The Lowdown Makeup Dept Head on Harjo, Jones, Gilpin, McRae & More

Posted in: FX, Hulu, TV | Tagged: the lowdown

The Lowdown Makeup Dept Head on Harjo, Jones, Gilpin, McRae & More

Makeup Dept Head Sharon Tabb (Reservation Dogs) discussed FX's The Lowdown Season 2, working with series creator Sterlin Harjo, and more.

Published Sat, 14 Nov 2026 12:37:09 -0600
by Tom Chang
|
Comments

Article Summary

• The Lowdown makeup dept head Sharon Tabb breaks down reuniting with Sterlin Harjo after Reservation Dogs.
• Tabb explains how The Lowdown balances realism with dream sequences, glam looks, period makeup, and FX gags.
• The Lowdown Season 2 brought smooth collaboration in Tulsa, with Harjo’s open creative process shaping the work.
• Tabb details crafting looks for Tommy Lee Jones, Betty Gilpin, and Shane McRae, including a tricky prosthetic gag.

Sharon Tabb has been a makeup artist for over 33 years and has been in Hollywood on film and TV for over 20+ years, getting her start on UPN/Hulu drama Veronica Mars in 2004, working her way up with memorable projects in Apple TV's Fancy Dance (2023), Paramount and Apple's Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), and FX's Reservation Dogs. Her latest reunites her with Reservation Dogs creator Sterlin Harjo on the FX and Hulu crime drama The Lowdown, which follows a Tulsa bookstore owner-turned investigative journalist, Lee Rayborn (Ethan Hawke), who digs into local corruption. When his reporting uncovers sinister connections, he must protect both his family and the truth. Season two picks up when Lee's father (Tommy Lee Jones) surfaces, and an attorney (Betty Gilpin) comes into the picture, who's a target on the run. In part one of our interview, Tabb spoke to Bleeding Cool about how collaborative Harjo is, picking up where they left off from Reservation Dogs with the similar cast and crew, working in Tulsa, and working with season two additions Jones, Gilpin, and Shane McRae.

The Lowdown Makeup Dept Head Sharon Tabb on Sterlin Harjo, Keeping Cohesion, Tommy Lee Jones, Betty Gilpin, and Shane McRae, and More

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'The Lowdown' and how did you get involved?

Tabb: Well, I'd already worked kind of in that world with Sterlin Harjo with 'Reservation Dogs' before that, so I was already a part of the mix, and I love his storytelling. It's so quirky, fun, and real, and this was just another great story to get involved in.

How did you distinguish your approach to this series as opposed to when you were on 'Reservation Dogs?'

Well, this is a lot larger of a production than 'Reservation Dogs,' and to be honest, it's a very similar approach. We have a lot of repeat actors that are coming back from 'Reservation Dogs.' It's all the same crew. Maybe I should say, "It's more work, but like in a great way." There's a lot more creative freedom, because crazy things are just always happening, whether it's special effects gags or dream sequences with fun glam makeup, period makeup that we get to experiment with. I feel like we get to do a lot of different things, and then I also think it's having a lot of realism as well, which you don't always have to do a lot of makeup. I think a lot of people believe you put makeup on everyone, and not everyone may have makeup, because you want to keep them as characters.

What do you like about working with Sterlin as a creative compared to others you've worked with in the past?

Probably the fact that he has a lot of fun, and I think he goes in…he is a lot of fun; he also…I found on prior projects that sometimes you just do it their way, but [Sterlin] is very collaborative. He obviously knows what he wants, but he also wants to hear your thoughts too. He's very clever about what he wants to know and what the actor wants. He has his vision, I have my vision, and we all come together, so I think it's the fact that he's just open-minded. He's very much like, "Well, you know, what do you think?" and I think that's really cool.

What do you enjoy about working in Tulsa?

Oh, Tulsa, man, I think it's a hidden gem. It's a city, but it's not too large. It has everything you could ever need, amazing restaurants. There is a really cool artistic group of people. I have found that, for example, they have this two-step; they call it the Tulsi Two-Step, once a month. You would think you would be going to this Two-Step, and you would just be going around a bunch of cowboys. I just picture something, not what I go and see. When you go, you see very artistic people in there, and you're just like, "Oh wow! This is a community; everybody's just coming together from all walks of life, and it's just really unique." It's a whole- until you've been there and experienced it, then you know. It's a hidden gem.

What are your biggest challenges for the season compared to what you've had for the last season?

Biggest challenge…I'm trying to decide if I want to do, I mean, probably this is a difficult one, because I feel like it was actually a smooth season, believe it or not. That's a difficult question. When we were doing special effects, there was a gag where we did, like, a partial bald cap, and he had a big, swollen black eye. He's got a crooked, broken nose, and it's funny, because in the beginning it was going so well. As the temperature started getting higher and it was getting hotter, it just became a little more of like, "Oh, now we've got to make this thing adjust, like we've got to check it," or we may have to like, because he's then sweating and we've gotten like, "Oh, it's going to start lifting," so it's like we started just having a little problem because of the heat, if that makes sense. We had to take precautions and be ready to fix anything the crazy heat might cause, so that would probably be the main thing.

You have some new additions this season with Betty Gilpin, Tommy Lee Jones, and Shane McRae, and I was wondering how you describe your approach to them this season? Obviously, Shane might be a little more involved as far as just the prosthetics and everything, right?

We'll start talking about Tommy Lee Jones first. We had a meeting where we sat down and talked about the character that he is playing, Lee Raybon, Sr., and he came in with a full beard, so we could figure out if we're going to shave it, sculpt it, whatever. We talked about the character and talked about how, like, a lot of people already have a lot of facial hair on the show. What makes sense, I felt like he should have something, because it should mimic his son, somehow, and he agreed. We decided to go with this cavalier kind of old Hollywood. I wouldn't really call it a "villain" look, but it definitely is a quirky, absurd, fun look, because we kept his mustache twirled up, and we tried to keep the chin kind of at a point. Depending on the scene, we would decide if we were going to make it sharper or loosen it up a little bit.

When it came to Betty Gilpin, because she plays an attorney, Ginger Lafferty, but she's not a glam girl, and not trying to impress anybody. She's worried about this person that she's affiliated with. It's gone lost…it's lost in the prison system, and so we just decided to do natural makeup, because makeup is not her concern. We did a very light, neutral type of makeup.

When it came to Shane McRae as playing McMahon, he was a lot of fun because when we had to do the big wound on his head, there was a talk for a hot minute about having to shave it. He's got the thickest, most amazing hair you've ever seen; he was a sport. He's like, "If we must do it, we have to do it." Anyway, I don't know if it was all a joke, but we did not have to do it. We just had to like to do this partial bald cap, and the hair team was amazing to get it very flat because there was a lot of hair, and we made it happen. He had to sit for about two to three hours every time we had to do all the things to him. And he was a sport, and he just kept saying, "I'm just glad we didn't have to shave it. I'll do whatever we need to do."

The Lowdown, which also stars Keith David, Kaniehtiio Horn, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong, airs Wednesdays through November 25th on FX and Hulu.

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!