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For all that he's looking at us with a direct, seemingly confident gaze, there are a host of clues that lead me to believe he's not as self assured as he seems. The rumples in his brow, and the slight tilt to the outer corners of his eyes make his gaze almost worried, and a bit sad. The rest of his face is very still, with the exception of his mouth; he's not smiling, but he is pulling his mouth up and to the right in a wry, almost bitter, twist that's pulling up the dimple on that side ever so slightly. I see a young man who is steeling himself to meet a challenge he's not sure he can master. We know that the real Maurizio Gucci had a complicated relationship with his father, and that he struggled as the leader of the fashion house when tasked with taking on the role after his father's death, and I'm intrigued to see that conflict present here, even if ever so subtly.
It's clear that Sir Ridley was doing his best to get as close a likeness to the actual Maurizio as practically possible, and he employed a range of strategies to achieve it. Adam's tall, wide shouldered build, the shape of his face, and even the prominence of his nose, all mean that he already has a strong resemblance to the man he's portraying. To accentuate that resemblance even more, Adam wears wigs throughout, vividly blue contact lenses, glasses, and they even taped his ears back when he was in a shorter hairstyle. I happen to think that Adam could have played Maurizio without any of that, but I can (mostly, with exceptions, see below) concede the usefulness of prosthetics when used well. But the thing that really upset me was to see all of his moles erased in the official promo photo.
I can understand the wigs for the hair color, style, and length; it just makes sense when portraying someone through many years of their life, especially since Maurizio's hairstyles changed so dramatically over time. Thankfully, this production seems to have gone all out and used VERY high quality wigs; the one Adam is wearing in this promo is so good that when the first paparazzi photos came out I thought that he might actually have allowed them to dye his hair light brown! One giveaway is the absence of the fine hairs at his temples; Adam, like many people, has a host of fine hairs that stray with abandon along his hairline which are absent when he's in a wig. It's nearly impossible to tell if they're there in a paparazzi photo taken from a great distance and then sharpened, but the photos of him out of character, where he still has his trademark haircut and color, confirmed that this was, indeed, one of several wigs.
Next up, the eyes. I'm generally not a big fan of colored contacts but have come to terms with these; apparently Maurizio had remarkably blue eyes that were a notable and distinctive part of his appearance. Why would I object to something as innocuous as colored contacts? Pupils contract when you're relaxed, and expand when you're aroused (either intellectually or sexually, your body doesn't differentiate) or when your adrenaline starts running, which means they're a subtle barometer for someone's emotional state. When writers use the phrase about someone's eyes being "dark with desire" it's not figurative, it's literal; the pupil is extra wide when you're really turned on. Wearing colored contacts means the pupils appear to stay the same size all the time, which can make an otherwise extraordinarily expressive actor a touch more wooden than usual. But in the end I don't think we'll notice, and I'm choosing to trust the director's experience and Adam's prodigious acting skills to carry the performance convincingly.
The last thing is one that I do have trouble excusing, and it's that they taped the pinnae of Adam's ears to his head while he's wearing the shortest wig. It's true that Maurizio didn't have prominent ears; I guess they figured they were already in for a penny, so they may as well be in for a pound, and chased down that last bit of likeness. It was only temporary, no long term harm involved, but it upsets me that they did it at all. I don't think that letting his ears be the way they are naturally would have detracted from his portrayal and I'm really not ok with anyone giving Adam any ideas about changing them permanently; he is dead sexy, and his ears are perfect and beautiful, as is.
Thankfully, after going to such lengths to change so many of his features, you can see in the paparazzi photos taken during filming, and in the trailer, that they made no effort to disguise his characteristic moles; they're visible throughout, and they don't detract one bit from Adam's portrayal of Maurizio, which is part of why I have such a strong negative reaction to them being removed in these promos. It's entirely unnecessary and a complete waste of time. To add insult to injury, whoever edited out his moles did NOT bother to edit out the edge of the colored contact, undermining the oft offered excuse of trying to maintain the illusion of this likeness to the real Maurizio.
So I took advantage of the fact that I have an utterly ridiculous number of photos of this man and a more than passing familiarity with the constellations that dot his face and put his moles back in my version. Because I can. And I didn't include the contact edge, because I pay attention to details like that.
Photos used for reference include the official "House of Gucci" promo photo, 2 photos taken by Michael Nagel for a Jan 2020 article in the LA Times, and one by Miller Mobley for a Dec 2019 article in The Hollywood Reporter.
About 15 hours of drawing time for this one, a fair portion of which was fussing with how to capture how those intense beautiful blues contrast with his hair and skin tones. There are 44 total layers, 15 of which are color gradient maps, color overlays, and adjustments on this for the full color version, which I think is a personal record.
It's clear that Sir Ridley was doing his best to get as close a likeness to the actual Maurizio as practically possible, and he employed a range of strategies to achieve it. Adam's tall, wide shouldered build, the shape of his face, and even the prominence of his nose, all mean that he already has a strong resemblance to the man he's portraying. To accentuate that resemblance even more, Adam wears wigs throughout, vividly blue contact lenses, glasses, and they even taped his ears back when he was in a shorter hairstyle. I happen to think that Adam could have played Maurizio without any of that, but I can (mostly, with exceptions, see below) concede the usefulness of prosthetics when used well. But the thing that really upset me was to see all of his moles erased in the official promo photo.
I can understand the wigs for the hair color, style, and length; it just makes sense when portraying someone through many years of their life, especially since Maurizio's hairstyles changed so dramatically over time. Thankfully, this production seems to have gone all out and used VERY high quality wigs; the one Adam is wearing in this promo is so good that when the first paparazzi photos came out I thought that he might actually have allowed them to dye his hair light brown! One giveaway is the absence of the fine hairs at his temples; Adam, like many people, has a host of fine hairs that stray with abandon along his hairline which are absent when he's in a wig. It's nearly impossible to tell if they're there in a paparazzi photo taken from a great distance and then sharpened, but the photos of him out of character, where he still has his trademark haircut and color, confirmed that this was, indeed, one of several wigs.
Next up, the eyes. I'm generally not a big fan of colored contacts but have come to terms with these; apparently Maurizio had remarkably blue eyes that were a notable and distinctive part of his appearance. Why would I object to something as innocuous as colored contacts? Pupils contract when you're relaxed, and expand when you're aroused (either intellectually or sexually, your body doesn't differentiate) or when your adrenaline starts running, which means they're a subtle barometer for someone's emotional state. When writers use the phrase about someone's eyes being "dark with desire" it's not figurative, it's literal; the pupil is extra wide when you're really turned on. Wearing colored contacts means the pupils appear to stay the same size all the time, which can make an otherwise extraordinarily expressive actor a touch more wooden than usual. But in the end I don't think we'll notice, and I'm choosing to trust the director's experience and Adam's prodigious acting skills to carry the performance convincingly.
The last thing is one that I do have trouble excusing, and it's that they taped the pinnae of Adam's ears to his head while he's wearing the shortest wig. It's true that Maurizio didn't have prominent ears; I guess they figured they were already in for a penny, so they may as well be in for a pound, and chased down that last bit of likeness. It was only temporary, no long term harm involved, but it upsets me that they did it at all. I don't think that letting his ears be the way they are naturally would have detracted from his portrayal and I'm really not ok with anyone giving Adam any ideas about changing them permanently; he is dead sexy, and his ears are perfect and beautiful, as is.
Thankfully, after going to such lengths to change so many of his features, you can see in the paparazzi photos taken during filming, and in the trailer, that they made no effort to disguise his characteristic moles; they're visible throughout, and they don't detract one bit from Adam's portrayal of Maurizio, which is part of why I have such a strong negative reaction to them being removed in these promos. It's entirely unnecessary and a complete waste of time. To add insult to injury, whoever edited out his moles did NOT bother to edit out the edge of the colored contact, undermining the oft offered excuse of trying to maintain the illusion of this likeness to the real Maurizio.
So I took advantage of the fact that I have an utterly ridiculous number of photos of this man and a more than passing familiarity with the constellations that dot his face and put his moles back in my version. Because I can. And I didn't include the contact edge, because I pay attention to details like that.
Photos used for reference include the official "House of Gucci" promo photo, 2 photos taken by Michael Nagel for a Jan 2020 article in the LA Times, and one by Miller Mobley for a Dec 2019 article in The Hollywood Reporter.
About 15 hours of drawing time for this one, a fair portion of which was fussing with how to capture how those intense beautiful blues contrast with his hair and skin tones. There are 44 total layers, 15 of which are color gradient maps, color overlays, and adjustments on this for the full color version, which I think is a personal record.
