What These Sci-Fi Actors Look Like Without Makeup

Since the birth of cinema, filmmakers have been transporting audiences to other worlds populated by alien life forms. While today, advancements in computer graphics allow for aliens or creatures to take any form one could imagine, traditionally they've been brought to life using complex special makeup effects. Makeup effects have advanced dramatically over the decades, from flimsy rubber masks to intricate, multi-piece applications that can even involve electronics, and continue to hold up against more expensive computer-driven effects.

Creating a convincingly alien sci-fi character requires an actor who's able to convey a performance while sacrificing many of the tools on which they usually rely. These actors sit still through hours of additional time in the makeup chair having custom applications glued to and peeled from their skin, while also sacrificing the glory of being recognized onscreen. Actors who thrive in one heavy makeup role are often asked to do it again and again, meaning some rarely appear onscreen without a foam rubber application over their face, but they — and the artists who transform them —  deserve a curtain call at least as much as their outwardly human co-stars.

Actor Kevin Peter Hall's impressive height — over seven feet — made him a shoo-in for roles as aliens and monsters in Hollywood productions. Hall came aboard the 1987 film Predator midway through production, replacing Jean-Claude Van Damme, when the design of the alien hunter changed to require an actor who could loom over Arnold Schwarzenegger. That same summer, Hall had already been introduced to film audiences under heavy makeup as the Sasquatch Harry in the hit comedy Harry and the Hendersons, a role he would later reprise for television. Both the roles of Harry and the Predator required that Hall wear a heavy mechanical head with animatronic features, each made by a legend in makeup effects — Rick Baker and Stan Winston, respectively. Hall trained rigorously for strength and endurance with his bodybuilder co-star for the daunting task of filming brutal fight scenes while under heavy, full-body makeup and armor and carrying prop weapons.

When interviewed by Entertainment Tonight in 1987, Hall was grateful for the exciting, high-profile roles, but hoped that there would be more opportunities for him to be recognized onscreen without makeup. While he did score some out-of-makeup television roles, Hall never got the opportunity to become a familiar face on film — he died in 1991 at the tragically young age of 35.

His legacy lives on in the Predator, who he performed in both Predator and 1990's Predator 2, and continues to be one of science fiction's most iconic aliens.

Outside of science fiction, the late character actor Andreas Katsulas is most recognized as "the one-armed man" in the 1993 film The Fugitive, but his most celebrated roles were performed from beneath foam rubber prosthetics. In November of 1989, Katsulas appeared under alien makeup appliances on two different sci-fi television series, as Koulak Scarhand on Alien Nation and as Romulan Commander Tomalak on Star Trek: The Next Generation, which would become a recurring role. But these guest starring appearances were just a precursor a much larger role with much more involved makeup.

Katsulas is most famous for portraying the Narn revolutionary and diplomat G'Kar on Babylon 5, who he performed across five seasons and multiple TV movies. Babylon 5's makeup and creature effects were designed by Jon Vulick and Optic Nerve Studios, but the design of the Narns was inherited and adapted from the pilot movie, where the special makeup effects supervisor was John Criswell.

Katsulas was typically not needed in makeup for an entire shooting week, but on the rare occasion that he needed to wear his prosthetic for several consecutive days, it was brutal on his skin. This didn't seem to embitter Katsulas against the process, however, as he found it helped him to get fully into character very quickly. Regarding spending five years playing the role, Katsulas once said, "I sometimes had the sense that if I were to peel off my skin, G'Kar would be underneath it."

One can easily be forgiven for not knowing that General Sarris, the reptilian villain of Galaxy Quest, is portrayed by Robin Sachs, best known as Giles' nemesis Ethan Rayne on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even to those who are familiar with his other screen work, Sachs is totally unrecognizable under his Galaxy Quest makeup. Sachs' voice is also distorted for the role, which makes it even less likely that anyone could guess who's under Sarris's scaly skin. Building the mystery even further, Sachs himself gave only a very brief interview for the promotional making-of featurette "On Location In Space" — which he conducted in full costume and makeup. He even goes entirely unmentioned in the loving 20th anniversary documentary Never Surrender: The Making of Galaxy Quest.

In the documentary, visual effects supervisor Bill George refers to the special effects as "the straight man" of the comedy, and the same goes for the makeup effects. All of the otherworldly elements of the story had to be depicted as realistically as in a sci-fi drama in order to serve the conceit of the film, which is why ILM and Stan Winston Studios were brought in to do the visual and makeup effects, respectively — the same experts you'd bring in for a played-straight sci-fi adventure. The makeup and costume effects for Sarris are quite elaborate and hold up pretty well two decades later, even if they look a bit like Ninja Turtles.

Karen Gillan is familiar to plenty of sci-fi fans as Amy Pond on Doctor Who, but Gillan underwent a dramatic transformation to portray the alien cyborg Nebula in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For her first appearance as the character in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy, Gillan fully shaved her head, as she dramatically revealed to a captivated Hall H audience at 2013's San Diego Comic-Con. That was the easy part, as Gillan had to report to set as early as 2AM to begin the five-hour makeup process for the first Guardians film, which included not only glueing and airbrushing prosthetics on her skin but also putting in massive black contact lenses. (The process has since been refined for the sequels to take about half the time.)

Like so many actors before her who have endured long, early mornings in the makeup chair, just sitting still was "a challenge within itself." Gillan had to find ways to pass the time, such as watching movies on her iPad, learning meditation, chatting with the makeup artists, or just plain taking a nap. Once applied, though, Gillan found that the stiff, restricting makeup helped her to find her character.

Nebula's makeup was designed for the screen by concept artist Andy Park (based on her comics appearances) and brought to life by veteran Marvel Studios special makeup effects designer David White.

On the Netflix reboot of the classic 1960s sci-fi series Lost in Space, the once silly and non-threatening Robot is now a bizarre, intimidating alien entity. Rather than using a fully computer-generated character, The Robot is performed on set by Brian Steele, a "creature actor" who specializes in monsters, aliens, and machines. Over the years, he's been a Terminator, a Predator, and a wide variety of supernatural creatures under heavy makeup, which has earned him the affectionate industry nickname "CreatureBoy." So while the Robot isn't exactly a "makeup" role, Steele has more than earned a place on this list and deserves some recognition.

Steele's complex costume was developed by the practical effects studio Spectral Motion, and is constructed from a foam latex bodysuit covered in individual fiberglass components. Unlike the other aliens on this list, the Robot's face is totally obscured, and the costume is designed to make the audience question whether he's even an actor in a suit rather than a visual effect. In the first season of the show, Steele performs the Robot in 85% of shots, with only the remaining 15% being digital effects. Steele also performs the other alien robots that appear in the second season, which have their own distinct movements.