Movie Costumes That Made Actors Seriously Sick
Since the dawn of cinema, costuming has been an integral component in crafting the reality of what's on the screen. Glamorous in their design and brilliant in their detail, movie wardrobes can dazzle audiences while being powerful tools for filmmakers. From period-accurate clothing designed for stories set far in the past to the most complex outfits for space-age heroes in stories set in the far-flung future, audiences have seen it all.
Unfortunately, beyond the incredible wardrobes and makeup effects — and the artistry that goes into creating them — there can be some costumes that inadvertently do physical damage to their performers. While costumers, craftsmen, and special effects artists go to great effort to make them as safe as possible, unforeseen problems can arise. In rare cases, costumes and makeup have even been known to make actors seriously sick. From superhero suits to alien makeup and prosthetics gone wrong, here is a list of actors whose movie costumes caused some health problems.
Mystique in the X-Men films
In "X-Men: First Class," up-and-coming young actor Jennifer Lawrence took over the role of Mystique made famous by Rebecca Romijn. Lawrence took the part despite the arduous costume process needed to become the blue-skinned, shape-shifting mutant, but what she didn't realize was that it would literally make her sick.
Things got so bad for Lawrence on the set of "X-Men: First Class" that a specialist was brought in to treat her. According to an article in The Sydney Morning Herald, the body paint and latex caused rashes and even boils on her skin. With that kind of reaction, it wouldn't surprise anyone if Lawrence opted never to appear in another X-film, especially after she won an Academy Award for "Silver Linings Playbook." But producers found ways around the problem, designing a special body suit for the sequels, which helped convince Lawrence to return three more times.
Lawrence wasn't the only one to deal with the problem, of course. Years earlier, her predecessor Rebecca Romijn had issues, too, though not quite as bad.
"When we finally wrapped, someone brought out tequila shots to celebrate. I did a shot and immediately vomited blue," she told Yahoo, recalling her final night of shooting 2000's "X-Men." "There was all this blue paint in my stomach. The thing that got me through it was that it was the most beautiful costume I had ever seen."
The Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz
An infamously troubled production in its day, the making of "The Wizard of Oz" was nothing less than a disaster. In addition to an on-set accident that burned actor Margaret Hamilton, two other actors were made seriously sick from their makeup and costumes. And they were both playing the same role ... the Tin Man.
Actor Buddy Ebsen was first cast in the role and recorded the songs that can still be heard on the soundtrack. Unfortunately, after testing his makeup, Ebsen was hospitalized for lung failure and had to be placed in an oxygen tent. It was later discovered that the aluminum dust used to paint him silver caused some kind of allergic reaction or possibly a lung infection. With the makeup proven toxic, changes were made when replacement actor Jack Haley stepped into the role, but that doesn't mean it didn't still cause problems.
Now suited up as the Tin Man, new actor Haley suffered an eye infection caused by the new formula of paint. Thankfully, his treatment didn't require a hospital stay, nor did it cause any serious damage, and he was able to begin shooting on time.
Bootstrap Bill in The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Jennifer Lawrence isn't the only actor to have gotten an uncomfortable skin reaction thanks to costume and makeup effects. After all, latex and prosthetics have been used in Hollywood for many decades, so it's likely a persistent issue. One of the other well-chronicled cases is that of Stellan Skarsgård who starred in "The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" as the monstrous Bootstrap Bill, father of Orlando Bloom's Will Turner.
For the role of Bill, who was cursed to eternal life, Skarsgård is covered in all manner of barnacles. Rather than use motion capture and CGI, the filmmakers went practical without realizing the devastating effect it would have on Skarsgård's skin. "I was the only one in makeup," he told MovieWeb. "Everyone else was working with a crew in gray pajamas and dots on their faces. I spent four and a half hours in makeup." Like many actors who've worked under heavy appliances, Skarsgård spent hours in the makeup chair getting into and out of character, but that wasn't the worst part.
"We couldn't shoot more than three days straight because I would get rashes," he explained. "The rough thing wasn't having it on, it was taking it off. It was new material every day." And that meant a new rash every day, too.
Mr. Freeze in Batman and Robin
When Warner Bros. sought to bring the villainous Mr. Freeze to life for the live-action 1997 sequel "Batman and Robin," they went full ridiculous clown circus, even casting over-the-top action star Arnold Schwarzenegger. The result was a garish, shiny silver armored suit, complete with light and sound. In short, the costume turned superstar Schwarzenegger into a walking, talking, children's action figure. But in doing so, it posed serious risks to his health.
As chronicled by The Hollywood Reporter on the occasion of the film's 20th anniversary, the glowing elements in Schwarzenegger's suit included LED lights all around his mouth and chin. While it perhaps expectedly made talking difficult, it also had the unintended side effect of nearly poisoning the actor. "When you put it in Arnold's mouth, Arnold's saliva would creep into the seams of this thing and attack the batteries," said the film's makeup artist Jeff Dawn. "The batteries would immediately start disintegrating and start putting out battery acid into Arnold's mouth."
Reportedly, Schwarzenegger wasn't sure what was actually happening when he tasted the acid in his mouth. Thankfully, it doesn't sound like the actor was actually harmed, and Dawn was able to correct the problem before it created any major medical issues.
John Rhys-Davies in The Lord of The Rings trilogy
For the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, the entire cast and crew were flown out to New Zealand for more than a year. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, though, at least not for actor John Rhys-Davies. While visual trickery was used to make him appear smaller than his human character counterparts, practical makeup effects turned him into the diminutive dwarf warrior Gimli. His costume was convincing, but what he didn't realize when he began filming was that it would also make him sick.
Rhys-Davies managed to get through the grueling 15-month shoot but swore he'd never do it again, refusing outright the notion of ever playing Gimli for "The Hobbit." He blamed the prosthetics, which left him with a severe allergic reaction.
"I've already been asked," he told Empire, when discussing the prospect of reprising his role. "And to be honest with you, I wouldn't. I have already completely ruled it out. There's a sentimental part of me that would love to be involved again. Really I am not sure my face can take that sort of punishment any more."
Jim Carrey in How the Grinch Stole Christmas
The 2000 Ron Howard adaptation of the Dr. Seuss classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" features some truly remarkable makeup effects for the title character. Crafted by Rick Baker, who won an Academy Award for his efforts, the full-body costume and heavy prosthetics turned the already rubber-faced Jim Carrey into the spitting image of Dr. Seuss' lime-green creation. This time, though, the sickness the costume caused wasn't physical, though it may have had one of the worst psychological effects on an actor that a costume ever has.
Rather famously, Carrey was unable to mentally cope with the strain of being covered head-to-toe in rubber, latex, and silicon, with appliances over every inch of his face and painful contact lenses in his eyes. Carrey's reaction to the costume and makeup was so bad that the studio was forced to bring in outside help to manage his stress. And it came from an unlikely place: The CIA. That's right, to help their leading man through the agony of his costume, producer Brian Grazer turned to an old friend from a previous project who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.
"One of the CIA people I'd talked to years before specialized in training U.S. agents to survive torture if they were captured," Grazer explained. "We had an actor being held prisoner by his costume, he was being tortured by his makeup." In the end, the CIA training worked, and Carrey was able to overcome the strain and deliver the performance of a lifetime.
The Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact
When "Star Trek" brought the Borg to the big screen in "First Contact," the cheap plastic costumes from TV were out and the cybernetic zombie-like alien menace was given a bold new look. But wearing a skin-tight rubber jumpsuit and decked out in extensive makeup and prosthetics, actor Alice Krige — who brought the Borg queen to life — unfortunately had to deal with some serious discomfort. And it was more than just a long time in the makeup chair, too, as the costume took a physical toll on her body that she didn't expect.
Over the years, Krige has spoken about what she had to go through to make the Borg Queen real, describing the ordeal as "painful" at a 2022 convention appearance (per Heavy.com). In fact, it wasn't just the body paint and contact lenses, but the extremely tight body suit that caused serious issues. According to Krige, it took hours to put her into it and to make it look just right, it was glued directly to her skin. Making matters worse, when Krige had to use the bathroom during filming, removing the suit was no easy feat. The crew had to literally cut the suit off of her, only to find at one point that being bound into the outfit all day had swollen her body to such a degree that getting it back on to continue filming wasn't possible.
Jessica Chastain as Tammy Faye Bakker
Believe it or not, that's actually "Zero Dark Thirty" star Jessica Chastain as notorious celebrity televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker in the 2021 film "The Eyes of Tammy Faye." If she looks completely unrecognizable, that's because the actor is under heavy makeup and prosthetics that changed the entire shape of her face and nose, which, along with her outlandish wardrobe, made her the spitting image of the controversial personality. Not only did those prosthetics cause physical problems for Chastain during production, but they also left her with permanent physical damage.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times while promoting the movie, Chastain explained that the makeup and appliances were extremely heavy, and ruined her skin, which she normally takes great pains to keep healthy. "When you're wearing it all day every day — the weight of it on your body, it stretches your skin out," Chastain said. "I finally took it off and I was like, 'I look 50 years old!'" But while the actor may have been exaggerating the aging effects that the makeup had on her even after being removed, she was serious about the long-term problems they created. "I think for sure I've done some permanent damage to my skin on this."
Amanda Seyfried in Les Misérables
From heavy superhero armor to latex facial appliances, it can be easy to understand how a costume can cause health problems. In at least one case, though, it was some otherwise ordinary clothing that caused an actor to fall ill. It happened during the production of the period musical drama "Les Misérables," where the cast was decked out in faithful, Victorian-era costumes. And for Amanda Seyfried, it proved to be hazardous to her health.
Interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter while promoting the film, Seyfried talked about how due to the heavy clothing, she was forced to seek treatment for potentially serious injuries to her back and neck. "There was a physiotherapist on the set, and my neck had been hurting for four days," Seyfried explained. "She put two needles in my neck and two in my hand." The problems weren't over, though, because after Seyfried returned to filming shortly thereafter, she became light-headed and lost consciousness.
Appearing on "Conan," she spoke about the incident. "I woke with Russell [Crowe] holding my feet and Hugh [Jackman] massaging my neck." Clearly not traumatized, Seyfried may have actually enjoyed the health scare. "I'm telling you, I could do that again ... it was magical, actually."
Don Cheadle in Iron Man 3
Whether it's mental or physical exhaustion, there have been many cases of elaborate costumes causing issues for actors, especially as science fiction and fantasy films have become more and more popular. The same goes for superheroes, arguably the biggest movie genre today, where even more cumbersome costumes have become the order of the day. In 2013, it was both mental and physical exhaustion that plagued actor Don Cheadle on the set of the MCU threequel "Iron Man 3."
While he had already suited up as War Machine in "Iron Man 2," his costume as Iron Patriot got the best of him in the third film. Covered in armor, with a helmet that often covered his face and head completely, Cheadle struggled just to move. "You feel like a turtle," he said during an interview on the daytime talk show "Live! With Kelly and Michael" (per The Express). According to Cheadle, he also began to suffer serious claustrophobia inside the armor.
"It's big, it's heavy, it's constricting ... you can't touch your face; your arms don't articulate all the way." It didn't matter if it was scratching an itch or going to the bathroom, even the most mundane tasks were problematic, and it quickly wore the actor down. In the end, Cheadle had to get help, telling Kelly Ripa, "I took all kinds of [medication]."
Robin Williams in Popeye
Robin Williams has his share of iconic roles, from playing the titular alien on "Mork & Mindy" to Peter Pan himself in "Hook." One that often goes overlooked, however, is his 1980 portrayal of the beefy, spinach-eating cartoon sailor in the outlandish live-action adaptation of "Popeye." Mostly forgotten today — perhaps because outside of Williams' performance, it wasn't really very good — the film was directed by Robert Altman and one of its few successes was turning live actors into spitting images of their comic strip counterparts. For Williams, that meant big fake forearms, but what many don't realize is they caused real physical problems for him.
Throughout the film, Williams sports his usual smile, and he pairs it with Popeye's distinctive one-eye squint. But the character's often upbeat demeanor hid a secret truth: Those big prosthetic arms were causing Williams constant discomfort. Ironically, the arms were actually replacements developed and sculpted by special effects artist Andrea Felice, because the original designs didn't look at all natural and were too heavy and stiff to move around convincingly. Though Felice's versions looked great, part of making them convincing meant making them tight around Williams' own arms, which cut off his circulation.
Scarlett Johansson in The Avengers
Played by Scarlett Johansson, the character of Black Widow is an elite secret agent of sorts who made her debut in 2010's "Iron Man 2." Two years later she returned in the epic team-up film and got a new outfit for the occasion. The only problem was that the new gear was so tight and made of such thick, heavy leather that Johansson suffered to the point where she arguably needed medical attention.
According to the actor herself, the heat on the set of the film, combined with her full leather get-up, created real problems to the point of inducing hallucinations during filming of a scene set on a New York rooftop. Overheated and having trouble discerning reality, it would seem Johansson was suffering the tell-tale signs of a heatstroke, and all because of a simple black leather jumpsuit. But the A-list star took it all in stride, joking about how much sweat she'd accumulate in the outfit during the shoot. "It was so hot, I would wring out my socks at the end of the day," she told ABC News.
Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands
Johnny Depp has worn all kinds of costumes in his career, from his crazy pirate outfit as Captain Jack Sparrow, his colorful clothing in "Alice in Wonderland," and his controversial Native American dress in "The Lone Ranger." One of his earliest was all the way back in 1990, when he teamed with director Tim Burton for the first time on the gothic teen romance, "Edward Scissorhands." Clad head-to-toe in heavy leather, the actor — like Seyfried and Johansson — had problems with overheating.
Determined to get through the shoot without help, it's surprising to learn that Depp actually refused the aid of special cooling agents. Though he was able to manage the stress of his costume for most of the shoot, he did have one health scare during a particularly arduous moment.
"One night Johnny had to do a running sequence, running away from the house, I think at Christmas," said Depp's co-star Diane Wiest (per GamesRadar) "And he passed out. He fell down and we thought, 'well is he acting? What's he doing?' ... he'd passed out from the heat of the suit."