follows a disturbing crime as it unfolds

over three different time periods

from 1980 to 1990 to 2015.

The present-day period shows Mahershala Ali's character,

detective Wayne Hays, as a 70-year-old man

who's still haunted by the case

while grappling with his own memory loss.

Ali is wholly convincing in old age

thanks to the power of his performance

and the makeup artistry of Emmy-nominated

prosthetic artist Mike Marino.

Jimmy Kimmel: And your old-man makeup.

Mahershala: Mike Marino, Mike Marino, man.

Jimmy: Is the best old-man makeup I've ever seen

on any actor.

Narrator: We visited Mike at his studio in New Jersey

to find out how he turned Ali into an old man

for "True Detective."

Mike is the makeup designer behind "Black Swan,"

"Wolf of Wall Street," "Birdman,"

and Heidi Klum's elaborate Halloween costumes.

On "True Detective," he was in charge of the makeup

and wigs seen on Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff,

who plays Wayne's partner Roland in the show.

Mike has a ton of experience adding decades

to actors' faces.

But his transformative work was really spotlighted

in "True Detective"

because of the unconventional way

that the show's narrative was structured.

Mike: They're intercutting in between time periods,

so you really get a chance to see the difference

and the contrast between Mahershala's face

and Stephen Dorff's face.

Narrator: The first step in the transformation

was deciding where exactly the prosthetics would go.

Mike: When you're designing a makeup,

you have to find all these lines and creases naturally

that that actor may have,

so that when you glue pieces onto it,

it doesn't move strange.

Mahershala's skin is so perfect that there's no landmarks

to hide a wrinkle in

or hide a prosthetic inside,

so it's really challenging finding the place

where prosthetics can live.

Narrator: Next, to actually make the prosthetics,

you have to take a life cast of the actor's face,

basically creating a three-dimensional copy of it.

Mike: We start out with a life cast of Mahershala.

I take that life cast, and I cast it out in plaster,

and I take little pieces of clay,

and I add a little where I feel

is going to look the best

as far as wrinkles and puffy dents,

and I add in wrinkles, and I sculpt everything down

to a very fine detail.

Narrator: The sculptures run under water,

then the pieces of clay are removed

and put on individual molds

from which the prosthetic pieces are made.

Mike: On set, I take those pieces and glue onto Mahershala

and Stephen Dorff

all these prosthetics that were once sculptures.

Once that is done, they're airbrushed

to look like real skin, freckles, little imperfections,

things like that.

Once it's all painted,

we glue wigs on, make sure their sheen and reflection

of the skin is really perfect.

It really took about three hours

to glue on the prosthetics each day.

Narrator: All that had to last

throughout a 12- to 16-hour shooting day.

Mike: It's a battle each day.

I'm maintaining the makeup as well.

You know, in "True Detective" we filmed in Arkansas

in the summer, so it was really hot.

So it was also an engineering feat

to really kind of prep their skin to not sweat,

put them in air conditioning tents,

put Mahershala in a dark room

where he's not in sunlight and he's sweating.

Narrator: Mike's work on the show

wasn't limited to the actors' faces.

His team also built a life-size replica

for Will Purcell,

the missing boy whose body Wayne finds in a cave

at the end of the first episode.

But the aging transformations were his real masterpiece.

Mike: You can see how they'd most likely age in real life

'cause I try to find on their own face,

where if I find any little wrinkle or line or crease,

I accentuate that.

I'm kind of a reverse makeup artist.

A makeup artist is taking out all the flaws and things

on someone's face, and I'm adding them in.

So I'm really an actor's worst nightmare.