Interview with Allison’s Emmy-winning Makeup Artist Marie DelPrete!

by Stacy Schecter - March 18, 2024

I had the recent privilege to meet with Allison’s Emmy-winning makeup artist Marie DelPrete over zoom for a lengthy chat about all things makeup and Allison! We discussed Marie’s work on the upcoming AppleTV+ series Palm Royale, as well as the recent looks Marie has done for Allison’s photo shoots and red-carpet events. With hundreds of professional film and television makeup credits under her belt, Marie is a down to earth Brooklyn girl who followed her passion to Los Angeles. Her love for and dedication to her art shined through during our conversation, where she shared so many fascinating insights into working with Allison in various mediums. Enjoy our full discussion below!

Stacy: Hi Marie. Thank you so much for making time to talk with me today! I’d love to start by hearing about your path to becoming a makeup artist. How did you find your passion?

Marie: When I was little, I remember sitting next to a girl in the first grade and she would do these cute little doodles. I wanted to do that too and she showed me how. Then I was just doodling my brains out, so much so that I got into trouble because I doodled all over my desk – first with pencil and then I moved up to markers. I wanted color! I had to scrub my desk. There was just something creative in me. From there, my mom got me into a painting class with this guy Teddy who was into painting the masters. So, we took famous works of art and just started learning how to create that glaze-on-glaze, realistic translucent painting with different types of paint.

The transition from painting to makeup certainly seems logical!

In high school and the beginning of college, I started actually doing makeup. For college, I went to Parsons School of Design in New York City. One day I saw a flyer that was like, ‘Makeup Artist Needed for Off-Broadway Play’. I said, I want to do that! I was kind of a little gangster, and I ripped the whole flyer off the wall so no one else could apply. It was bad. But I went there, and it was for 1940s makeup and hair. Edie Falco was going to be in the play. I got hired and it wasn’t like a big money thing, but I did it and it took me from one thing to another, to another, to another. I say do what you love, and the money will follow, and the success will follow.

I saw that you won an Emmy Award for the Gilmore Girls. Can you talk about how you won that award and what that was like?

You really must do something that’s worthy of the award. On Gilmore Girls it was for an episode called ‘The Festival of Living Art’. It was them looking like famous paintings. Like the one they do in Laguna Beach, the Pageant of the Living Masters. I recreated that in Stars Hallow and turned the actors into famous works of art. As soon as the script came out, I was like, this is my jam – this is how I started out, doing famous works of art. Things like Da Vinci’s Last Supper and so many beautiful tableaus that me and my team created. And so, we submitted it for the Emmys. You send your stuff out. It’s a little different now because there’s Instagram and it’s a lot quicker to get your work out there. Back then I was sending DVDs to people. I keep my Emmy on my piano if you want to see it! I got the Emmy, and I also got a Guild Award too which was really rewarding because it’s from your peers.

How did you come to work with Allison?

I met her on Palm Royale. I feel so grateful that my girlfriend Tricia Sawyer, who is the makeup department head on Palm Royale, connected us. She brought me onto the show in May 2022. I think Tricia thought Allison and I would be a good fit and we just were, from the minute I said hello to Allison. I think immediately we knew it was a love connection. Her energy is so beautiful and that’s no BS. She really is a kindhearted beautiful person. Beyond how talented this woman is, she’s also a muse because she sits there, and she just lets you create. I feel so lucky. That chick is deep. She’s not surface, she’s deep and she’s delicious. I love her. After I was working with her for a while on Palm Royale, she asked me to do her makeup for red carpets and events. I haven’t stopped!

Let’s discuss Palm Royale! The show is set in Palm Beach, Florida in 1969. Did you do a lot of research into the time period in order to get the makeup right?

We had all our research photos for Palm Beach women of the era. They were much different than New York society women of the time. More frosted eyes and heavy makeup, much bolder. They always wore a lot of makeup. They always fixed their faces and had their powder puff ready and were always powdering their noses. It was a different time.

Aside from letting the period trends guide you, what else went into Allison’s look?

We had a lot of liberty to do what we wanted. And Allison just trusts the process. I felt grateful that she just trusted me. I always go off the wardrobe and then read the script. Allison’s character is the Queen Bee…sort of. Carol Burnett is really the Queen Bee, but you’ll see why Allison’s character has stepped up. You got a sense that these society women were the old money of Palm Beach and Kristen Wiig’s character is this new money trying to bust into their society.

So, when I looked at Allison’s wardrobe and I looked at the script and her character, I thought, this is a woman that is still doing the same kinds of looks she did when she was younger. But still fabulous. She’s bold, she’s over the top, she’s technicolor. That was really my approach for Allison. Even though it’s toward the late 1960s when everything got a little more muted, I still wanted Allison’s character to have that element of when she was a little younger and using those bold colors. There are also flashback scenes in Palm Royale where we put Allison back to the 1940s. Oh my god, girl. She looked so good.

So Allison’s character is still holding onto her favorite looks that she did in her past?

Every woman does that. Every woman has that point in their lives when they felt their hair and makeup style made them feel most beautiful. Like some women never change their hair. Allison’s character’s hairwork is incredible, by the way. All these different wigs and styles done by Jill Crosby. Allison’s character is not afraid to play. That’s why she plays around with color as well. But her character goes through a lot of transitions, and you’ll see that reflected in the makeup. She will go into more earthy tones, more subtle makeup. If you look at all the different decades, the 1970s makeup starts to get dewier. Hopefully we will get another season of Palm Royale and we will get to see how the makeup progresses.

Were there any challenges doing Allison’s makeup on Palm Royale?

Time is always a factor. You don’t want to take too long; they’ve got a schedule. Also, because they were getting into this period look, there was a lot of smoke on set to give it that vintage vibe. It’s a technique that cinematographers use, so a lot of times that’s a challenge when it comes to the makeup. It’s a fine line of keeping the makeup looking good: I like to go for a satin finish, not too dry, not too wet.

You mentioned time. How long did it take to do the makeup looks for Allison?

The makeup took a long time on Palm Royale because we were doing it separately from hair, at these stations. The production budgets time that way. When we are doing Allison’s makeup at her home for events, we still do it separately – sometimes you have to double team and have both hair and makeup going at the same time. I tend to prefer separately because it feels more civilized and you’re not pushing and pulling her.

For Palm Royale, Allison also had on fake press-on nails as well, so we had to do those too. At first, she was painting them, but it became too much to keep up with. It probably took an hour with the press-ons, and if we had to do body makeup another 15 minute.

What do you mean by body makeup?

Body makeup is just that: makeup on the body. If they’re showing more skin, we need makeup there because we work on high-definition cameras. A normal arm can look very spotty. High def is very unforgiving and it’s also a lie. You think you’re seeing the clearest image, so realistic – but no, it isn’t. HD picks up on the slightest thing and exaggerates it. Like reds. Or if there’s any kind of sheen it becomes *sweat*. It’s so intense. A wrinkle that’s just like a little thing becomes the Grand Canyon. So, we trick the camera.

For the body you use a color that smooths it out and put a little sheen back in. Same with the face. The thing about working in any kind of moving picture is that we can do so much as makeup artists, but we work very closely with the cinematographer. When those relationships are good, they merge beautifully, and you come up with an amazing product. Sometimes with that high definition, you need filters to soften things. People these days go on Instagram and see these filtered pictures but that’s not what it looks like in film and television.

This is why I like to interview people that work with Allison. I think it’s important to recognize the professionals who work behind the scenes. You really have a big part of making Allison look and feel her best so she can put out the best performance.

I love working with an artist like Allison. Working with her, you feel important because you know you are participating in what she’s creating. It’s beautiful. She respects us so much. You are part of helping her create that character. She does incredible performances like The Help and I, Tonya where you really connect with Allison and her characters. And this character, in Palm Royale, is really quite fun. She goes through a journey, and you really feel for her, but she’s also so funny. She’s like a little monster.

Any fun anecdotes from the set that you’d like to share?

I don‘t know if you know about little Henry. Henry is Allison’s newest dog. Henry was so tiny and Jayme Lemons, our producer on Palm Royale, was taking care of this dog. Someone else had found him in a dumpster or something. Henry was really sickly and Jayme had him there on her lap but she didn’t think she could keep him. Allison was chill about it at first but then all of a sudden, she was like, “Oh, god. I think I got a new dog.” She wasn’t anticipating it but one day Henry was in her lap, and she just couldn’t control it. And Henry is obsessed with her…like we all are.

Another fun little story is that it was my birthday during the shoot, and I didn’t tell anybody but then they found out. Tricia [the makeup department head] and Marissa and the hair girls all rushed to get me stuff and make a big deal out of my birthday. They got balloons and flowers, and donuts. Kristen Wiig would always sing this special birthday song of hers for people on set, but she wasn’t there that day, so Allison and Jill [Crosby] sang it to me instead. I have a video of it somewhere, I’ll send it to you. Everybody was so nice on this set, and it was a class act.

I saw you just did Allison’s makeup this past Thursday night for the Palm Royale pink carpet premiere, she looked truly amazing!

That was a look that Allison wanted to do. She was like, I want look like a little silver-y thing. Every now and then she’ll tell me something that she likes. She’s so open though, and I think because she’s a true artist she understands other artists. She knows that with any art, of course input is always appreciated and always welcome, it’s a collab and we build things together sometimes, but the artist needs to feel like they can create and that’s when you get the best for Allison.

You’ve done a lot of other memorable event looks for Allison over the past two years. One of my favorites was the premiere of her Netflix film LOU in September 2022.

That was a fun day. That black lace dress was so sexy and sultry. And the way Jill swept her hair up to the side, I was like, let’s make this a sexy eye moment with the winged eyeliner.

I also really loved this look for the Roger Vivier dinner a few months ago in December 2023 where Allison wore a tuxedo and red lipstick.

I loved this one! I did little individuals on her eyelashes, but I kept it really simple because those glasses are so heavy, and I didn’t want a big lash pressing against it. So, I kept it simple, just a little gold shimmer on the eyelids and a little liner on the ends, and then yeah, you make it about a bold red lip. Isn’t she gorgeous?

The recent cover of Parade Magazine [March 10, 2024] is my new favorite picture of Allison. You had a hand in all the recent photo shoots we’ve seen for People Magazine [March 18, 2024] and the other Robert Ascroft photographs that were released in January around her Diplomat casting announcement. How did these come together?

This is a great story. Jill Crosby is incredible. She literally put this whole photo shoot together. She styled the clothing; I think she pulled that white blouse [in the People photos] out of Allison’s closet. Jill even did the craft services on it. She rocks. So, what was great about this is that we were running the show – there was no editor, we were doing it. We got to create the looks we really wanted. This makeup is so much softer. There are even more looks from that photoshoot that haven’t come out yet.

What’s the best makeup look for Allison, in your opinion?

Jill and Allison are always saying how I can do so many different looks on her. They’re very complimentary to me. Allison has such a face that you can go anywhere with it. I feel like even her glam, not just when she’s a character in a show, but when she’s being glamorous, she is a chameleon and can do anything. I take advantage of that. Some people have one look. And no matter what you do to push it, they stay in that look box. Some people don’t look good with a smoky eye or a bare eye, but Allison? She really can go across the spectrum.

It has been a real treat getting to see so many new photos of Allison lately. Fans have missed her while she’s been off shooting, so we are happy she’s back with new work and new press!

There’s also a cover shoot for GenLux Magazine that we just did coming out soon, too. That look was very shimmery and glow-y. I went for a bronzy look and her lips are a little plummy. They’re going to publish a really fun “Get the Look” page that I wrote!

I know many fans who would love to get Allison’s look. What product recommendations do you have for women 50+ in Allison’s age bracket?

I always want to keep in mind to give Allison a little bit of a light to her face, that light coming from within. On Palm Royale, I used this By Terry pearlescent primer that really illuminated her face. I used that under her base, and it gave more light to her skin coming through. Light is youth. I think Jill and I are really good “lighters”, and we get the really pretty shots of Allison. She’s so beautiful and it’s so fun to do her face.

Any other tips and tricks or secrets that you like to use on Allison?

I also use this device on Allison that we love. It’s called The Ziip and it’s a microcurrent that stimulates the muscles to contract. It gives a little lift and a contour. I like to try and really massage the moisturizers into her skin before I start. When we’re doing stuff in the trailer for film and television, it’s harder to do these things before you start. So, on the set, when she’s done I’d give her a little mini-facial and a steam towel. But when I go to her house, I have more time and I can do little treatments before I start. I do a little Gua Sha for lymphatic draining. It really works. I also recommend every once and a while an acupuncture facial and the Gua Sha and red-light therapy. You’ve gotta take care of your skin!

Thank you, Marie, for taking the time to talk to me about the makeup on Palm Royale and all the beautiful makeup looks you’ve done for Allison. I know the readers on my site really appreciate hearing from anyone who gets to work so closely with Allison. Any final thoughts for our audience?

I’m a glass half-full type of person, so I like to put out positivity into the world. Nothing good comes from chaos and stress, that’s a wasted emotion. The state of the industry has been a little tough since the strikes, but I’ve been working on other people’s projects and Jimmy Kimmel Live with some friends. Hopefully Palm Royale does well and gets to come back for another season. I love Allison. I feel very lucky. And Allison is lucky to have you! You’re so good, most of the things she’s doing I find out from your Instagram page. You are fast! *