Newmarket native Traci Loader and her team are up for the Oscar for best makeup and hairstyling thanks to their haunting work in Robert Egger’s’ latest film, Nosferatu.
For Loader, being in the running for one of the most prestigious awards in the film industry would have never entered her mind when she first began her journey into the world of makeup design in the early ‘90s.
“I started in 1992 and I really didn’t know what to do with my life. I thought, ‘You can do makeup for a living?’ I knew nothing else about it at the time,” said Loader.
“I went to school in a very small program and I started off doing fashion commercials, work for TV stations and straight to video B movies.”
Loader’s skills grew over time through repetitive practice and self-teaching in the field. She first crossed paths with director Egger when she worked on two of his projects, The Witch and The Lighthouse.
Their experience collaborating on past productions saw Loader join the team for December’s Nosferatu film, a remake of the 1922 silent Gothic horror classic Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, originally directed by F.W. Murnau.
Loader said her experience on Nosferatu, which saw her create eerie visuals such as dirt-stained faces and eyes dripping with blood, was unlike work she had done in the past.
“It is not your typical beauty makeup that you would normally do, especially in period movies where every character might have beauty makeup on. With (Egger), he wanted it to look real but almost dirty and grimy. Twenty years from now you could watch this movie and you would never guess that it was shot in 2024,” the makeup artist said.
She admitted her design work in Nosferatu may not jump off the screen and immediately draw viewers’ attention, but explained that makeup design is often about the unseen and understanding work that contributes to a film’s overall feel.
“People who aren't in the industry tend to think makeup design is just powder puff and some lipstick,” she said. “They might not understand the research and the character-building that takes place. Even though I didn't (work on) Orlok, there are other prosthetic elements taken into consideration when creating different moods and visuals.”
As 2024’s Nosferatu ascended in popularity at the box office, Loader, along with prosthetic makeup effects designer David White and hair designer Suzanne Stokes-Munton, heard rumblings of their Oscar nomination.
For Loader, the experience could only be described as one full of overwhelming shock and disbelief. Having grown up in the small community of Pefferlaw within Georgina, she spoke of the feeling of pride that the recognition brings as a Canadian in the industry.
“It makes you proud,” she said.
“I was born in Newmarket but I grew up in Pefferlaw, which isn't that far away. We used to take the GO Train to the mall in Newmarket when I was a teenager.”
She has been recognized previously, winning the Canadian Screen Award for Best Makeup at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022 for her work on the film Night Raiders.
With the 97th Academy Awards set to take place on March 2, Loader is looking forward to working on her next project on the set of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.