Interview: Cecille Baun, prosthetic artist

Cecille Baun, 77, is a legend in Philippine cinema. She is the prosthetic artist responsible for making the tiyanak, manananggal and other scary Pinoy mythical creatures come to life in movies and television. Her works have appeared in Shake, Rattle and Roll, Oro, Plata, Mata and Darna. She has also worked for international movies and directors such as John Irvin’s Hamburger Hill, Oliver Stone’s Platoon and Andrew McLagen’s Return from the River Kwai.

Coconuts TV dropped by her Quezon City studio where she showed us some of her precious works from the 1970s to the present. Here are excerpts from our interview. You can also watch the video below.

How she got started:
I was just a housewife before. I got along well with my husband. He was with the US military. But he died young. So I had to strive for a living, having five kids to feed. I had five children to take care of and did not know how to provide for them. What got me through was my faith. I trusted that God would not abandon me. That was my main asset. I unburdened my worries on Him while I cried for my dead husband. I trusted in Him and I resolved to send my children to school, to fulfill my husband’s dream for them.

I did the best I could. I found myself getting involved in the make-up retailing business, through Avon. I became a franchisee. But was a beauty counselor first. I persevered. I would do product demos in offices, sometimes in my home. I recruited other beauty counsellors and saved up until I had a mini-franchise. Later on Beautyfont got me to do theater make-up for Repertory Philippines, which used their products. That’s how it started.

From make-up to prosthetic:
Once I got the hang of it, I said to myself, “I want to do more. But what can it be?” I found myself asking, “How do they make lipstick? What are the ingredients that go into making one?” I wasn’t planning on making one. I was simply curious. At home, when I was by myself, I tried to determine the ingredients but I couldn’t figure it out. And then I got to thinking about fruits, the fruits that we eat. Would these work on the skin? Could these be used on the skin? After all, they’re edible. I experimented and played around with them. I thought, “Wow, this is something!” I found ways to use them.

Actors eating her works:
I was in Bohol. The movie actress Stella Strada freaked out when I used guava jelly on her face. She couldn’t say her lines straight. The director, Elwood Perez, said, “Do something about it, Cecille. What did you put on her face anyway?” The special make-up was also on the sensitive areas. In the movie, her character got syphilis. In the scene she was using kalachuchi leaves to treat her wounds. 

I told her, “Relax, don’t let this stuff bother you, it’s just jelly, condensed milk…” And the blood was made of syrup, Karo syrup. And then I noticed her special make-up would disappear with each take. I asked her if she was wiping it off. She said, “No, I ate it. It’s yummy!” I found that food was a good substitute for make-up. Just add coloring. The problem is it doesn’t last for very long.

I was also asked to make brains, edible brains. I used bananas and tissue paper. The actor Bembol Roco ate it in one of his scenes. I came up with my own formulations. And they were all edible. The skin can absorb it. That’s why it’s safe. Since then the prosthetics I made got more and more complicated. And whenever the expensive stuff ran out, I relied on my own concoctions.
 

Coconuts Manila interviews Cecille Baun

You can’t trust everyone:
My work impressed an actor named John. He asked me how I learned. I said I taught myself. “I’ll send you a book,” he said.  It took me a while to get it from the post office. I had to pay quite a sum for import duties. Someone from the make-up department of a movie saw the book and said that the actress Charito Solis also had a copy.

I said I hadn’t read it yet. I’m not saying it’s that make-up artist who took it, maybe it was someone else. But after that the book went missing. I don’t know if I lost it at home or at a shoot. I couldn’t find it. What a loss.

Her first international project:
My first international project was produced by Premiere Productions; 1974 it was, I think. The Night of the Cobra Woman. It starred an African model. Beautiful woman. She was dark, but she was beautiful. She played the role of a woman who would cast a spell on men she fell in love with. If the spell fails she turns into a snake. 

If it works the man would be disfigured in some way, for instance an eye would go blind. She tries to find a cure. It brings her to a lab full of snakes. She becomes a student there.

The day a monkey died:
Before she can test a cure on a human she experiments using animals. She injects some kind of germs into a monkey. So I start applying prosthetics on the monkey’s face. Bad idea, you can’t work with monkeys. They’re unruly. The monkey ripped off the prosthetic and swallowed it. We tried to make him cough it out but it didn’t work. A doctor injected something into the monkey to make him sleep. But the monkey never woke up after that. His stomach stiffened. Overdosed, I guess.

So we got another monkey. This time I used electric tape. But this new monkey was just as unruly. He kept trying to tear off the tape. He kept flailing about, like this. The doctor injected him with a tranquilizer. This time it was the correct dosage. And I was able to attach the prosthetic here. The actors were finally able to “experiment” on the monkey. They found the cure. And the woman was able to heal the man she loved.

When the woman got what she wanted from the man, she became beautiful. Otherwise, things went bad. She didn’t care if the man got sick as long as she got her way.

Cecille Baun

Her encounter with a real snake:
On the set of The Night of the Cobra Woman there were many snakes. My department was in charge of seven. Each time the woman failed she would turn into a snake. But she was so beautiful you’d never think of her as a snake.And with each success she gets even more beautiful. Her victims, on the other hand, go blind.

She would know when she was about to fail because the seven snakes would start firing up. I was assigned to apply the make-up on the snakes. Someone would bend them like this so I could put the make-up. I used only one hand. I was so afraid! All of a sudden, someone pinched my finger and made a sound. 

I jumped up and down. I kept screaming. A crew member held me in a tight embrace and told me to calm down. He was American. They were scolded. That was one experience I never had anywhere else.

And that time with a carabao: 
For another project, I had to put a horn in the middle of a carabao’s head. I had made the horn and was about to put it on the animal. But it wouldn’t keep still. It kept flicking its tail. Three people were holding it but still it kept moving. Finally the horn was attached. The carabao was still restless, though. It kept moving its head. But at last I managed to place the horn. It was complicated.

Natural born artist:
I think I can say I am an artist. Because anything they ask me to do, I am able to do. Not just in terms of prosthetics. For instance, I have some knowledge of design, too, even if I don’t have formal training. If I put my mind to it, I am able to do the task.

I didn’t learn the art of prosthetics in school. I only finished high school. I rely on my instinct. Sometimes I dream about my work. When I wake up, I find that I’m equal to the challenge. I have moments like those.

The production designer that wasn’t:
In films, though, I wait until they tell me what to do. I depend on the production designer, his vision. 

In the TV show Okat-okat, I asked the production designer for a brief. But he just said, “It’s okay, you can wing it.” I said, “What kind of production designer are you? You don’t give me anything to work with.”

“Okay,” he said, “It’s about another planet. Make me some aliens.” He didn’t make me a sketch. He left it all up to me. During the taping, one of the actors joked, asking why was it the other way around. “Instead of us actors making everyone wait, it’s us waiting for Mommy.” I told him I had all this work and no one to help me. It’s like that.

So I made for him an alien with two layers of teeth. Later I saw something similar in the movie Piranha. Mine came out before that. That’s an example.

Her family inspires her:
I think I have a strong imagination. And my hands have to be powerful. Because one without the other means failure.

My inspiration to create comes from my children, first of all. I am the mother, I am the father. I raised them, sent them to school. Two of them now live abroad–one in the US and one in Canada.

All my children finished school. One finished Nursing. One is a stewardess based in New York. That is my real accomplishment. Now, my focus is on my grandchildren. I am still strong.

Two of my children stay with me. They’re not home right now. My sons Rey and Ramon–I depend on them to help me run things around here. When it comes to the heavy stuff, it’s the man’s job so I rely on them. I have a light touch, you see. I don’t have great physical strength.

After I create something I seek feedback. I feel proud when others approve of my work. “Mommy, how do you do it?” The people here at home ask me that. That’s how I get my inspiration from them. When they appreciate my work, that’s when I feel complete.

So, how do I do it? Through my hands. And my mind. My hands work with my brain. What I think of, my hands execute. If these two are not in sync, I cannot create.

Cecille Baun prosthetics artist

On being a pioneer:
I’m not aware if I have peers. I may be wrong, and besides it’s not right for me to be the one to say it. It’s media people who tell me I’m a pioneer. These days the tools are complete. Not so back then, even the special effects. Tools are important in this business. You can’t always rely on homemade fruit concoctions.

Whatever I can produce on my own, such as blood effect, I do it myself. But special effects are beyond my realm. For example, I can make the bust that will explode but I can’t do the wiring to make it explode.

Going beyond the call of duty
I worked on a film shot in Baguio with the director Tata Esteban. A scene required an exploding head. The character was brushing her hair. Her boyfriend got tired waiting so he went inside. He saw his girlfriend being burned by the hair dryer. She was holding it but her hand wouldn’t budge. It’s as if her hand was possessed! She screamed as the burns on her face got worse.

I made the prosthetics. I told the director that the hair dryer should emiting fire or at least look fiery hot. Otherwise it would look silly. He said, okay, tell the effects man. I said that the tip should glow red so it would look hot.

The effects man said he didn’t have the materials for it, he wasn’t told in advance. I told the director that we’ll gather five people who smoked cigarettes. He asked what for. I said I was going to do the effects myself.

I made the prosthetic for the wound so that it would get bigger and bigger. There were tubes on this side. I instructed the smokers to alternately huff and puff smoke so that it would be continuous. All the straws were hidden. During a take she would scream and scream.

The director asked, “What happens when she dies?” The dummy should not look like one. I had made the dummy and brought it to the shoot. I reassured him. The dummy won’t look like a dummy. The actress will keep moving until her character falls down the stairs. And we will still see smoke coming out of her lifeless body. 

Later I asked the director if he noticed the dummy. He said he didn’t, it looked lifelike to the end. 

Cecille Baun prosthetics artist

Prosthetic art is not a dying trade:
There was this Italian who was impressed with something I did. After the scene was shot he told me, “We don’t have that in Italy.” I said, “Now that you’ve seen how I did it, I’m sure they’d have it in Italy soon.”

They wanted to put up a school here and put me in charge of the prosthetics department. International professionals would come here to learn, they said. It didn’t push through.

In spite of technological developments, films still require prosthetics because, as one cameraman told me, they still need to base the look on something actual, physical. Maybe the need has diminished, but the work is still there. The demand for prosthetics is still there.

I have a daughter who took up Fine Arts. She could easily cover for me whenever I wasn’t available. She was my shadow. But she married an American and now lives in Nevada where she’s raising her own children. I had to let go, she’s a grown up.  

Some of my other children learned it, but not all of them. You’d know it right away if it wasn’t their thing. Sometimes I’m left all alone here. Sometimes they help a bit and then it’s “There, Mommy, it’s done.”

Her greatest achievement:
My greatest achievement as a prosthetics artist are a lot [but I remember fondly] the film Oro Plata Mata. I was on location. I couldn’t attend my daughter’s coronation as Miss Red Cross. I even had to practice dancing for one scene. 

Because it was raining the stream was muddy. I was both sad and worried. The weather threatened to ruin the prosthetic and its intended effect. It was a big worry. I knew we’d done our job well, but because of the typhoon I was worried.

My biggest project was the Italian film. It was about zombies. They’d give birth, these zombies. They gave birth to monsters, babies who were disfigured from the start. 

For the birth scene, I had a special table made. I told them to make a big hole in the table. The mannequin wound be on top of it and the effects man would be hidden underneath. The effects man was to wait for the cue and at the right moment the baby puppet would come out, flailing violently.

It was tough. There was a lot of blood spurting everywhere when the baby came out.

Prosthetics will never go away. It won’t die. On the contrary, as time goes by, it becomes even more prominent. Long ago it hardly mattered. But now prosthetics are used heavily, sometimes too much. It has reached new heights. I has really boomed.

This story first appeared on Coconuts Manila. For more feature stories about Metro Manila and its people, go to http://manila.coconuts.co.



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