Alexander Skarsgård’s transformation into Olivia Colman’s wicker husband in Wicker stayed glued to his face through lunch. Hours of prosthetic makeup gave the 50-year-old actor the physical character he wanted, along with a problem: he couldn’t really sweat.
Weta Workshop created the prosthetics and functional suit for his role as a husband built by a basket maker for a local spinster fisherwoman, played by Colman.
Skarsgård welcomed the chance to work with practical effects after his experience with CGI characters.
“I have worked quite a bit with CGI characters, and it’s fun to have a tactile real experience of a real old school prosthetic character,” he said.
The makeup stayed on between scenes. “I couldn’t take it off at lunch and have a little break time.” With it glued to his face, regulating his temperature became difficult.
Colman said she “never assumed” the character would be made with CGI. “So I thought someone would come up with something clever. They said Wicker person. I knew it would be a person.”