," "Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Daughters" and doing sports makeup for Eric Dickerson. One day, soon after John Ritter died, Meyer was doing some touchups to the makeup of cast members Katey Segal and the actresses who play the daughters. They were gathered on the set of the girls' bedroom when one of the props, a music box, began to play.
"I don't believe in that supernatural stuff, but when the music box stopped playing, Segal said, ‘That was odd. That must be John.' Everybody said, ‘Hi, John,' and the music box started to pay again. It was spooky," recalled Meyer. "Everybody in the building still misses him."
John Spencer of the "West Wing" cast calls Meyer "Nebraska."
She said of Spencer that he is "a good man. He's very professional — as they all are on that show."
James Garner is "a sweetheart and a very funny man."
Martin Sheen has a really hard time remembering people's names — a trait for which he is well known.
"He tries, but he just can't. I was there one day when his son, Emilio Estavez, was playing a younger version of the President (Sheen's character). Everyone in the cast was teasing Martin because he remembered Estavez's name all day."
Meyer admires Martin Sheen for his generosity to everyone on the set. Each year, Sheen charters a bus and takes the group to Las Vegas.
People in Los Angeles come from all over, yet on the "West Wing" set there are four people from Nebraska. The prop-master, Blanche, is from Howells; the wardrobe guy is from Lincoln and one of the new characters, an actress, lived in Omaha.
"We spent hours discussing the firing of Coach Solich," Meyers remembered.
Getting started in the business was tough.
"I worked for free at the beginning. I remember my first paying job was on a ‘B' film and I got paid $100 for the week. At first, I worked 70 hours a week, but you meet people. It's whom you know in this business, so you have to start making contacts. You have to be out there where the work is, and the work is in L.A. You have to have a good work ethic and coming from Nebraska helps. It's all those years of detasseling," Meyer said with a smile in her voice.
Meyer is rock-solid Nebraskan. The daughter of Terry and Beth Meyer of Fremont and the late Iliene Johnson of Valley wonders about whether her work has substance, wanting to do something good for the world. She worries whether the beauty she is artificially creating will screw up some girl who thinks she has to be perfect. She does not want to add to that image of perfection. And her professional ambitions are realistic and somewhat humble.
"Personally, I just want to be challenged artistically, creatively. I want to have enough work to pay my expenses and have fun, to meet people and enjoy myself at work. It's really nice to be involved in a process where you are working with a lot of creative people who have all come together to create something new."
Posted by Jo at January 9, 2004 09:34 AM