I just read an interview Jeffrey Dean Morgan gave in 2012 how playing a Xindi-Reptilian on "Enterprise" was such a thoroughly miserable experience for him that he would go home in tears every night and almost quit acting because of it.
Now it's common knowledge that acting under heavy prosthetics can be pretty rough, especially if you're claustrophobic. It's heavy, it's hot, your skin can't breathe, sweat gets trapped, you're often restricted as to what you can eat, you're sometimes nearly deaf if your ears are covered. Plus you've got a 3 AM call-time. Lovely.
When you factor all that in, it's not too terribly surprising to hear about Andrea Martin being unwilling to return as Moogie, or Star Trek resorting to what's practically a company repertory players (Vaughn Armstrong, etc.) as aliens, or a VERY generous salary bump being necessary to woo Michael Dorn to put that forehead back on for DS9.
(This is also why I think you need to give props to someone like Ron Perlman for making the Hellboy movies. He was the lead, after all, which means he was on set all the time. They were action movies, meaning lots of moving around. Plus he was already in his fifties when they made the first one).
My question is, do you think YOU could've endured the hours of applied prosthetics to play a Klingon, Ferengi, Cardassian, etc. for a guest spot or even a recurring role? What about the REALLY heavy ones like the Xindi-Reptilian, or Hirogen?
In my case, I've never been claustrophobic, but I don't think I could handle anything that requires contacts, so I guess a Vorta or Aenar would be out of the question for me.
For the sake of immortality, however, I think be able to subject myself to a few days of working with forehead or even full head on me, but probably no more than that, as I suspect the long hours in something like that would really start to take its toll.
What about you?
Now it's common knowledge that acting under heavy prosthetics can be pretty rough, especially if you're claustrophobic. It's heavy, it's hot, your skin can't breathe, sweat gets trapped, you're often restricted as to what you can eat, you're sometimes nearly deaf if your ears are covered. Plus you've got a 3 AM call-time. Lovely.
When you factor all that in, it's not too terribly surprising to hear about Andrea Martin being unwilling to return as Moogie, or Star Trek resorting to what's practically a company repertory players (Vaughn Armstrong, etc.) as aliens, or a VERY generous salary bump being necessary to woo Michael Dorn to put that forehead back on for DS9.
(This is also why I think you need to give props to someone like Ron Perlman for making the Hellboy movies. He was the lead, after all, which means he was on set all the time. They were action movies, meaning lots of moving around. Plus he was already in his fifties when they made the first one).
My question is, do you think YOU could've endured the hours of applied prosthetics to play a Klingon, Ferengi, Cardassian, etc. for a guest spot or even a recurring role? What about the REALLY heavy ones like the Xindi-Reptilian, or Hirogen?
In my case, I've never been claustrophobic, but I don't think I could handle anything that requires contacts, so I guess a Vorta or Aenar would be out of the question for me.
For the sake of immortality, however, I think be able to subject myself to a few days of working with forehead or even full head on me, but probably no more than that, as I suspect the long hours in something like that would really start to take its toll.What about you?
