October 2024 - Exclusive

Interview with Natalie Fox, Allison’s Hair & Makeup Artist on Netflix’s The Diplomat

Allison Janney’s new role as Vice President Grace Penn on Season 2 of The Diplomat has been hotly-anticipated since her casting was first announced in January 2024. As a character oft-spoken of but never seen during the first season of the Netflix hit political thriller, expectations were high for the big reveal of the potent and controversial Vice President. While Allison spoke to Vanity Fair about her journey in developing this character’s personality and mindset, I found myself wondering how the visual look for VP Penn came together. So I decided to find out all the details by chatting with Allison’s incredible hair and makeup artist on the project, Natalie Fox!

A native of Nottingham, England, Natalie studied her craft and developed her artistry at the London College of Fashion. After dabbling in hair and makeup for fashion and the theater, Natalie found her calling and has now amassed over a decade of experience doing hair and makeup for film and television. In addition to her work with Allison on The Diplomat (which was filmed in the U.K. this past spring), Natalie has done hair and makeup for main cast members in high-profile productions such as Netflix’s Wednesday, and for films like Saltburn and Paddington in Peru. Natalie’s passion for her craft and love of her work as an artist was immediately evident as our conversation got underway over Zoom earlier this month. Natalie shared so many details about what went into creating Allison’s hair and makeup for her role as Vice President Grace Penn, as well as industry insights and some fun behind-the-scenes anecdotes about working with Allison. Read our full conversation below!

Hi Natalie! Thank you so much for taking the time to Zoom with me today! How did you find your way into a career doing hair and makeup for film and television? In University I studied hair and makeup for fashion. I was enjoying what I was doing but it felt like something was missing. Then I managed to get some experience in theatre and wig work, which I felt was more my vibe, but I was still not 100% sure that it was right for me. However, I knew how important it was to get experience in all areas of the industry whilst I was living in London. Then I moved back home and got some work opportunities on TV shows and period dramas, and that was when I knew...this is it, this is what I want to be doing as a career. The distinction for me is that every day is so different in film and television. Working in theatre, you are doing the same thing every day, on a routine, which personally I really struggle with. In film and television, there is a structure but you’re always working toward a new end-result. Plus, you’re constantly meeting new people, and traveling to exciting locations. You’re always learning and getting better, and there are always new goals to work toward.

 I saw on your social media that you recently took a wig styling course. Yes! I’ve done wigs for years now. I took a period hair styling course because I’m doing a film in a couple weeks based in the 1930s. Nearly everything I’ve done for the last four years has been modern day or contemporary/fantasy, so it was basically for me to have a little refresher on putting the rollers in, how to dress out finger waves and getting back in the swing of period hair. I love doing courses. I always think you can never learn enough, so I will always invest back into myself for my own professional development.

 How does the hair and makeup come together for a project like The Diplomat? In the U.K., we mostly do hair and makeup together, so I do both for the actor. Usually, the hair and makeup designer will run the show and create everyone’s looks, whether that be with the producers, the showrunners, and the actors. The designer has the creative aspect on the whole thing and then they come to the artists like me and say: “you’ve got this character”. The designer will either do their fitting or depending on the skill level of the artist, they will tell the artist: “This is the vibe, do whatever you want”, or “It’s very specific.” That is very job-dependent. For me, reading the script for a project, how I would see certain characters is probably completely different from how the writers see them, or how the actors have got it in their heads. It’s really nice when you get to collaborate with everybody and bring everyone’s little bits together and create something special.

 What was the overall vision for how Allison as Vice President Grace Penn should look? In preparation, I looked mood-board-wise at figures like Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, and Michelle Obama. It was important for Allison’s character to be so far away from Keri Russell’s character (Kate Wyler). It’s notorious that Kate Wyler always looks tussled, like she hasn’t even brushed her hair today. Then you have Allison’s character, who is just so polished. You’re supposed to know she’s had a blow dry done, but it’s not over the top. She’s just very well put together. I think that really shows against Keri’s character. What I love about the show is that it is so natural and real. And the characters really embrace this.

What was the timeline and collaborative process like with Allison? Usually with television shows when you get big actors coming in, there will be long discussions, and you’ll have the time for fittings and time for really working it out but that totally did not happen with Season 2 of The Diplomat! Due to Allison’s schedule on other projects and her availability, all we had time for was for was one Zoom chat with Allison, me, and the hair & makeup designer, Roo Maurice. Obviously, Allison is a dream, so we had a nice chat with her about if she had certain products that she liked and how we felt we were going to do the hair. We knew we were going to have to use her natural hair for this show.

I was so curious if this look was a wig or not, considering Allison usually wears a wig! Right, obviously as you know, Allison does usually wear a lot of wigs. But for The Diplomat, we knew we were going to have to use her natural hair – but purely just for time. There just wasn’t time for any other option. I know they loved the length of Allison’s natural hair, but they wanted it maybe just a tad longer. In an ideal world, I’d have had hours and hours of a fitting to play around with different hair pieces but on this occasion, which is rare, we had to fit Allison the first morning she was filming.

Wow, that seems stressful! How much time did you have to get her ready to film? I had maybe 3 hours to meet Allison, decide exactly what we were going to do for both hair and makeup, and then hope and pray that Allison, Roo, and the producers all liked it. It was one of those times where you just had to smash this out and pray! We decided to do a full head of tape extensions just to thicken her hair up and give the bob more shape. I only added marginal length, and just on the sides, because we did not have the time to do a full length. Also because we did not physically have Allison until that morning, I actually had to color match from pictures of her, which is always fun! Somehow, I managed to get that spot on, so I was actually quite impressed with myself on that one.

Were there any other quirks with creating Allison’s hair for the show? When you’re putting extensions in, you’ve got to be mindful of them being seen. Character-wise, it’s not like the Vice President would have a full head of visible extensions. Other projects I’ve been on, it’s been a character trait where you’d maybe see the extensions or that they’d be a bit bedraggled, but that was not it here. We needed it to look like her natural hair all the way, so we did the full head of extensions, and then I sprayed color into the roots. Allison had a little root shadow in at the time, so we did a little spray to match that.

What kind of extensions did you use? I chose tape extensions because we only had Allison for maybe 3 weeks at the end of Season 2 filming, so I thought let’s whack something in there that can last for the duration. They’re more of a long-term extension. If they’re in on day one they can last for the entire time that we’ve got Allison, and we won’t need to re-fit them. Then you just whip them out at the end.

Did you have to make any changes to Allison’s hair design during those 3 weeks? The first day we were filming with Allison was a Friday and throughout the day, there was something that just wasn’t quite how I wanted it to be. You can’t put tape extensions quite high; they finished kind of midway up Allison’s head. So, I had to think quickly between Friday night and Monday morning about how I could pad out the front.

 On another film I’d done we used what’s called “strings”. Basically, they are single hairs knotted onto a piece of invisible thread. I called my friend Joanne Tudda who is an amazing hair and makeup artist, and who was also working on a job in London. She said, “If you can get the hair over to me, I’ll make the strings on set tonight, and you’ll have them back by tomorrow. Then I’ll show you how to make them for the rest of filming.”

 So I managed to get one of the unit drivers to take some extra hair that was an exact match to what we used for Allison’s extensions, and we had that driven across London to my friend on her production. She then whipped up these tiny little hair pieces for me and got them back to me. Then on Monday, we took about four couple-of-inch wide single strands, and we glued them on a diagonal which created a curtain bang style to thicken out those corners and blend them into Allison’s bob. Then they just sat perfect.

After a day or two we realized that the glue was pretty good on those so we could leave them in and every two days remove them. They’re so fragile. After a couple of uses we would hand knot more ‘string’ fringes, so we’d have new ones to replenish as needed. For ease and time, Allison chose to keep in those fringe pieces, so her makeup call would just be an extra 15-20 minutes depending if we were on a “fringe” day and had to put new ones in. I also used a brow powder on the string and root area of these pieces to blend in with her hair.

Did any weather elements or outdoor scenes have an impact on Allison’s hair? There were a lot of wonderful indoor scenes where everything was just perfect and stayed. Then there was a lovely day when they put Allison in front of a helicopter. Oh, the hair was moving! It was one of the funniest days on set. I just remember thinking oh my God, she’s got lashes, she’s got fringe, she’s got extensions, and they’re putting her on this balcony in front of a massive industrial fan. I’m thinking please, somebody be on my side today and make sure everything stays stuck. I had no monitor so I couldn’t see what it looked like, and I was just hoping and praying. She’d come running off set after each take, and we’d re-set everything and get it all back to one. Then she’d be back out on that balcony for take after take. I have no idea how, but nothing came off! 

Now let’s get into the makeup of it all! What were your go-to products for Allison? Makeup-wise, Allison is just a dream! She makes anything look wonderful. Really good skincare is always key for me, and Allison is amazing at that. For her we always used under-eye patches from Patchology and Elemis whilst we did hair. They’re great. Then I went to all my staple, go-to favorite products to get her made up - but not too much glam! One of my favorite products that Roo got me hooked on years ago, which I use on all ages, is the Gatineau Miracle Eye Contour Cream. This is an under-eye product that goes on white and adapts to your skin tone. It’s tailored for lighter skin tones and is more of a skincare product so it doesn’t sit under the eye and get cakey. It just brightens everything up, so I always use that as a concealer. I always try go dewy with foundation rather than anything matte because I think it makes the skin look more youthful.

For Allison’s eyeshadows I would always go matte and everything in an upward direction, nothing too heavy or dragging down. I did everything we could to accentuate the corner of her eye. I used the Gwen Stefani brand GXVE ‘Simple Kind of Life’ which was a neutral eyeshadow palette. I’m obsessed with that eyeshadow. Also, the Victoria Beckham Satin Kajal eyeliner in Cocoa. That is my die hard now, I can’t do anyone without it. We smudged a bit on the outer corner to lift the eye. Then we put a couple of Tatti Lashes on Allison, which are the little individuals that go two or three on the corner of each eye to keep them lifted. For her blush it was always a liquid or gel like Suqqu Dewey Liquid Blush 102, just to keep it dewy. I try to powder as little as possible. With Allison’s lips, I just did the Kiko Precision Boost lip liner 08 mixed and filled in with Laniege Lip Sleeping Mask in Gummy Bear. I’m obsessed with Laniege, which everyone knows. That just helps to keep it fresh and nice!

I know readers will love these product details, so I will put your full product list at the end of this article! How long does Allison’s makeup have to last each shoot day? This has to last her a 12-hour minimum and I’m anti-setting spray on set. It’s one of those things where it’s like hairspray: once you put it on, it’s very hard to go back from it. So, if you then want to start topping up, then you have a weird layer. If something has shifted underneath, you can’t go back into it. So I only like a prep spray or mist, which can help re-awaken things if I ever had to use one. I would say Allison is one of the easiest people I’ve ever had to look after on terms of makeup. The hair was more of a challenge for me on this job due to the extensions and the fringe pieces. That was more maintenance for me, whereas her makeup didn’t really move. Apart from her lips, which we would do an after-lunch touch up on, it was just a quick 10-15 minute refresh.

What do you think people would be surprised to learn about your job? Although I wholeheartedly love my job, I think that it can be a very emotionally and mentally draining job. Not only do we do hair and makeup but it’s one of those things where you become kind of like the therapist at times. Our job is very invasive of personal space, so it’s important to learn and respect boundaries with who you’re working with. I love to look after people. It’s very much in my nature to nurture. I will go out of my way to make sure an actor I’m working with is okay. I think it’s massively important if you can take any stress away from that person when they’re doing tough scenes or have a lot going on. It takes a toll on them personally, so even just helping them out with snacks and coffee, or reading lines – anything to make their day easier can come as part of the job. I like being able to do that and have those relationships with people. That being said, when you’re doing that for somebody else 12-16 hours a day, it’s very easy to forget to look after yourself.

What did you observe about Allison while working with her every day? Allison is up there as one of the best people I’ve ever worked with. I’ve never had someone like her. I had read it in your interviews before, that she just appreciates an artist’s craft and just lets us do our job. It’s true, she’s a blank canvas in that way. It’s so funny, because especially in England, when you get big American actors coming over, they kind of create this crazy hype on set, and 9 times out of 10 it always is just hype. These actors are now in position to judge my personal work and being in a creative position, you are putting a lot of yourself out there for critique. So if someone doesn’t like something you’ve done, you have to try hard to separate the work from anything personal. But Allison is just amazing in this way...even if she ever didn’t like something you did, you know the way she’d go about saying it would be just so sweet and so personable.

Thank you, Natalie, for taking the time to talk to me in so much detail about Allison’s hair and makeup for The Diplomat!  I know that fans really appreciate hearing from anyone who gets to work so closely with Allison. Any final thoughts for our readers? I was so excited when Allison was cast in Season 2, because I’ve loved her in a lot of her other work. She’s such an amazing spicy addition to The Diplomat. If I could work with Allison every day for the rest of my life, I’d be very happy! She’s a total pro. Filming unfortunately waits for nobody, and it can be so brutal, especially if there’s something going on for the actor personally, outside of work, or when it gets to be 4am at the end of a long work week and everyone is exhausted and losing their minds in delirium. But Allison is such a trooper and such a professional. I’ve never worked with anyone like her, I’ve never known someone who can just turn it on the way she can. A true legend. *