Popular actor transforms himself into Game of Thrones heroines

Paolo Ballesteros is an actor, model, host, comedian, and probably dancer and circus performer who’s had a lot of success of Filipino television. He’s also an old hand with makeup, and has gained notoriety for transforming himself into a variety of female celebrities, from Beyoncé to Meryl Streep. His latest series involves making himself over in the style of characters on Game of Thrones. Take a look:

Game of Thrones being the pop cultural lightning rod that it is, these particular transformations have gained a lot of attention, and Ballesteros sat down with Mashable to discuss the process behind them. “I start out by Googling pictures of the characters in different lighting to see the facial structures and contours.”

"Then I scan my pile of wigs and if I don’t have the same hair color I’ll buy one on Amazon."

An eyebrow pencil will do for facial details, plus highlighting and contouring to get the complexion right. “I’ll make my eyes bigger or more farther apart,” Ballesteros said. “I’ll shade the brows, make the nose shorter or longer, and then go to the mouth and cheekbones.”

The nose is particularly important to the look—he’ll even make his nostrils look bigger or smaller as needing. And finally, there’s the lips. “Most of the lips are the same shape,” he said. “But if they’re not, I’ll put black liner on the lower part of my upper lip to make it thinner and give that half-open mouth expression.” Gotta love that half-open mouth expression.

All of Ballesteros’ work is pretty great here, but the one that hit me hardest was his take on Cersei, maybe because I can’t help but see hate behind those eyes. I’ve been watching the show too long—it’s just instinctual at this point.

For more of Ballesteros’ work, feel free to check out his Instagram.