18 Incredible Onscreen Physical Transformations That Rendered Famous Actors Unrecognizable (And The Details Behind Them)

“I always say Doug Jones is to prosthetics as Andy Serkis is to motion capture — they’ve both given iconic performances that we all know and love but will never be fully recognized for what they do.”

3. “I’m going to go with Gary Oldman as Mason Verger in Hannibal. Not only was his real face buried under pounds of foam latex and silicone, but he also had one eye stretched open.”

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Here’s Gary in real life vs. in the movie:

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4. “Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire!”

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Here’s Robin in real life vs. in the movie:

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5. “You should have included Gary Oldman as Churchill in Darkest Hour. That was very interesting, too.”

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Here’s Gary in real life vs. in the movie:

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6. “Nicole Kidman looks like a completely different person as Virginia Woolf in The Hours. 🤯”

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Here’s Nicole in real life vs. in the movie:

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7. “Basically all the Star Trek actors over the years. Notably the Ferengi, Klingons, Cardassians, Borg, etc. — so many hours sitting and suffering.”

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Here’s Armin Shimerman in real life vs. as a Ferengi on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:

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Here’s J.G. Hertzler in real life vs. as a Klingon on Deep Space Nine:

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Here’s Marc Alaimo in real life vs. as a Cardassian on Deep Space Nine:

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And here’s Patrick Stewart in real life vs. as Locutus of Borg on Star Trek: The Next Generation:

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8. “Dustin Hoffman in Hook.”

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Here’s Dustin in real life vs. in the movie:

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9. “I love Bootstrap Bill’s look [Stellan Skarsgård in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End] with prosthetics.”

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Here’s Stellan in real life vs. in the movie:

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10. “Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster in Frankenstein (1931).”

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Here’s Boris in real life vs. in the movie:

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11. And finally: “I would love to see Doug Jones represented on a list like this. Not only did he do *so many* iconic prosthetic performances, but they also run the spectrum from the creepy inhuman characters in Pan’s Labyrinth to the far more emotive like Saru in Star Trek: Discovery, with stop-offs in between like the fish man in The Shape of Water.”

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Here’s Doug in real life vs. in Pan’s Labyrinth:

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Here’s Doug in real life vs. as Saru in Star Trek: Discovery:

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And here’s Doug in real life vs. as the Amphibian Man in The Shape of Water:

1. “I know it took Jamie Campbell Bower 7.5 hours to become Vecna on Stranger Things. That’s a whole lot of time!”

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Here’s Jamie in real life vs. on the show:

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2. “SHAME! No mention of Tim Curry as Darkness from Legend (1985)? He sat in that chair for HOURS of 1980s makeup and special effects!”