What you didn’t know about Heidi Klum’s worm costume: ‘It costs a lot more than anyone would think’

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By now, you’ve likely seen the unsettling images and video of Heidi Klum in her Halloween worm costume flopping all over your social media pages. What you haven’t seen is what went into making that montrosity -- uh, we mean outfit.

On Friday, The Hollywood Reporter shared an interview conducted with Klum herself and Mike Marino, owner of Prosthetic Renaissance, the special effects company behind Klum’s deeply creepy worm look. Marino, who previously crafted other Halloween costumes for Klum including Jessica Rabbit in 2015 and the “Thriller” werewolf in 2017, divulged that the tubular look was physically crafted by a literal puppet maker out of foam.

Bill Bryan “glued foam parts together to create the shape and then lined it with spandex and plastic tubes,” Marino told the publication. “Then once we got the shape to a point where I liked it, we fabricated with foam latex to create the skin with detail.”

Klum apparently always envisioned herself dressing as a worm for Halloween this year and being held on a fishing line by her husband, musician Tom Kaulitz. Marino told THR that he didn’t think such a look “was possible” and he “wasn’t confident about pulling it off,” but was ultimately strong-armed by Klum.

Once all systems were in motion, Marino says it took four months of “refining and development” before Klum actually went into makeup to get the costume on for the festivities.

“We started at 11 a.m. and I probably made it to the carpet around 11 p.m.,” Klum told THR, before adding that she “was so claustrophobic in that costume.”

She said: “It is one thing to add prosthetics to your body — but to be stuck inside the worm body and not really be able to use my arms or feet was not very comfortable. But Halloween is not about comfort.”

Marino emphasised that he had warned how claustrophobic the costume would be, as it provided “no access to your hands and your feet,” but Klum “actually wanted that because she wanted to feel more ‘worm-like.’”

Lest you’ve been wondering just how much it costs to look like a real, live worm, you’re going to have to keep wondering. Marino told THR that the look simply “costs a lot more than anyone would think.”