Hugo Andre's 'Makeup' character was inspired by his dad.
Hugo Andre was inspired by his dad for new movie role
The actor decided to write, direct, and star in the leading role of Sacha in the new drama film that follows an introverted French chef who moves to London after hearing the story of his friend's transgender sibling but ultimately his character was based on his father because he had also started off as a chef abroad.
He told ScreenRant: "Essentially, one of my best friends has a sister, who was originally his brother. And I remember my friend speaking a lot of the time about that transitional process for them, and what that was like for the family, and what that was like for his sister. It got me thinking about different ideas and about that moment of realization—that moment of identity crisis, where you want to start thinking about your identity more—even before the transitioning and the surgeries and all the rest of it. More just the idea of, "What is it like to have that feeling?"
"Do you tell the world about it? Or do you try and keep it to yourself? How do you process that? So I initially came up with that idea based on my friendship, and then I started bringing in different ideas and inspirations, for example, the character of Sacha, who was played by me, was inspired by my dad, because he is an interesting character. He was a French guy around my age, he was 23, I think, at the time, and he came to London from France, and he became a chef."
Hugo- whose character ends up living in the home of a stockbroker who has a secret life of a drag queen (Will Masheter) and is forced into an unlikely friendship as a result went to add that his dad would move around rented rooms like Sacha and "exaggerated" various aspects of his father for the script.
He said: "So he was a chef in London, and he was moving around renting rooms, etc. I took inspiration from his character. He had an issue with his hand as well—a hand condition thing. My dad isn't quite as awkward as I made the character out to be. I exaggerated that. My dad is actually a bit more rambunctious than that. But I just thought it'd be interesting to have these polar opposite characters—to have Dan as somebody that was quite extroverted and friendly and open, and then have Sacha, who was introverted and quirky and weird.
'Makeup' is out now on all digital platforms.