While the world of on-screen monsters is crowded with CGI and digital animation, there are
still some actors who take on the task of bringing the most grotesque and complicated
creatures to life.
Unlike their film and TV personas, these actors can turn a head or two in real life.
Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street
Wes Craven has always had a knack for creating dastardly creatures that bring our worst nightmares
to life.
Character Freddy Krueger did that literally.
The slasher film star isn't just a villain.
He's a horror institution with disturbing looks to match an equally messed-up backstory.
The former janitor was burned alive which somehow transformed his mutilated corpse into
a demon that could only kill his victims inside of their own dreams.
In 2010, the role of the infamous serial killer was taken on by Jackie Earle Haley for the
Warner Bros. remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street.
"I had to keep you awake long enough so when you finally slept, you'd never wake up again."
The Academy Award-nominated actor wasn't a fan of horror when he donned the famous razor
glove, but he endured the arduous makeup process to take on the iconic role anyway.
He told Bloody Disgusting:
"You know, I've done a lot of complaining about the makeup, 'cause people are asking
me that question.
But it was well worth it.
There was even something just about the arduousness that really helped for the preparation for
the character… yeah, it was a fun process.
It was incredibly difficult, incredibly arduous, challenging, physically, and just everything.
But it was also fun getting in there and playing Freddy Krueger."
The Night King in Game of Thrones
There's a reason winter took so long to come.
Apparently, actually becoming a White Walker takes some serious effort.
In an interview with Vulture, Game of Thrones actor Kit Harington revealed his ghostly foes
come to life without the use of CGI.
The Night King's crown of horns and ominous blue eyes are apparently prosthetics.
According to Times of India, it takes a whopping six hours in the makeup chair to transform
stuntman-slash-actor Vladimir Furdik into the White Walkers' fearless leader.
The transformation is so severe that fans rarely recognize him in real life, and he's
shown without makeup in just a single episode over the course of the series.
He told Times of India:
"Not many fans know I'm the Night King because on the show, this face is always behind the
mask.
It's at events when fans know it's me that they come for autographs and selfies."
Furdik, who replaced Richard Brake on Game of Thrones in season 6, started his career
as a stuntman in films like Skyfall and Thor: The Dark World.
Amphibian Man in The Shape of Water
The Shape of Water ended up winning the Oscar for best picture largely because it managed
to achieve making a giant, godly amphibian man into an actual sympathetic character.
For Doug Jones, who donned the scaly suit, that was no easy task.
The costume alone took three years to create from a drawing in Guillermo del Toro's sketchbook.
Once Jones put it on, it was exceedingly difficult to see, hear, and feel.
In an interview with Wired, he admitted it left him feeling like, quote, "a bit of a
nursing home patient."
Jones, who doesn't actually have any speaking lines, told Slate that his role was unlike
most of his other costumed roles.
Instead of spending hours in the makeup chair, it was relatively easy to put on…
"From the neck down, it was a suit.
I slipped into it, zipped it up the back, but it was very, very tight and snug.
It took four people to help me do that."
That said, it did pose a major problem when it came to using the bathroom.
He dished to Slate:
"There was no trapdoor in the back.
When I'm in the suit, it'll be for a good 16, 17 hours a day.
So you have to make sure that you're not going to have a little accident.
And that is my biggest fear in this world is that they're going to pull the suit off
me one day and be disgusted by the aroma."
Ari in Planet of the Apes
Tim Burton cast Helena Bonham Carter in his 2001 Planet of the Apes remake.
The actress, who separated from the director in 2014 after a 13-year relationship, has
often been described as being Burton's "muse."
And it might have just been her portrayal of the chimpanzee humanoid Ari that sparked
their longtime working relationship.
Burton and Bonham Carter first met on the set of the classic remake, in which the star
underwent what she called a, quote, "cumbersome and crippling" makeover.
"Oh, no, not you again!"
"You know me.
Just can't stand by while human beings are being mistreated, tortured, mutilated."
In an interview with Cinema.com, Bonham Carter admitted it took about four hours in the makeup
chair to fully get dressed in her, quote, "very unpleasant" and "unbearably hot" chimpanzee
costume.
It was difficult to hear wearing the rubber ears, and her furry hands were, in her own
words, "absolutely useless."
The huge teeth also posed a problem.
She could only drink through a straw and was forced to use a tiny cosmetic mirror to eat
just so she could see where her mouth was, but the worst part was using the bathroom.
She admitted:
"That was a huge event in itself and very exhausting.
It meant removing your rubber furry hands and then struggling to open your ape suit,
so basically we ate and drank as little as possible simply to avoid the incredible logistical
problems of going to the toilet."
The Robot in Lost in Space
In Netflix's reboot of Lost in Space, the iconic role of the Robot was absolutely transformed.
In many ways, his complexity and depth are the reasons the show is so captivating.
Though there's undoubtedly parts of the upgraded costume that can be attributed to CGI, the
main, humanoid portrayal is done by actor Brian Steele, who wears a heavy robot suit
throughout filming.
The Robot's face obviously looks nothing like Steele in real life.
While Steele can rely on human things like eyebrows and lips to express emotions, the
Robot only has his color-changing face, which evolved throughout the production.
VFX supervisor Jabbar Raisani told IndieWire:
"It started out colorful but it was distracting.
We decided to go with a lava lamp sense where he was a bit more ethereal and almost more
mesmerizing as you stared into his face.
And then using slower patterns and light seemed to be more effective.
But we tried to use color to help show what he was feeling."
Dren in Splice
According to an interview in Popular Mechanics, the entire idea for the sci-fi horror Splice
was sparked by the real-life image of a lab rat with a human ear growing out of its back.
Basically, it was always going to have creepy, genetically mutated creatures from the get-go.
Director Vincenzo Natali even worked with a real geneticist while writing the script
to make sure things were as realistic as possible.
Sure, we may not be growing a Dren in the lab anytime soon, we're not touching that
ethics violation with a ten-foot pole, but what about in the future?
For something so bizarre-looking, Dren is actually kind of beautiful, as much as a humanoid
with a tail, wings, and triple-jointed legs can be.
That's largely due to actress Delphine Chanéac's stunning good looks, and the fact that it
took more than a decade to flesh out.
Natali used designers who came from a fine arts background rather than a film background
to create a more realistic movie monster.
Natali told Popular Mechanics:
"What I wanted to do with Dren, in her later stages, was to change the human form in subtle
ways.
I felt the small changes would actually be more shocking than the big ones.
If you make a small change to somebody's face, it is much more jarring than some kind of
gross deformation."
The Janitor in Silent Hill
Silent Hill is certainly a creepy video game series, but the movie's real-life scare factor
hinged on transforming the intense cast of monsters into actual living, breathing beings.
Its success would not have been possible without award-winning choreographer Roberto Campanella,
who's worked on film and TV projects like The Shape of Water and The Strain.
For Silent Hill, he not only served as creature movement coordinator, yes, that's an actual
professional title, but he is also credited as Colin and Red Pyramid, a.k.a. Pyramid head.
Though Campanella is an undeniably attractive dancer, Colin was absolutely grotesque.
The character was meant to be a former janitor who was tormented by Alessa after he assaulted
her.
She ultimately killed him and tied him up with barbed wire in the bathroom stall where
the attack took place.
There wasn't a whole lot Campanella could do choreography-wise to make the character
more grotesque considering he was bound in the costume, but he did improvise with facial
expressions.
In an interview, he revealed:
"My head is tilted back, so I can't even really move my head that much.
The only thing that I could really use to make it obscene was my tongue."
And obscene it was and definitely on brand for Silent Hill's twisted, sadistic shtick.
Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Andrew Bryniarski wasn't the first choice to play the iconic horror movie villain Leatherface
in the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but it was his beefiness and brawn that landed
him the part.
Director Marcus Nispel reportedly wanted the biggest guy.
In an interview, the former professional bodybuilder admitted he only got the role after the person
originally hired lied about his size and physical ability.
Bryniarski explained:
"They hired the wrong guy, and then on day one, scene one, take one, he is hospitalized/disabled
by the intensity of work and is fired.
By now they needed help… and I was raring to roar.
I was then asked if I could/would still like to fly to Austin.
I told Marcus 'Don't worry, I'm your man.
I was born to wear the mask!'
I meant it.
He knew it.
That's that."
Bryniarski might have been the right person for the part, but he certainly was nothing
like his character.
Dispelling any possible rumors to the contrary, Bryniarski insisted to IGN that he never stayed
in character between takes.
Rather, he'd run to his trailer and play guitar because he's a, quote, "rock and roll machine,
not a killing machine."
Lurch in The Addams Family
Ted Cassidy isn't exactly a household name in modern times, but his monstrous character
in The Addams Family absolutely is, even if the original show only aired between 1964
and 1966.
The former radio news reporter beat out more experienced actors for his role on the series
because of his massive height.
With Cassidy at six feet and nine inches tall, The New York Times called his large stature,
quote, "the boon and bane of his existence."
Lurch's appearance and monotone voice lent itself to the creepy, unsettling undertones
that made The Addams Family such a cult hit.
According to Legacy.com, the star wasn't meant to have any lines but ad-libbed his famous
catch phrase…
"You rang?"
… in his audition.
Cassidy, who passed away in 1979, might have been tall, but he didn't look anywhere near
as ghostly as his infamous character.
The star also had roles in MacKenna's Gold and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, in
which he dressed in Western garb and even sported a pretty glorious moustache, which
he totally pulled off, by the way.
"Sundance.
When we're done, if he's dead, you're welcome to stay."
The Bride in Black from Insidious 2
If there's one evil character that embodies the Insidious series, it's the Bride in Black.
The old woman, as she's referred to in the first flick, is dressed in a black wedding
dress with stark white skin and dark eyes.
If you couldn't have guessed, the man behind the bride isn't trying to steal your soul.
In fact, he's a pretty adorable old dude.
He's actually played by an actor that used to be on a children's show.
The star, Tom Fitzpatrick, had small roles in the Nickelodeon series iCarly and didn't
even know what Insidious was when he booked the gig for the second and third films.
In an interview with Terror Time, Fitzpatrick admitted he wasn't aware of the outlandish
costume he'd be wearing when he first signed up.
He said:
"After the call from my manager, I may have gotten a call from Wardrobe, which is standard
practice, asking for my sizes.
'Should I bring shoes?'
I may have asked.
'Oh, don't worry,' I think they said, 'you're just gonna be wearing pajamas.'"
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