How Johnny Depp's "Vampire" Makeup Fooled Liveness Detection

Written by: Mikhaylo Pavlyuk, Digital Identity Consultant

Face authnetication, especially with liveness detection, is often viewed as the ultimate defense in banking and fintech — able to stop everything from printed photos to video replays and 3D masks.

But what if the real vulnerability isn’t as high-tech as we think?

What if it comes in the form of… makeup?

In a recent internal experiment, the 3DiVi team uncovered a surprising blind spot—disguised in professional makeup.

We ran a video of Johnny Depp playing vampire Barnabas Collins in Dark Shadows through a liveness detection check. The result? The system confidently identified him as alive. And that’s a problem.

While most discussions around biometric spoofing focus on printed photos, video replays, or silicone masks, makeup rarely gets the attention it deserves.

Yet professional or theatrical makeup can:

• Conceal or alter key facial features like eye shape, jawline, eyebrows, and mouth contours,

• Change the perceived skin tone and texture,

• Interfere with algorithms that rely on depth, color gradients, or texture cues.

Unlike classic spoofing tools, makeup isn’t easy to classify. Where’s the line between everyday makeup and a deliberate spoofing attempt?

And more importantly, which appearance changes can biometric systems safely ignore — and which could open the door to fraud?

In our test, the video clip featured Johnny Depp’s character in full costume and makeup:

• Extremely pale, chalk-like skin

• Deep shadows around the eyesSharp, heavily defined facial contours

• Dark lips and elongated brows

Despite the theatrical look, the system almost successfully recognized the face—and more importantly, it flagged the video as a live, real person. In other words, the liveness detection “brought the vampire to life.”

The clip wasn’t even live—it was just a pre-recorded video.

To make your biometric system resilient, consider:

• Testing with a range of makeup: from light cosmetic to full theatrical looks

• Including both images and video replays featuring makeup

• Evaluating how your system responds to such inputs played from screens or mobile devices

Fraudsters don’t need expensive 3D masks anymore. Well-done makeup, paired with a screen and a video, is a low-cost but effective way to trick underprotected systems. If your liveness detection can’t handle this, it’s leaving a security gap open.

To avoid such vulnerabilities, companies should:

• Demand that liveness detection accounts for depth, skin texture, and behavioral cues

• Require proof from vendors that their system has been tested against spoofing scenarios involving makeup

• Include spoofing resistance tests in their procurement and compliance checklists

• Continuously update biometric security policies as new evasion techniques emerge

The Johnny Depp vampire case isn’t a one-off bug or a funny story—it’s a signal. As biometric systems become more mainstream, they also become more attractive targets.

And you don’t need Hollywood-level deepfakes to fool weak liveness detection. Sometimes, all it takes is a phone and some makeup.

To ensure biometric systems offer real protection, we need to test them under real-world conditions, including those that aren’t always obvious. In biometrics, just like in life, you have to know when reality ends and deception begins.