A HOLLYWOOD TAIL: ROBERT SHORT MAKES A SPLASH

Visual effects supervisor Mitch Suskin with Daryl Hannah.

Robert Short Productions/Karen Kubeck

THE MOST IMPORTANT FASHION ACCOUTREMENT the mermaid has is her tail. Whether it’s bright pink, muted blue, or a striped confection studded with gems, a mermaid tail is as much a fashion statement as a Céline bag or a pair of Louboutins. One of the most iconic mermaid tails of our time appeared in the hit film Splash, starring Daryl Hannah as Madison the mermaid. Ask any modern-day mermaid to tell you her story, and she’ll name that bright orange wonder without fail.

The well-known professional mermaid and underwater performer Hannah Fraser (see “Modern Mermaids”) says, “When I saw the film Splash, it made me realize I could make a tail and swim in it. It didn’t have to be a fantasy in my head, I could actually embody it, in real life.” As a child, Fraser had pictures of Madison all over her room. “That film and Madison’s tail inspired me to re-create my first mermaid tail when I was nine—it was orange, black, and gold with sparkles.”

Special makeup effects artist Robert Short was tasked with creating the tail for Splash. In preproduction, even before Daryl Hannah was cast in the film, Short began making sketches. He says he wanted to “expand upon what we think a mermaid looks like,” so he developed some ideas of what humans might look like if they evolved into aquatic creatures—“something dolphin-esque and strange, but still sexy and mermaidy.” For research, he went to aquariums and pet stores to observe fish, and consulted resources at the library. This was all pre-Internet, he says, “so there was a lot of foot research.” Director Ron Howard wanted the mermaid to have a more classic and romantic look, to feel realistic but also be rooted in fantasy. So Short sculpted three possible tail types on a Malibu Barbie: the first was a more “naked” look, with a sexy tail so sleek that it barely covered the skin and because of this, showed too much human knee, which is not a part of the mermaid anatomy; the second was a thick, chunky fishlike tail; and the third, a happy medium between the first two. Howard opted for the last.

The next step was to hone the general shape and proportions and do drawings of the tail in Pantone marker colors. Howard suggested using the bright colors of the koi fish. Short used a Pantone marker to draw the tail, front and back, in orange with yellow striping. He says that it “was the first and only drawing I did. I took it in and Ron said, ‘That’s it!’”

At the same time that Daryl Hannah was interviewing for the role, Short started designing the first prototype. He set up a shop in Marina del Rey and assembled a team to construct the first tail. One thing Short had noticed in all his fish research was that the fish flukes are often translucent, almost transparent, as they elegantly move through the water. That was his main concern. He also wanted to differentiate this tail from the tails he had seen in other mermaid films (Miranda, Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid, and Mermaids of Tiburon), which were made from latex and opaque. He knew the key to the design was a translucent fin.

It took a great deal of trial and error not only to find a material that would create that delicate effect, but also to create a monofin structure to fit easily inside that thin fluke to keep it from breaking. He found some clear sheet plastics on the market, but they were too brittle at the thickness needed. He cast around and found sheets made from clear butyrate that had the kind of strength and flexibility he needed. Eventually, the team had its first tail made of latex and clear urethane, with a monofin made of butyrate. Short and Mitch Suskin, the visual effects supervisor, who had also recommended Short for the project, brought the tail to Short’s backyard pool for a stuntwoman to test out. “It was awful, a complete disaster,” Short says. The unpainted tail looked great on land, but the moment the stuntwoman started swimming, the tail buckled behind the knees, sucking in over the fronts of the legs and knees. But the translucent, elegant fluke looked stunning.

They set about trying to find a solution to the tail-construction problems. Suskin recommended a new opaque urethane called Smooth-On, thinking it would provide a solid thickness that foam wouldn’t give and thus prevent folds from forming around the knees, suggesting human anatomy within the tail. The Smooth-On turned out to be too oily, however, and made the tails too slimy and too difficult to paint, but it did lead to finding a newly invented material called Skin Flex, which was being experimented with in theme parks for animatronic characters. Skin Flex solved the tail-construction problems by giving the team a material that was easily repaired with Krazy Glue, that could be painted, and that did not fold behind the knees. The team also integrated a very fine silk into the dorsal and pectoral fins to keep them as strong and as thin as possible, and there was a bonus: by extending the tendrils of silk beyond the urethane, they created the fluidity and soft, fluttering angelfish effect that you see in the film.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Director Ron Howard, makeup artist Karen Kubeck, special makeup effects artist Robert Short, and Daryl Hannah on the Bahamas set of Splash.

Robert Short Productions/Karen Kubeck

Once the tail was perfected and painted that bright orange and yellow, the entire film crew met at a pool in Los Angeles to do test filming with a stuntwoman. Daryl Hannah had been cast by then and was there to observe; the swimming was to be done by a stuntwoman, and Hannah would only be in close-up underwater shots. With the whole gathering watching, the stuntwoman swam around the pool, looking very awkward in the tail. Hannah then asked Short if she could get in the tail and try swimming herself. She had Short and his team get her into the tail and then swam for the cameras, expertly doing the dolphin kick (the only way to swim in a tail) in front of Howard and a shocked crew. Hannah then made her case to perform all her own stunts in the film. Howard agreed as long as a stuntwoman was standing by. “It changed the whole film,” Short says. “We never used a stuntwoman once.”

The tail looked wonderful, and all was going swimmingly until a problem emerged from the Disney studio: the issue of exposed breasts. Howard and his longtime partner, producer Brian Grazer, wanted their mermaid to be the epitome of female empowerment, a force of nature who would not have a problem with modesty. As a mermaid emerging from the sea like Venus on the half shell, she would not be clothed in bikini tops or the like. The idea of including bare breasts in the film didn’t sit too well with the studio, and though Howard and Grazer were determined to stand their ground, Short and his team did experiment with compromises: extending the tail scales up the side of her body and over to her breasts in one test, covering her breasts with natural-looking foam latex cups in another. Eventually, the Disney executives had to admit that mermaids do not have scales on their breasts, so they came up with a new solution: create a new studio. They called it Touchstone Pictures.

As any fan knows, Splash is anything but lascivious. The mermaid is indeed topless, though a long wig artfully placed with a lot of glue to secure it solves the modesty problem for the most part. It also demonstrates that, for the mermaid, hair is more than hair: it’s an essential part of her wardrobe. Glue was key to the costume in other ways as well. The tail itself took forty-five minutes for Hannah to shimmy into. It included a zipper and an inside belt. Short also left about four inches loose on top that was cut open and then superglued back together (but not to Hannah’s body) each day to get the seal just right. The inside belt sat just below the four-inch opening and was cinched tight so that the tail would not slip down Hannah’s hips; it also took on the weight of the tail so that the blend piece that seamlessly joined Hannah’s body and the tail would have nothing pulling against it.

Hannah on the chaise lounge that was used to lower her in and out of the water.

Robert Short Productions/Karen Kubeck

Which brings us to makeup: fashionistas the world over, tails or no, understand how much work it can take to look “natural.” For the underwater scenes, Hannah wore a blend piece that wrapped around her waist like a belt, the material overlapping in the back. The piece was about three inches wide, with bronze at the top to match Hannah’s bronzed skin and orange at the bottom to match her tail. It was glued to the tail and, using a surgical adhesive, affixed directly to Hannah’s skin. According to Short, Hannah was wearing bronzer (developed by his makeup artist and fabricator, Karen Kubeck) so thick you could write in it. The makeup department developed a more subdued variation for her scenes on land. A two-toned bronze nail polish and bronze face makeup rounded out the effect.

The whole look worked even better than intended. When Hannah was alone underwater (she was lowered in a beach chair from the production boat), pilot fish swarmed around and followed her just as they would with any larger fish; then they would disappear when less alluring wet-suit-wearing divers were close by. And who could blame them?