Can celebrities really manifest their dream roles through style choices?
Jim Carrey related the process of getting into the green yak hair suit, which could take over eight hours, to "being buried alive." He almost quit the film because of it, until a producer hired an expert who trains CIA operatives to resist torture to help Carrey handle the process.
Somehow, Carrey managed to stay sane in the 100 times he had to wear the costume. According to IndieWire, however, his makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji had to take a hiatus from working on the film because of Carrey's angry outbursts.
During an interview with Stephen Colbert, Kit Harington said that Jon Snow's cape on 'Game of Thrones' "weigh[ed] a ton" and "smell[ed] awful." He also jokingly speculated that they added weight to the piece every year, because "the costume designer Michele [Clapton] hates actors."
Clapton later revealed in a Vogue interview that the cape actually did get heavier to reflect Jon's growing status.
In the first 'Iron Man,' director Jon Favreau and Marvel Studios wanted a practical suit so that they could spend as little as possible on CGI replacement, but the suit proved too difficult for Robert Downey Jr. to work in.
He said the costume takes three and a half hours to put on, but after working 10 hours on set, it takes him just 30 seconds to rip it off. His secret to staying sane? "You are really having to meditate on the line of actors, thousands of them, who would love to be in your position. You have to concentrate on how lucky you are."
Felton is a natural brunette, so he reportedly had to dye his hair every 10 days. Fortunately he said that his hair "built some super-human resistance, but it seems to have survived."
In 2008, Tom Felton said that the worst part of being Draco Malfoy in 'Harry Potter' was having to keep up the character's signature platinum blonde hair.
"Being 15 years old in the middle of puberty, having to wear a fat suit. There's girls around; I've got this fat suit on every day," he said, according to People. "No one knows I'm wearing this damn thing, they all just think I'm fat. Now, as an actor, I go, 'Why did you ever even complain about that? You're the luckiest man alive.'"
In a 2014 interview with Jimmy Fallon, Jennifer Lawrence said transforming into the 'X-Men' character Mystique was an excruciatingly long process that could last up to eight hours.
Speaking to Marie Claire, Miley Cyrus revealed that the Hannah Montana costume negatively affected her self-image. The unreasonable beauty and fashion standards of the pop star included having to sport long, blonde hair and wear "glittery tight thing[s]."
To make matters worse, during the first movie she had a severe negative reaction to the blue paint that left her covered in blisters. A doctor even had to be called to set! From then on, she wore a bodysuit from the neck down.
The presence of paparazzi while filming only made it worse, as Garfield explained, "knowing that your keister has been shot from many different angles makes you very uncomfortable."
Not only was it difficult to maintain without professional help, Aniston said in a 2011 interview with Allure magazine that "it was the ugliest haircut I've ever seen." When asked on 'The Kyle and Jackie O Show' if she'd rather shave her head once or rock the Rachel for the rest of her days, Aniston went with the former.
Cyrus described herself during her Disney days as "this fragile little girl playing a 16-year-old in a wig and a ton of makeup. It was like Toddlers & Tiaras. I had [expletive] flippers."
In his memoir 'I Am C-3PO: The Inside Story,' Daniels details the many steps it took to fit, mould, and assemble the 19-piece 'Star Wars' suit. In its first incarnation, it reportedly took more than two hours to put on, and then Daniels would have to remain suited for the entire day's filming, unable to sit or relax.
Sean Astin didn't enjoy having to gain weight to play the hobbit Samwise Gamgee in 'The Lord of the Rings' franchise, but he especially didn't like Samwise's huge traveling backpack and the large hairy hobbit feet.
In addition to the danger of falling down, the suit reportedly almost suffocated Daniels on a number of occasions, and once a malfunctioning battery pack nearly caused him to be "baked alive."
Benedict Cumberbatch felt uncomfortable in the "well-cut, good-looking suits" he wore as BBC's Sherlock, since the waists were often so small that he found it difficult to breathe or even digest, he told the Daily Express.
The backpack made it difficult to move, and he reportedly had to wear it "for 15 or 16 hours a day, 6 days a week, for 2 years." Meanwhile, the hobbit feet made it difficult to film those action-packed scenes.
He added that it also became difficult to wear his own nice, well-cut clothing for fear of being too easily recognized in public. "The sad thing is that I had a coat very similar to Sherlock's before I got the role as it was a present from someone, but I can't wear it out in public now, which is sad," he said.
Since the producers wanted Captain Jean-Luc Picard to have a "smooth, unwrinkled look," the Lycra suit was apparently made a size too small, resulting in strain on the actor's neck, shoulders, and back.
Oscar Isaac said in a GQ interview that he didn't realize before signing on to 'X-Men: Apocalypse' that playing the titular villain meant that he was "going to be encased in glue, latex, and a 40-pound suit—that I had to wear a cooling mechanism at all times. I couldn't move my head, ever."
While filming 'Beauty and the Beast,' Stevens had to use stilts and wear a muscle vest, both of which were intense physical burdens that caused a lot of sweating and, subsequently, weight loss. Dan Stevens said that to keep from wasting away, he ate four roast dinners a day.
It's especially sad since Isaac said he took the role because of the chance to work with talented actors, but the costume meant he couldn't talk to or even see any of his co-stars. Between scenes, he had to stay in a "cooling tent," and at the end of the day he would spend hours getting the makeup scraped off of him.
However, according to What Culture, the worst part of all were the little LED lights fitted around his teeth for a rather pointless glowing effect that proved very dangerous. The LED batteries started leaking acid onto the star's tongue, and instead of getting rid of the lights they used a little balloon as a barrier between the battery and the actor's gums.
Stevens was also reportedly prone to overheating during dance sequences, and depended on a cooling vest that he compared to those worn by Formula One drivers.
Sources: (What Culture) (Vogue) (IndieWire) (USA Today) (People) (BuzzFeed)
See also: Actors who totally transformed their bodies for a movie
In Joel Schumacher's 'Batman & Robin,' it reportedly took an 11-man team up to six hours to help Schwarzenegger get into his costume as Mr. Freeze. He also had to shave his head and wear special blue contact lenses for most of his scenes.
Patrick Stewart's costume on 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' was so painful for him to wear that he told Newsweek: "We actually got rid of it after the second season thanks to my chiropractor, who said, 'If they don't take you out of that costume we are going to slap a lawsuit on Paramount for the lasting damage done to your spine."
The actor is often lauded for his glow-up from geeky teen to handsome adult, but while speaking on a panel in 2017, Lewis revealed that while shooting the 'Harry Potter' series he had to wear a fat suit to play Neville, especially once he became a teenager. Plus, his character just had the worst haircuts.
Paul Bettany told USA Today that the worst part about his Vision costume is the tight headpiece, which makes it difficult to hear and breathe, and is "pretty painful" and "uncomfortable."
Andrew Garfield said during an interview with Ellen DeGeneres that wearing his 'Amazing Spider-Man' costume "irritated" him and often looked "unflattering."
Jennifer Aniston has repeatedly said that she hated the iconic hairdo dubbed "The Rachel," which was made famous early on in 'Friends.' She may have influenced thousands of women to get the same cut, but she despised it!
He told David Letterman that the LED lights in the helmet "absolutely blinded" him. In later films, the Marvel team just used CGI instead of putting Downey Jr. in the suit.
Part of the magic of being an actor is completely disappearing into a role. Sometimes, however, that magic act relies heavily on a physical transformation as opposed to merely adopting new behaviorisms.
Physical transformations like getting buff can have the added bonus of, well, being buff, but costumes are where things get a little annoying. And by "a little," we mean a lot. From having to sit through eight torturous hours' worth of makeup, to sweating dangerous amounts inside full-body suits during long shoot days, many actors' most iconic roles also feature the costumes they hated most.
Click through to see which costumes actors hated the most, and why exactly they were so tormented by them.
Actors who hated their iconic on-screen costumes
The hilarious and painful tales of their wardrobes
CELEBRITY Curiosities
Part of the magic of being an actor is completely disappearing into a role. Sometimes, however, that magic act relies heavily on a physical transformation as opposed to merely adopting new behaviorisms.
Physical transformations like getting buff can have the added bonus of, well, being buff, but costumes are where things get a little annoying. And by "a little," we mean a lot. From having to sit through eight torturous hours' worth of makeup, to sweating dangerous amounts inside full-body suits during long shoot days, many actors' most iconic roles also feature the costumes they hated most.
Click through to see which costumes actors hated the most, and why exactly they were so tormented by them.