Lou Diamond Phillips changed his look to play serial killer The Night Stalker

Actor Lou Diamond Phillips had to change his look to portray twisted serial killer Richard Ramirez after hearing testimony about his “gnarly” teeth.
The La Bamba star, who plays the late murderer in The Night Stalker, admits he didn’t notice Ramirez’s bad teeth until his wife pointed out how mangled they were.
“My wife, Yvonne, who’s a brilliant make-up artist…, made mention of the fact… his teeth were infamous,” he explains during an appearance on Access Hollywood Live.
“They did a cast of his teeth because so many of his victims, who survived, remembered those teeth… They were just gnarly. He had no hygiene whatsoever.”
“They made a mold from the photos of Richard and I wore those and it kind of changed the shape of my face a little bit, and we also pulled my eyes back, because people talked about how coyote-like his eyes were.”
Phillips also lost weight to play homeless Ramirez, who terrorised Los Angeles in the 1980s.
“He was on Death Row for 20-something years and he actually died in prison without ever being executed and he died of lymphoma, so I dropped about 20 pounds,” he explains, adding Charlize Theron’s Oscar-winning performance in Monster inspired him to give his all to the role.
“The transformation was inspired by Charlize Theron in Monster,” Lou admits. “It’s like, ‘OK, Well I’m gonna go there, I’m gonna do this!’ And I watched Monster again, I watched The Silence of the Lambs.”
Phillips also hit the streets of Los Angeles one night to get a flavour for his character – and observed neighbours in one area while creeping around their homes.
“He used to hunt…,” he adds. “I put on a hoodie and I went to a neighbourhood that I did not live in and I just thought, ‘I’m gonna walk around and see what it’s like to be this guy…’ I walked about a block and a half and a guy walking his dog went, ‘Hey, Lou Diamond Phillips, love your work!'”