An 'Almighty' Transformation!

Even better yet, we are surprising Steve. You see I am supposed to sit down with him to talk about his new movie “Evan Almighty," much as we normally do for most new movies. Steve knows me as me -- dark hair, usually in a suit whenever we chat about one of his projects. Or, when he's over borrowing my wife's lingerie. But that's a story for another day... (he tells me it's “research”)!

So, I'm quite excited about the payoff because Steve will walk through the door and hopefully, be shocked.

I arrived at Universal Studios Stage 35? at 7AM and met Steve's special fx wizards, Designer Dave Anderson, Wigmaker Justin Stafford and Hairdresser Adruitha Lee.

The toughest part was putting on that pinkish cap thing over my melon. She had to use all these clips -- bobby pins. I think there mighta been a crowbar in there as well. It pulled my scalp/skin like you wouldn't believe.
After that mini-torture (I know ladies, you're saying, “he's such a wimp!”), it was time for glue and yak hair. My beard consisted of yak hair from my jaw bone on down my neck.

Above my jawbone . . . real hair, which, quite frankly, freaked me out more than the yak hair.

Where did this hair come from?

Was he/she still alive?

Would they see me on tv and recognize their hair and want it back?

Did this person whose hair was being glued to my face bathe regularly?

My mind raced. But luckily the whole process took about an hour less than Steve's proces -- something about our heads being mis-shapened in the same spots, so everything fit easily without need for modification.

The glue felt cool going on but I knew it would be a mother to get off later -- especially the glue on my upper lip. That was gonna hurt. But once they put the moustache in place, we were done.

When I put on Noah's robe and grabbed the staph I looked in the mirror and was amazed. Dave, Justin and Adruitha did an incredible job.

I couldn't wait for Steve to see what they had done.

About an hour later... (he's a big star now...so he likes to make me wait) Steve knocked on the door. I said, “come in”...and BAM!!

He was floored.

The look on his face was worth the nearly three hours in the makeup chair.

It's not often you can genuinely surprise anyone in Hollywood, let alone get a genuine response. This was one of those rare times.

I have to admit this ranks up there as one of the coolest things i've done in my television career.

What was great was watching Steve's facial expressions as we went on to do the actual interview for his movie.

I'd be asking him a question and could see his eyes scanning my features -- checking me out! It was funny.

I asked him if it was weird to see me as him -- as Noah, asking him questions about playing Noah and he said, "yes," and that it was just cool to see what he went through day after day on somebody else because he never got to see it outside of his own body. He was always inside the Noah costume, which makes sense.

Here's the cool thing about Steve -- after we finished the interview, off camera, he came up to me and thanked me for doing this -- for going through all the preparation, effort and stuff and I told him it was great and I had a blast.
Then we had an idea.

I would keep on the beard, 'stache and hair and go to my favorite Starbucks and see if they noticed me. You see, I order a very specific Chai Tea Latte.

150-degrees
2% percent milk
No water.

Steve said I should go into Starbucks wearing my robe, raise my staph and command my latte.

So, after I left Universal Studios (in street clothes) . . .

. . . I went to my Starbucks and they had no clue it was me -- until I ordered. Then they did a double take, whispered to themselves (which I caught of bit of...”hey...isn't that what Tony orders?”).

One of the guys behind the counter then said, “hey, maybe it's his DAD?”

I was biting my lip so as not to laugh.

I had to take out my California driver's license to prove that I was me. It was funny.

Not so funny was Miss Bella's reaction when I came home.

Every step I took inside my house, she took a step backwards.

“Daddy-o?” she said with a bit of fear in her voice.

“Hi Bella...it's daddy-o” I said...trying to calm her.

I kneeled down and told her I was wearing a mask.

Miss Bella sez, “No...no...where's Daddy-o's brown hair...Bella doesn't like white hair..take it off..take it off..shave the scruffies Daddy-o.”

I told her she could help me take off the mask...and that made her relax,.a bit. But once I told her she could actually pull off my scruffies -- my beard and my wig she was less afraid of me.

Suddenly, I was afraid of her. How in the world was I going to get all this stuff off?

The special fx wizards gave me some sort of elixir and instructions, but I knew from Steve's warning earlier today that it was not going to be pretty.

I had visions of Miss Bella hanging by my beard and the glue still not giving way.

As I write this...I still have glue in my hair.

But here's the upside, it's now almost 6PM and Miss Bella is on the potty -- all by herself. No more Saturday Steamers!!