​​For Nora Fingscheidt’s drama “The Outrun,” hair and makeup designer Kat Morgan used hair dye to mark the passage of time. Adapted from Amy Liptrot’s 2015 memoir, the film follows Rona (Saoirse Ronan), an alcoholic who decamps from London to Scotland’s Orkney archipelago. While grappling with sobriety, she works on her father’s farm during lambing season and studies endangered birds on the remote island of Papay.
“Nora and I discussed Rona’s timeline at length, and how we were going to benchmark her journey with the colors of her hair,” Morgan says. The designer knew she wanted to use turquoise, inspired by a photograph of Liptrot from that period of her life. Here, the designer talks about shooting in remote locations and using hair and makeup to set the tone of the film.
What initial conversations did you have about charting the movie’s nonlinear storyline, which takes place over the course of a decade?
I came on board a few months before we started the pre-shoot. Hair and makeup are usually the last design department to come on board, depending on prep, but I think I was the first. The script was still being written at the time. It has all these layers, so we created Rona’s timeline from that and [thought about] what these hair colors might be. The turquoise was the North Star, but it was more about how many years were passing. We devised colors after we started doing tests, realizing what would work in Saoirse’s hair and what wouldn’t. It was special to be part of that development stage so early.
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It’s always an interesting process to work with an actor who has a dual role [as an actor and producer]. Saoirse and I could have direct discussions, bounce ideas off each other, and flesh out who and what we wanted Rona to be. Nora was in these conversations, as well. We wanted Rona’s makeup to be raw—real skin texture, blemishes, flare-ups, sunken from the booze, tired at low points, and glowing when she was on a high.
Most importantly, we wanted to make sure Rona didn’t end up being a caricature of an addict. She has such a steep arc over so many years that we wanted to take our time with it. From a hair and makeup point of view, being able to take your time with it and meticulously plan it is something really wonderful. That’s what I find the most fun part of the job: picking out these nuanced moments.
I’m curious about the turquoise hair color, in particular, and how that came about.
When I went into the interview [for the job] and then into initial prep, I looked Amy up online and saw the turquoise hair color. All the other hair colors that you see in the film are fabricated. The turquoise was the thing to link Amy to Rona, but everything else was fabricated for story purposes. The rest of the colors were just to convey either the passage of time or certain emotions, [give] insight into Rona’s mindset at different periods, and figure out what her hair would have been like through each stage of the journey.
Can you talk about the challenges of executing multiple hair color changes on a small production like this?
I was looking at certain wig makers that have worked with Saoirse before, and we would have essentially blown almost our full budget on one wig. We couldn’t do that because there were so many other characters to think about. The biggest challenges were the constraints of the schedule, since the script had so many layers to it, and the size of the budget. We had to find an alternative that could be easily applied and washed out every day. Some days, Saoirse would start turquoise, then [she would film] a different part of Rona’s life; we’d have to wash it fully out and go back to blond or another color.
Every day, huge changes were happening. Some of the makeup tests I had Saoirse in for were between six and eight hours, going through all the different colors and different things. It’s not just hair colors; it’s any injuries, party looks, and different passages [of Rona’s life]. The great thing is that Saoirse’s hair is so strong and resilient. The color took to it beautifully, washed out with ease, and didn’t stain her hair. We tested that within an inch of its life to ensure we could do it.
Andi Coldwell, the first assistant director, and I went through the schedule every day with a fine-tooth comb, meticulously timing and planning to make sure that we had enough time between each scene. Some of the changes were an hour and a half at a time. Then Saoirse would do the scene, come away, and we had another massive change to do, and we needed to make sure we could complete the filming day.
Why did you choose to use clay rather than liquid dye for Rona’s hair?
I’ve used clay before, but not the way that we used it on this. It’s, like, a waxy substance. I’d split Saoirse’s hair layer by layer all the way up to her head, apply by hand, brush it through, and then it takes to the hair. Her hair still moves in a natural way, and it’s still got shine. It’s a remarkable substance. It really worked for her; it was a serendipitous thing to find. It was two separate colors I mixed—a turquoise-y blue and an aqua green. It feels dreamlike when I think about it, because it is so unorthodox, but really cool and really bloody beautiful.
Rona’s hair color on the film poster is so eye-popping. What do you consider in terms of how bright-colored hair is going to look on camera as opposed to more natural tones?
That main turquoise color was inspired by Amy at the time, but it was also meant to echo the skies and seas of Orkney and have some sort of contrast with the textures and complexities of London.
There was a lot of chat with [production designer] Andy Drummond and [costume designer] Grace Snell to ensure that the color also complemented their palette, and about finding moments where that color echoes throughout Rona’s life. You see it quite a lot through production design in the film, with bits in some of the wallpaper and items that Andy’s put in. It’s gorgeous, and it’s a bold choice. I adore Andy and Grace. We were such a good trio and were transparent [with each other], having these open dialogues to make sure everything fit and it all made sense. It is storytelling in color.
All the other colors were relatively bold as well. It wasn’t just about Rona; it was about her relationships and friendships and how they flowed and changed around her—like her partner, Daynin [Paapa Essiedu], and his character arc as he climbs the career ladder. His hair, when you first meet him, is much more fun and liberated. Then it becomes more refined and clean-cut. Rona’s friends are maturing, hairstyles are changing, backdrops are shifting, and she’s still stuck in that chaotic state.
Rona’s skin shows signs of her alcoholism. What kind of makeup techniques did you use to achieve this?
In the beginning stages, she’s full of life and vivacity. She is naturally beautiful, so we had more scope to keep her makeup quite simple. When I spoke about it [in my job interview], I wanted it to feel like you could see all the alcohol under her skin onscreen. The morning after, the sweat is on the skin. I wanted to show a heavy journey, even dirtying up her hair and around the temples. It’s subtle, little things.
What was it like to film on location in Orkney?
I’ve spent my career doing outdoor shoots in Scotland. It’s in our blood to be outdoors. When you live and film in Scotland, 90% of the time you are outside, so you must understand what works. The challenge of filming on Papay was more the transport; the ships over are really small, like tug ferries. My biggest fear was running out of some of the hair colors. I was overbuying and overstocking, though we definitely had enough.
Some days, the weather was, in such a beautiful way, melancholic: dramatic waves pounding against the shore, and these expansive blue skies. Rona’s makeup on the farm and in Papay was already downplayed, effortless, and pared back. [We were] careful not to let the makeup and hair feel contrived or forced. In the lambing scene, we got Saoirse into makeup at maybe half-three in the morning.
In an interview with Empire, Ronan mentioned that the Orcadian band Lau’s songs were on the production playlist. Was music a major part of the filming process?
Lau became the backdrop of our mornings on Orkney; we made a playlist to fit all the spaces we were in. We made a playlist for London that was a different, electric thing, and Orkney was subdued and gentle. The makeup truck is an important space to cultivate and influence everybody’s day—a sacred space to create an environment of safety and support. I love Scotland. I feel like the filmmakers and the crews here are unmatched.
You’re a patron of the Scottish Youth Film Foundation, and you were a BAFTA Breakthrough award honoree in 2023. Over the course of your career, you’ve worked your way up the production ladder. How did this journey inform your approach to “The Outrun”?
I’ve been doing this for 12 years now; I feel that progress has been fast. I worked very hard to do it. I learned not only from [other designers], but also embraced myself and my own style. I trained as an artist before going into film and TV. I wasn’t a hairdresser; I wasn’t a beautician. I feel like the culmination of that was “The Outrun.” I was free to do what I wanted, and the approach was a bit different. My biggest lessons are to listen to team members nicely, respect people’s opinions, flourish, and believe in the work that they’re doing. Your team does make you. It’s setting the tone, because it does start from the top.
This story originally appeared in the Sept. 5 issue of Backstage Magazine.