Skin Deep: A Conversation with Claire Amadea, Head of It’s What’s Inside Makeup

      In Netflix’s *It’s What’s Inside*, directed by Greg Jardin, the body-swapping sci-fi thriller intricately weaves visual clues into every frame, with makeup head Claire Amadea playing a pivotal role in that narrative. Claire, who has previously worked on *Metal Lords* and *Pig*, managed everything from intricate tattoo designs to prosthetic effects, infusing the genre-blending film with emotional depth and technical excellence. We spoke with Claire about the art of subtle details, the joy of embedding personal marks in her work, and the effort required to develop character appearances that withstand the scrutiny of the cinematic eye. *It’s What’s Inside* is currently streaming on Netflix.

      Can you describe your role in *It’s What’s Inside*? What made this project unique for you?

      I led the makeup department on *It’s What’s Inside*, supervising three other makeup artists and managing the overall design of the makeup looks for the show, which included special effects like tattoos and two prosthetic makeups. From the moment I saw the pitch deck and read the script, I knew it was going to be an intriguing project, and witnessing its success post-release has been incredibly exciting. I've never encountered anything quite like it before. Collaborating with Greg Jardin and the entire cast was creatively satisfying and enjoyable, and I felt immense pride seeing my team tackle the challenges and truly shine. We achieved an impressive and creatively rich final product.

      We heard you discreetly included one of your tattoos in Dennis’ character look for *It’s What’s Inside*—do you often incorporate subtle personal touches into your work?

      I did! (laughs) This was actually the first project where I deliberately started doing that, as I found it amusing, and Gavin was on board with it. It’s such a small detail that you wouldn’t notice unless you paused at just the right moment and really searched for it. You always put a piece of yourself into your work, but I took it literally this time, and I’m willing to do anything for the added touch. Now, when there’s a character with tattoos, I definitely try to include a little something of my own because it's fun knowing it's there. I’m sure I’ll find ways to sneak in personal details beyond tattoos soon, but that’s the easiest method so far.

      What was the most significant technical challenge you encountered while working on *It’s What’s Inside*, and how did you handle it?

      It’s probably a tie between designing looks for various lighting conditions and the death scene of Dennis and Maya, which involved some prosthetic work. We didn’t have a lot of prep time, though that’s not unusual in our line of work. We had to stay adaptable, but everything went relatively smoothly for us.

      For *It’s What’s Inside*, you created looks that needed to work with different lighting gels—can you explain your testing process to ensure everything appeared correctly?

      We didn’t have much opportunity for extensive testing beyond establishing the primary looks, so I relied on my existing knowledge of lighting and color theory to guide our choices. Colors can negate each other under different lighting—red cancels red, green cancels green, etc.—while complementary colors behave differently, which is similar to the RGB art used in the film. Greg wanted to apply this concept to break the fourth wall and facilitate tracking the body swaps via colored glass panes, so we used corresponding red and green lighting gels to achieve the effect. Generally, we didn’t need to make many adjustments, but there were times when we had to step in and enhance certain aspects if they weren’t registering on the monitor. This highlights why it’s crucial to have enough personnel on set to have makeup representatives present at all times; when we’re there, we can spot and rectify issues.

      You also worked on *Strange Darling*. What was your role in that film?

      Yes, I was the special effects makeup department head during prep, but I left the project partway through filming. I established a significant portion of the prosthetic makeups for the film, including Willa’s ear prosthetic, the makeup for Ed Begley Jr. after he is fatally beaten, and Kyle Gallner’s death scene. I also set up another makeup that ultimately wasn’t used, alongside the fabrication work with my key from *It’s What’s Inside*, Sara Dickman. Interestingly, we worked on *Strange Darling* just a couple of months before *It’s What’s Inside*.

      Any memorable anecdotes from *Strange Darling*?

      I’ll never forget Ed Begley Jr. laughing about the makeup we applied to him. He was genuinely thrilled to be in such extensive trauma makeup and was quite protective of the tattoo that the makeup department head had placed on him.

      How do you approach the storytelling aspect of makeup? What’s your method for translating a character’s journey into visual elements?

      My design process involves multiple components. I gather information from various sources, starting with the explicit