How Alexander Skarsgård’s wicker costume was built for Olivia Colman’s new film
Variety reports that the basket-like suit in Wicker used painted 3D-printed pieces on flexible spandex. Wētā Workshop describes the character as a practical effects creation.
Alexander Skarsgård’s basket-like costume in Wicker was built from 3D-printed pieces painted to resemble woven material and attached to a flexible suit, Variety reported on October 23. The construction let him play the Wicker Husband opposite Olivia Colman without wearing actual straw, while Wētā Workshop says the character was chiefly a practical effects creation.
How the Wicker Husband suit was made
Variety reported that the costume consisted of 50 individual printed appliances stitched onto soft spandex. Prosthetic makeup designer Joe Dunckley described the material as semiflexible and similar to the feel of wicker weave. The distinction matters for scenes in which Colman’s character touches the figure: the woven appearance came from fabricated pieces, rather than straw against the actors’ skin.
Dunckley told Variety that the team wanted the strands to move like muscle fibres, making the character seem capable of movement despite his basket construction. They began with a full-body scan of Skarsgård, then used digital sculpting and a powder-bed laser-sintering process to make the intricate weave. Dunckley said conventional prosthetic materials, generally made to imitate human skin, posed a different challenge for a figure meant to look like wicker.
Variety said Dunckley and lead makeup effects artist Sarah Rubano spent 18 months on research and development. Wētā Workshop identifies both artists in those roles and says it designed and created a fully practical fabricated suit and full facial prosthetic makeup for Skarsgård. The workshop says most shots of the Wicker Husband contain no CGI, though sound design and a small amount of visual effects were added for particular moments.
The makeup beneath the woven face
Rubano told Variety that the facial makeup comprised 10 pieces, including ears, eye bags and lips, along with pieces for the jaw, forehead, nose and cheekbones. The team painted around Skarsgård’s eyes, while fibres from the harakeke plant were used for his beard, hair and eyelashes. Dunckley said the artists used animation software to account for Skarsgård’s facial expressions when designing movement into the weave.
Getting Skarsgård ready involved alternating between the makeup chair and the fitted suit, Rubano said. Variety reported that the process was down to about 90 minutes by the end of production. Rubano also described the suit as hot during filming in Hungary. For a full-body river shot, she said, costume designers András Dániel Tóth and Attila Godena-Juhász made an additional puff-spandex detail, coloured to match the surrounding weave.
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Sources and context
- Why Olivia Colman Didn’t Get Splinters From Getting Intimate With Alexander Skarsgård’s ‘Wicker’ CostumeVariety
- WickerWētā Workshop
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.