We all know that superheroes look cool. I mean, would the whole superhero thing even have caught on back in the day if the characters who filled comic books looked like high school science teachers while they were battling supervillains? I think not. We need those crazy tight, multi-colored and sometimes unnecessarily revealing costumes to set our heroes and every arch nemesis apart from the rest of us regular folk. What this tends to mean, though, especially in the modern age of comic book-based movies, where every super suit is less of a stretchy spandex affair and more of a protective, tactical outfit, is that the actors who get the great opportunity to bring our favorites to the big screen have to put up with some less than comfortable costumes for several hours a day.
Unfortunately for Shazam! star Zachary Levi, his upcoming turn as the many-powered hero was also befallen by this common superhero movie issue. And, he's more than willing to tell us all just how inconvenient this particular aspect of his character was, especially when certain necessary...functions come into play.
It's what everybody says, it's the inconvenience of when you need to go to the bathroom. Yeah, because in order for it to look great, you have to have it kind of be seamless. You can't have a bunch of zippers and things everywhere, unless you're like Deadpool, I guess. He had a bunch of zippers.
Man, being an actor starring in a big budget superhero movie is tough work. Honestly, though, with all the advancements that have been made in technology over the past few decades, are you really telling me that there's no way to get an easy open / easy close pee hole into these supersuits that is also easily hidden? So, we can all get together and de-age Samuel L. Jackson realistically and create entire awesome looking characters out of CGI, but we can't give our actors a semi-quick way to use the potty? What is this world coming to?
I cannot imagine how distracting it would be to need to go to the bathroom and have to enlist a team of helpers to get me at that all important goal. Plus, just the time needed to get supersuit things undone, moved over, slid down or to get tubing added or a bedpan inserted (don't yell at me, I don't know how they do these things) must be insane. Who among us has not been busy and waited until the last minute to finally head over to pee and poo factory? Just think about having to call a team together an hour before you actually think you might have to use the bathroom to get the process started in time so that you don't have an embarrassing accident all over your $1 million superhero costume. Just take the cost out of my salary, David F. Sandberg!
I do like the idea of a superhero costume that has zippers, snaps, buttons or just plain holes everywhere. Though, now that I think about it, strategically placed holes would probably be an issue that would make the MPAA faint, so, maybe Zachary Levi and I should leave the costume design to the experts.
Speaking of Deadpool, as Levi did when he spoke with Comicbook, he doesn't actually have a bunch of zippers on his costume, which may be one of the reasons that star Ryan Reynolds has referred to his costume as "a big, red body condom," and colorfully admitted to being able to "taste" his own genitals when he wears it. What can I say? Sounds like an interesting day at work that Reynolds will, at least, never forget.
Even more recently, we heard Aquaman star Jason Momoa discuss a similar issue with his official suit, saying that "if you have the poopsies, it is very challenging," and noting that being able to hold it is a valuable skill. He later claimed it was just a joke, but, come on, Momoa, we know you were just trying to regain some of your sense of sexy mystery that was undone by using the word "poopsies" in public. It's OK, friend. We're here for you.
While Zachary Levi also had other comfort issues with his Shazam! suit, he does seem to understand just how big of a deal it is to get to be able to bring a superhero to life on the big screen for the first time, and is more than willing to step into his "second skin" again if he gets the chance.
It's just the overall kind of uncomfortability sometimes of wearing essentially a massive spandex adult size onesie. It's super tight, it becomes kind of like a second skin, I would overheat in it. I would freeze in it. The electronics in it would be a dance sometimes. But all of that, whatever, I'll take all of that times ten if I get to do this again. If I get to be the guy to wear the suit, I'll take the lumps, I'll do it.
By all accounts so far, Zachary Levi did a great job of not letting any of the problems with his superhero suit show on screen, and we can all be thankful for that. You can watch him try not to pee when Shazam! rolls into theaters on April 5.
