updated: Mar 24, 2002
mask tricks
1990...
mask tricks
1980—1989
mask tricks
1940—1979
Mission Impossible
male disguises
male disguises
wig disguises
2000...
wig disguises
1990—1999
wig disguises
1980—1989
wig disguises
1950—1979
Sometimes the plot of a film requires a character to change their appearance or disguise themselves as somebody else. Often for this to work, it requires a voluntary suspension of disbelieve on the part of the audience: either the change is so subtle that the character ought to be recognised or the makeup is so heavy that it looks false — not to mention all those times someone has run their hands through her hair without noticing that it was a wig!. But hey it’s fun.
One variant of disguising an actress is the mask trick in its various forms. Done well it can be very effective: the actress is never disguised at all but the putting on or taking off of a mask hides a cut between actresses (the usual Mission Impossible trick).
Categorising these disguises sometimes gets a bit tricky (eg in the pilot of F/X: the Series: Carrie Anne Moss is disguised as an old man; the disguise uses prosthetic makeup; the reveal is a mask trick; oh yes, and she appears in numerous other disguises during the series. And how do you categorise Jenna Elfman disguised as Richard Dreyfuss pretending to be a tribal leader from New Guinea (excluding the words disaster, politically incorrect, mistake etc etc that is)?