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Meryl Streep film make-up 'took hours'

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Meryl Streep

Wednesday Feb 8 2012

Meryl Streep spent almost two-and-a-half hours in make-up every day to transform into her role as Margaret Thatcher.

The actress had to have a bespoke rubber mask and dentures fitted to portray the iconic politician in The Iron Lady. Oscar-nominated designer Mark Coulier revealed he used a host of techniques including a false nose, rubber bands to swell veins and painted-on wrinkles to age Meryl.

"We did it in two hours and 20 minutes, pretty much bang-on every time," he told Vanity Fair magazine. "We looked at hundreds and hundreds of photographs during our research for the project, trying to work out what were the best features to pick to fit onto Meryl Streep."

The star designer explained he had to make the star's nose appear bigger and age her skin by painting on liver spots. Coulier also pulled back Meryl's hair to imitate thinning locks.

He admitted that the finished result was so realistic the team didn't recognise the iconic actress when she left the make-up room.

"Meryl's got quite a thin [nasal bridge] really, so she looked completely different. We blocked it out on the cast and we said, 'That really does make a difference'," he explained. "We were just standing outside the make-up room, when this old lady wandered out of the costume department. Even I took a little double-take and said, 'Wow. That's Meryl'. It was pretty exciting. At that point, we were quietly confident that we would be able to pull it off."

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