Steve Wang: I think when I was a kid one of the first memories I had was back in 1975,
I moved here from Taiwan and we didn't really have Halloween back in Taiwan.
When I came here is was around Halloween time and I went to a toy store called King Norman's, it
was a toy store, and down the shelf was some of the most amazing display of latex masks
I've ever seen. Up till that point I've only seen masks that were made of cardboard
and they are literally printed with little eye holes cut out and rubber bands that you put on.
Seeing a full head in latex, I don't know
what that was but it changed my life. I was so blown away but that it changed my life
and I started collecting the masks for about four years. I accumulated about 30 of them
by the time I was 14 but that wasn't enough for me. I had to know how they were made.
Back in those days, that was back in the 70s we didn't have like make-up schools. Anything
you wanted to learn about mask making you maybe once in a while you'd see something
on TV, a behind the scenes in the making of King Kong or something. I went to theatrical
books for ideas and I saw you had to do sculpture, you had to do molds and stuff. I just I'd
start practicing that myself and eventually kind of led to what I did here but that memory
of seeing masks for the first time was I can't even express how magical that was. That changed my life.
First job down here was actually working for Stan Winston. It was a film called Invaders from Mars: The Remake and that was back in
1975 I came down here, Stan was actually up in England at the time on Aliens and Howard
Gillis was in charge. He hired me, brought me in. I was doing all the like running poly
form, seaming, you know, all the stuff that... so very rudimentary stuff. Stuff I'd not
done before. It was magic to me like I'm learning how to use all these chemicals. I'm
learning how all the process and then eventually when Stan came back... I met Stan. It was
great experience and I ended up starting to paint.
Stan liked stuff I was painting. He asked me to paint some stuff. I ended up painting
all the big brains on the Drones myself and that was really fun and they went on set for
about a month and a half and I've got to say. That was probably one of the most educational
experiences I've ever had only because the way Stan worked on set. He just had this way
of regulating everything. The way he taught us to interact with the Ads, always asking
about what's next, what's going on? We were always just in touch and knowing what's
going on that after I was done with the project and I'd gone on to do my own things I've
never had a problem on set with the AD. In fact, the ADs always come to me and go, "You're
the most professional, prepared guy I've ever worked with because you're always asking
me what's going on. You are always prepared when I need you." That was attributed to
Stan because that was something that Stan had taught me when I was working for him.
I've worked with Rick Baker and I've worked with Dick Smith but only in a teaching capacity
in Japan not on an actual project but I have to say of all these sort of old timers, the
guys who were the masters when I got started. Stan was really my mentor. I've only worked
with him I think on two or three projects back-to-back over a period of about ten months
total. The thing that I took work from working at Stan's the most was that Stan taught
me how to appreciate what I do. When you're growing up as a kid, you either have incredibly
huge ego or you are a self-hating perfectionist. I was more of the self-hating perfectionist
and everything I did Stan would come by. He really enjoyed what I did and really applauded
me for doing a good job. I would always, "I hate this. I hate that. I can't believe.
I wish had more time. I can make this better. I know I can. I just have to..."
One time Stan pulled me aside and he said, "You know I understand you want to do the
best job that you can but if you don't ever give yourself credit after doing a good job
once in a while. If you feel like you did a good job, it's okay for you to say it
to yourself, hey I did good. I'm proud. If you don't do that once in a while then
what are you doing this for? Why are you torturing yourself all the time? What's it all for
in the end?" It made a lot of sense to me. I kind of grew up from that and the irony
of it all is that I find teaching myself that lesson. I've taught this lesson to many
of my friends and some of them, older generation than I am very much I ran into self-hating
professionals all the time. It's sort of my way of passing on wisdom.
If you were 16 years old I would say, stop texting, pay attention. The new generation
I found is gotten so mixed in with technology right now. I think it's a bit distracting.
When I started doing, I had the fortune of having telephone and nothing else. What came
with that is a passion for doing, for loving monsters and wanting to make monsters. Having
the skill set to do it is very important like being a good sculptor comes with a lot of
practice, a lot of hard work. What a lot of the younger generation don't get and should
understand is that to be good at anything you have to work hard. To succeed at anything,
one of the traits of people who are successful is that they go above and beyond the call
of duty and they ask for no compensation. It's not about the compensation. It's
about what you feel inside, what you want to do.
That all ties in with passion. Work hard at being the best artist you can. If it means
sculpting, if it means painting don't go party every single night. Sit at home in your
garage; get your hands dirty, do the work, and hopefully you have to love it because
if you don't love it then you shouldn't do it. It's not worth it. Being an artist
is a very lonely life, it really is. If you don't love, what you do then there's no
point. If you love what you do, your love for it keeps you company. It really does because
I've been it now since I was 14 years old. I've been over 31 years. I still love it.
I still work at least 12 hours a day, you know, every day. It's speaks about passion.
You've got to have the passion. If you don't love it. If you are just dabbling with it,
dabble. Move on but if you truly love doing this then you have to put in the hours, you
have to work hard and you have to do it out your heart, out of your interest not because
you want to be compensated or you want to be named the next Academy Award.
None of that means anything. What's most important is how you feel about what you do
at the end of the day. So work hard, work hard, work hard.