Mickayla Pence: Makeup Artist
“I realized I could be anything, because you can be anything there” says Mickayla Pence, sipping her drink and reminiscing. She’s speaking of her time in New York City, where she first saw a professional makeup artist at work. She moved to the city—by way of Marshall University and the Greenbrier Valley—as a graphic designer with a serious knack for makeup. Sitting in the Washington Street pub in Lewisburg, she looks the part of a professional makeup artist. Which is to say, suspiciously enough like a TV star to make anyone look twice. Call it tools of the trade.
It was in New York, on a film set as an extra, that she saw makeup artists doing touch-ups on the film’s star in the chaotic midst of a Hollywood production. In that moment—stereotypes about movie magic notwithstanding—the course of her life changed. “It inspired me! It was something that you don’t grow up knowing is an option. Ever since I saw her I’ve been pursuing this career....I picked a trade.” she says, smiling. Needless to say, she was hooked. She explains,”when you see what you want you grab it by the horns you know?”
Fast forward the better part of a decade and, after going back to school, she worked the grind through a notoriously difficult- to-break-into industry. Now, Mickayla finds herself working in film and television, traveling from her home base in Lewisburg across the United States. The night before sitting down to speak she traveled home from one big city, next week heading off to another for an episode of In Pursuit with John Walsh on Investigation Discovery, one of her current jobs. As she’s developed as an artist and technician her niche has solidified into film and television work, “anything that moves on a screen” she notes.
What don’t people know about working as a makeup artist in film and television? The degree of difficulty: “movies are a lot of fun to watch and really difficult to make.” Twelve hour work days, traveling, uprooted from your routines and your family, and copious, copious note-taking and organizational skills while on set. “There’s a ton of responsibility to not mess up the look” from shot-to-shot, and there isn’t room for error.
What’s the best part of finding success in this industry? Graciously, she describes how great it feels to be in a place where she can choose projects that she wants, and those she doesn’t. It’s hard not to pry, which projects does she avoid? She whispers conspiratorially, low enough that the hum of the bar masks her next words, and then laughs while asking to keep her answer off the record.
She knows that her professional life would be easier if she had stayed in New York or moved to Los Angeles, as many folks in her industry eventually do. Why does she choose to stay in the Greenbrier Valley? “Some of my favorite movies I’ve ever worked on happened here in Appalachia.” Films such as What the Night Can Do (shot in Greenbrier County), and Feast of the Seven Fishes (shot in Marion County). “There’s this camaraderie in West Virginia that I haven’t felt anywhere else. I love being able to live here, work globally, and come back to the mountains.” “Still” she says, “if they’d bring the film tax incentive back to West Virginia, I’d probably never leave.”