Malta’s role in setting up the mammoth set of Gladiator II has received plenty of praise; both from its star-studded cast as well as director Ridley Scott himself. And now, the work of make-up and special effects artist Chantal Busuttil has also received recognition from the international industry with a nomination in the 2025 Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild (MUAHS) Awards in the category of Best Period and/or Character Make-up, where Gladiator II is up against Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Deadpool & Wolverine, MaXXXine and Wicked.
Sharing the news of her nomination, Chantal – whose film experience includes working on the sets of Troy, Munich, and By The Sea – wrote how this level of industry recognition has long been her dream and a goal.
“All I ever wanted was to be acknowledged and known for the work I do in this industry that I love so dearly,” she wrote – in his case, made possible by Jana Carboni, the make-up designer of all of Gladiator II. “After years of hard work and pulling through tough times, the time has arrived to reap what I have been sowing for years.”
Chantal led two teams of artists during filming in Malta and Morocco who were responsible for preparing extras and horse-riders for set, every day, for weeks at a stretch. The range of characters spanned from Numidian villagers, archers, soldiers and chefs to Roman soldiers of different ranks as well as Roman villagers, slaves, beggars, prostitutes and lepers.
“We had a very vast and diverse range of characters. Our crowds consisted of a minimum of 600 extras per day, going up to 800 or 900 background members per day, starting work at around 5am and usually finishing past 8pm after derigging all the make-up that was applied in the morning,” says Chantal.
The process was repeated for weeks throughout May, June and July 2023, pausing for the duration of the American actors’ strike last summer, and picking up again intensely in December and January 2024.
Chantal and her team were tasked with applying a broad variety of make-up skills to their characters; from tan, dirt, blood, beards and prosthetics, to scarification and refined fantasy. However, their work usually began with covering “literally thousands of tattoos.”
“The tattoo art we have these days does not work for period, so any kind of modern tattoos were covered. And there were many. On the other hand, the Numidian villagers and archers needed application of specific facial and hand tattoos, which we researched and designed, and had them printed on transfer paper,” she explains.
“My team was responsible for creating pax, a resilient material we use to cover tattoos. There were days it was so hot while filming in Malta and Morrocco that even this would melt, which called for ample touch-ups during the day,” says Chantal.
A production of the magnitude of Gladiator II called for an immense amount of preparation, orchestration and communication, with individual team members assigned to specific character groups.
“Jacopo Tomasini was in charge of creating the correct prosthetics for the lepers group with the help of other team members; Glenda La Rocca and Raffaella Iorio spearheaded the looks for the golden party, while Montse Damas, Susana Sanches and Stefania Pellegrini looked after our hundreds of extras on set,” Chantal explains.
“Daniela Mizzi, Mariam Lee Abounouom, and Nazha Aouis remained behind at base, while I was taking care of fittings, make-up tests and creating products in preparation for filming days ahead.” All information would be relayed to the team, which totalled around 70 members in both filming locations of Malta and Morocco.
“Each and every member of the team contributed to the work we created, from my newest trainee to my most knowledgeable artist, and I can’t thank each of them enough,” she says. “It was also lovely to have a boss like Jana [Carboni], who would give us demonstrations any time she could. I followed her instructions and vision, and we did our best to deliver all she had in mind.”
The 12th edition of the MUAHS Awards, which will take place on 15th February 2025, will represent and recognise a spectrum of outstanding achievements in 23 categories of make-up and hair styling artistry in film, television and live theatre among others.
Main image by Paramount Pictures UK / Set photos courtesy of Chantal Busuttil
