Inside Wicker's 3D-Printed Prosthetics: 60 Pieces, 90 Minutes

Wētā Workshop transformed Alexander Skarsgård into the Wicker Husband with 10 facial appliances and 50 interlocking body pieces — and the team believes they are the first 3D-printed prosthetic appliances ever applied on film. "We're directly printing the prosthetic appliances that we applied on 'Wicker,'" prosthetic makeup designer Joe Dunckley said.

The film, directed by Alex Houston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, stars Olivia Colman as a fisherwoman who commissions a wicker husband, played by Skarsgård, from basketmaker Peter Dinklage. Its trailer dropped July 30 and sparked immediate online obsession, with fans buying "Worth the Splinters" and "Wicker Dicker" T-shirts on Etsy and plotting on TikTok to steal life-size cardboard displays of the woven Skarsgård from theaters.

How was the makeup developed?

The research and design process ran 18 months before principal photography. The Wētā team started with 2D concept art, then enlisted weaver and textile artist Jasmin Van Lith — who also hand-crafted garments for the Avatar franchise — to create physical weave samples. Those samples went to Wētā sculptors, who recreated the weave digitally on scans of Skarsgård's face and body, printed the wearable "appliances," and tested them until specifications were locked.

The team used 3D animation software to guarantee Skarsgård could emote under the prosthetics. "If you're smiling, the corners of your mouth need to lift 20 millimeters, and we need to allow for that much movement in the weave pattern," Dunckley explained. Van Lith then produced weaving samples that conformed to those exact measurements.

Full application took 90 minutes during filming. Lead makeup-effects artist Sarah Rubano's facial kit included ears, lips, under lips, eye bags, a jaw piece, and a "Batman mask" covering the forehead, nose and cheekbones. The wig was made from muka, a fiber produced from New Zealand flax. "Those [muka] strands were knotted onto the weave just like you would a human hair wig, knotting onto the lace," Rubano said. The eyelashes were muka fiber too.

What does the design change for the character?

The character had to read as both desirable and woven. "He needed to be the hot basket," Dunckley said. "But Alexander himself was the key inspiration for the design." The team called the result the "Skarsgård Smolder" and went through multiple sculpt iterations to embed his likeness in the weave. Rubano heightened the cheekbones, built a strong jawline, knotted more "robust" eyebrows, and settled on a swept-back wig with a "Harlequin romance" vibe.

The eyes nearly went the other way. Dunckley said the team almost used sclera lenses (contact lenses covering most of the eye) painted with basketweave print, but abandoned them. "When we tested them, we were like, 'He's gone, he's no longer the romantic lead. He's too alien,'" Dunckley said. "The window to the soul was there" without them. Visual effects removed some pink from the tear ducts and waterline; Rubano credited the lashes with pulling the look "away from 'human' into this lovely, beautiful wicker creation."

Who built the wicker bulge?

Not Dunckley. "Our build focused on the hips up," he said. Costume designers Tóth András Dániel and Godena-Juhász Attila fabricated the woven penis for the film's 10-second naked river scene — a spandex build padded to match the body's shapes, finished with a "puff paint-type finish" and color-matched to the prosthetics.

The wicker nipples, which Skarsgård gifted to talk show host Graham Norton during press, were nearly cut. "There was a lot of debate during our design phase as to whether or not he should have nipples," Dunckley said. "Why would a sentient wicker being have nipples? On the other hand, why not?!" The fiber nipples were built separately using traditional hat-making techniques, then woven onto the suit last.

Rubano praised Skarsgård's stamina in the chair: "He sat so quietly, like a statue, and then he'd come to life when it was time [to go to set]." The team peeled off his lips and lashes at mealtimes and made him a beard bib to protect the work. As awards-season makeup campaigns heat up, the Wētā build stands as a template for prosthetic design that merges digital printing, artisan weaving and old-fashioned hat-making in one wearable character.