David Oyelowo plays the title character in “Lawmen: Bass Reeves,” the true story of a man who escaped enslavement and went on to become one of the first U.S. Deputy Marshals. While there is no shortage of stories from the 1860s and 1870s, there are only four known images of Bass Reeves.
So, for the Paramount limited series, a team of artisans worked to tell the story with as much authenticity as possible while only using those four photos as a visual reference.
“What David wanted to show on camera was the growth of him and the difference in his hair. But for me, it was showing the transformation of his skin — the aging process without prosthetics — showing him from a young man in his 20s to an older man,” said makeup department head Vonda Morris.
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