Gandalf the wizard was created by Australian
make-up artist Rick Findlater. Picture: AP Source:
AP
Peter Mitchell, The Daily Telegraph, reports
The tiny country town of Georgica in northern
NSW is a long way from Hollywood, and for Rick Findlater, that is perfect.
Usually, it's just Findlater and his black labrador, Diesel, on the
four-hectare property, about a 45-minute drive west of Byron Bay.
That was the case just after midnight on Friday (AEDT) when Findlater,
with Diesel at his side, was scrolling through the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences website looking for his name among the Oscar nominees.
Suddenly, there it was.
His name sat alongside his make-up and hairstyling colleagues on The
Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Swords King and Tami Lane, but Findlater
still did not want to get his hopes up.
He then clicked on his name.
Up popped: "This is Mr Findlater's first Oscar nomination."
It was only after he read this Findlater realised there was no way it
could be a typo.
The 45-year-old bachelor, who hopes to breed Dexter cattle on the
property in between making Hollywood movies, finally admitted to himself he was
an Oscar nominee and would be in Hollywood on February 24 for the 85th Academy
Awards.
The only problem?
Findlater only had Diesel to celebrate with.
Another essential ingredient to an Oscar party was also missing from his
fridge.
"Being an Aussie bloke you'd think I'd have something here to
drink, but the only thing I could find was a bottle of cognac someone gave me
for Christmas," Findlater laughed in an interview with AAP.
"It was a tough celebration."
Born in Southport, Queensland, and raised in Lennox Head in northern
NSW, Findlater's first job was on the 1990s TV series Flipper.
He has become one of the few elite crew members who can do make-up,
prosthetics and hair, making him a hot ticket with directors, including Peter
Jackson for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, where Findlater was
responsible for turning Sir Ian McKellen into Gandalf the wizard.
Findlater also worked on Avatar, Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai, The
Grudge 2 and Amelia.
He was responsible for the wig Naomi Watts wears in The Impossible, the tsunami-survivor
film Watts received a best actress nomination for.
He sent Watts an email to congratulate her.
He lives a quiet existence with Diesel when he is not working because he
likes to separate his two lives.
"A lot of my colleagues like to live the film industry 24/7 and I
try and keep a fresh take on it," he said.
"Once I finish a job I completely divorce myself from it."
To celebrate his nomination, Findlater said he might drive to Byron Bay
with Diesel, although he doesn't expect any of the locals to recognise him as
an Oscar nominee.
"Not unless on the way down I get the phrase 'This is Mr
Findlater's first Oscar nomination' tattooed on my body," he giggled.
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