{"id":637930,"date":"2026-08-15T02:36:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T02:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/637930\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T02:36:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T02:36:24","slug":"margos-got-money-troubles-painting-elle-fannings-body-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/637930\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Margo\u2019s Got Money Troubles\u2019: Painting Elle Fanning\u2019s Body Green"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFor a series about a young working-class woman who gets impregnated by her college professor and must find a way to make ends meet, to be described as \u201cfun\u201d seems paradoxical. But in the television adaptation of Rufi Thorpe\u2019s best-selling novel Margo\u2019s Got Money Troubles, the hair and makeup department\u2019s main task was to bring Margo\u2019s (Elle Fanning<\/a>) OnlyFans alter ego, a sexy, insatiable green alien named HungryGhost, to life. \u201cIt was crazy but really enjoyable work,\u201d says Erin Ayanian, head of the makeup department and Fanning\u2019s longtime collaborator. \u201cWe had a blast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore they could tackle HungryGhost, everyday Margo \u2014 the 20-year-old daughter of a former Hooters waitress and a pro wrestler from Southern California \u2014 first had to be established. \u201cIt\u2019s really important to represent a person and let there be flaws so that she looks like an average person,\u201d explains Ayanian, who relied on minimal touches, adding only subtle references to Margo\u2019s mother, Shyanne (played by Michelle Pfeiffer), in the form of eyeliner and lip gloss. \u201cEven if the character isn\u2019t aware of it in context of the story, I wanted there to be a flavor of the fact that she was raised by Shyanne.\u201d Hair-wise, department head Jaime Leigh McIntosh wanted to show the struggle of being a new mom. \u201cElle has a natural texture with a bit of curl to it, so I thought it would be nice to lean into that,\u201d says McIntosh. \u201cHaving that texture, we had more room to play \u2014 from messy, unwashed, scraped up into scrunchies to a more polished look.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the first season (the limited series has already been renewed for a surprise second), there were two versions of Fanning\u2019s OnlyFans character: a full-blown fantasy version of HungryGhost, complete with a Barbarella-esque pink wig, and a more down-to-earth character that Margo creates herself to bank more money. For every look, except the dream sequence, there was one mandate: \u201cIt always needed to look like she had done it herself,\u201d says McIntosh, who purchased a synthetic pink wig online and used it straight out of the bag. \u201cThe only thing I did to it was cut the bangs,\u201d she says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe my luck that I found this wig that was just like something that she could find, pull out of a bag and put on her head. It was very believable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNick Offerman<\/a> as Jinx<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Apple TV<\/p>\n

\n\tTo achieve HungryGhost\u2019s deep teal skin color, Ayanian ended up using cream eye shadow, which she and her makeup artists applied by hand to Fanning\u2019s entire body, like lotion. The process of applying the makeup took up to two and a half hours, and removing it was equally labor-intensive, but Ayanian found the aesthetic worth the effort. \u201cThe eye shadow didn\u2019t move and had an incredible pigment,\u201d she says. \u201cI decided I wanted to use that, which was a little tedious because it came in a little, hard plastic container.\u201d Ultimately, the makeup department went through more than 100 containers of the product. \u201cIf we need to do that same look for season two, I\u2019m going to contact that company and say, \u2018Can we get a bucket of it?\u2019 \u201d Ayanian says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Ayanian applied an additional layer of shimmer for the heightened version of HungryGhost, McIntosh upped her game by combining three wigs for the fantasy look. \u201cWe loved the idea of it being long, having the height and \u201960s kind of vibe to it. Then it was just figuring out how to do that,\u201d she says. McIntosh tasked that to Celeste Gonzalez, whose experience in the wig department at Disneyland and a clientele of drag performers made her the right person for the project. \u201cIt was massive, it was beautiful and it was heavy,\u201d says McIntosh. \u201cShe used zip ties to hold the main structure of it together, which I think is an old drag trick that she learned over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCo-star Thaddea Graham painted Fanning green<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAllyson Riggs\/Apple TV.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the creation of Fanning\u2019s look took up the bulk of the departments\u2019 time, there were also other characters demanding their attention. For Margo\u2019s father, Jinx (played by Nick Offerman), Ayanian created an arsenal of tattoos. \u201cIt\u2019s tricky with tattoos because everything has to be cleared. You can\u2019t use someone else\u2019s art,\u201d she says. \u201cThe little star behind his ear and the WWE on his inner arm, I designed those. And all the Japanese ones are 18th century folklore demons. I knew that anything before 1931 is now public domain, so I pulled [some] and [makeup artist] Michelle Sfarzo made transfers of the tattoos.\u201d Evoking some of the can-do spirit of the characters, McIntosh got creative while making an \u201980s wig for Jinx\u2019s glory days. \u201cI went to Nick and asked, \u2018What are your thoughts?\u2019 and he was like, \u2018Glam rock,\u2019 \u201d she recalls. \u201cIf I\u2019d given him a full Bon Jovi with the beard, it would have been a lot of hair going on. But I love a mullet and will try and squeeze one in wherever I can.\u201d When she tried to dye the wig, however, the streaks turned gray. \u201cIt just wasn\u2019t working, and in my stock, I had some bleach-blond curly wigs. And I was like, \u2018OK, we\u2019re just going to have to sew these streaks into this wig.\u2019 And it gave it a really good\u00a0look.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tElle Fanning as her OnlyFans alter ego HungryGhost<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBeth Garrabrant\/Apple TV<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a series about a young working-class woman who gets impregnated by her college professor and must find…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[4648,434,18,13790,6135,221362,117,19,17,120589,76480],"class_list":["post-637930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-awards","tag-celebrities","tag-eire","tag-elle-fanning","tag-emmy-awards","tag-emmys-2026","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-margou2019s-got-money-troubles","tag-nick-offerman"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117097201582635406","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}