I was watching 12 Monkeys the other day and I was transfixed by Brad Pitts lazy eye.
How do make-up artists do a lazy eye? My first guess would be a large opaque contact lens like the ones Michael Jackson wore in Thriller, but how would they keep the fake iris/pupil from moving in sync with the non-lazy eye as the actor looks in different directions?
Are you sure it’s cosmetic trick? It might be possible to do such a thing with special contacts, but it seems like it would be more trouble and expense than it was worth in this case. My assumption would be that Brad Pitt just happens to have the ability to move his eyes like that. I’ve personally known people who could move their eyes around in weird ways, so it can’t be that unusual.
No, I’m not sure. And I’ve known some freaks too, but I figure it severely limits casting options if you can only cast an actor who can do this.
The part could have been played by someone without the ability to move his eyes like that. It wasn’t essential to the plot or anything. But if you’re a actor who’s already been cast in a “crazy” role, and you can move your eyes, why not?
O.K., Lamia, I do love you for participating. How about we change it to “Suppose a make-up artist needs to create a lazy eye which is necessary for a character as it is referenced in the script, yet the actor cast is not physically capable of doing freaky shit with his eyes. How would a make-up artist go about such a task?”
O.K. so I guess that it’s possible that no make-up artist has ever had to deal with this. It’s possible that every lazy eye ever to be featured in a film has always come about as a choice by an actor who had the ability to to freaky shit with his eyes. I suspect, however, that often it has been the director or writer’s decision in an attempt to acheive a stylized effect.
Okay bienville, I can see you’re a bit irritated so I decided I’d make it up to you with my mad Googling skills. I actually checked before my first post, but didn’t turn up anything relevant. This time I really put my heart into it, and it paid off:
Homepage of Dr. Mitchell Cassel/Custom Color Contacts. Turns out you were right, that was a special contact on Pitt in 12 Monkeys, and this is the guy who made it for him.
There isn’t an explanation for how it was done, but I would presume that he used the same technique he used to cosmetically correct non-sighted misdirected eyes, as seen: here.
Looking over the photos, the answer to your final question would seem to be that they can’t always get the painted iris/pupil exactly where they might want it, but they can position it well enough that it looks pretty good…or presumably pretty bad, if that were what they were going for instead. Since real misdirected eyes usually do move around along with the good eye, it probably wouldn’t be necessary to create a contact lens that wouldn’t move too. Which is just as well, as I’d fear that an immobile lens might scratch the eye.
No, no, no I really hope you don’t think I was irritated.
:eek: (I would have used the “embarrased” smilie except he doesn’t look embarrased, he looks like he’s yawning.)
Oh, contraire, I was quite appreciative that you had taken an interest in the topic. I just wanted to redirect the conversation a bit. And look what happened! You step up and kick it like a rock star displaying sweet-ass research skills!
At game’s end:
Lamia: 1
Ignorance: 0
Way to score one for the team! Thank you! 
You’re welcome.
The trick was not to use the term “lazy eye” and especially not “wandering eye”. The latter just brought up a bunch of tabloid gossip! I had to remember that the usual medical term is “misdirected eye”, and that was when I hit Google gold.