Since TV is a visual medium, the costumes are an integral part of the spectacle. However, the outfits that look incredible onscreen are sometimes pretty miserable to wear.
Here are 11 times TV actors wore costumes that caused them pain, injury, or discomfort:
1.
Patrick Stewart “came to loathe” Picard’s Star Trek: The Next Genertation jumpsuit. In 2008, he told Newsweek, “We actually got rid of it after the second season thanks to my chiropractor, who said, ‘If they don’t take you out of that costume, we are going to slap a lawsuit on Paramount for the lasting damage done to your spine.'”
2.
Louisa Jacobson “took a long time to get used to” the corset she wore to play Marion Brook in The Gilded Age “after wearing sweatpants for so long.” In 2022, she told the podcast Reign with Josh Smith, “I really suffered from that decision because they measured and sewed all my costumes based on how tight my corset was in the fitting, when I had been really ambitious about making it very tight.”
3.
While playing Kate Sharma in Bridgerton, Simone Ashley needed help getting dressed “because when you’re in a corset, you can’t put your shoes on.” The corset caused other problems, too. In 2022, she told Glamour UK, “On my first day, I was like, ‘OK, first day as a leading lady, got to eat lots of food, be really energized.’ So, I had this massive portion of salmon, and that’s when I needed to be sick, basically because I was wearing the corset. I realized when you wear the corset, you just don’t eat.”
4.
While playing Penelope Featherington in Bridgerton, Nicola Coughlan tried to wear heels so she was at eye level with her castmates. In 2020, she told Good Morning America, “I arrived on set on the first day and fell over three times in the heels. Once was holding a dog, and once was holding a parosol, which I fell and stabbed Claudia Jessie — who plays Eloise — right in the hand and drew blood.”
5.
Star Trek: Voyager actor Jeri Ryan told BBC that, for her Seven of Nine costume, “There’s a corset, one-piece undergarment. It’s constricting, and it’s not comfortable. You can’t really bend. You can’t really sit comfortably in it.”
6.
For Pedro Pascal, wearing his suit and helmet for his titular role in The Mandalorian was “like putting on a head-to-toe glove with weights on it.”
7.
In 2023, The Boys actor Nathan Mitchell told The Movie Dweeb that, while the costume designers did “such a great job” making his Black Noir suit “aesthetically pleasing” and “comfortable,” wearing it still took a toll on his body. He said, “It’s like there’s a compression that happens around your shoulders and your back, and it just slowly presses down on you. Like, 20 minutes? Okay. An hour? Fine. Eight hours, ten hours, twelve hours, and you’re just like, ‘Ugh.'”
8.
While playing Herman on The Munsters, Fred Gwynne reportedly had to take lots of cool-down breaks because of the bulky padding and makeup his costume required.
9.
The cape that Kit Harington wore as Jon Snow on Game of Thrones weighed “a ton.” In 2019, he told The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, “It smells awful…I think they add weight to it every year.”
10.
Peter Serafinowicz’s costume for his titular role in The Tick was “nonbreathable, and it doesn’t have much give in it.” He also struggled to move in it at times.
11.
And finally, while playing the titular role in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Rachel Brosnahan got a “corset-related injury” from her character’s ’50s and ’60s-era outfits. She “can’t take super deep breaths anymore.”
Which of these costumes would you hate wearing the most? Share your thoughts in the comments!