Styled in the style of an old Hollywood dame, the bleach-browed Gloria (Greta Lee) emerges as the most interesting and enigmatic character in “Late Fame.” Thanks in part to makeup artist Sasha Crowe’s idiosyncratic beauty looks, the glamorous Gloria serves as a muse to artists and drunkards from all walks of life, captivating everyone from freshly minted college graduates to the aging Ed Saxberger (Willem Dafoe). While every other character in the film is given some form of contextualizing backstory, Gloria remains a complete mystery. All we know about her is the image she chooses to construct through her sultry, old-Hollywood-inspired makeup. “Her makeup is what draws people in, but also manages to keep them just distant enough,” Crowe says. “Her playfulness with makeup creates the ability for her to disappear into herself, into the world she belongs in.”

For Crowe, who grew up beside a silent-movie theater in Los Angeles, paying homage to “the greats” of cinema required little research. “It’s there that I fell in love with Chaplin, Keaton, Theda Bara, Louise Brooks, and so many others,” Crowe tells The Set Set, reminiscing on how her parents would escort her to the silent theater in her pajamas before bed. Naturally, cinematic references from the ’30s, ’70s, and ’80s embedded themselves into the film.

The makeup artist’s character work on Gloria was a collaborative effort with Lee. The idea was to create a character that dressed up for different environments and moved from room to room like a chameleon. “Working with Greta was a dream. She came to the table with so many incredible ideas, and we just got to play,” Crowe says. “One day she’s channeling Dietrich, another she’s in her Isabella Rossellini moment, and the next she’s fully Clara Bow. For each of Gloria’s appearances on screen, Lee and Crowe collaborated on distinctive makeup looks.

Gloria’s makeup tended towards dynamic shapes and playful textures, reminiscent of an era where makeup was more performative and less “natural.” She lightened Lee’s brows to allow for a dramatic eye, opting for brown, pink, and blue eyeshadow. To create a softer, pink eyeshadow look, Crowe mixed a pressed pigment neon pink with white shadow to lighten the look, and blended it towards the cheeks. Drawing on the film’s overlying theme of nostalgia, Gloria  is a “love letter to the past,” Crowe says.

For Gloria, makeup functions as both costume and armour. When the aspiring actress first performs for Ed, she wears a classic round smoky look reminiscent of the 1930s. By the end of the film, her makeup skews more contemporary, but she retains a star quality that warrants attention. “She is a muse across decades, and I wanted her to be able to glide through time with each look,” Crowe says.

Get Gloria’s Signature Winged Eyeliner

Crowe’s favorite look to apply was Gloria’s exaggerated winged liner, which she wears in most scenes. “I took inspiration from Greta's natural visage, starting with shading and shadow tones,” Crowe says when describing her technique. The makeup designer went in with a very fine eyeliner brush and gel liner to create the structural wing, locking in the line with a black powder shadow.

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Gloria’s Electric Blue Pop

When Gloria performs for the literary group’s climactic public reading, she steals the stage in a bright turquoise eyeshadow beauty look. Her performance, much like her eccentric eyeshadow, is dramatic and hard to look away from, as the actress unravels. “I was feeling particularly inspired by Blue Velvet, as well as Ruth Gordon's bold shadow tones in 'Harold and Maude,’” Crowe explains. “She is completely vibrant while falling apart, but she is truly home on the stage, and we need to feel that.