Crafting Sloth
An interesting look into the talents of the special effects department, this picture shows a progression as they slowly turn an actor into a character. An intense amount of makeup and prosthetic was required in order to craft Sloth’s face.
The original actor for this part, football player John Matuszak, was quite a large man with a powerful stature. That is the reason he was selected to play the part, because the casting wanted to make Sloth a large and imposing man so that he could help save them in that final scene in which he holds the way open for his friends to escape.
The name of the man in charge of the makeup department was Ellis Burman. He decided that the best way to make Sloth look deformed was to really make his eyes unusual. Because of this, they created a prosthetic mask that would appear to alter the structure of Matuszak’s face.
One eye was set normally so he could actually see during filming, but the other one was a fake that was set lower. His true eye on that side was covered by the mask. His teeth were also modified for the part. They built a strip in the mask that would cover up his real teeth and display the fake ones in the mask to make them look real.