Interview by Paul Salfen
Karen Hartley Thomas (Makeup and Hair Designer) has received various award nominations throughout her career. In 2009 she was nominated for both a BAFTA and an Emmy for her makeup and hair design on the BBC’s “Little Dorrit,” and the following year she received another Emmy nomination for Simon Curtis’ “Cranford,” starring Judi Dench and Imelda Staunton. In 2011 Hartley Thomas was nominated for a BAFTA Award for her work on Michael Samuels’ miniseries “Any Human Heart,” featuring a stellar cast including Jim Broadbent, Hayley Atwell, Matthew Macfadyen and Gillian Anderson.
In 2021 Hartley Thomas designed Carrie Cracknell’s Persuasion and Florian Zeller’s The Son, with Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern. In 2022 she designed Coky Giedroyc’s Greatest Days, a musical featuring the songs of Take That; Matthew López’s Red, White & Royal Blue, starring Sarah Shahi and Uma Thurman; and James Hawes’ One Life, starring Anthony Hopkins and Helena Bonham Carter.
Hartley Thomas’ television credits include Tom Hooper’s “Longford,” with Jim Broadbent and Samantha Morton; Hugo Blick’s “The Shadow Line,” with Chiwetel Ejiofor; Roger Michell’s “The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies,” with Jason Watkins; Julian Farino’s “The Child in Time,” with Benedict Cumberbatch; and Edward Berger’s “Patrick Melrose,” also with Cumberbatch.
Hartley Thomas began her collaboration with director Dominic Cooke on “The Hollow Crown,” “Henry VI” and “Richard III” with Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench and Sophie Okonedo. Next came the features On Chesil Beach, starring Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle, and The Courier, starring Cumberbatch and Jessie Buckley.
Hartley Thomas’ other film credits include Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio, starring Toby Jones; Roger Michell’s Le Week-End, starring Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan; The Corrupted, starring Sam Claflin, Timothy Spall and Hugh Bonneville; and Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield, starring Dev Patel, Ben Whishaw, Tilda Swinton and Hugh Laurie.
Hartley Thomas reunited with Roger Michell on The Duke, a feature with Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren in the lead roles, then returned to television to do “Adult Material,” starring Hayley Squires, and Andrew Haigh’s miniseries “The North Water,” starring Jack O’Connell and Colin Farrell.
