September 13, 2016

Meet North Hollywood Creative Genius: Robert Hensley

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to the artistically brilliant Robert Hensley.

Robert, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in a very small, rural town back east. There weren’t a lot of outlets for someone as fabulous as me. I was obsessed with Hollywood – storytelling, creating characters, the movies. Originally, I thought I was going to be the next Bob Mackie, and I moved to Los Angeles to study costume design. ‘Batman Returns’ was still all the rage and everyone wanted to learn to work with latex and non-traditional materials, so I headed back east to learn about casting foam latex, which led into special effects makeup, and then into beauty makeup.

I came back to Los Angeles and worked as an assistant for a year and a half, and learned on the job; from photo shoots to commercials, from film sets to designing makeup for theatre. It as a wonderful experience, and I learned so much. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Eleanor Sabaduquia for taking me along and sharing her experience with me.

I’ve always seen my job and the makeup I do to be a service to the actor and the director, to help create the character to tell the story. There is so much to the way an actor wears makeup and their hairstyle, which can translate into the character they play. It’s what I love about what I do. Even for an actress on a red carpet, she is a confident, dazzling goddess of the silver screen. She’s not the insecure girl in the t-shirt and yoga pants she was a few hours before.

Has it been a smooth road?
Thankfully, it hasn’t been a smooth road. There have been personal and professional setbacks; moments when I’ve wanted to pack it all up and find some easier path. In the end, though, you look back and you see what you’ve achieved and you wouldn’t have traded it for the world. I think our journey is what builds us. If I only ever had to post pictures of makeups I’ve done on myself on Instagram and collect followers, I couldn’t call myself successful.

I love that I’ve managed over the last two decades to meet and work with some of the most amazing people – actors, directors, storytellers, filmmakers. I’ve had to fight for gigs, turn some jobs down on principle, and find my voice as a professional. I do makeup because I love it. I love when other people admire my work.

Sometimes, I lose jobs to YouTube/IG ‘celebs’ and then get a call to come save the makeup on a project when they realize that social media numbers don’t translate into skills. There is no FaceTune or PhotoShop for real life. If a makeup artist takes a job, they need to be able to produce the look required. Too many times I get the panicked phone call to come save a project because the internet lied to them and the ‘artist’ they hired only knows how to do a caked on, super contoured, heavy eye makeup look. And I turn them down. That’s hard, because I want to help, but I also don’t want to become ‘the fixer’ for people who can’t produce what they say they can.

What’s your outlook for the industry over the next 5-10 years?
There are those who think it’s all going digital; someone sitting behind a computer screen will be doing makeup on actors. I don’t agree. I think there is something intimate about makeup, about looking a particular way, which translates into how a model or actor stands, moves or acts. That subtlety would be lost if makeup was just a pixelated, face-mapping after-thought. And I think kitchen-sink makeups, those looks created using every product in the kit and then got smacked with the kitchen sink, are going to fade out. At some point, artists will remember the beauty of skin – well cared for skin. Make up can be s transformative tool, and change the way our clients look, but it can also be an accentuation of the features our clients already have!

Has there been a particular challenge that you’ve faced over the years?
My biggest challenge is focus. Over the years, I’ve picked up and moved all over the country to learn some other aspect of showbiz – not always makeup – and sometimes a different area of the makeup industry. I never set my sites on one goal and worked that angle for the long term; like getting into the Union. There are times I wish I had been more focused, but mostly I’m glad I did it my way. I’m happy I am where I am in my career.

What would you tell someone who is just starting out?
Know your business. It doesn’t matter if you went to a fancy makeup school – no one is going to ask to see your diploma, but as a self-taught makeup artist, you’d better be good and you’d better understand how the industry works. Take Crystal Wright’s workshop. Buy her book. Don’t think you’re above assisting or working under other artists to learn set etiquette. You have to know your tools and be ready to create looks – not the same look, but looks – and how to base a makeup on your client, not caking on base and then contouring and highlighting until you’ve created a different face. And don’t ever stop learning.

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