The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles first exploded in popularity in the '80s and '90s. Starting as a comic book series, it quickly turned into a TV show. In 1990, TMNT got its first movie adaptation. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the most successful independent movie of all time for nearly a decade, only surpassed in 1999 by the Blair Witch Project.
While its critical reception was mixed, there is no denying that the movie’s costume design was state-of-the-art -- but it came at a price. There were several problems with the costumes -- from their size and weight to their durability and price tag -- that turned them into an absolute nightmare. Though audiences loved how the costumes looked on screen, behind the scenes, they were a major challenge for the actors that wore them.
The Costumes Weighed Over 70 Pounds
The costumes were designed by the legendary Jim Henson (who also designed the Muppets, among others) in his Creature Shop in London. It reportedly took eighteen weeks to finish the state-of-the-art suits. Not only did they look stellar, but they also mimicked human behavior. For that, the costumes needed about sixty pounds of animatronic equipment. Thankfully, these were only used for close-ups and dialogue.
There was a different set of costumes used for the action scenes, but these were not all that much better for the actors. Their movement was still relatively limited in those “action turtle” suits. What's more, because they were free of any electronics, the costumes had a “creepy, lifeless stare.”
The Costume Made ‘Raphael’ Claustrophobic
Josh Pais played Raphael in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the only actor that wore a turtle suit on screen and performed the voice acting. Pais suffered from claustrophobia, which made wearing the suit extra uncomfortable for him.
“It was an intense relationship between me and the suit,” Pais told The Hollywood Reporter. “We would suit up from toe up to neck. Then the head would go on. Then they would glue the head to the body so that it was all seamless. Then you were in there.”
“[He] had this thing where it'd get to a point where he was in there too long and he had to get out and that head had to come off,” director Steve Barron remembered.
“While we were shooting it was never a problem,” Pais went on. “But then they'd yell ‘cut,’ and maybe one of the Turtle's heads wasn't working, so then it could be an hour to fix it and get it up again […] We would just freak out, and you would hear one of us go, 'Take the head off! F—ing take the head off! Take it off!'"
The Turtle-Actors All Lost About 20 Pounds
Although Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles takes place in New York, most of the filming was done in North Carolina, so it is easy to imagine that the costumes were extremely hot. This suit issue combined with the long filming days meant there were concerns for the health of the actors, so a cooling system and a mouth were installed in the shell, though the former may have more been for animatronics.
The latter is often pointed out in articles focusing on movie errors because one can spot the hole when freeze-framing the movie. The hole in the turtle costumes’ mouth was actually intentional and important. The hole aligned with the actors’ mouths, which helped the actors breathe and made it easier for their colleagues to understand their dialogue.
Yet, even with the mouth hole and the cooling system, the costumes overheated quickly. Most of the time, the actors in the suits could only do two takes before having to take the head off. “From morning to lunch break, we would each lose at least 5 pounds,” Josh Pais said in the aforementioned interview. In the end, all four actors lost about twenty pounds during the shoot.
The Costumes Needed Constant Fixing
Considering their weight and intricacies, the costumes had to be durable, right? Well, no. The costumes needed constant fixing. Entire limbs had to be replaced quite frequently, as even the actors' sweat broke down the rubber.
It is therefore not surprising that the costumes, as far as they still exist, are in terrible shape today. In October 2019, Leonardo’s action costume from the third movie was up for auction and looked like a mix of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
All in all, the costumes seemed to not have been fun to work with. However, it was the price to pay at the time for state-of-the-art technology -- and the suits looked great visually-- as long as they were not falling apart.