11 TV Show Costumes That Caused Actors Injury, Pain, Or Discomfort

Since TV is a visual medium, the costumes are an integral part of the spectacle. However, the outfits that look incredible onscreen are sometimes pretty miserable to wear.

Here are 11 times TV actors wore costumes that caused them pain, injury, or discomfort:

1. Patrick Stewart "came to loathe" Picard's Star Trek: The Next Genertation jumpsuit. In 2008, he told Newsweek, "We actually got rid of it after the second season thanks to my chiropractor, who said, 'If they don't take you out of that costume, we are going to slap a lawsuit on Paramount for the lasting damage done to your spine.'"

He further explained, "They were made from Lycra and one size too small. The producers wanted to have a smooth, unwrinkled look. It put a terrible amount of strain on the shoulders, neck and back."

2. Louisa Jacobson "took a long time to get used to" the corset she wore to play Marion Brook in The Gilded Age "after wearing sweatpants for so long." In 2022, she told the podcast Reign with Josh Smith, "I really suffered from that decision because they measured and sewed all my costumes based on how tight my corset was in the fitting, when I had been really ambitious about making it very tight."

She continued, "It was taxing physically and mentally. I couldn't sleep on my side for a long time because my ribs were so sore."

Several months into shooting, she began requesting breaks from the restrictive garment.

She said, "After every take or between setups, I would ask my dresser to untie the corset so that I could get a break."

3. While playing Kate Sharma in Bridgerton, Simone Ashley needed help getting dressed "because when you're in a corset, you can't put your shoes on." The corset caused other problems, too. In 2022, she told Glamour UK, "On my first day, I was like, 'OK, first day as a leading lady, got to eat lots of food, be really energized.' So, I had this massive portion of salmon, and that's when I needed to be sick, basically because I was wearing the corset. I realized when you wear the corset, you just don't eat."

She continued, "It changes your body. I had a smaller waist very momentarily. Then, the minute you stop wearing it, you're just back to how your body is. I had a lot of pain with the corset, too. I think I tore my shoulder at one point!" 

4. While playing Penelope Featherington in Bridgerton, Nicola Coughlan tried to wear heels so she was at eye level with her castmates. In 2020, she told Good Morning America, "I arrived on set on the first day and fell over three times in the heels. Once was holding a dog, and once was holding a parosol, which I fell and stabbed Claudia Jessie — who plays Eloise — right in the hand and drew blood."

"So they got rid of the heels pretty [quickly]," she added.

5. Star Trek: Voyager actor Jeri Ryan told BBC that, for her Seven of Nine costume, "There's a corset, one-piece undergarment. It's constricting, and it's not comfortable. You can't really bend. You can't really sit comfortably in it."

She also said, "Initially, I would stay in the costume much longer than I ended up staying in it because it takes about twenty minutes to get into. Someone has to dress me and undress me. It's a production break if I have to get out of the costume to use the restroom or something. It grinds to a halt unless they can shoot something without me, which typically they can't if it's a scene that I'm in. So, in the interest of being a team player, the first season, I would not take rest room breaks, I just didn't drink anything on set, which is not the healthiest thing to do.

As time progressed, I finally learned that you just heed the call of nature and take breaks when you need to take breaks. And finally, it got to the point where they would just let me get out of it after every take. When I wasn't in the shot, I didn't just wear it to wear it because it was very uncomfortable. It looks very simple; it looks just like a leotard, but it really was a feat of engineering on Bob Blackman's part to design this costume."

6. For Pedro Pascal, wearing his suit and helmet for his titular role in The Mandalorian was "like putting on a head-to-toe glove with weights on it."

In 2023, he told Empire, "It's ironic that you can't see any facial expression because it puts you in the world so completely and instantly makes the character feel real – but you can't see shit!

... They've continued to finesse and make it more comfortable, but it's like going blind. Your breath completely fogs up the narrow slit that you can see through. There's no peripheral vision. If there's a hole, I'm gonna fall into it."

7. In 2023, The Boys actor Nathan Mitchell told The Movie Dweeb that, while the costume designers did "such a great job" making his Black Noir suit "aesthetically pleasing" and "comfortable," wearing it still took a toll on his body. He said, "It's like there's a compression that happens around your shoulders and your back, and it just slowly presses down on you. Like, 20 minutes? Okay. An hour? Fine. Eight hours, ten hours, twelve hours, and you're just like, 'Ugh.'"

He also said, "I remember this one day we were filming, and it doesn't happen all the time, but the next day, I was just out. I was just in bed for the day. My body was just recovering."

8. While playing Herman on The Munsters, Fred Gwynne reportedly had to take lots of cool-down breaks because of the bulky padding and makeup his costume required.

In The Munsters: A Trip Down Mockingbird Lane, guest star actor Ted Eccles said, "Between takes, it was tough because if you rehearsed a scene with Fred, you then had to wait about five minutes from rehearsal until they actually did a take. And he was good for two or three takes before he had to be cooled back down. If it was tough to cool Fred down inside, I can imagine what it would have been like outside."

9. The cape that Kit Harington wore as Jon Snow on Game of Thrones weighed "a ton." In 2019, he told The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, "It smells awful...I think they add weight to it every year."

He also said, "Whenever we went out there and you put it back on, you feel back in the character again. That's great, but everything else about it is just..."

10. Peter Serafinowicz's costume for his titular role in The Tick was "nonbreathable, and it doesn't have much give in it." He also struggled to move in it at times.

In 2017, he told Yahoo Entertainment, "The strange thing about the costume is that it mimics whatever temperature it is outside. So if it is cold out, I'm cold in it. If it is hot, it gets quite hot in there and I am sweating. It is kind of terrible in any weather. Like today — I was pretty slimy by the end of the day."

11. And finally, while playing the titular role in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Rachel Brosnahan got a "corset-related injury" from her character's '50s and '60s-era outfits. She "can't take super deep breaths anymore."

In 2020, she told The Late Late Show with James Corden, "We talk so fast on the show that to get all the words out, you can't really take very many breaths. And I think I wasn't breathing a lot, and I was a bit constrained, and apparently, some of my ribs are sort of fused together."

Which of these costumes would you hate wearing the most? Share your thoughts in the comments!