Steve Ross transforms into Beaver for Stratford Festival's Lion, Witch and Wardrobe
If "clothes make the man," then it only makes sense that teeth make the beaver.
That's why Steve Ross, who plays Beaver in Stratford Festival's production of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe this season, had a pair of dentures specially made by a local orthodontist for the role.
"The people who play wolves and myself and Barb, who play beavers, we all took a class trip to a wonderful orthodontist," said Ross.
The first set were like oversized human teeth, said Ross, so it was back to the drawing board.
"She's very good at making people look better, we wanted to look weirder."
The final set are almost an inch longer than Ross's natural pearly whites and snap in over his teeth like a retainer.
Next step: walking and talking
Then the performers had to learn how to speak.
"The biggest thing that we found at first was your s's your t's your v's your b's — your lips have to be more active.
The teeth are an important part of his transformation into Beaver but webbed feet, clawed hands and furry facial hair complete the look.
Ross's webbed feet are built on top of a pair of men's brown leather boots, with a leather extension – complete with toenails.
"We constantly have to check that the toenails haven't fallen off at the end of the show," said Ross.
The boots are heavy, said Ross, which helps him with his waddle, as Beaver.
A base layer of makeup is applied earlier in the show, and is given time to dry – otherwise Ross said he'd sweat everything off.
Though costumers have made his sweater and pants lightweight, underneath he wears a fat suit "because beavers are kind of pear-shaped – even more than I am already!," joked Ross.
Makeup artist Lorna Henderson does most of the work on Ross's face.
She underlines his eyes, following the shape of the eyeball underneath, to make them rounder and more bug-eyed.
Then Henderson takes strips of beard and eyebrow hair and glues them each to Ross's face, blending into his natural facial hair.
"Every single day she takes a tiny, tiny curling iron and curls these whiskers so they look even bigger and make my face even rounder."
The look is completed with a hat and tail, which looks woven and weights about 10 lbs, said Ross, and a pair of women's evening gloves covered in fur with long claws.
"I can't do much when I have the claws on, but the claws are so durable that they never seem to come off," said Ross.
"I'm so happy with that, because I have to hold a beer mug, wrestle a couple of kids around, and do a battle in them."
Hear more about his and Mr. Tumnus' animal transformation from CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition.