When makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji was first asked by Gary Oldman to work on “Darkest Hour” he was initially hesitant. “I was kind of retired from [the] film industry,” he reveals, and he knew that transforming the actor into former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill “would be difficult to pull off.” But it looks like he made the right decision. Tsuji snagged an Oscar nomination for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, one of six total bids the film received, including Best Picture and Best Actor (Oldman). Watch our exclusive video interview with Tsuji above.

See Bruno Delbonnel (‘Darkest Hour’ cinematographer) on exploring ‘the duality’ of Winston Churchill [Exclusive Video Interview]

Tsuji began by gathering photos of Churchill and Oldman to note the differences between the two. He also watched documentary footage of Churchill “to try to understand his mentality and what kind of person he was.” In studying their two faces, he found that “Gary is almost like a greyhound,...