As Jude Law begins previews for his 12-week run as Hamlet on Broadway, audiences can take in an equally dramatic version of the actor next week when Sally Potter's film "Rage" is released simultaneously on DVD, and on mobile devices and online, via Babelgum. Shot interview-style on a blue screen, "Rage" tells the behind-the-scenes story of a fashion show gone very wrong, with actors like Judi Dench, Eddie Izzard and Dianne Wiest playing, respectively, a fashion critic, a fashion house financier and a fashion house manager. An almost unrecognizable Law stars as Minx, a celebrity supermodel whose look comes courtesy of makeup artist Morag Ross.

A trained artist from the Glasgow School of Art, Ross got her maquillage start with BBC London. Her first film was Derek Jarman's "Caravaggio," and she has spent the past 20 years working on multiple movie sets with the likes of Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton. Ross spoke with WWD about transforming Law into a gender-bending mannequin.

WWD: How would you describe Minx's look?

Morag Ross: My main inspiration was the Japanese Manga comic style.

WWD: Did Jude have any input into Minx's look and if so, what?



M.R.: I always talked through what I was doing and wanted to be sure that Jude was comfortable and felt 'right' with the final results. He was great about shaving his body hair!

WWD: Can you talk about the specific products you used in creating the character?

M.R.: The wigs were inexpensive, ready-to-wear acrylic ones and I put them on back to front, or used two at a time, to create 'unique' hairstyles. Only the cropped gamine style was a real hair wig, but, again, it was not made to measure for Jude. I decided against false nails and false lashes as they were too 'cliched drag artist' for the character Minx. I used Revlon's Blackest Black on his nails and Shu Uemura's UV Under Base Mousse to smooth out his skin. For the make-up, MAC very kindly supplied me with all their eye colors and eye pencils and their face and body make-up. I used a lot of the smudgy eye pencils Stubborn Brown and Smoulder for his smoky eyes. Russian Red and Viva Glam were great lip colors for him, too. Of course I had to use a lot of Dermablend concealer to hide Jude's beard line and tattoos!

WWD: What was the most difficult part of creating Minx?

M.R.: The obvious challenge was--can a beautiful man be transformed into a beautiful woman? Although, in fact, the character is a man who has become a creation: Minx.

WWD: Is this the first time you have transformed a man into such a flamboyant look?

M.R.: Interestingly, I did the make up for Neil Jordan's movie 'The Crying Game' in the Eighties. Jaye Davidson played someone who appeared to be female, and it was revealed late in the script that he was, in fact, a man. Then I did my first movie with Sally Potter ­ "Orlando," where Tilda Swinton plays a man for part of the movie. More recently, I did the make-up and hair for Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes "I'm Not There." So it is a make-up challenge that has followed me throughout my career.