An excessive codpiece, a pair of improbable shoes, and an iconic metal bikini.
Costumes are incredibly important in creating indelible characters.
Here are a few controversial costumes that made it to the silver screen.
In September 2016, audiences got their first look at Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, a
new adventure inspired by 1995's Robin Williams-led adaptation of the children's book of the same name.
In the photo, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black are each wearing jungle-appropriate
outfits ... alongside co-star Karen Gillan, who's wearing what amounts to child-sized clothing.
The photo prompted immediate criticism, prompting Gillan to try and defuse controversy by telling
The Hollywood Reporter,
"The payoff is worth it, I promise!"
It was later revealed that the first footage for the film really did explain Gillan's skimpy outfit.
As THR recapped,
"The plot involves four high-school students who are forced to clean out the basement of
their school while in detention [...] They find an old video game and each chooses a
character to play."
Gillan's character is a shy girl who transforms into her adult character, and — as viewers
saw in the film's first trailer — the costume choice is a reflection of the way video games
often portray women.
Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin is usually seen as a disaster.
Setting aside the cartoony elements, the terrible dialogue,
"7 Million…Never leave the cave without it."
…and poor plot choices, fans will never forget the movie costumes—specifically the
Bat-nipples.
Schumacher explained in a behind-the-scenes special :
"The inspiration for them are Greek statues that have perfect bodies.
And, so, we're molding this perfect body in rubber, and they're anatomically erotic.
So, it never occurred to me not to put nipples on the men's suits because I didn't know the
male nipple was a controversial body part."
That sounds reasonable enough—and if Batman & Robin had succeeded on many other levels,
audiences might have been able to look past the costume distractions.
Unfortunately, the movie sent the entire franchise into limbo for almost a decade, leaving fans
with years to mock the worst misstep in the franchise's long cinematic history.
An all-CGI Green Lantern?
Original stills and trailers for the 2011 film looked pretty awful, and although the
studio insisted it would look amazing on screen, the animated costume has been widely held
up as one of many reasons for the film's failure.
Star Ryan Reynolds later admitted to ScreenRant that he didn't care for the CGI ensemble,
saying,
"I mean, it's brutal doing a film where you're wearing a motion capture suit for the whole time.
[...] I didn't even get to see the Green Lantern suit until the first trailer.
I never even knew what it looked like."
The filmmakers wanted to do something new for a superhero, and costume designer Ngila
Dickson came up with the idea that the suit was his power manifesting outside the body—an
interesting idea, but the special effects just didn't hold up.
Dickson agreed, as reported by Entertainment Weekly :
"We were literally doing what you would sculpt in a studio, but we were doing it with a computer
[...] In many respects, we were following all the same principles, but you never got
the tangible result that you get from the build you do in a costume house."
Even before Pitch Perfect 3 made its way to theaters, the production caught flak for potential
discrimination against their plus-size stars.
Rebel Wilson posted a photo online of herself alongside co-stars Brittany Snow and Chrissie
Fit; while the latter two were wearing sleeveless tops, Wilson was in short sleeves.
The photo prompted accusations of size discrimination, arguably intensified since Wilson has been
a public advocate for a healthy female body image.
The controversy intensified when people pointed out that Ester Dean, one of Wilson's co-stars,
also wore a similar sleeved version of the striped sailor top.
Movie costume designer Salvador Perez ultimately took to Twitter to try and put out the fire:
"I let each actor decide how their costume fit, it was their choice.
Rebel, Ester & Hana Mae wanted sleeves."
In another photo posted by Kelley Jakle, each of the stars are seen wearing a variety of
styles of the same sailor top.
It appeared that the photo that ignited the controversy in the first place may have been
taken out of context.
Harley Quinn's big-screen debut in David Ayer's Suicide Squad was one of the movie's biggest
draws, especially since Margot Robbie was playing the famed villain.
As with any other comic book character, a lot of media attention focused on her movie
costume—particularly how little of it there was.
Robbie shared her thoughts on the tight costume with the New York Times:
"As Margot, no, I don't like wearing that.
[...] I'm eating burgers at lunchtime, and then you go do a scene where you're hosed
down and soaking wet in a white t-shirt, it's so clingy, and you're self-conscious about it."
Ayers stated he didn't think denim overalls would be appropriate for the character and
insisted Robbie understood the character's iconography.
He may have a point: Harley initially wore a jester suit in Batman: The Animated Series,
but over the years, her wardrobe has changed significantly as the character went from being
a jester to more of a sex symbol—who's now made her way into Hollywood, hot pants and all.
"What?"
Everyone's seen photos of Marilyn Monroe standing on a subway grate in a free-flowing white dress.
The shot filmed for 1955's The Seven Year Itch was totally intentional—but the filmmakers
didn't imagine it would cause such a stir.
Costume designer William Travilla didn't think it would become his most memorable piece.
He took care to craft an outfit that would convey Marilyn's sweet, innocent nature, while
still letting her sexiness shine through.
The dress was hand pleated with metal boning and made in an ivory crepe.
It didn't take a genius to discover that filming Monroe in public might generate some buzz
for The Seven Year Itch, so they shot on a real New York street, invited 100 photographers,
and let a crowd of over 2000 watch the action.
Photographer George Zimbel was there and said the crowd went "'50s wild" every time Monroe's
dress flew up.
"Don't you feel the breeze from the subway?
Isn't it delicious?"
The crowd loved Marilyn and she easily stole the picture, but one man was definitely not
a fan of the stunt.
Baseball star Joe DiMaggio, Monroe's husband at the time, unexpectedly arrived at the raucous set.
After watching his wife get ogled and hollered at, he decided to leave.
Zimbel recounted the moment:
"They were very publicly leaving and everything stopped for their exit.
[...] There was a changed mood on the set and everyone could feel it."
Apparently Monroe and DiMaggio got in a terrible fight, and the next day on set, Monroe needed
makeup to cover the bruises.
Though the revealing dress wasn't the only problem in the marriage, it did seem to be
the straw that broke the camel's back, as Monroe filed for divorce three weeks after
the infamous scene.
Princess Leia's metal bikini struck an immediate chord with male fans of the Star Wars series
from the moment it debuted in Return of the Jedi.
But not everyone fell in love with the slave Leia outfit; in fact, many viewers found it
to be a prime example of objectification, and pretty poor treatment of the series' only
notable female character at the time.
Carrie Fisher, who played Leia and had to put up with decades of discussion around the
outfit, warned newcomer Daisy Ridley during a discussion with Interview Magazine,:
"Don't be a slave like I was.
[...] You keep fighting against that slave outfit."
The costume's designers insisted they never intended the costume to be demeaning and based
the design off Frank Frazetta's artwork for the cover of A Princess of Mars.
George Lucas loved the idea and since he wanted something special for the scene, he got it.
Fisher got extra attention while wearing the getup—for more reasons than one.
Since it was literally made of metal, the outfit wouldn't stay in place.
Though Fisher may not have loved the outfit, she refused to be victimized by it; decades
later, she pointed out on Twitter that the character's brief time in captivity ends with
her killing Jabba—with her own chain,
"That chain only 'enslaved' me [...] until I could use the frabjous thing to KILL THAT
DROOLING SWOLLEN SUPER TONGUED SLUG & whirl him off into infinity."
As always, Fisher had the last and best word.
You may have blocked it from your memory, but Ryan Reynolds played Deadpool before his
solo outing in Deadpool.
Unfortunately, during his first appearance as the character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine,
the filmmakers decided to make the brave choice of doing everything they could to insult the fans.
They took away his suit, including his mask, and they sewed his mouth shut—leaving a
character who's literally referred to as the merc with a mouth, physically unable to speak.
Even director Gavin Hood admitted Deadpool came out all wrong in his film, explaining
it was hard to fit Deadpool's personality into a PG-13 movie.
Studio ADI, who applied the creature effects for the film, made a video explaining their
whole side of the Deadpool tale.
The artists believe the studio didn't intend for Deadpool to be fully formed in Wolverine,
just a setup for what he could become in a later film.
One artist suggested,
"If you think of this as an embryonic Deadpool, it might make more sense."
From the comics to the screen, the DC superhero's attire has been the focus of attention numerous
times over the years, so it's no surprise that from the second Gal Gadot signed on to
play Wonder Woman in the DC Extended Universe, a number of comic readers immediately chimed
in about how wrong she was.
Her performance in Batman v. Superman silenced many who claimed she was too thin and didn't
have a hero's figure, but the controversy didn't end there.
The Amazonian's latest costume seemed fairly appropriate, though a lot of people were unhappy
about the shoes; Wonder Woman has to run around and kick butt in heels, which many argued
were unnecessary and put the emphasis on sexiness over strength.
Though the heels might not be the most practical thing for a superhero, the rest of the movie
costume was thoroughly thought out.
Designer Michael Wilkinson spoke to "The Hollywood Reporter" about his ideas behind her signature
look, saying,
"We wanted to create something incredibly strong and portray her as a legitimate fighter.
[...] There was a lot of love that went into all the details, making her really look like
a powerful, legitimate warrior."
Though audiences generally loved the dinosaur action and the guy carrying two margaritas
as he ran from prehistoric monsters, there was one big problem with
Jurassic World – Bryce Dallas Howard's heels.
Howard played Claire, an uptight executive who ends up running around in everything from
mud to wet concrete, and never for a moment takes off her nude pumps.
Even when escaping a T-rex, those heels stay glued to her feet.
It's not hard to see why audiences had a problem: heels would be the worst possible shoes to
wear in that situation.
The pumps must have been made of magic since they never came close to falling off in any
of her off-road adventures.
But Howard defended the choice to "Yahoo News", saying,
"I'm better equipped to run when I have shoes on my feet.
[...] I think she's somebody who could sprint a marathon in heels.
[...] For me, it was actually logical for her to be in that very illogical situation
because she doesn't belong in the jungle and yet she finds herself there and has to adapt."
Whether or not you like the pumps, you have to be impressed by Howard's ability to run
in them without breaking an ankle.
Judge Dredd is less than great for a number of reasons, one being a lot of screen time
for Rob Schneider and another being the ridiculous way Sylvester Stallone hollers:
"I am the law!"
But for longtime fans of the character, that wasn't the worst of it.
In the comics, Judge Dredd famously never takes off his helmet, but Sylvester Stallone
takes it off in under 20 minutes.
Director Danny Cannon's original idea was to keep Dredd dark, violent, and NC-17.
He wanted the film to stick closer to the comics and have an overall gritty tone.
Stallone, on the other hand, wanted a flat-out comedy.
According to Cannon, Stallone wanted countless rewrites and always pushed for more laughs.
Plus, he had a less-than-reverent view of his character:
"Dredd?
A role model?
You've got to be kidding!
This guy's a nut!"
In addition to making script changes, Stallone also wanted a say in the character's fashion.
The movie costumes were partially designed by Emma Porteous and Gianni Versace, as Stallone
wanted the fashion designer's take.
Apparently, Versace thought the future would run on codpieces, since they were heavily
featured in his original, unused designs.
Alan Grant, co-writer of the Dredd comics, said:
"The story was subservient to Stallone, who, I think, takes himself too seriously."
When Karl Urban was announced as the star of the 2012 Dredd reboot, he immediately assured
fans he'd be leaving the helmet on.
"I am the law"
Much darker than his usual Muppet fare, Jim Henson's 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth is about
a teenager named Sarah, who gets sick of watching her baby half-brother Toby.
When her little brother gets kidnapped, Sarah is whisked away to a magical land of goblins
and other creatures.
In this other realm, Sarah matches wits with Jareth , the Goblin King, whose romantic interests
in her are deeply off-putting.
His overly tight trousers and prominent codpiece being in a children's movie is another issue altogether.
Jareth is complex and charismatic, a sort of mythological rock star who's attractive
and frightening.
He's portrayed by real life rock star David Bowie, who brought sex appeal and danger to
the role.
Costume designer Brian Froud played up all of that when creating the wardrobe for Jareth.
He recounts this in the documentary Inside the Labyrinth,
"He's [...] contemporary with a leather jacket, it has armor on it.
[...] I gave him a swagger stick.
It has a crystal ball, but if you look at it, it's a microphone.
You're supposed to be a young girl's dream of a pop star.
We got in a lot of trouble about maybe how tight his pants were, but that was deliberate."
Because '70s and '80s rock stars wore tight pants on stage and in music videos, almost
as an aggressive display of their sexuality, so did Jareth.
During Hollywood's Golden Age, the major movie studios all agreed to a self-policing system
of censorship and adherence to standards of decency.
According to NPR, Former U.S. Postmaster General Will Hays developed a list of 36 Don'ts and
Be Carefuls — nicknamed the Hays Code — that filmmakers dutifully followed for more than
30 years, even though they weren't enforceable laws.
Celebrity billionaire Howard Hughes dabbled in filmmaking and directed The Outlaw, a 1943
western about a vampy revenge-seeking femme fatale named Rio McDonald.
The movie starred Jane Russell, in her feature film debut, and she wore a lot of revealing
costumes in the film, all of which accentuated her chest.
Even the advertising heavily marketed Russell's animal magnetism, using photos of her reclining
on hay bales in a loose-fitting blouse without a bra underneath to drum up the film's publicity.
During production, Hughes was disappointed that his cinematographer wasn't capturing
enough footage of Russell below the neck and above the waist.
He also didn't want shots of the actor's chest to include any trace of a bra, which was a
provocative notion for the 1940s.
So, Hughes used his aviation engineering background to design a seamless push-up bra for Russell,
which would be invisible underneath the actor's wide-open blouses.
Hughes got the sexy shots he wanted, but once he submitted the final cut of The Outlaw to
RKO Pictures, it couldn't pass the Hays Code without the careful deletion of some of the
raciest images of Russell.
Princess Merida from Brave has been hailed as one of Disney's least princess-y princesses.
From her refusal to marry to her amazing archery skills and her insistence that her curly hair
run free, audiences felt Merida was a step in the right direction—so it was all the
more disappointing when Disney dolled her up later on, marking a controversial costume
that wasn't even onscreen.
When Merida was officially announced as the 11th Disney Princess, the corporation debuted
a new illustration of the Scottish lass, and a number of fans weren't pleased.
The 2D drawing gave Merida a slightly slimmer figure, bigger eyes, and an all-around more
glammed-up look.
Brave co-director Brenda Chapman didn't mince words:
"When little girls say they like it because it's more sparkly, that's all fine and good
but, subconsciously, they are soaking in the sexy 'come hither' look and the skinny aspect
of the new version.
It's horrible!
Merida was created to break that mold — to give young girls a better, stronger role model,
a more attainable role model, something of substance, not just a pretty face that waits
around for romance."
Disney responded to the controversy by saying all the Princesses are given new looks from
time to time, and that particular version of Merida would be one of many.
The company argued it had chosen that design because Merida would want to "dress up" for
the special coronation.
The fact that Merida hates getting dressed up in Brave and tears apart her fancy gown
at the first opportunity didn't factor into the character design, apparently.
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