Just like beauty, art requires sacrifice, and many actors know this from experience. Makeup that takes several hours to apply, constraining costumes, and tough filming conditions — all these are the norm rather than the exception when it comes to putting on a production. Unfortunately, viewers don’t even know half of what actors need to go through in order to help bring a director’s vision to life.
We at Now I’ve Seen Everything believe that each actor in our article deserves an award for patience and stamina because the things they face on set can feel like true torture.
Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock
Participating in Sherlock became a true gift for Benedict Cumberbatch on one hand and real torture on the other. The actor admitted that he strongly disliked the costumes his character had to wear. They were so tight that the artist could hardly breathe in them.
Moreover, Cumberbatch complained that he had to refuse to wear a part of his real-life wardrobe. Before filming the series, the actor would often wear clothes that resembled the style of the on-screen detective. After the series got popular, it became hard for him to show up in public donning them.
Lily James, Cinderella
Putting on a magic dress with 12 layers of silk of different colors took about 45 minutes every time. In order to have a slim waist and avoid retouching at the production stage, Lily James would have to wear a very tight corset. It was so tight that the actress had to start dieting during filming. “When the corset was on, we would be on continuous days so we wouldn’t stop for lunch — you’d be sort of eating on the move. In that case, I couldn’t untie the corset. So if you ate the food it didn’t really digest properly and I’d be burping all afternoon, and it was just really sort of unpleasant,” shared James. “I’d have soup so that I could still eat but it wouldn’t get stuck.”
Emma Stone, The Favourite
The flick takes place in eighteenth-century England when ladies were constantly constraining themselves with tight corsets for the sake of fashion. The movie’s actresses experienced what it was like to wear these clothing items themselves. Emma Stone confessed that she couldn’t breathe during the first month of filming. Menthol was the only thing that could save her. But her troubles didn’t end there: after some time, the actress’s internal organs were becoming deformed. Fortunately, Stone managed to restore her health soon after, but she will remember the sad experience for a long time to come.
Oscar Isaac, X-Men: Apocalypse
The costume of the main villain in X-Men: Apocalypse weighed 40 pounds, and the time it took to apply the makeup, which consisted of many layers of glue and latex, took several hours. Before the start of the project, Oscar Isaac was excited about the opportunity to work with so many talented actors.
However, he was totally disappointed when he found out that most of the filming would require him to act alone. As soon as Issac would complete a scene, he’d be put in a special saddle and transported to a refrigerated trailer to cheer him up a little. And this was done every day. The process of removing the makeup was no less pleasant, as it was torn off from the skin in pieces.
Doug Jones, The Shape of Water
At first, 4 assistants would put a latex costume on Jones, then came the gloves with membranes, and at the very end, the neck pads and a fiberglass helmet would be applied, which had a special mechanism built in to control the gills. The actor admitted that he felt completely helpless, as he could not even open the door on his own and was forced to breathe through his mouth.
Michelle Pfeiffer, Batman Returns
At first, the actress was powdered with talc from head to toe. After she managed to get into the tight costume, the crew would suck out any excess air from the costume. But it wasn’t over yet. Finally, the latex was coated with a silicone-based gel to add shine. Wearing the costume for many hours not only left terrible marks on Pfeiffer’s face but also turned an ordinary trip to the bathroom into an unpleasant adventure.
Anthony Daniels, Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope
It would take about 2 hours to put on the 60-pound costume. Anthony Daniels had to spend the entire day wearing it without any chance to sit down or even drink water. All this happened in the conditions of the hot Tunisian climate where a part of the filming took place. On the first working day, a piece of equipment broke off and left a serious cut on the actor’s leg. He ended up having to spend the rest of the shoot with it wrapped in a bandage. But perhaps the most terrible part was the indifference felt by the film crew — many of them simply forgot that there was a living person underneath all the armor.
Peter Mayhew, Star Wars
Peter Mayhew’s torture can be best understood by dog owners. Chewbacca’s costume was made from yak hair and mohair. Since the second part of the saga was carried out in a snowy area, Chewbacca’s skin would continuously get wet and, as a result, exuded a disgusting smell. So it’s not only Mayhew who had a hard time but also his colleagues working on the film.
Paul Bettany, Avengers: Age of Ultron
At first, Paul Bettany was simply lending his voice to a form of artificial intelligence called J.A.R.V.I.S. But everything changed in Avengers: Age of Ultron when the actor was transformed into Vision. Bettany had to spend 3.5 hours in the makeup chair. First, layered makeup was applied to his face, and then the actor was dressed in a tight spandex suit. Sometimes, Bettany spent 10 hours like this, which is why the suit was equipped with a kind of air conditioner made of tubes of ice water in order for the actor not to feel so hot.
It seems the only thing that unites all the actors who played the legendary Batman is a hatred for the costume. All of them admit that wearing the superhero getup was true hell.
Val Kilmer explained that it took 1 hour to put on the costume and 45 minutes to take it off. And it required a team of assistants. Also, the costume didn’t have holes for ears, which resulted in hearing issues. In between takes, the actor felt like a mannequin that had to be fed through a straw. But perhaps the most unpleasant thing was that the costume didn’t even have a fly, and in order to go to the bathroom, the actors had to resort to the help of assistants.
Later, actor Christian Bale asked the designers to solve the issue to ease the experience of his successors.
Jared Leto, Suicide Squad
We believe that it takes true talent to play a role so well that no one suspects it was actually hard to be on set. Do you think these sacrifices are worth the results, or are they pointless?
