12 Unrecognizable Celebrity Makeup Transformations

Few things take your breath away more than a movie star completely transformed via hair and makeup. And in many cases, the design provides inspiration for the way the actor will play the character. Indeed, how can you truly know who the character is until you’ve seen their nose, eyebrows or the color of their body?

So when an actor wins an award for playing a role that’s startlingly different from themselves, be sure to give a little nod to the hard working hair and makeup designers who helped make it possible.

What do you think? Are these the best hair and makeup transformations of all time?

1. “Besides the actual prosthesis, my character also had a set of fake false teeth,” said Ralph Fiennes of his character, Voldemort, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1. “When we broke for lunch, I couldn’t eat. I had to take them out each time I wanted anything.”

2. This is one of my favorites — Meryl Streep playing a rabbi in Angels in America. The look was so authentic that a crew member became concerned when she saw “the rabbi” go into Meryl’s trailer. 

 3. “As a makeup artist you want it to be perfect, but it had to be imperfect for the character … And to me it looked like, you know, I would never work again,” said John Caglione Jr., the makeup artist who helped turn Heath Ledger into The Joker on The Dark Knight. 

”It was like the worst makeup ever. It was really messed up looking and I just thought, “Oh my god, this could be really terrible for me.”

4. To play Saul in Coming to America, makeup artist Rick Baker used 15 to 17 separate pieces of foam rubber on Eddie Murphy’s face. “And when we got him all made up he couldn’t believe it, it was much more real than he expected it to be,” said Baker. 

How did Gwyneth feel walking into a bar wearing a 350-pound fat suit?