Alexia Khadime discusses make-up for Elphaba in Wicked

Alex Khadime: I play the role of Elphaba in Wicked, so I' m the green girl, evidently.

Interviewer: How long does it take to put your make-up on?

AK: Roughly on average about thirty to forty minutes it takes to do the make-up. We use a water-based paint, which makes it easier I suppose to get off, it' s not a grease-based one it' s a water-based one. Originally it was taking me forever, I was like, why isn' t this stuff coming off! No I' m joking! It' s quite quick now because I' ve got the right removers and the right cleansers and things like that. It probably takes, I don' t know, about fifteen minutes. It does rub off a little bit, but you know the girls are backstage, Georgia' s backstage, helping me out and touching me up if it kind of tends to start rubbing off a little.

I: And you always have help doing your make-up, every evening, every performance?

AK: Yes, I do. I think I' d be really horrible at it, if I did it myself. But Georgia' s great. So basically I' ve just started to put my main colour on green. It goes all over my face, in my ears and I also do my hands. You notice that my nails are painted as well green, they have to be painted. So now I' m just starting to put on my lip. I literally, what I tend to do is line my lip first, then fill in with the colour green that matches. Georgia' s actually powdering me so that the colour stays and dries. Georgia' s probably going to highlight my cheeks. She highlights with a day glow, is it called day glow? It' s a day glow, a kind of UV, sort of, on my cheeks - again still green! My actual greens that I use, there' s three different greens mixed together to get the greens that they wanted. So it' s different for me as opposed to the different Elphabas who' ve played it round the world. Georgia' s now giving me a little blusher and it' s a purple colour which I suppose gives me a little more structure to my face. My eyes where she highlights my brow and makes it all stand out a little bit more. Now she' s filling an eye shadow with a purpley colour again. In act two though I tend to have a little bit of black, slightly more of an older looking Elphaba, this is the more fresh younger looking Elphaba. I' m going to quickly powder my hand so I can do my other hand. Georgia' s now doing my eyebrows. It' s just a black that she uses to do my brow. Now just mascara obviously just to bring out the eyes and that' s pretty much it. Once I' ve done my hands, and I let them dry a little, I' ll be pretty much done make-up wise. Someone comes to help me get dressed in all my stuff so I don' t get green on everything. I' m now having my wig put on, there we go. This wig has been specifically made for me so it fits correctly. They' re using a glue to keep down the wig lace, as you can see here, so it' s literally just stuck down to my face. All these little things that you don' t get to see, like putting on the make-up how long that takes, making all the costumes how long that takes, that' s quite something.