PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I recently had the opportunity to chat with the Hair Department Head of AMC’s hit series Creepshow, a personal favorite of mine. Katie Ballard is an incredibly talented artist who is truly passionate about her work and the designs she creates. In this interview, she talks about her career, how she got involved with hairdressing, an in-depth look at the magic and creativity behind the scenes of Creepshow, and much more!
PopHorror – Hi Katie, it’s great to chat with you. How is 2021 treating you so far?
Katie Ballard – Likewise! 2021 has been great. Anything would’ve been better than 2020, but somehow the film industry has come back stronger than ever, and nothing makes me happier than seeing our creatives thriving.
PopHorror – So true! How did you get involved in the filmmaking/television business?
Katie Ballard – I’ve wanted to be a hairdresser both in film and fashion since I was very young and my focus on that goal has never wavered, so I really am living the dream. Whether you were a punk looking to make your parents mad or just looking for some frosted tips, my kitchen was the place to go for all of your favorite 90’s trends. I decided to prioritize getting a head start in the industry, so I did an accelerated learning program in high school that allowed me to graduate at 16. I then worked full-time as a nanny and part-time as a salon receptionist until I had saved up enough to attend The Aveda Institute in Minneapolis. They have a strong reputation, especially for stylists with creative endeavors, and I was very drawn to the fact that they are actively involved with Aveda’s Artistic Team. Overall, I still think that it’s one of the best schools in the US. In my time there, I participated in hair shows with Aveda’s Global Artistic Team, and I did several photo shoots per week in an effort to build my portfolio. As I approached my graduation, I received the great honor of having a makeup artist named James Ryder take me under his wing. James has made huge contributions to the film industry, including Vincent D’Onofrio’s makeup for The Cell, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, and countless others. He not only showed me the best path to a strong career in the industry but he’s continued to be a great friend and mentor to me over the years.
PopHorror – Wow. That’s amazing. You had so much drive and passion at such a young age! You’ve recently done a lot of work on AMC’s Creepshow. How did you get involved with that?
Katie Ballard – My friend Alex Orr was the production manager for Creepshow season 1 and we’ve worked together for many years, so I was lucky enough to get a call from him asking if I wanted to do it. Much of the crew was made up of people that feel like family to me, along with some new faces that Greg Nicotero brought over from The Walking Dead. Addison Foreman, our makeup department head, has worked with Greg for years and has been a friend of mine for over a decade as well, so all around it’s created a really wonderful environment for us all to work in.
PopHorror – Love it! You’ve created many unique characters through hair design. Can you elaborate on all these hairstyles, your inspiration for them, and more?
Katie Ballard – We’ve had so many characters on Creepshow that I don’t even know where to start, but I can highlight a few! The primary goal is always to use our work as a way to help the actor and director find the character. I spend my free time studying trends throughout the past & present, upcoming trends, film history, and character and creature design in order to present the strongest designs possible. I often work with lace hairpieces as a way to expand our options. When those are involved, my team and I need to pay a lot of attention to the details to ensure that they are hyper-realistic. Nothing is worse than having a hairpiece distract you from the story, or dampen the actor’s ability to emote. This, paired with short turnarounds, means that we do a lot of our wig work for Creepshow in-house. Every piece used gets a customized hairline and detailing to ensure that they have the finest baby hairs, invisible lace and knots, and realistic growth patterns and coloring. That all has to happen before we can even get to achieving the finished style.
Gabrielle Byndloss and Marissa Hampton had two of my favorite hairstyles from season 2. I have a very strong passion for working with highly textured hair and both actors wore period hairstyles on top of it, so there was a lot to be excited about! Gabrielle’s style was true to the ’60s, and I added a few details such as leaving some natural kinks at her roots to keep it feeling organic. I absolutely loved how seamlessly the details of her style framed her face and how well the hairline on her piece blended with her natural hairline with just the right amount of texture for the style.
Marissa’s style was inspired by Kathleen Cleaver. She was one of the women of The Black Panthers, a 70’s fashion icon, and a natural hair advocate, so I’ve had more than enough reasons to celebrate her. I did find some photos of Kathleen where her hair was cut a little bit shorter than her usual style at the time, and I used those as my primary reference. Since Claudia was a woman in charge, I loved the idea of her having a tighter business fro, and I wanted to give her something that was somewhat unique.
Working with Kevin Dillon was also a major highlight for me. His style was inspired by Ralph McGill’s character, Daniel D-Day Lewis, in Animal House. I already had a lace piece in stock that was the perfect fit for the style. I started out with a very structured, high shine style similar to D-Day’s with some detail combed in. But I ended up breaking it up once I got it on Kevin. His character is kind of a deadbeat (in the best way possible), so I felt that it needed to be a little more carefree. I also wanted it to translate well into his fight with The Gillman. It naturally did exactly what I had hoped that it would as we got into his action scenes, which is always a blessing from the film gods.
Denise Crosby had a short but sweet little flashback scene in which we created a longer version of her hair to de-age her. We see her on an arctic expedition set in the past where she wears a ponytail wrapped in her hooded parka with a perfectly detailed frost-bitten makeup done by Addison Foreman.
And last, but certainly not least, I can’t go on without mentioning Countess Petrovska. Dissecting Horror Express, and matching scenes from the film in Night of the Living Late Show is one of the best jobs that I’ve ever been tasked with. We had 3 different wigs for our actress, Hannah Fierman, to accommodate all of her styles and to allow for quick changes. My favorite look was the over-the-shoulder shot onto Justin Long in the storage room. The details of her look; hair, makeup, & costume, were so spot on that even I was fooled for a moment. The fact that there was a monster leering in the background only added to my excitement, of course.
PopHorror – Thank you so much for such an in-depth and insightful look at the magic behind the scenes. Can we have a deeper look into how your creative process works?
Katie Ballard – It all starts with the scripts. I make sure that I have some time and space to really dive into each script the first time that I read them so that I can be sure to get a strong visual for each character right off the bat. Once I have the visuals established, I’ll go back through the script to make a detailed breakdown of what happens in each scene. As our fans well know, our scripts are littered with easter eggs and utilize some strong references, so this part of the creative process is always very rich.
Once I’ve gotten a good handle on the script, I’ll go to work pulling visual references for each character. Sometimes it starts with a real person that comes to mind, sometimes it’s a character reference from another film, and other times it just starts with finding visual references for a design or character that I have in my head. At this point, Addison and I will usually bounce ideas off of each other and compare notes for each character. Thanks to our long-time friendship, and similar taste, this is usually very productive and prepares us to do our best work. I then put my photos together into a mood board, which is what I present to our director and then to the actor. Once I’ve compiled all of our notes, we’ll do a hair and makeup test which gets approved by the director. And from there I get in touch with our costume designer, Jaclyn Banner, to see if there are any adjustments that I need to make to keep their look cohesive with their wardrobe as well as to plan any hair changes that may need to happen throughout the story and hair accessories that may be used.
Keep in mind that on Creepshow ALL of that happens in a matter of just a couple days. This includes wig prep. This show would never be possible without a strong crew, across the board, and I can not stress enough how hard every department works to pull this together. I have never seen a crew more passionate about a project and determined to bring their best work to the table, despite any challenge that is presented. What I do is, of course, just a small part of the entire creative process, and it’s incredibly inspiring to see it all come together.
PopHorror – That’s amazing. You never think about all the hard work, teamwork, and preparation that goes into making a film or series until you have a conversation like this. What other films/shows have you worked on?
Katie Ballard – I’ve worked on everything from Marvel to Adult Swim. There are two films that I did this year that I’m anxiously waiting to see. One is a film for Amazon Video inspired by Grady Hendrix’s novel, My Best Friend’s Exorcism. Damon Thomas was our director. The other is a film for Netflix called Strangers. It was a script written by Celeste Ballard and directed by Jenn Kaytin Robinson. I’m not giving away any spoilers for those, but stay tuned!
PopHorror – Oooooh I’m so excited to check those out! What’s next for you?
Katie Ballard – That’s a great question! I’m working on a dark comedy for Paramount called Strays right now. I’ve got a couple of things in the works after this one, but I’ll have to leave you in suspense on those for just a little while longer!
PopHorror – Thanks again, Katie, for this exciting and insightful look into your career. I look forward to all you do and wish you the best of luck!
