The key makeup job went to veteran makeup genius Tommy Cole, who, by coincidence, had worked on the television series "Bosom Buddies." Says Cole, "'Bosom Buddies' was more camp than this film is. The drag makeup we did on Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari was obviously fake and part of the joke was that you couldn't understand how they got away with it. And the makeup was done very quickly: I did Tom Hanks' makeup in probably 1 0 minutes while the hairdresser was putting his wig on! In this film, we took 45 minutes for each of the guys and then 45 minutes in hair."
Right at the start, getting the hair off the guys was a big priority and their famous "waxing session" before filming started became a target of continuous jokes throughout production. "The director wanted them to be waxed," tells Cole, who arranged the session at the home of a professional waxer.
"It's a dead giveaway when there's heavy hair on the arms, chest, heavy knuckle hairy even toe hair. We did a pretty thorough job. We waxed their legs (back and front), their toes, hands, arms, certain part of their chest, and some of their back hair. The only thing we didn't do was bikini waxing. I didn't particularly want to hear the screams," says Cole.
But screams were a part of the process. "They protested a lot but they got through it. One reason they got through it is because all three of them were there together. None of them wanted to admit they were wusses," says Cole. "But they screamed a lot. Barry behaved the best; Michael was the loudest."
Rosenbaum defends himself. "I just really had a lot of pain. The back of the ankles, the back of the calves - when you wax those areas, it just really hurts."
Once they were in drag makeup, there were still challenges for the makeup crew in keeping the illusion real. It was not unusual to see Cole or makeup artist Bob Ostermann shaving one of the guys in full makeup in between scenes right on the set. "All the boys' beards were a problem - we were constantly working and shaving them," says Cole. "The trick was an electric razor. We all carried around little electric razors. We were shaving them every two or three hours.
"Every night when I go to sleep, I close my eyes, and all I hear is the electric razor and all I see are tweezers everywhere," says Watson. "I hate those tweezers."
Overall, however, it wasn't so bad. "I guess I have to say I'm kind of used to it," says Rosenbaum. "I don't mind it too much - except the heels. The heels give me back pain. I don't like the plucking so much, and I don't like the bumps I get from caking makeup, but it's not so bad."
Even with all his previous experience, Cole says there was a "first" on this film: "Usually, I'm having to take lipstick off guys after being kissed by a woman. But with this movie, it was the first time I had to be careful that a man didn't transfer lipstick to an actress - a guy as a girl kissing a girl," Cole laughs.
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