Oscar-winning prosthetic artist on transforming "The Rock"

He's won two Oscars, worked with Hollywood A-lister actors and directors but if he's done his job well, then his work is invisible. Make-up and prosthetic artists, Kazu Hiro, has been described as "everyone's first choice in Hollywood". As a teenager in Japan, Kazu contacted Hollywood make-up artist Dick Smith striking up a pen pal mentorship and eventually moved to LA to pursue his own career in the industry. On the side he creates larger-than-life sculptures of well-known people's heads. Hiro says he was an introvert and as a child, developed a fascination for people's faces and expressions. His latest project has been transforming Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock into MMA pioneer Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine. Kazu Hiro speaks to Culture 101 about the magic of make-up, quitting Hollywood and getting the call from Gary Oldman to become Winston Churchill.

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