Kirsten Coleman helped head makeup artist Donni Davy spearhead a wave of makeup fads in 2019 with HBO’s “Euphoria.” Now, she’s trying capture that magic for a second time with her work on “The Idol.”
“I wanted this story to be a more progressed version of ‘Euphoria,’” she says. “Sam Levinson was like, ‘Even though we’re combining the worlds, I want there to be a new experience here.’”
The show zeroes in on pop star Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp), who is at a crossroads after the death of her mother. Vulnerable, Jocelyn is swiftly influenced by sex-cult sleaze Tedros (Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye), a relationship that changes the trajectory of her career for good. The Levinson-directed series took the media by storm after its polarizing premiere at Cannes, following a Rolling Stone report that detailed allegations of a toxic work environment.
While Levinson (who also hails from “Euphoria”), co-creator the Weeknd and Depp said at a Cannes press conference that Jocelyn wasn’t modeled after Spears, Coleman reveals she took inspiration from the princess of pop to create Jocelyn’s look, in addition to another 2000s star.
“I’d say Christina Aguilera and Britney [Spears], were really the stars we pulled from,” Coleman says. “When she’s performing as a pop star onstage as Jocelyn, it’s solely those two.”
Sporting shambolic blonde hair, sweaty skin and sleek, defined eyeliner, Coleman reveals that Aguilera’s “Dirrty” music video was the reference point for Jocelyn’s music video shoot look in Episode 2.
“Her vibe is very steamy, sweaty, messy; it’s very sexy. ‘Dirrty’ was a very light reference,” Coleman says. “I think the music video was supposed to be a culmination of all the crazy things we saw in music videos back [in the 2000s], intentionally making it a bit ridiculous.”
The show undoubtedly puts sexuality at its forefront, with Coleman explaining that the makeup contributes to the “femme fatale energy in how [Jocelyn] exudes and presents herself.”
“She’s not really damsel — she’s very sexually confident in herself, and she knows she looks good,” says Coleman. “It’s a nice archetype to see in a young female in her position.”
Coleman blended her own recounts of pop stars in the 2000s with her talent for makeup forecasting to create an “ode to that generation of pop stars” that still carried the “essence of the pop culture around ‘Euphoria’ makeup.”
“I used a lot of my own research with where I’m seeing makeup go,” Coleman says. “The current trends of the world are definitely reflected in Jocelyn’s makeup.”
Coleman says the use of eyeliner, blush and lip liner define Depp’s character. “Her signature is her lip liners, and they end up being their own character as they represent where she’s going in her journey,” says Coleman. “There’s always this sort of cat eye shape [to her eyeliner], which is modern to today, but we tried to give her own spin on it.”
Off camera, though, Depp’s superstar persona blends elements of the “modern-day, old Hollywood noir and the steamy ’80s” to embody a “very glowy, natural and dewy” appearance.
She reveals that Depp encouraged her to use enough liquid blush that would allow her character to “look embarrassed,” playing into the looming transformation of Jocelyn that audiences have yet to see.
“She starts to try to figure out who she is not based on what the record labels want her to be,” Coleman teases. “There’s a character arc here with her makeup that I’m very excited for everyone to see.”
