Animal Actors Get Star Treatment

We all know what a Dalmatian looks like. However no two are identical. The spots on one Dalmatian can differ greatly from the spots on another. The same goes for Siberian Huskies, Siamese cats, and other breeds. That’s where makeup artist Rose Ordile comes in.

Ordile is a makeup artist to the stars—the furry and feathered kind. Just like their human counterparts, animal actors use stunt doubles. In the film Eight Below, each Siberian Husky lead actor had six stunt doubles. “The dogs are not exactly alike,” she says. “That is where a colorist comes in. You can dye an animal’s fur to match the star or you can apply makeup to make each animal look alike.”

 Working with Animals

In addition to working on the set of Eight Below, Ordile has done work on South of the Border, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Son of the Mask, Princess Diaries and other movies and television shows. “Ever since I was eight years old, I knew that I wanted to work with animals,” she says. “The only trouble was that I didn’t want to be a veterinarian or vet technician. I wanted to be an animal trainer for TV and films. I grew up watching Lassie, Petticoat Junction, and Green Acres. I told my high school guidance counselor that was what I wanted to be. He said those types of jobs didn’t exist. Growing up in New Jersey, we really didn’t know about other opportunities working with animals other than vet or vet tech.”

 Since she didn’t know she could work in film and television with animals, she went for an associate’s degree as a veterinary technician, and also majored in art. While at school, someone suggested she study grooming. After graduating, she enrolled in a grooming school in Las Vegas. “There I learned about grooming and coloring techniques,” she says.

 As a groomer, she learned a lot about hair color. She creates animal-safe dyes so animal stunt doubles can look like the star. In a film where a zebra befriends a small child, Ordile actually colored a white horse to look like a zebra. “Zebras are ornery,” she says. “They have bad tempers and don’t always cooperate.”

 For this show, she dyed the horse’s white coat with black stripes. Voila! A zebra was created. “Animals lick their fur, so I only use my own dyes, which are animal-safe.”

 From the Streets to Hollywood

Many animal actors began their lives as strays. Fang, the drooling Neapolitan Mastiff from the Harry Potter movies, was rescued from a junkyard and adopted by his trainer. Max and the six different dogs who played the same role in the film How the Grinch Stole Christmas also were shelter dogs.