TRANSFORMING a Hollywood actor into a hairy, gruesome werewolf was all in a day’s work for Hale School theatre technician Alan Murphy .
Murphy worked in London last year as a fabricator, helping to create the werewolf costume of The Wolfman – a movie starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt.
He also helped Del Toro to put on his costume – a lycra undersuit with attached rubber sculpted muscles, covered by another layer with millions of yak hairs knotted on to it – during the movie’s filming.
The North Perth resident said besides the catering, his favourite part of being involved with the movie was when Victorian-era London was recreated in Greenwich Naval Village.
“There were about 300 extras, and 30 horses and carriages,” he said.
Night shoots were one of the downsides of filming, with between three to four weeks spent working from 8pm to 6am in conditions Murphy described as generally “cold, wet and raining”.
Murphy is no stranger to the film and television industry.
From 1984 to 2005 he worked in London on a host of well-known shows such as The Wombles and Postman Pat.
He also worked as a fabricator for the Jim Henson Company on The Never Ending Story, The Flintstones and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Murphy now divides his time between working at Hale School and working away.
He said it was great to be able to work with students, as that was where everything began.
“I’m here to prove to them if they want to do something like that (work in the film/ television industry), they can,” he said.
Murphy runs Hale’s RedFoot Animation Club, which is also open to community members to join.
For more information about the club, email Redfoot@Hale.wa.edu.au.