Tim Curry on the Brutal 10-Hour Makeup Process That Transformed Him Into Darkness in LEGEND

It tooks some serious work to turn Tim Curryinto the Lord of Darkness. For Ridley Scott’s 1985 fantasy film Legend, Curry underwent an incredible physical transformation to play Darkness, the massive red-skinned, horned villain who remains one of the coolest practical makeup creations ever.

Before he passed away, Curry visited the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library, where he was shown production photos, snapshots, and Polaroids connected to the creation of Darkness, including material from makeup artist Lois Burwell.

Looking through the images brought back memories of just how uncomfortable that transformation could be. He shared: “Well, it was pretty difficult to ingest anything when I was in all of that plastic. The stuff on my face was put on with eyelash glue.”

Curry was buried beneath extensive facial prosthetics, body appliances, makeup, horns, and a costume designed to turn him into a towering demonic creature.

Getting all of that onto the actor wasn’t a quick trip to the makeup chair: “The first time that they did the entire look, it took 10 hours and at the end of it, he just ripped it all off.”

Ten hours of getting transformed into Darkness only to have the whole thing torn off sounds pretty miserable.

The work paid off on screen, though. Darkness is an awesome piece of practical effects craftsmanship, and Curry believes the makeup pushed the limits of what had been attempted at the time. “It was probably the most extreme prosthetic makeup that had been done up until then.”

The finished character gave Curry an imposing physical presence to go along with his booming performance. Darkness towers over the other characters in the film with gigantic horns, hooves, a muscular body, and enough red makeup to make getting ready for work an endurance test.

The makeup itself is incredible. Darkness is movie monster artistry at its best, with those enormous black horns, blood-red skin, creating a creature that looks like he stepped straight out of some hellish fantasy painting. Even decades later, it’s one of the great examples of practical creature makeup done right.

Curry did find at least one perk that came with all that latex and plastic, saying that “it was fun to have muscles.”

Decades later, the practical effects used to create Darkness remain one of the most memorable elements of Legend. Curry had to endure hours in the makeup chair and spend his shooting days trapped beneath layers of prosthetics, but damn… he looks badass.