Viola Davis worked hard to transform into her A ballad about songbirds and snakes character — and to get out of it.
While speaking with Jimmy Fallon on his late-night talk show, the 58-year-old Oscar-winning actor revealed what helped her become Dr. Volumnia Gaul in Hunger Games prequel as well as what she needed to return to her normal state.
“The makeup took 4 hours, and then it took maybe 45 minutes to take it off,” Davis said before going on to exactly what part of her costume was the most difficult to handle.
“The hardest part was taking off the nose. I mean, it was so hard that the makeup artist literally had to prop up their feet and just Drag it. It was like an anal probe, I think stretch it. You have no idea!”
The admission drew laughter from the audience, and that was exactly the reaction Davis and her team had when undoing the deal. “It was like the plastic fell off. “We were hysterical by that point,” Davis said.
Behind Viola Davis ‘Whimsical’ Yet ‘Devious’ Hunger Games Look inspired by Willy Wonka (exclusive)
It’s all paying off for the star, who said she loves exploring roles that exceed fans’ expectations.
“I always want people to see me differently. “I love it when people see me as motherly, warm and fuzzy, but there are times when I just want to scare them to death,” she admitted.
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Last month, PEOPLE caught up with makeup artist and designer Sherri Berman Laurence to find out what influenced Davis’ transformation.
To channel the “whimsical” but “vile” Gamemaker, Davis wore special makeup to evoke Dr. Gaul’s troubled past, retaining scars and other deformities from her dangerous laboratory experiments.
Viola Davis as Dr. Volumnia Gaul in “The Ballad of Songbirds and Serpents.”
Murray Close/Lionsgate
‘Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’: Everything you need to know about the ‘Hunger Games’ predecessor
Laurence said that Davis requested that one eye be a different color (that is, a “hazy” dark brown and the other a “piercing blue”), possibly due to an experiment gone wrong. The makeup and prosthetics teams also took steps to age her and add facial scars.
“Between the hair, the bones, the eye, it really took her to a scary place,” Laurence said. “Then throw in her acting—I mean, come on. You could have heard a pin drop as she walked [on set].”
Davis’ costume was also taken to the next level with her hairstyle, which was conceptualized by hair designer Nikki Gooley, who looked to the 1940s for inspiration and ended up with a “beautiful silver-grey afro” that “matched the character’s eccentricity and her colorfulness. ”
“Her character is very big and strong, so it made sense to have big hair. And I think it also suited Viola,” Gooley told PEOPLE.
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