Crave Online: American Werewolf in London is such a definitive werewolf. How do you look at doing another sort of werewolf years later?

Rick Baker: That's the problem too. One thing with the transformation in this movie, in Werewolf we had naked David Naughton, four legged hound from hell. There's a big span between and you had a whole body to change to this four-legged thing. Here you've got Benicio Del Toro who's practically a f*ckin' wolf man anyways, and Benicio Del Toro with a little bit of hair on. We didn't have as far to go. I kind of said, "To be honest with you, I don't know how we do this transformation. I don't know how we make an American Werewolf in London kind of a thing out of this slight change." His nose is only this much longer. His teeth grow and some things. We came up with some ideas that we threw out there but I don't know what they're going to end up doing. And also, I don't know on this film, in Werewolf that transformation was the big showcase thing. I think the showcase in here is actually the performance of the actor.

Crave Online: It's more about a man who's kind of a wolf than an actual wolf?

Rick Baker: Yeah, he's not a four-legged thing. His feet do get a little more doglike and the hands grow claws and stuff. There's things we can do but also how do you do it and try to make it original. After Werewolf and the Howling movies, how many times can we see these stretchy faces and claws busting through and all that stuff.

Crave Online: Will we see that at all or is it all implied?

Rick Baker: I don't know yet. We haven't done anything because nothing's happened. The one thing that I'm a little disappointed about at this point is the transformation. We made some stuff but we didn't shoot anything. I'm still pushing for getting more involved in that, even if it is CG. I do CG stuff for fun myself. I think it's a continuation of my design and I know this stuff. I've done it. I've seen these films but again, I wish I did more movies like this. As you've seen I do a lot of stuff with Eddie Murphy. I do fat people and these makeups are really hard to do, but I want to make monster movies.

Crave Online: What do you think of the violence it looks like this Wolf Man will have?

Rick Baker: Dave Elsey who worked with me did most of that stuff. I have mixed feelings about it. I'm not a big gore hound but monster gore is different to me than killing a teenager in any way that you can when another human-like person does it. I don't know how I rationalize that really but it seems different to me. I don't know how this film's going to come out. I was actually surprised they put as much of the gore stuff in here as they did. We definitely shot some gory stuff but whether it's going to end up in the movie, I don't know yet. I think that's Universal's decision of whether it's going to be R or PG or whatever. I don't mind it so much in a monster movie and I think for an audience today to see it, you would almost kind of expect a certain amount of that. But it wouldn't break my heart if they toned it down some.

Crave Online: Do you sense people rejecting CGI now that it's been so prevalent in the last 10 years?

Rick Baker: A little bit. There's some backlash to it. I mean, I embrace the technology. It's really nice to be able to do things that we can do. There's a limit to what I can do with a makeup or with animatronics. Like Batman is cool that they could actually take away his face for Two Face. We couldn't have done it like that, but I don't think it's the answer to everything. It's an amazing tool but it's only as good as the artist behind it. That's why you see some great CG stuff and you see some really sh*tty CG stuff.

Crave Online: Where do you see the future of makeup?

Rick Baker: Well, it's changed a lot in materials like in silicones and things. We can do some very believable, very realistic, I can be two feet away from somebody in makeup and not even know it. When I first saw Dick Smith put on a makeup, Dick was my idol and I always thought did the most realistic makeups in the world. I actually saw him put a makeup on in person and was able to stand two feet away from it, I could tell it was a makeup. Now it's really hard to tell. I could put a makeup on and walk through here, nobody would know. I could make myself look like somebody else and nobody would question it. So that's really changed a lot. The computer stuff is taking over part of our work and I think it's great when you do things that we cannot do. Like I said, what we do is an additive process. To do a Two Face like they did in the movie where they could actually cut into his face and do that stuff, it was great. Or the Harry Potter thing where they took the guy's nose off. That was really cool.

Crave Online: What is the biggest innovation in makeup?

Rick Baker: I think the biggest innovation that really happened with makeup and I don't think it happened recently, it happened more in the '80s was the fact that you had, for one, people like me who were fans of makeup artists getting into the business. But they actually saw the value of makeup to a picture. The most time I ever had, and the most money I ever got at that point was like on American Werewolf in London and John said to me, "What do we need to do to make this work?" I said, "Give me some time and give me some money." Before that, it was like you'd have two weeks prep and 500 bucks. There we had six months and 500,000 bucks. You can do better work. Films started coming along where you actually had time and money so you could make things that were better.

Crave Online: How is HD and Blu Ray changed your job?

Rick Baker: Well, it hasn't changed my job in my mind anyways because I always try to make the stuff look, like I said. When I was a kid doing this stuff and I would put in all these little pore and do all this stuff. I met some Hollywood people, they said, "Kid, you're doing too much work. You're never going to see that sh*t." I see it. I want it to look as good as I can make it. I personally want the makeups to look as real in person if you're standing this far away from it so it really hasn't made that much of a difference.

Crave Online: Have you gotten to see any of your work on Blu Ray yet?

Rick Baker: No, actually, no. I'm sure I will cringe. The funny thing is, you know, on Werewolf though, that was the first time I had a crew to speak of really. They were all kids. I brought Steve Johnson out from Texas, who was this kid I met at a convention and sent me fan mail. Most of the crew I had on there were 18 years old and never had done this stuff before basically other than just as a hobby. I even stupidly sat down with them and had this little meeting where I said, "You know, it's really a shame that you guys are starting out on a film like this, with this much stuff, this much money and this much time because this is probably never going to happen again. This is the first time in my life it's happened and I've been in the business for about 10 years. It's really a shame to start your life out this way because this is probably the biggest thing you're ever going to be involved with." I was wrong. Unfortunately, it's going back. I've got this big studio and thank you very much, Stan Winston, Stan actually did bring the makeup effects thing out of the garage and made it a lot more legitimate. He was the first guy to actually have a nice workshop. Most of us were in a garage or crappy building with a couple work tables. He was really a smart businessman and kind of played up on the fact that it's a bullsh*t business. If you have a really nice looking place, people are going to think you're good. I eventually got to the point where I had to play that game as well. I built, I've got this huge workshop where it was great when I was doing The Grinch and we had 90 people a day we had to make appliances for, or Planet of the Apes, where we had to make 500 apes. But it's been pretty much sitting empty. I could have a building the size of this room and do the films I've done in the last five years. Now unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to get rid of my shop and scale back down because the films have scaled back. The CG stuff is definitely taking part of it. My machine shop where we used to do all the mechanics and stuff, the animatronic stuff, I use as a storage room now. I stick molds in there because we don't use the machines.

Crave Online: Do you intend to go into CG and use everything at your disposal?

Rick Baker: I'm reaching the end of my career and I don't want to have to restart another business. I don't like the whole business aspect of it. I like making the sh*t. I do a lot of CG stuff for fun.