From the MCU to slasher flicks: Alabama's Roy Wooley knows the art of movies

If you’re a superhero movie fan, chances are you’ve seen works touched by the talented hands of Alabama native Roy Wooley.

He's a makeup artist on several of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films: “Captain America: Civil War,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” “Black Panther,” “Avengers: Infinity War” and last year’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”

He was also a prosthetics makeup artist for 2022’s DC Comics film “Black Adam,” and this year’s Disney film “Haunted Mansion.”

“Usually what happens, at least on my end, is that the film comes to town and the head of the department will ask for local people,” Wooley said. “Basically, you’re on a list. If you’re in the circle, then you start getting the calls. It’s pretty much luck, for who you know and what you know. If they need something specific and you’re one of the few people who can do it, then you’re going to get the call.”

Depending on the film, Wooley’s worked with huge teams. He recalled with “Guardians of the Galaxy” that they had to bring makeup artists in from all over to Atlanta for scenes.

“We had 150 makeup artists on the set one day,” Wooley said.

More: Montgomery monster maker: Jonathan Thornton has 'twisted imagination'

Along with all his superhero work, Wooley’s given villains and monsters a chance. Surprisingly, working on “Halloween II” in 2009 wasn’t his bloodiest film. That belongs to “Cheerleader Autopsy,” a 2003 “cheesy B movie” he did makeup and effects for toward the beginning of his career.

“We did a lot of really gross makeup for that,” Wooley said. “A girl gets her belly cut open and everything falls out. Really gross and disgusting stuff. A lot of decapitated heads. Things like that.”

That was way before he became a reality TV star on SYFY’s special effects competition show “Face Off.” He's picked up a lot of skills in the years since.

“I’m constantly learning stuff,” he said. “Processes change, and the industry changes a lot. In the last few years, I’ve gotten a lot into digital sculpting, 3D printing and things like that. That’s where a lot of stuff is going to now.”

Along with movies, Wooley spent 23 years making creatures for Netherworld, a top-notch fright spot in Stone Mountain, Ga. Many of his works are still being used there. It was his impressive work at Netherworld that led to Wooley working on “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay” parts one and two.

“I worked a couple of months off and on with background characters,” Wooley said. “That’s how I got into it. From that point, I started meeting people that were working big films here in town.”

He hasn’t been quite as busy lately due to the writer and actor strike that’s had productions on hold, though he’s still doing commission pieces.

“That put a halt on things as far back as February,” Wooley said. “Once productions knew there was the possibility of a strike, they started holding off on productions. Usually, February and March is the time when they shoot all the pilots. None of those got shot this year.”

Even when things are running, the world of effects and makeup can be a little different than what many would imagine.

“It’s not always exciting. It’s not always monsters and things like that,” Wooley said. “Sometimes it’s just doing beauty makeup and corrective makeup on a background character, putting a beard on a person or just a bald cap on somebody. That’s actually the more challenging work, is doing stuff that people will notice if it’s wrong.”

Wooley’s younger years

Wooley’s an Alabama native, whose dad was both a coal miner and a preacher. His mother played a significant role in supporting Wooley’s artistic side.

“If I was making a mold and needed some plaster or something, she was the one who would go get it,” Wooley said. "You’d have to go to Birmingham to get it… She was always supportive of me doing weird stuff like that.”

He grew up in Goodsprings, a small Walker County community a little northeast of Birmingham.

“It’s really close to Jasper,” he said. “I spent my 20s actually living in Jasper.”

A little before that, when he was around 15, Wooley started getting really interested in special effects and makeup.

“I’d always liked monster movies and horror movies,” Wooley said. “That was about the time of the great VCR craze. Everything was coming out on VHS.”

Halloween was always a creative time for Wooley, who made his own costumes. There was no internet, but Wooley picked up tips from Fangoria Magazine.

“Back then, people kept their processes very, very private,” Wooley said. “They wouldn’t just give it to anybody.”

He’d take a magnifying glass to Fangoria photos to see what was on creature creator’s shelves in their shops.

“We’d try to figure out what it was used for,” he said.

Wooley recalls that one of his first pieces was a mask of the DC Comics villain Joker, sculpted in latex.

“Probably one of the biggest things I ever did early was a Predator costume that I sculpted and made all the pieces for,” Wooley said.

Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel covers things to do in the River Region. Contact him at sheupel@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: From heroes to horror: Roy Wooley knows the art of movies