We’re willing to bet these actors would rather play “background character in comfortable sweatpants and bathrobe” than ever wear any of these nightmarish costumes again. You’d be surprised at how complicated (and uncomfortable) some of your favorite movie costumes really are.
Jennifer Lawrence - Mystique
Jennifer Lawrenceplaying the blue-skinned shapeshifter in fourX-Menfilms. But it wasn’t as simply as putting on a cape or cowl - the process to cover her body in paint and prosthetics took 6 hours. And the costume was pretty restrictive.
Lawrence discovered that using the bathroom while in the Mystique costume was a huge chore, because she couldn’t sit down. She had to answer nature’s call while standing up, using a small funnel. Because a funnel is an imperfect system, the costume eventually cultivated “a distinct smell.”
Rory McCann - The Hound, Game of Thrones
The Hound is definitely one of the most memorable characters inGame of Thrones. The gruff, hard-edged fan favorite, played byRory McCann, has a face covered in horrible burn scars. And McCann was not a fan of having to put them on every day.
In an interview, the actor said, “I was always the first in just with this prosthetic on my face… Every day. I will not miss that.” He also had to keep half of his beard shaved during filming. “And then you go back home and people go… ‘Well, it looks ridiculous big man.'”
Christian Bale, Val Kilmer, and Ben Affleck - Batman
Virtually every single actor who has played the Caped Crusader has described wearing the Batsuit as a uniquely miserable experience.Christian Balehad to have help to get out of his Batman costume to use the bathroom.
Val Kilmer,who played the Dark Knight inBatman Forever, said “The suit takes an hour to get into… and then you can’t hear because there are really no earholes in it… Plus, you fall over quite easily.”
AndBen Affleckwore what he called “visual effects pajamas” for many of hisBatman v. Supermanscenes, which he described as “the most humiliating, ridiculous thing in the world.”
Tim Curry - The Lord of Darkness, Legend
To play the villainous Lord of Darkness,Tim Curryhad to wear gigantic horns on his head that were painfully heavy. The three-foot fiberglass props were supported by a harness, but they still hurt his neck terribly, so they were eventually adjusted to be lighter.
Normally, Curry’s makeup took five and a half hours to apply, as his entire body was covered in a cast. At the end of each day, he had to soak in a bath for an hour to dissolve the spirit gum glue that held his prosthetics in place. Curry got impatient one day and just ripped it all off, tearing his own skin so badly that he had to spend a week recovering.
Orlando Bloom and John Rhys-Davies - Legolas and Gimli
The Lord of the Ringsis one of the most celebrated fantasy epics of all time, but making it wasn’t always magical for the actors. In order to play the sharpshooting elf Legolas,Orlando Bloomhad to wear blue-colored contact lenses over his natural brown eyes.
The contacts damaged Bloom’s eyes so badly that he could only wear them for short periods of time. If you watch closely, you’ll notice that Legolas’ eyes frequently change color. Similarly, the face mask worn by Gimli actorJohn Rhys-Daviesirritated his skin so badly that he threw it into a fire at the end of filming.
Anthony Daniels – C-3PO
Anthony Daniels has played the beloved, nervous android C-3PO in every installment of theStar Warsfranchise. But on the first day of filming in that shiny gold costume for 1977’sA New Hope, a piece of the suit broke off and stabbed him in the foot.
His woes didn’t end there. Daniels couldn’t sit down in the costume, so he had to stay propped up in-between takes. Plus, it was over 100 degrees in the Tunisian desert, where they were filming. And because he was completely covered up, people eventually forgot he was a real person, treating him like a prop.
Doug Jones - Amphibian Man, The Shape of Water
Doug Jonesis a veteran creature performer, so he’s used to wearing uncomfortable monster suits. When he played a captive fish man in Guillermo Del Toro’sThe Shape of Water, Jones had to sit in a makeup chair for 3 hours every day, before filming for 10 to 12 hours.
The Amphibian Man costume had motorized gills on the neck, so Jones had to block out loud whirring directly in his ears while filming scenes. And he only had a flap on the front of his costume to use the bathroom, which meant holding in half of nature’s calls for 18 hour work days.
Peter Mayhew – Chewbacca
Chewbacca might be one of the most huggable characters in science fiction. But you wouldn’t want to get within hugging distance of actorPeter Mayhew’s Chewbacca costume, which was made from real yak and mohair. It stank when it got wet, which was all the time.
Mayhew avoided the water in the trash compactor scene, because he knew his costume would soak it up and smell like death. Also, the costume got so hot that his mask would regularly detach from his face, until a cooling unit was eventually installed.
Scarlett Johansson - Black Widow
You might thinkScarlett Johanssonhas the easiest costume of any of the Avengers to wear, since it’s just a black jumpsuit. But the suit was so unbearably hot and restrictive that the actress started hallucinating after filming a particularly long fight scene.
Chris Hemsworthgot to wear a small air conditioner under his bulky Thor breastplate, but Johansson’s suit was so tight she couldn’t even wear underwear. She would sweat so much that she had to wring out her socks at the end of each day, and went through several of the easily-damaged costumes.
The Turtles - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
The Jim Henson Studio was responsible for bringing Turtle Power to life inTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And the turtle costumes they designed were like robotic torture devices. Each costume weighed 60 pounds, with complicated machinery stored in the shell to control the Turtles’ facial expressions.
That wouldn’t have been so bad, except the actors weren’t able to remove their costume heads for a breather, because it delayed filming. The suits would soak up their sweat and get progressively heavier. Each actor lost significant weight during filming, as they were essentially wearing weighted sweat suits. Cowabunga?
