Actor Jamie Campbell Bower, who played the complicated villain in “Stranger Things 4,” revealed that his terrifying Freddy Krueger-esque full-body prosthetics included a “flap” for him to use the restroom without getting out of costume. “The bottom half of the suit sort of waist-down, they’re like a pair of trousers that I have to slip on,” Bower said during an interview on SiriusXM’s Octane. “Everything else is glued, but the bottom half are trousers. I have a flap that — this fucking flap — that goes from the chest underneath my buttcrack.” Bower thanked “poor” prosthetic makeup artist Duncan Jarman for securing his genitals “down there” during the seven and a half hours worth of prosthetic application daily. Jarman chimed in during the SiriusXM Octane interview to joke, “Sometimes you have to get close up and personal with your actors.”
Bower went on to explain that he relied on a crew member named Tyler to guard the door to the restroom while he was “hovering over the urinal” in costume during bathroom breaks.
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Back on set, Bower as Vecna infamously made co-star Millie Bobby Brown cry with his blood-covered, veiny costume. And while Bower stands by Vecna’s “humanity,” the character’s extensive costume design mirrored his tortured state and trapped surroundings in the Upside Down.
“Stranger Things” VFX supervisor Michael Maher exclusively told IndieWire that series creators Matt and Ross Duffer wanted to “push the explosiveness” of effects when it came to Vecna’s appearance.
“The texture matches Vecna, who’s in control of his environment and everything stems from him,” Maher said. “He’s attached to the vines that lift him up. It’s like a spiderweb. Black widows are a big part of the season as a metaphor. Essentially, the vines in the Upside Down are coming and melding with him so he can get in this meditative state.”