We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Emma Croft a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Emma, appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
When I left makeup school I was taking zero paid/incredibly low paid jobs for the first couple of years of my career. Luckily I was still living at home because I wasn’t earning nearly enough to support myself; I was selling all my belongings on Ebay at the same time just to stay afloat. After a while, as more/better jobs started to trickle in I started to up my rates and upping my rates is something I continue to do every year. It took around 3 or 4 years of taking every job I could find, regardless of rates or quality of the project, to be able to fully support myself enough to move out and start to live comfortably solely off money earned from doing hair/makeup. Being in a creative field is one of those strange things where employers know they can exploit newbies for a while because the fields are generally so competitive that people are willing to work for free/very low pay. It’s become the norm unfortunately, but at the same time, working in any creative/competitive field, you really have to prove that you’re worth hiring over the other 20-30 potentials in the producer’s phonebook! My ethos for every job is and always has been to show up on time, do an amazing job, and be kind to everyone on set. Now, 11 years into my career, I feel so lucky to have worked on the projects I have, with some of the most incredible talents, being able to fully support myself through hair/makeup alone: I really don’t take any of it for granted.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I started off totally obsessed with film from a young age, went to film school at 18 with not much clue of what department I wanted to work in, and then chose hair & makeup after watching Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto and being in complete AWE over the hair and makeup looks; it was the first time I’d really noticed this craft in all it’s glory, and how integral it is to the overall storytelling of a film, so I swiftly applied to makeup school at the London College of Fashion and never looked back. I worked the first 6 years of my career in London before moving to Los Angeles in 2018. After my first few years working in my field, which was spent mainly gaining experience and improving my skills, I was lucky enough to land some incredible jobs heading the hair and makeup department on various films and TV shows. I signed with a top film/tv agency in London and bigger and better jobs just kept flowing. That’s when I made the decision to move to LA. It was always something I wanted to do at some point, and I knew if I didn’t leave soon, I’d get stuck in London forever because my career was escalating very quickly (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). Moving to LA was very challenging because I had to start my career from the beginning again. I was taking no/low paid jobs on very small productions, had no money, and had to hustle and grind my way to be able to support myself. Now 5 years into living in LA, I found my career moving in a direction I didn’t expect: working largely with musicians, celebrities, in fashion etc, doing film & TV projects along side it wherever I can. I’ve found that the diversity of projects here is something I never experienced in London, and I’m so grateful to be able to work creatively across both areas of hair/makeup here, and signing with an agency out here has really opened up a lot of doors for me in this area.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My goal is always to be true to myself and my creative vision, even if it means butting heads with a few people. Art is such a personal thing; it comes from the soul and everyone’s way of creating is so personal to them. No one will ever be able to create the same thing as someone else, and every hairstylist or makeup artist’s interpretation of a brief or character will be so different from the next person’s and I love that!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
My favorite thing about my job is that every day is so different; different team, different talent, different brief, different location. I’m someone who gets bored easily so having new challenges to face every single day is very exciting to me! I also love that my job is the perfect combination of creative, technical and organizey (that’s not a word, but it is now!). I have to design a look, apply it with perfect technicality and on a film/tv show I also have to break down scripts, hire a team, schedule the full project as well as scheduling out each day with the ADs, break down my budget etc. I get to use every corner of my brain and it is the most fulfilling job I could ever imagine doing. It’s not without its challenges though of course; sometimes things don’t go to plan: dealing with extreme weather, last minute changes in schedule, script changes etc. You have to be very adaptable, have a calm demeanor and be able to problem-solve in record time. But that’s what makes it all very exciting. every day feels like a real accomplishment.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.emmacroftmakeup.com
- Instagram: @emmacroftmakeup
Image Credits
Emma Croft