Rick Baker

“I was born in 1950 and watched science fiction and horror movies on TV and was always really fascinated by them.”

“CGI has a lot of backlash now. I think it's just because there are so many people doing it. It's a tool and it's only as good as the people behind it.”

“I love making scary faces, that's just how I grew up.”

“It's funny: I've been very successful and done a lot of films, and I don't really have an agent - I don't really pursue jobs, I let people come to me.”

“So many of my dreams were to actually be able to make a living of what I did as a hobby.”

“When my parents died, it became clear to me that there was an end in sight. Death was never a real thing to me. And then when that happened I realized I only have so many years left, if I'm lucky.”

“There's a limit to what I can do with a makeup or with animatronics.”

“I do a lot of CG stuff for fun.”

“When I do a mask, I do try to put a lot of character and a lot of expression into the sculpt.”

“I hate wasting time or money and that happens all the time for no good reason, and then people save money by skimping on the important things.”

“Sometimes we think of a creature like a person in a suit, but then you have limitations of two eyes and two legs - they have to see and breathe. I got more into puppetry because it offered more possibilities.”

“Usually people who are in my position, they run a company and they hire people and then they take the credit for it.”

“I always wanted to make aliens that looked like '60s aliens.”

“I enjoy doing digital work. I enjoy sculpting digitally. I've had my digital sculptures on covers of the top digital magazines.”

“I don't want to be doing movies that I don't want to do. They take so much out of you.”

“I'm amazed that movies ever get finished at all - much less come out good once in a while. It's an awful lot of work and it can go wrong a thousand different ways.”