Giuliano Mariano: "I mean the Inspiration for them, which of course Ridley wants them with the same colour, both of them, with this strawberry blond, which we need a few stage of colouring to reach exactly the right blond. We fit them as well. So going by what Ridley was asking, which was as well an inspiration taken from Johnny Rotten from Sex Pistols, and you can see this clearly on one of the emperors, with the hair more spiky, the one where you were saying before the animal was picking something from his hair. They were playing well. The process of that was really nice because when at first we started, both actors were a bit like scared because, of course, it's such a big change of look for hair and makeup as well. But luckily then they embraced the idea and slowly we get where we really wanted to be with them as well, something very strong and powerful, but keep them as well a little bit different. So there is one that is kind of more Roman and wavy style, all the hair going forward, and the other one more like spikey and crazy and playing a lot with his hair as well, and that was very very fun to do. The look was incredible. For us, for me and Jana, it was very important the actors were happy with that, so they actually enjoyed it, and you can see that on set as well."
Jana Carboni: "They really embrace it. I mean like Giuliano said, of course Giuliano and I worked very closely with each other, and like Giuliano said, they have to run different tests for the colour because then they have to match the makeup base I was working on, so it was a nice and strong connection between Giuliano and I to make the vision look very great altogether. I guess for me the goal with them was making them look almost like that kind of white, translucent colour of those crisis in the Caravaggio painting, which is almost like pearly, almost like ghost is a real colour, and I want the audience to actually see the makeup, because when you were in that kind of powerful position as an emperor, you were wearing your makeup almost with a braveness, almost like a subtle symbol, and like it was interesting because although there were similar base and similar like vibe, there are two different kind of makeup. So, for instance, Caracalla was more like kind of soft and peachy, and we put this little kind of Pro Bondo on his skin because we want to have that feeling, almost like old scar from the acne and some cuts from the monkey, a little scratch if you notice. So for him was more about covering up that skin, and again more like soft, more Orientalist. And Geta was actually more vain. So the way he was wearing the makeup was to look beautiful and material, and then like Giuliano said, it was lovely to see them embracing the process and actually making the makeup their own makeup and their own style and see even different scenes, especially like when there is the battle between Marcus Acacius and Lucius. You can see like Geta is really going for it, and because almost going trance, when they said, 'The God has spoken', and it's like this kind of black eyes and have to look a little bit of off as well, and they love it, and I said to them, 'For me, the biggest compliment was the fact that you trust us and you enjoy it and embrace it.' It was lovely. It was really really lovely."
