Make-up isn't all about beauty, as Alison Jones discovers when she talks to an Oscar-nominated film industry expert.

“I think in England we are very good at period films and very good at blood. Our colours are good.”

Veronica McAleer’s statement sounds a little disturbing when taken out of context.

However, it makes more sense when one knows she is an Oscar-nominated and Emmy award-wining make-up artist, whose handwork has been seen on the likes of Judi Dench, Cher and, more recently, Paul Bettany.

Veronica, who has returned to her native Birmingham after years living in London has been Paul’s personal make-up artist for the past five years, travelling the world to different sets and transforming him into everything from a self-flagellating albino in The Da Vinci Code to a grief- stricken Charles Darwin in Creation.

“I love to work with Paul. He’s a fantastic actor and great person to work with,” she says. “Because of him I have had the opportunity to work in Canada, Mexico, Italy, Thailand, LA...

“He has worked on such a broad spectrum of films. Futuristic fantasies like Priest, where he has a tattoo and lots of little scars, to The Da Vinci Code, where he was an albino. I had to do all the wounds on his back, which I made my myself.

“That’s unusual. In America they would have three people to do that but I have always done prosthetics. Paul and I have done a lot of wounds.”

Veronica has enjoyed a jet- set lifestyle – literally. She was flown by Lear when invited to do Cher’s hair and then had to be flown back the same way in order to rush to the set of The Da Vinci Code.

“I really liked Cher,” she says. “We got on very well. There is a certain way you have to do things and that is just how it is, but you can adapt. That is what they want and you fit in.

“A lot of big actors, especially women, they know their faces and are a little bit more involved. They can be harder. You have to take on board how they feel and sometimes it can be a little dance.”

Veronica has also been to the Oscars as part of the make-up design team for Mrs Brown, with Dame Judi Dench as Queen Victoria, and then Shakespeare In Love.

“I made Judi up for Mrs Brown and I knew she was doing Queen Elizabeth (for Shakespeare In Love),” recalls Veronica. “Her nose is very cute. It wasn’t right for Elizabeth and I suggested my making a false nose for her. It changed her completely. Things like that have such an impact.”

Judi went on to win an Oscar for her portrayal of the proboscis-enhanced monarch.

Veronica was just thrilled by the experience of being at the awards.

“It is exciting, particularly to see people you wouldn’t normally see. I walked into a lift and Sean Connery walked out.

“You get paid to fly business class and are put up in a five-star luxury hotel. I had never been in a limo up until that point.”

Veronica did win an Emmy for The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers, which saw Geoffrey Rush transform into the ex-Goon over several decades.

“It was probably the most challenging film I’ve ever worked on as a make-up designer, encapsulating the changes in hair and make up fashions over the years and aging Geoffrey,” she says. “It was nice to win.

“You never think when you start your training in Birmingham what your opportunities are going to be.”

She has been working as make-up artist for more than a quarter of a century, after an inspiring visit to the old Pebble Mill studio.

“At the time they were filming a period drama and I fell in love with the empty studio, the sets. I remember it vividly.

“I felt the creative potential for me was tangible.”

She met the make-up artist at Pebble Mill and, following her advice, did a three-year hairdressing and beauty therapy course at Solihull College, then worked as a hairdresser for a year.

“The BBC wouldn’t take people on until they were 21, which I think was a really good thing,

“You were old enough at that point that you weren’t that easily influenced. The job isn’t about meeting famous people.”

After that she had to pass a three-month training course at the BBC and was then taken on as a trainee for two years.

“It was the best training of all the television networks. Everybody wanted the BBC training.

“As a trainee you had a safety net. You were able to say, ‘I don’t know how to do this’, because you can only learn so much in three months.

“I feel sorry for people doing courses now because it is very hard to admit that you don’t know how to do something. When I take people on as trainees, I would rather them tell me and I’ll show them rather than them say they can and do it badly.”

She was promoted to BBC Bristol, then moved to London and went freelance, building her career in films.

“I have worked on genres from period films to drama documentaries like The Great Plague,” she says. “I love doing things I have not done before. You can’t know everything. You have to experiment.

“I had never made buboes before, which is what they called the plague swellings. I had to work out how to do it so it oozed fake blood and pus when it was opened with a knife. I was very proud of that.”

She is now cutting back on the jet-setting after returning to Birmingham so that her five-year-old son can attend school.

“I am a single parent and I made the decision not to work as much because I don’t want to leave him,” she explains.

“It was fine when he wasn’t at school because he could travel with me and members of my family would look after him. But I have spent 26 years working 100 hours a week and I feel my life needs to take on a different role.”

She is still working on sets. She recently did the make-up on a small budget movie being made in Birmingham and set in the 1990s, accepting a fraction of her normal fee because she wanted to encourage film-making in the city.

And she will be doing Colin Firth’s hair and make up for his next project, The Railway Man.

But her ambition is to set up a school in Birmingham, teaching students how to do make up for film and television

“I love teaching, passing on information. I have fond memories of training at Pebble Mill.

“I’m planning to be situated in the Custard Factory as this has the right feel and energy.

“My course would be suited to students who already have a fundamental training course in theatre make-up, hair or beauty.

“It’ll cover fashion and beauty make-up, period make-up and wigs, casualty and special effects, character make-up, basic prosthetics, haircutting, airbrushing and HD make-up.

“Set etiquette, script appreciation and continuity will also be part of the syllabus.

“I will be offering a scholarship to the most suitable candidate which will provide them with free training.

“I’ve worked as a tutor in two of the top make-up schools in London and I feel Birmingham’s a vibrant, regenerating city. It needs its own creative outlets like a school of make-up.”

* For details, email Veronica at birminghamschoolofmakeup@gmail.com or call her on 08760 622 016