Stylist of the stars
Brett Freedman is one of Hollywood's hottest hair and makeup artists
By GRETCHEN McKAY
BLOCK NEWS ALLIANCE
With clients such as Reba McEntire and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Brett Freedman is one of Hollywood's most sought-after makeup artists and hair stylists. But there was a time not so long ago when the Monroeville, Pa., native wondered if maybe, just maybe, he should have listened to his father, Jess, and taken a desk job - or at the very least, stayed put in sunny southern Florida.
While he'd enjoyed great success in the early '90s making models beautiful in Miami, when he relocated to Los Angeles in 1996 with dreams of moving up the ladder to actresses, the only work he could find was doing hair and makeup for a head-shot photographer.
"It was a huge step down, but I had to eat," Mr. Freedman, 36, recalls in a phone interview. "I was on the bottom rung, unproven."
Six months into it, though, his luck changed. With jobs for Moon Unit Zappa and Courtney Thorne-Smith under his belt, the stylist was hired to do Patricia Heaton for the cover of a magazine. Mr. Freedman and Heaton, Ray Romano's co-star in the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, really hit it off. So, in a Hollywood minute, a star was born.
"That's when I started meeting the people I still work with today," says Mr. Freedman, who routinely works his magic on such A-listers as Gwyneth Paltrow, Kirsten Dunst, Melanie Griffith, and Mariah Carey and last year was named a spokesman for Pantene hair products.
Mr. Freedman's favorite faces? Heaton and Zeta-Jones, he says.
Heaton "really enjoys makeup and she likes to look different. She plays a mom on TV and she's a mom in real life with four boys, so when she sits down in my chair she'll say, 'Blow dry my hair and put tons of makeup on me.' She likes the fact that she's still a hot woman and puts so much enthusiasm toward it. When I work with her, it's like being at a slumber party," Mr. Freedman says.
Zeta-Jones is "so stunning and beautiful naturally, but she looks gorgeous because her face holds makeup well. She has enough drama in her own natural looks, and she's not so overpowered by makeup. I have free rein in making up her dark, smoky eyes or when applying mascara, lip gloss. Her face is just really great artistically and beautywise," Freedman says.
When McEntire performed a concert in Pittsburgh, Mr. Freedman was among those cheering her on from backstage - after first taming her coppery red tresses and blending away any skin imperfections with concealer, that is. The two met three years ago on a shoot for the cover of TV Guide and they've worked together ever since.
"She's really fun and sweet, and she definitely knows her stuff," says Mr. Freedman, who also is doing the star's hair and makeup for her namesake's show's new episodes.
A child artist who was always doodling, Mr. Freedman discovered makeup at age 9, when he used to sit and watch his mother, Reda - whom he describes as a patient and understanding woman - put on her lipstick, and false eyelashes.
He admits that his mom did not wear a lot of makeup, but he was still entranced and was soon sneaking his sister Detra's Barbie Beauty Center into his room.
"I'd wet her hair and set it and put makeup on," he remembers with a laugh. Then, so as to not get caught, the youngster would comb the doll's hair straight, wipe its plastic face clean, and stick it back into its hiding place at the top of Detra's closet.
Mr. Freedman says he did all of his friends' makeup for Halloween and school plays. His mother even allowed him to experiment with makeup on her.
"She put up with my odd behavior, and I remember after we saw the movie Mommie Dearest, she let me do her makeup to look like Joan Crawford," he recalls laughing.
Even his father, a caterer who recently retired, influenced Mr. Freedman's artistic side.
"He would draw on the cover of the newspaper and transform the face of Dr. Ruth into this fabulous drawing. He'd put makeup on them, and he considered it graffiti, but in an odd way it influenced me. He had a knack for reshaping faces," Mr. Freedman says.
After graduating from high school in Monroeville in 1986, Mr. Freedman enrolled at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, where he majored in visual communications and commercial design. His goal: eventually to work for an advertising agency. Talented as he was, Mr. Freedman quickly decided advertising wasn't for him, lasting just six months in his first job at a small firm in Monroeville.
"I hated it," he says. "I thought I was going to be this artist, but here they were, telling me what to draw. It was so restrictive and boring."
Still, the idea of doing makeup as a career never popped into his head - that was something older women did, not guys.
With advertising out of his system, Mr. Freedman concentrated on a line of humorous T-shirts he'd started designing and selling at kiosks in shopping centers while a student at the art institute. He also did makeup for a glamour photography studio in Pittsburgh.
The turning point came in 1991 when Mr. Freedman read an interview in Allure magazine with stylist Francoise Nars. The story posed this question: If you were at a dinner party, whom would you want to sit next to? An accountant, a lawyer or a makeup artist to the stars?
"And I thought, 'Yeah! That's what I want to be!' It really gave me clarity."
A short time later, he was on a plane to Miami to live with friends. It was a giant leap of faith, he concedes, but hey, who isn't fearless at age 24?
With just a dozen photos of glammed-up housewives in his portfolio, it wasn't easy finding work. His first job, in fact, was in a trendy makeup store in the heart of South Beach, doing makeup for drag queens and teenage models trying to break into the business. But Mr. Freedman never felt happier.
"It was very fun and free," he says. "I felt like I was doing what I was supposed to be doing."
As luck would have it, a write-up in Allure magazine soon after he arrived detailing his eyebrow-shaping prowess brought oodles of people into the store, including the magazine writer's fiance, who just happened to be a director of commercials. Jobs doing makeup for commercials and bathing suit calendars followed, creating a certain buzz about this talented stylist.
He should have been happy, right? For a while he was. By age 28, though, Mr. Freedman was again feeling restless. The cure, he concluded, could be found only in Hollywood, where he could become a part of popular culture.
While the move west pretty much landed him back at square one, Mr. Freedman took it all in stride. As he puts it, "Sometimes you have to take a couple of steps back to leap forward."
After the Heaton cover, more good work started trickling in, including a Christina Aguilera CD cover. But it wasn't until his family members saw a Freedman-styled Sharon Lawrence on the cover of McCall's in the grocery store that they realized the level of his success.
"After that it was, 'Brett's doing great,' " he says with a chuckle.
For Mr. Freedman, the "aha" moment was when he did Paltrow's hair and makeup for the cover of British Elle. He also remembers with pride being on the red carpet with Zeta-Jones at a film festival - he can't remember which, he's been to so many - as the crowd took in the very bronzy, tousled hairstyle he'd created for the evening.
"It was such a Hollywood moment," he says. "It was like, wow, this is such a wild ride."
His "wild ride" has led to a six-figure income and a day rate that begins at $3,000 and quickly escalates upward depending on the client. "Even I can't believe how much money I get paid - enough to buy a new home in West Hollywood," he jokes.
Although Mr. Freedman works with celebrities, he says their faces are much like other women's faces prior to makeup.
"Some of them are truly soccer moms and very regular before the makeup. The transformation allows them to put on this glamour and they have all this attention paid to them. It's just like regular women who put on a little more on the weekend, which allows you to carry yourself just a little differently. It's all in the demeanor," Mr. Freedman says.
A typical day might find Mr. Freedman, who is represented by Celestine Agency, doing Jennifer Love-Hewitt's hair and makeup for a magazine cover in the morning, being interviewed by a magazine on hair trends in the afternoon, and then doing Thorne-Smith for The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn in the early evening. Or he might find himself on a plane with a star like Dunst, headed for a movie premiere or week-long press junket. Since he landed in Los Angeles eight years ago, Mr. Freedman has traveled to France, Spain, London, Sweden, Guatemala, and even Bali for photo shoots.
"The trickle-down effect of being around celebrities is pretty amazing," concedes the stylist, who also occasionally works with men, including Antonio Banderas and George Clooney. "I get to see a part of the world most likely I never would have seen."
Life in the world of glamour is its own treat. But that's not to say his job doesn't have some grit mixed in with the glitz. It was Mr. Freedman's job to make McEntire look gorgeous for each and every concert on her tour.
And while natural beauty is easy, glamour takes time, says Mr. Freedman, who maintains that he can turn any average woman into a Bond Girl. For a special event like a premiere, it's not unusual for an actress to spend several hours in his chair.
"It really rises to the level of art," he says, "because you're not just making a face pretty - you're also making it interesting."
The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Gretchen McKay is a staff writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Blade Staff Writer Rhonda B. Sewell contributed to this report.
CLICK HERE to discuss in our forum.
