Aussie make-up artist nominated for Oscar

AUSSIE Oscar nominee Rick Findlater splits his time between creating Gandalf the wizard and hanging out with Diesel the dog on his farm.

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THE tiny country town of Georgica in northern NSW is a long way from Hollywood, and for Rick Findlater, that is perfect.

Usually, it's just Findlater and his black labrador, Diesel, on the four-hectare property, about a 45-minute drive west of Byron Bay.

That was the case just after midnight on Friday (AEDT) when Findlater, with Diesel at his side, was scrolling through the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website looking for his name among the Oscar nominees.

Suddenly, there it was.

His name sat alongside his make-up and hairstyling colleagues on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Swords King and Tami Lane, but Findlater still did not want to get his hopes up.

He then clicked on his name.

Up popped: "This is Mr Findlater's first Oscar nomination."

It was only after he read this Findlater realised there was no way it could be a typo.

The 45-year-old bachelor, who hopes to breed Dexter cattle on the property in between making Hollywood movies, finally admitted to himself he was an Oscar nominee and would be in Hollywood on February 24 for the 85th Academy Awards.

The only problem?

Findlater only had Diesel to celebrate with.

Another essential ingredient to an Oscar party was also missing from his fridge.

"Being an Aussie bloke you'd think I'd have something here to drink, but the only thing I could find was a bottle of cognac someone gave me for Christmas," Findlater laughed in an interview with AAP.

"It was a tough celebration."

Born in Southport, Queensland, and raised in Lennox Head in northern NSW, Findlater's first job was on the 1990s TV series Flipper.

He has become one of the few elite crew members who can do make-up, prosthetics and hair, making him a hot ticket with directors, including Peter Jackson for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, where Findlater was responsible for turning Sir Ian McKellen into Gandalf the wizard.

Findlater also worked on Avatar, Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai, The Grudge 2 and Amelia.

He was responsible for the wig Naomi Watts wears in The Impossible, the tsunami-survivor film Watts received a best actress nomination for.

He sent Watts an email to congratulate her.

He lives a quiet existence with Diesel when he is not working because he likes to separate his two lives.

"A lot of my colleagues like to live the film industry 24/7 and I try and keep a fresh take on it," he said.

"Once I finish a job I completely divorce myself from it."

To celebrate his nomination, Findlater said he might drive to Byron Bay with Diesel, although he doesn't expect any of the locals to recognise him as an Oscar nominee.

"Not unless on the way down I get the phrase 'This is Mr Findlater's first Oscar nomination' tattooed on my body," he giggled.