Why Oscar-winning artist quit Hollywood – and what made him return

Academy Award–winning artist Kazu Hiro says the cruelty of a few actors eventually chipped away at his love for the craft he had devoted his life to — pushing him to walk away from Hollywood.

The Japanese-American special and makeup effects artist is behind some of Hollywood’s most astonishing metamorphoses: Jim Carrey in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), Angelina Jolie in Salt (2010), Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour (2017) and, more recently, Dwayne Johnson in The Smashing Machine (2025).

Working under Oscar-winning makeup titan Rick Baker early in his career, Hiro had little control over his assignments.

"Some actors were quite mean, but I had to stick with it," he tells Culture 101. "Because of that, there was one time I actually left the film industry, because I had enough of it, because [of] just dealing with those people."

Stepping away in 2012, Hiro returned to a discipline that had kept him occupied during his lonely childhood: sculpting. He began creating monumental, hyperrealistic busts of figures like Frida Kahlo and Abraham Lincoln — who was also a source of early fascination sparked by legendary makeup artist Dick Smith (The Godfather, The Exorcist).

Hiro's sensitivity to human expression runs deep.

"I think it's because of how I grew up, I was kind of afraid of people," he says.

"I was from a quite abusive family. So every time I meet [a] new person, when I was a kid, I tried to kind of analyse, 'okay, what kind of person is standing in front of me?', without talking, just looking at the face or behaviour, you know, try to figure out who this person is. That became a kind of obsession and curiosity."

That vigilance grew into a lifelong fascination.

"Because [the] human face, they were born with it, but at the same time, as they get older, it will record their history or who they are onto their face. So that's my kind of fascination about the human face, I think."

Hiro had already demonstrated his gift for larger-than-life realism when he created a sculpture for Smith’s 80th birthday in 2002.

"He was the first one who saw that sculpture and he was really moved by it and he was crying and we are crying when I show him. And I show it to many different setting like art show or convention. And I was looking at the people's reaction, how they connect with a sculpture, how they react."

As a teenager in Kyoto, Hiro discovered an interview in horror magazineFangoria in which Smith transformed Hal Holbrook into Abraham Lincoln.

"When I saw it, this is something I really wanted to do because I thought that's kind of magical to change someone into someone else.

"Next day, I went to a library in high school and found a book about Lincoln and I started to do a makeup on myself, turn myself into Abraham Lincoln."

After writing to Smith, Hiro began an informal mentorship with the master, learning techniques and tricks of the trade through letters.

Hiro spent five years away from film before a pivotal call arrived in 2017. Gary Oldman had signed on to play Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, but on one condition: he wouldn’t do it without Hiro.

"I told him, please give me a week to consider. Because I thought, okay, once I made a life decision, and which was going well, if I go back to what I was doing, I felt like betraying my decision or commitment …

"I decided to take the job because I thought if I didn't take it, I would regret [it] my entire life."

The film earned Hiro his first Oscar in 2018. Two years later, Bombshell earned him another.

"It was amazing. Because everyone who works in the film industry, Oscar is one of the goals. I won't say the most important thing. But at the same time, it's quite a goal..."

One of Hiro’s most cherished projects was Maestro, Bradley Cooper's biopic of Jewish composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. Hiro had studied Bernstein's face since childhood, hoping to one day recreate it.

"And then Bradley Cooper came to me about this film [Maestro]. So that was a perfect thing to happen.

"Bradley is also such an amazing actor, director and producer."

The film faced backlash over Cooper's prosthetic nose, which some critics called an antisemitic caricature. Hiro, cautious but firm, disagrees.

"That movie was about Leonard Bernstein. It's just simply doing a likeness makeup. It's not about the nose.

"And his family, Lenny's family, didn't have any issue about it."

Hiro received recognition for his work on Maestro at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Since returning to film, he says the actors he has worked with have been overwhelmingly respectful — a stark contrast to his early years. But he's also become more selective.

"When I take a job, I will ask around what is the reputation [of the actor], but most of the time, it's like approach with respect. It's the same as a human relationship because it's important part of how to approach and how to build a relationship."