Transforming Gary Oldman Into Winston Churchill Took $20,000 Worth of Cigars

It also took 14 pounds of foam and silicone and a team of Oscar-nominated filmmakers.

In order to fully become Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, Gary Oldman had to not only wear what may be the most “masterful fat suit and prosthetic chubby face ever created for the movies,” according to The Hollywood Reporter, but he also went through at least 400 cigars during filming, adding up to $20,000 of the film’s $30 million budget. The suit was made by famed prosthetics artist Kazuhiro Tsuji (even though he had retired years before) and the end result was so realistic that it tricked a World War II historian. Virtually everyone on the project had been nominated for an Oscar — Oldman for Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, Eric Fellner, a five-time nominee, screenwriter Anthony McCarten, nominated for The Theory of Everything, and Joe Wright, who made Atonement, which received seven nominations. Oldman had to be coaxed into the project by longtime manager and producing partner, Douglas Urbanski.

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