Styling ‘Jackie Chan’: She glams up celeb wax figures

In this series, people from all walks of life offer an inside – often unfiltered – take on their livelihoods and what keeps them going in their jobs. In this instalment, hear from Sheryl Woo, a figure maintenance artist who helps protect the magic in Madame Tussauds Singapore, as told to The Straits Times.

I am 32, and I help to make sure that the 90 or so wax figures in Madame Tussauds Singapore in Sentosa look red-carpet ready every day.

Once I start work at 8.15am, I grab my toolbox and start walking around the whole attraction site. Inside the full toolbox, there’s a lighter, some wax and glue, so I can patch up scratches or fix items that have fallen off, such as rhinestones. I start walking from the admissions area - like how a guest would - to the next zone, which is the "ultimate film star experience", and so on.

Our morning maintenance walk, which typically takes up to two hours before the attraction is open to the public, is where we tidy the wax figures’ hair and touch up their make-up.

It’s just like being part of a glam team that prepares celebrities for red carpets.

We have to memorise what they are supposed to look like. I look at the figures from head to toe to see if something is out of place or missing.

During the first walk-through, I go up close to the faces of the figures to see if they have any scratches. The goal is to make them as life-like as possible.

Once I’ve made my way through all the zones, I go back to certain areas to improve some details. For example, if there are costumes that guests can try on, I spray a fabric freshener on them to make sure the clothes look “fresh and alive”.

If something breaks on-site during our morning maintenance, we bring it back to our studios, where we will fix it before putting it back on the floor. We also have multiple walk-throughs each day, especially when there’s high traffic. Generally, each figure weighs between 30kg and 60kg, requiring at least two of our team members to carry it. There are three people in my team, which I lead as the studio manager.

During the midday walk-throughs, I do not bring out the full toolbox - probably just a hairbrush, lint roller and some paint brushes.

We encourage people to get up close and personal with our figures, from hugging them to taking a selfie with them. We want guests to be able to “feel” them, as this is likely the only time they can get close to the personalities they usually see on stage or on the television.

People are curious, right? So sometimes they go: “I want to touch the hair. Is it real hair?” They also want to see the tattoos of the celebrities.

Sometimes we get surprises - people leave things with our figures, such as a pair of sunglasses on Audrey Hepburn or a jacket thrown around Katy Perry. Perhaps guests also want to help us make our figures look good.

We need to make sure that our stars are ready for the next guest who comes to take pictures with them.

While most people try to be careful, we understand that their enthusiasm can sometimes lead to minor accidents like unintended scratches from their fingernails. That’s where my team comes in. Even if they are minor scratches where people might not see them, we can see them - that’s what we are trained to do. We notice the small details.

Other things people are curious about are the props we have on the sets: “Is this biscuit real? Can I lift this prop up?” So I’ve had instances where people have tried their best to pry something open because they are curious about what’s inside.

I don’t blame them, and it is understandable as it feels like they are walking onto a movie set. For the record, the biscuits are not real. As for the hair, it’s usually a mix of human and animal hair. Sometimes, we use synthetic hair and wigs.

The majority of our figures are made of wax and fibreglass. For the fibreglass parts, which is usually the body, an acrylic-based paint is applied first, so the oil-based paint can stick to it.

Serious maintenance is when we feel like a figure needs a bit more work to look fresh, so we have to take it off the floor. We clean the clothes, wash the hair and get it ready for the public again.

We shampoo the hair, condition it, apply a hair mask - so it feels like a spa day. It's basically like how we would go to a salon to get ready for a big night.

Some of our female figures have curly or wavy hair. Given Singapore's humidity, the hair tends to lose its shine. The curls are not as curly as when they are freshly done. If we can touch it up early in the morning, we will do that.

I wouldn't say we use any special hair product that’s different from what you would use at home or at a salon. But obviously, we don't need anything for the scalp. We definitely look at hydrating, nourishing products for the hair. To hold the hair in place, we use hair mousse and sea salt spray. For most of our figures, the hair is punched in, a method that involves poking hair into the head. Just like with humans; if we are more rough, breakage can happen.

As for cleaning our figures’ outfits, we assess the materials first. Is it sequin? Is it just a normal button-down white shirt? If it is a basic shirt, it's a bit easier for us to just do the laundry ourselves. The more complicated ones, like if the fabrics are more fragile, we send those out for dry cleaning. For jewellery and silverware, we polish them. We do weekly maintenance for all shoes, whether they are canvas or leather, where we dust them off and polish them.

The question we hear a lot is: Is Yao Ming really this tall? When you search the basketball player's height online, and when you see him “in person”, people often go: How can a human being be this tall? Which then leads to the question of whether the measurements we take of the celebrities are true to actual form. And the answer is yes.

I graduated from Lasalle College of the Arts in technical and production management in 2014. I picked up a lot of skills such as light, sound, set and prop management. Once I graduated, I worked freelance for about two years, doing casual technical work, where I was an assistant stage manager for different shows. In Singapore, when you're in a stage management team, sometimes you have to source for props or make your own. That's when I started to fall in love with making things.

After two years of freelancing, I decided to pursue my degree in prop making in London at a theatre school from 2016 to 2019. It was an in-depth study of using different methods like sculpting, moulding, casting, finishing and fabricating of props.

While I was studying in London, I visited the Madame Tussauds workshop where they made the figures. I was impressed by the amount of detail put into a figure, and there are so many people with different skills working on one figure.

They have a whole department for hair punching, moulding and casting. I remember thinking that those people were so skilled, and I didn’t think I would be able to do this.

I came back to Singapore when Covid-19 hit and joined Madame Tussauds Singapore. When I got this job, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do it right, but here I am now.

It was a very steep learning curve, because where else in Singapore can you work with a wax figure? Essentially, we are replicating a person in a moment in time. I had to learn everything from scratch. And this isn't something you can just google.

When I got hired to be the studio manager, our regional head of studios had to fly in from Hong Kong and train me personally for two weeks, as there was no one else to do it. I had to learn as much as possible during that time.

There’s a lot of colour matching involved in the maintenance process because human skin does not have only one colour. At first glance, you might see just one colour, but there are actually layers of colours. These are sometimes dry brushed or splattered on to add realism.

One of the projects I take care of is a figure restyle, which happens when we have to change the look of the figure to keep it up to date.

First, I find images of how we want our figure to look, especially if it's a concert picture or red-carpet look. I find a few images, and get approval internally before approaching the celebrity directly for an outfit donation. This is the preferred option, as it is the very outfit the celebrity has worn in a particular concert, award show or career milestone that we wish to commemorate with the figure.

Once all the clothing items are in, we put it on the figure. Then we take pictures and get approval from the celebrity before we put it back on the floor.

My favourite figures usually change. I love Katy Perry because her eyes are just so captivating. Local swimmer Yip Pin Xiu’s figure is another one that I really like because the likeness is so striking. This was obvious when she stood side by side with her wax figure at the unveiling ceremony. It's kind of amazing. I enjoy Zendaya’s dress. I like Harry Styles as well because he has a good expression.

Harry Styles was part of a global launch that involved putting out seven figures in various outfits and poses at locations like London, New York, Singapore and Berlin.

Most of the local figures are based in Singapore, except for singer-songwriter JJ Lin, who also has a figure in Hong Kong. People take pictures with JJ Lin a lot. I would say Stefanie Sun’s figure gets touched the most because her figure has her arm stretched out with a microphone and it's all blinged out. So it draws people’s attention. It's also because her figure’s hair is colourful and eye-catching. Sir Stamford Raffles’ figure too - he is a historical figure, and he sort of comes to life here.

I think what people would really love, and would be quite fun to have, would be a K-pop group like Blackpink or BTS, but BTS is made up of a lot of people. That's where it is tricky.

We look out for upcoming talents and select the ones suitable for our attraction. As each Madame Tussauds caters to a different and diverse crowd, we have to ensure that the talents we pick are what our audience wants. This is done through a mix of internal data analytics and asking our guests who they want to see.

Meanwhile, temporary figures are usually touring figures that tour around multiple sites. Based on what our visitors like, sometimes we borrow figures from other cities' Madame Tussauds and vice versa.

For example, the figure of rapper and singer Zhang Yi Xing, known as Lay Zhang, was loaned from Madame Tussauds Shanghai to Singapore because he’s a hit with fans from China and this region. So we had his figure here for a couple of months earlier this year.

I love my job. I think it's not easy to find something that you love doing and to be able to combine passion with a job. And I get to do it every day. I count myself lucky because not everybody enjoys what they do for a living. It's also a very fun place to work. I'm the kind of person who will talk to my figures. It's a bit odd, but it's one way that I like to keep it fun, light and enjoyable.

My favourite part of the job is that in a week, I can see various types of people and their reactions to the figures.

When I see people get excited over a figure, it makes me happy that my team and I did it right. Because these people are enjoying themselves, admiring the likeness. That's when we know we've done our jobs well. This is what keeps me going.

When kids see the Marvel figures, they get very excited. When you see another human being's joy and that you helped make that happen, you feel happy because that's the whole point. They are here to enjoy themselves.

It gets slightly tricky when we need to ship our figures overseas. We have to manage shipping and customs requirements between Singapore and other countries.

If we have to do an overseas event, we have to ensure that the figure arrives on time.

We did a launch in Manila for Broadway star Lea Salonga, and because of the customs requirements, the figure had to arrive two weeks prior to the event for checks. I had to ensure that it was kept in a safe climate-controlled environment of 20 deg C and arrange for the right transportation, such as a climate-controlled truck.

Sometimes we face unexpected scenarios. When we were shipping to the Philippines, there was a typhoon the week before the event, so offices were closed. We didn’t know if we could get our paperwork done in time.

The most challenging thing is having to fix a figure during operating hours. We don't want to spoil the magic for the public.

We have to maintain the celebrity’s appearance in tip-top condition, so even if it’s a minor detail, we do our best to work quickly to reinstate the figure to its original state. But with guests walking around, it is hard to remove a figure discreetly.

We are all hardcore fans of certain celebrities, and people pay more attention to their favourite stars. Sometimes they will say: “I don’t remember this person looking like this”, or “Why is their hair like that?” I try to remember that our figures are like snapshots of that time. It’s like a picture taken but in 3D.

A challenge is when people take the things such as costumes used to promote a more interactive experience and leave them somewhere else. It’s a hunt because I need to find them. When it gets crowded, we have to double our figure checks throughout the day to put things back in place. This is because we take pride in the fact that guests are free to get close to their favourite celebrities and so, it is inevitable that things get shifted out of place.

In 2022, we took the figure of Marvel character Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, to Merlion Park. We wanted a picture of the figure against the Merlion to mark its arrival in Singapore. We had a big team of people helping to move and carry Loki that day as it is about 60kg, one of the heaviest figures we have. It was also a hot day. Who needs the gym when you have this?

We had to preserve the magic so we had to cover him up until the final set-up. There was a lot of interest when we unveiled him, as the place was full of tourists at the time. People were snapping photos as we were doing our photoshoot.

Most of my friends and family cannot understand that this is a job, as it's not something that's very common. It’s not an arts and crafts class. It’s hard for me to explain sometimes so I ask them to come see it for themselves.

Got an interesting job to share? Write in to us at ssharon@sph.com.sg.