14 Costumes That Were a True Nightmare to Wear

A great outfit can make a character unforgettable. Sometimes, for celebrities, it takes long hours in the dressing room and then in front of the camera to achieve the desired result. Some even suffer physical after-effects at the end of filming, proving that acting can sometimes be hard work.

1. Angelina Jolie — Maleficent

It wasn’t easy to transform Jolie into Maleficent. The team of makeup artists spent 2.5 hours doing it, and, according to the actress, she’s not the most patient person in the world. Angelina had prosthetics on her nose, cheekbones, and ears to make her look scary and alien. In addition, the actress wore special fangs and contact lenses. Here you can watch a video of Jolie’s transformation into Maleficent.

However, the horns were the most challenging part to bear for her. In an interview, Jolie said they were pretty heavy, so her neck quickly got tired. In addition, she wore 5-inch heels and constantly hit herself with the horns on stage. A couple of times, she even came close to knocking herself out.

2. Saoirse Ronan — Mary, Queen of Scotts

Saoirse Ronan wore a corset for 12 hours a day, which was greatly reflected in her physical appearance. After finishing filming, she waited for a month for her “hourglass” figure to disappear. In addition, the actress mentioned that the corset was very uncomfortable and put pressure on her organs.

3. Ralph Fiennes — Harry Potter saga

While shuddering, Ralph recalls the intense makeup sessions to transform him into the Dark Lord. He also mentioned that he constantly tripped over his costume and was forced to wear pantyhose under the cloak. However, these were pulled down so low that the lower part was at knee level. According to the actor, he could not walk as gracefully as Voldemort was supposed to. Finally, Fiennes couldn’t stand it and asked the costume designer to do something about it. The problem was quickly solved: they cut off the top of the pantyhose and added garters on each leg as if they were stockings.

4. Tilda Swinton — The Grand Budapest Hotel

Tilda Swinton spent five hours with the makeup artists and waited patiently for them to finish her transformation into an old woman: “It was very interesting to watch these guys work. A whole team was taking care of me. They would take a piece of something that looked like bacon and apply it to my face, hands, and ears.”

The artists spent just as much time removing makeup from the actress’s face. Tilda was lucky to have spent only two days on the film set.

5. Brie Larson — Captain Marvel

Brie Larson complained that her costume was very uncomfortable. She could not put it on alone; she was helped by two assistants, who spent 30 minutes dressing her as a superheroine each time. In such conditions, going to the bathroom must have been a dubious pleasure, as a team of 5 people had to join Brie there too.

6. Orlando Bloom — Lord of the Rings saga

The actor has dark brown eyes, so he had to wear blue contact lenses. Bloom hated them because they irritated his mucous membranes and constantly fell out. When Orlando returned to the role of Legolas in The Hobbit trilogy, he flatly refused to wear them. So his eyes were simply “painted” with CGI.

7. Helena Bonham Carter — Planet of the Apes

Filming began at 7 a.m., but Helena Bonham Carter was forced to get up at 2 or 3 a.m. because the makeup took about four hours. “It’s hard to put up with it, and by the end of the shoot, your nerves are completely worn out,” the star said.

Eating and drinking in the monkey suit was difficult, so the actress had to use a mirror to know precisely where her mouth was under the mask and not ruin the makeup. Yes, acting in this outfit was unpleasant since the thick makeup and rubber on her face reflected negatively on Helena’s facial expressions. In addition, because of the huge monkey ears prosthesis, she was wearing, she had a hard time hearing her colleagues.

8. Christina Ricci — Penelope

The makeup department spent about an hour and a half putting a prosthetic nose on Christina Ricci’s face. During this process, the actress was not supposed to move her mouth and had to press her artificial nose to her face. Only after that was her hair and makeup done.

9. Gary Oldman — Darkest Hour

Oldman’s iconic transformation into Britain’s prime minister took nearly 4 hours. In addition to the complicated makeup sessions he had to endure, Gary had a special patch applied to his body, which he wore like a Victorian-era corset. He was, in fact, worried about not being able to cope with such a complicated schedule: he had to spend 18-20 hours looking like that for 48 days in a row. Plus, he feared his skin wouldn’t handle all the gluing. You can watch this short video for more details about how the team worked on Churchill’s Oscar-winning makeup.

10. Michael Sheen — Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1

This was not the first time the actor had to wear an uncomfortable outfit. To shoot Tron: Legacy, he wore a corset and massive heels. But the vampire contact lenses turned out to be the worst. Michael said they had to cover his whole eye, so they made his eyes feel much larger than usual. And putting them on was torturous. At first, the assistants would lift the artist’s upper eyelid and partially insert the lens. Then they did the same with the lower eyelid. After that, they would move it to adjust it.

As a result, Sheen constantly had to use eye drops and endure severe headaches because the lenses basically nullified his peripheral vision.

11. Gwyneth Paltrow — Shallow Hal

Costumes do not always bring suffering or discomfort. Sometimes, actors also face emotional trauma. For example, Paltrow experienced what overweight people feel and didn’t like it: “The first day I tried on the costume, I was at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, and I walked across the lobby. I felt so sad and anxious. No one looked me in the eye because I looked like a person suffering from obesity. I felt humiliated because people looked down on me.”

12. Rachel Brosnahan — The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Since the plot events took place in the United States in the 1960s, the actress always had to wear a corset under her dress. In an interview, she said, “I suffered an injury because of the corset. In the series, we spoke very fast, so I didn’t have enough time to inhale. I think I wasn’t breathing deeply enough because a couple of my ribs got stuck together. Now I can’t inhale deeply”.

13. Shawn and Marlon Wayans — White Chicks

The transformation from brothers to sisters proved to be a difficult task for both the makeup team and the actors. The process took 7 hours a day in the beginning, but the artists managed to reduce it to 5: “We did it for 60 days. It was exhausting. The makeup had to be fixed immediately if they ate or drank something. The guys hardly slept during the breaks between makeup application and shooting.”

What other actor or actress do you think had to endure such complex transformations to play a role?