Take a look at how Netflix’ Wednesday brought the beloved limb to life.
Jenna Ortega has captured hearts as the dead-inside Addams teen, but fans are head-over-palms for Thing, her trusty sidekick and breakout star of Wednesday on Netflix. Similar to how the ’60s series and The Addams Family movies were shot, Thing is portrayed by an actor — not an animatronic, and not CGI, which many assumed was used for the show. Victor Dorabantu, a Romanian magician, secured the role of Thing for the Netflix series and has shared a variety of behind-the-scenes videos of photos of how he brought the character to life. Although the hand itself is the real deal, some visual effects were incorporated to achieve its severed appearance: Dorabantu wore a blue chroma-key suit and headpiece while filming, then his face and body were edited out in post-production.
After figuring out which stump to utilize, Dorabantu would go into makeup where his tattoos were blocked out and the stump was glued on. Then the scars and stitching were applied utilizing seven Bondo molds — an acrylic adhesive that’s used with flat-plate transfer molds that roll onto the skin like a stamp — on both the front and the back of the hand. From there, three to four layers of coloring would be added, including dirtying up the nails, adding veins, and adding a “sore” look to the stitches.Â
