By Vicki Prichard
NKyTribune contributor
Next to talent, actress Joan Crawford once opined, the most important thing a woman can have is her hairdresser.
As it turns out, a hairdresser is a valuable commodity for a film production too. And that makes Northern Kentucky stylist Maria Reyer a sought after young woman.
“Movies are always chasing the money and if you have incentives in place, they take a look at that. Once they look at that, they’re going to look at the talent you have locally,” says Kristen Erwin, executive director of the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Film Commission. “The fact that you have someone like Maria, and people of her caliber, that makes the entire package more attractive. And there are enough local people with enough film credits that I can hire them as department heads.”
From pupil to professional
Reyer has come a long way from hair school pupil to a film production department head, a title she held on the film “Goat,” which stars Nick Jonas and Ben Schnetzer.
“Growing up, I knew I wanted to work with my hands, but I didn’t know what avenue I was going to take with that,” says Reyer.
She attended NKU for three years but said it wasn’t for her.
“I come from a very artistic family. My mother and father are both artists,” says Reyer. “My father was a painter and I still have his paintings all over my house. He designed the Bengal’s wave gloves.”
National Sports Properties was his business and NFL merchandising still sells his gloves in the pro shops.
“Mom does advertising and marketing and paints and draws as well,” Reyer said. “My sister is in London curating for a museum and my brother works for Billy Reed, a major designer.”
Reyer’s styling tutorial began from behind the front desk of a local salon, where she observed the business from the sidelines and saved money for hair school.
Once she enrolled in Michael’s Hair School in Florence she continued to work at the salon. It was a wise decision.
Her boss, Tonya Tieman, owner of Tonya’s Image & Wellness Salon in Crestview Hills, opened that first significant door for Reyer.
“She called me on a Thursday night and said she had a gig for me and she wanted me to do it. It came out of nowhere,” says Reyer. “I had no idea she believed in me that much.”
From salon to set
The “gig” was hairstylist for a holiday film, “The Christmas Spirit,” starring Nicolette Sheridan and Olympia Dukakis which was being shot in Cincinnati in 2013.
“The first time I walked on the set I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know how to read a call sheet. I was what they call ‘green,” says Reyer.
She quickly found herself taken with the making of a film.
“I was more enthralled with how it all works for the film – different camera angles,” says Reyer. “The hair part of it was like every day to me – almost – I mean when you’re touching Olympia Dukakis it’s a little different. She’s great. The first time I was around all the camera stuff was neat. You never forget your first time seeing how it all works, and you look at movies differently.”
Last year, Reyer was stylist for the film “Carol,” starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, and directed by Todd Haynes.
The film, an adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith story, is receiving high praise at film festivals worldwide. It’s scheduled for a limited release in the United States on November 20, and will have a premiere in Cincinnati on Dec. 12, with venue and time to be announced.
For Reyer it meant an opportunity to work with one of films most notable stylists.
“That was my second film and I was out of town when they first started shooting, so I was kind of throw into it, which I’m glad I was,” says Reyer. “Working with Jerry DeCarlo, who’s known for ‘The Departed,’ ‘Mystic River,’ and ‘The Notebook’ – he was the head of the hair department – we had to go through some pretty intense training with him before we could work on the film. It was 1952 hair and we had to be on it.”
1952 hair meant lots of rollers.
“We had about ten minutes to roll the hair, then go to make-up, then to wardrobe, then we probably had ten minutes to make their hair into a 1952 style. We had about 20 minutes per person and some scenes had 200 people. They wanted the hair on point.”
Those logistics generally resulted in twelve-hour workdays.
“I love every second of it; it’s not work to me, it’s a passion. They say if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life. That’s the way I feel,” says Reyer.
Reyer’s perspective isn’t lost on her film families.
“The hours on these films are long and packed full and she’s always upbeat,” says Erwin. “She’s not only incredibly talented in hair but you want to spend time with her. You have Nick Jonas saying she’s amazing and he loved to work with her.”
“The Blunderer,” based on another Highsmith story, was another period piece, set in 1959. The film stars Patrick Wilson, Vincent Kartheiser, Eddie Marsan and Jessica Biel.
Don Cheadle’s ‘Mile’s Ahead’ called for hairstyles of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, resulting in three back to back period pieces for Reyer, who works at Covington’s Greenline Salon when she isn’t on set.
As more films find their way to Cincinnati – three were shooting in Cincinnati last month – Reyer is increasingly on a set. She credits the film commission’s Erwin with the number of films that come to the region.
“That’s because of Kristen, she works so hard,” says Reyer. “She’s incredible; she comes to the set, she talks to everybody. She works hard and she is brilliant.”
And, of course, she credits Tieman with her entre into film.
“I tell her all the time that I am who I am today in this hair business largely because of her. I know I’ve been given a God-given talent and capabilities, but I owe a lot to her. She took me under her wing.”
Good films and good people
Reyer is hard pressed to declare a favorite film.
“They’re all so different,” she says. “‘Carol’ is going to be huge. Working with Don Cheadle on ‘Miles Ahead’ was fantastic. He was an amazing man.
“At the end of the day he would say to hundreds of people, ‘Thank you for working so hard for us today.’ That was special to me too.”
She’s found that a film set invariably comes with anxiety and a good dose of kindness and camaraderie. Such was the case with the film “Goat.”
“When I was head on ‘Goat,’ that was the first head of department I ever had, and I was nervous,” says Reyer. “All that pressure was on my shoulders. That starred Nick Jonas and Ben Schnetzer, who is in ‘The Book Thief’ – he’s going to be a big deal. He’s great. He had just finished Warcraft right before he came to do ‘Goat.’”
Reyer found the stress to be alleviated by the kind gestures and personalities of the film’s lead actors.
“You try to get to learn their behavior,” says Reyer. “Nick Jonas likes to kind of stay in character, kind of keep to himself a little bit, then he’ll have his moments of being quirky, funny and rowdy, and it was funny. He’s a great guy. Very sweet. He and Ben Schnetzer had Coffee Emporium come one night and make us all lattes, or whatever we wanted, and they paid for it. He’s very kind and very giving.”
Reyer brings her own brand of kindness and giving to the films she works on, and, according to Erwin, that goes a long way.
“You spend so much time in makeup and hair that you want people who you want to be around,” says Erwin. “Maria is one of the things that makes this city viable for films. They want to work with her.”
I was lucky enough to play a principle role in GOAT and Maria was absolutely the best to work with 🙂 Amazing article!