section_path: Design and effects/Monstro Elisasue
section_name: Monstro Elisasue
paragraph_text: Monstro Elisasue
  
  The head is a little bit like a female Elephant Man that was what Coralie wanted, the sensibility of The Elephant Man, the David Lynch movie. We spent lots of time designing Monstro with all the breasts and trying to balance everything. Is she fat enough? How many boobs? Maybe we should add a jaw here. Maybe we can, because there's lots of spines in the story from the very beginning.
  
  Despite disagreements over previous transformations, for "Monstro", Persin and Fargeat were in sync. Since there were time constraints (as the design for Monstro had not been finalized until after shooting began), Persin subcontracted the Monstro build to Dave and Lou Elsey of UK-based Igor Studios. The final design was created using five prosthetic heads (including a special head with a cavity that splits open to birth a breast attached to an umbilical cord), two full bodysuits, two partial bodysuits, and a mold of Moore's head. The suit was entirely practical, with the exception of Moore's screaming face, which was achieved using digital effects, using a photogrammetry scan of Moore's face by Clear Angle Studios.
  
  Persin drew inspiration from Niki de Saint Phalle, a French sculptor known for her vibrant and curvaceous figures (especially her depictions of female dancers); artist Fernando Botero, whose sculptures often feature women with exaggerated proportions; and David Cronenberg 's 1986 film The Fly.
  
  During pre-production, Persin expressed concern about the plan to have Qualley wear the full suit, noting that only Qualley's eye would be visible. Fargeat ultimately had Qualley do close-up shots for Monstro, recognizing the importance of her performance. Persin later acknowledged that this decision was essential to making Monstro's scenes visibly impactful in the final film.
  
  Qualley would later describe wearing the prosthetics as "torture", adding, "I had this awesome team of prosthetic artists that put it on me and took it off of me and got me through the day, making me laugh a couple of times while I was just on the brink of panic." "My problem was I had to cry while I had the monster costume on. At a certain point, you're just swimming—there's like a layer of tears and snot inside your prosthetics, and they're just trying to reglue it down." The prosthetics application for Qualley required six hours and was filmed over the course of eight days. According to Qualley, the prosthetics caused her face to break out with acne, taking over a year to heal and affecting the filming of her subsequent role in Kinds of Kindness. Low-angle shots of her walking down the palm-lined street were deliberately framed to conceal the blemishes. To prevent overheating, the suit incorporated a cooling vest similar to that which racecar drivers use.
  
  Fargeat personally donned the Monstro suit for the shots showing blood spraying from Monstro's point of view. She held the camera herself, without the headpiece, while wearing the suit, as her arm was inside the blood rig. Persin also put on the suit to operate a breast puppet, which required at least 10–15 takes and left his arm numb from holding it above his head for extended periods. The constant spraying of blood caused the latex to turn pink as it became saturated quickly. The suit required repainting, resewing, and drying after each day. For safety purposes, the crew sprayed vodka inside the suit every night to kill bacteria and remove moisture.
  
  Near the end of the film, the stunt performer had to be moved on a dolly, due to limited mobility of the suit. When the blood rig was first tested, the performer slipped and went rolling backward down the long blood-soaked hallway featured near the end of the film.
  
  The head is a little bit like a female Elephant Man that was what Coralie wanted, the sensibility of The Elephant Man, the David Lynch movie. We spent lots of time designing Monstro with all the breasts and trying to balance everything. Is she fat enough? How many boobs? Maybe we should add a jaw here. Maybe we can, because there's lots of spines in the story from the very beginning.
  
  Despite disagreements over previous transformations, for "Monstro", Persin and Fargeat were in sync. Since there were time constraints (as the design for Monstro had not been finalized until after shooting began), Persin subcontracted the Monstro build to Dave and Lou Elsey of UK-based Igor Studios. The final design was created using five prosthetic heads (including a special head with a cavity that splits open to birth a breast attached to an umbilical cord), two full bodysuits, two partial bodysuits, and a mold of Moore's head. The suit was entirely practical, with the exception of Moore's screaming face, which was achieved using digital effects, using a photogrammetry scan of Moore's face by Clear Angle Studios.
  
  Persin drew inspiration from Niki de Saint Phalle, a French sculptor known for her vibrant and curvaceous figures (especially her depictions of female dancers); artist Fernando Botero, whose sculptures often feature women with exaggerated proportions; and David Cronenberg 's 1986 film The Fly.
  
  During pre-production, Persin expressed concern about the plan to have Qualley wear the full suit, noting that only Qualley's eye would be visible. Fargeat ultimately had Qualley do close-up shots for Monstro, recognizing the importance of her performance. Persin later acknowledged that this decision was essential to making Monstro's scenes visibly impactful in the final film.
  
  Qualley would later describe wearing the prosthetics as "torture", adding, "I had this awesome team of prosthetic artists that put it on me and took it off of me and got me through the day, making me laugh a couple of times while I was just on the brink of panic." "My problem was I had to cry while I had the monster costume on. At a certain point, you're just swimming—there's like a layer of tears and snot inside your prosthetics, and they're just trying to reglue it down." The prosthetics application for Qualley required six hours and was filmed over the course of eight days. According to Qualley, the prosthetics caused her face to break out with acne, taking over a year to heal and affecting the filming of her subsequent role in Kinds of Kindness. Low-angle shots of her walking down the palm-lined street were deliberately framed to conceal the blemishes. To prevent overheating, the suit incorporated a cooling vest similar to that which racecar drivers use.
  
  Fargeat personally donned the Monstro suit for the shots showing blood spraying from Monstro's point of view. She held the camera herself, without the headpiece, while wearing the suit, as her arm was inside the blood rig. Persin also put on the suit to operate a breast puppet, which required at least 10–15 takes and left his arm numb from holding it above his head for extended periods. The constant spraying of blood caused the latex to turn pink as it became saturated quickly. The suit required repainting, resewing, and drying after each day. For safety purposes, the crew sprayed vodka inside the suit every night to kill bacteria and remove moisture.
  
  Near the end of the film, the stunt performer had to be moved on a dolly, due to limited mobility of the suit. When the blood rig was first tested, the performer slipped and went rolling backward down the long blood-soaked hallway featured near the end of the film.