A Brief History of Male Actors Complaining About Superhero Costumes
Jason Momoa may have the privilege of starring in Aquaman, but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, as he shared this week; the duty comes with sacrifice, including ones related to what he unabashedly described as “the poopsies.” He may be the most memorable one to air such a complaint, but he’s certainly not the first. So many have preceded him, in fact, that the male superheroes of Hollywood have earned themselves something of a diva reputation. Take it from one of their seasoned costars, Evangeline Lilly: “I have been hearing Marvel male superheroes complain about their suits for years,” she said earlier this year, while praising the costume she wore in Ant-Man and the Wasp. “I was like, ‘Do I have the most comfortable suit in the MCU, or have men not had the life experience of being uncomfortable for the sake of looking good?” She then lifted up a high heel, illustrating her point nearly as succinctly as Gwyneth Paltrow did a few years back, when, faced with her Iron Man 3 costars’ complaints about their”torturous” costumes, she declared, simply, “Men are crybabies!” Of course, some are much more sympathetic than others; playing Spider-Man meant that Tom Holland, for one, could only drink water through a straw poked through an eye hole while filming, and playing what turned out to be the gentlest Hulk of all time somehow turned an extremely earnest Mark Ruffalo into an even bigger teddy bear. Hear their sides of the story here.
1Jason Momoa as Aquaman
On the skintight wet suit for his starring role in Aquaman: “It looks like it’s easy to pee in that, but really it’s not. And if you have the poopsies, it is very challenging. You’ve gotta be really good at holding it.” (Page Six)
2George Clooney as Batman
On his infamous chest in Batman & Robin: “Well, I wasn’t thrilled with the nipples on the batsuit. You know that’s not something you really think about when you’re putting it on. You figure all batsuits have nipples, and then you realize yours was really the first. Batman was just constantly cold, I guess.” (Comic Book)
3Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk
On the motion capture suit he wore for The Avengers: “I felt really uncomfortable. I’m not well-endowed, and those suits don’t really show you off in the most…The first day I was a miserable bastard, that I was just a trained actor reduced to the state of a Chinese checkerboard.” (Incidentally, the film’s visual effects supervisors have since clarified that the Hulk does not have a penis.) (Slash Film)
4Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man
On his skintight suit for The Amazing Spider-Man: “I knew there were paparazzi taking terrible, unflattering shots of my, you know, everything…knowing that your keister has been shot from many different angles makes you very uncomfortable.” (Digital Spy)
5Tom Holland as Spider-Man
On his own Spidey suit, for Spider-Man: Homecoming: “The first thing you need to know, all I have on under that costume is a thong. They brought them in on my first day, like, ‘Here are your thongs.’ I had serious misgivings—would my arsehole ever be the same again? But I had to get used to it. Even though I was thinking, No way, no way!” (ShortList)
6Hugh Jackman as Wolverine
On his signature claws seen throughout the X-Men series: “I can’t tell you how many people I stabbed, how I stabbed myself. They were killing machines.” (Entertainment Weekly)
7Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther
On the spandex suit he wore in Captain America: Civil War: “It was suffocating. Literally, it closed off every possibility of air getting to you. I was in it, put the mask on. I said, ‘Hey, you got to get me out of this!’ ” (Variety)
8Don Cheadle as War Machine
On the heavyweight suit that War Machine transitions to in Iron Man 3: “It ain’t no lightweight thing. It’s very heavy. It’s fiberglass, I think that’s what it is. But it feels like it’s some special alloy that they made in a torture chamber that Torquemada created…and Robert’s was not really heavy. Robert’s was nice and light. It’s racism, let’s just be honest. I mean, what else could it be?” (Huffington Post, YouTube)
9Ben Affleck as Daredevil
His takeaway from starring in Daredevil: “By playing a superhero in Daredevil, I have inoculated myself from ever playing another superhero. Wearing a costume was a source of humiliation for me and something I wouldn’t want to do again soon.” (Irish Examiner)
10Ben Affleck (Yes, Again) as Batman
On his completely CGI suit for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, following his famous last words: “the most humiliating, ridiculous thing in the world…but it’s easier for the digital effects guys. You can see who the priority is.” (Total Film)
