Nineteen-year-old actor Ian Colletti can’t just coast by on his boyish looks — not when playing Eugene in the AMC drama “Preacher.”
That’s because his character is better known as Arseface, a troubled teen who was horribly disfigured by a shotgun blast in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. On the show, Arseface’s twisted, grotesque pucker comes from a prosthetic that engulfs Colletti’s face, from the top of his nose to the bottom of his chin, and ear-to-ear.
“An actor’s face is one of his greatest tools, and 50 percent of mine is basically covered by an inch-thick prosthetic,” Colletti says of the mask that was created by special effects makeup wizard Greg Nicotero, who also dreamed up the bloody zombies on “The Walking Dead.”
‘An actor’s face is one of his greatest tools, and 50 percent of mine is basically covered by an inch-thick prosthetic.’
- Ian Colletti on playing Arseface in AMC’s 'Preacher'
Colletti says he’s challenged to work around the mask and push his facial expressions to the limit.
“It does kind of force me to lean on communicating through my eyes and up past my face,” he says. “I take every opportunity with the mask on to look in the mirror and constantly be working on how to flex it better. A lot of times I have to emote more extremely on my actual face to have it read as more subtle emotion through the prosthetic.”
Colletti also needed to develop a voice that made sense for the character, who in the series seeks guidance from a supernaturally-enhanced preacher, played by Dominic Cooper. Arseface’s sloshy speech impediment adds a whole other level of discomfort for the viewer.
“I read the script and it was just what I heard in my head,” he says nonchalantly. “I try to flex my tongue in a certain way and let my mouth fill with saliva and push my tongue to the side of my mouth.” (Don’t try that at home.)
Colletti says he’s hoping his portrayal will eventually help viewers to look past Arseface’s severe malformation.
“Right in the beginning, that’s the first thing the audience notices,” he says. “Over the course of the season I was hoping to humanize him in a way that, as the audience continues to watch, they less and less see him for his disfigurement and just begin to see him as very much a human being — who, at times, is surprisingly relatable.”
The single-use prosthetic — Colletti had to wear a new one every day of the series shoot — takes about two and a half hours to apply, and can’t be removed until work is finished for the day. As such, the “pretty uncomfortable” mask raises significant functional concerns, Colletti says.
“It covers your nose. It sounds disgusting, but if you need to sneeze or your nose is dripping, it’s pretty much, well, that’s gonna sit there for 12 hours until the day’s over,” he says, laughing.
That’s not the only practical issue he faced.
“I can’t eat when I’m wearing it,” says Colletti, who lives in Monmouth County, NJ. “You’re there at 2 in the morning and don’t leave until 10 at night, and that was very challenging to do without being able to eat.”
Don’t worry: Colletti’s not starving himself. His character Arseface drinks his pulverized meals through a straw, and Colletti is able to do a variation on that between takes.
“I drink shakes — strawberry shakes and protein shakes — on and off to keep my energy up,” he says. “It’s the saddest example of method acting I think I’ve ever heard of.”
“Preacher” airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on AMC