Actors go full-frontal on screen with regularity of late (thank you) but sometimes, their parts are “borrowed”.
Prosthetic penises are used for any number of reasons, not the least of which is actors don’t want millions of viewers to see ALL they’ve got –or lack.
And sometimes, their characters are supposed to be RIDICULOUSLY well-endowed (*see Dirk Diggler), most of the time just for a laugh (Channing Tatum) or, as in the former Harry Potter’s case, there are “stunts” involved…
HBO and streaming platforms like Amazon and Netflix aren’t governed by the Motion Picture Association’s ratings system, which limits the circumcision, um, circumSTANCES under which a penis can be shown.
Another reason for the trend in male nudity has to do with justifiable criticism of the ways women have been sexually objectified on TV and in film. Some filmmakers have said they’ve wanted to level the playing field by featuring more male nudity. (Again, thanks, whatever the motives…)
Here are 9 famous Hollywood moments where prosthetic penises were the star –and one with (fake) ball(s).
Chris Hemsworth in ‘Vacation’
Hemsworth was supposed to comically endowed in Vacation. Co-director John Francis Daleytold ET,
“We had a choice between an 8-inch and a 10-inch [prosthetic], and we tried them both on him in a room above the bedroom we were shooting.
Just the three of us alone in a room sampling penises was a very strange experience for us.”
John Cena in ‘Trainwreck’
Former WWE star John Cena wore a prosthetic for the 2015 Amy Schumercomedy Trainwreck. He told Jimmy Kimmel.
“[I have a] ‘big part’ because of the costume department. I had to stuff myself in a small nylon sock, and they gave me a stunt penis to insinuate an erection.”
Josh Hutcherson in ‘Future Man’
In Hulu‘s Future Man, The Hunger Games‘ Josh Hutcherson has to fight a nude clone of himself, and one is endowed quite differently than the other
“Some prosthetics really push the limits.”
Channing Tatum in The Vow
While filming the nude scene for their 2012 , Tatum decided to prank co-star Rachel McAdams. She told Stella Magazine,
“Channing got the props department to make a prosthetic, um, member. Literally a fake penis. I didn’t know what to do—I thought,
‘Is that the real deal?’ It was very realistic. It was ridiculous, the scale of it!”
Jason Schwartzman & Adam Scott in The Overnight
Both Adam Scott & Jason Schwartzman gave us full-on, full-frontal in The Overnight, although Scott got the short end of the stick, so to speak.
The scene is a comic sight gag about big vs tiny. Schwartzman told Buzzfeed about wearing the prosthetic,
“There was something just kind of liberating [about it] I felt quite happy to just be in it….
I guess there are all different kinds of prosthetics, but this is sort of like a Tempur-Pedic memory foam. If you wanted to, you could squeeze it, and it would kind of like slowly rise back up to its original [size].
So I call it a ‘tempur-penis.'”
Kristian Nairn in Game of Thrones
Hodor (RIP) made quite a BIG impression in Game of Thrones Season 1. He walked out of the woods giving us (fake) full-frontal Hodor.
Nairn told GQ,
“It was made out of, like, latex, and it was very realistic-feeling.
But Hodor looks part giant, so it was definitely beyond human—about sixteen inches…. The pubes had to be planted into my own hair with glue, so the removal hurt.
I felt sorry for the makeup girl, too.”
Will Poulter in We’re the Millers
Technically, this one is an outlier –the only prosthetic testicles on the list. Poulter had to show his spider-bitten ball (singular) in the 2013 comedy We’re the Millers. He told Metro.co.uk,
“I was wearing a prosthetic, so none of that is mine.
I’m not the proud owner of that pineapple-sized testicle. The prosthetic took about three hours to put on. It was a bit of a trial and I got intimate with a very talented man called Tony who saw a lot more of me than what I care to show anyone else.”
Radcliff & Paul Dano
Daniel Radcliffe in Swiss Army Man
Radcliffe played a dead guy in the 2016 comedy Swiss Army Man. But the corpse’s penis has a very special talent. It could point to specific compass bearings. Daniel told Metro.co.uk,
“The way the penis moves in the film, it was based on an animal called the tapir who have penises which are prehensile and can move around.
Normally all of the animatronic stuff we had on Harry Potter, most were controlled by a guy with a little remote control. This, for some reason, was controlled by two gigantic levers that were on the side of the set that a guy was wrenching around to operate.
Much hilarity was had with the animatronic penis.”
Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights
And then, there’s the big Daddy of prosthetic wangs, Mark Wahlberg’s well-endowed porn star, Dirk Diggler, in Boogie Nights. He told Seth Meyers,
“I have to stand there, take off my clothes, and they basically start sculpting this thing around you.
It’s very uncomfortable, very awkward. And the first time that they did it, they did the exact specs, measurements, to what they thought [1970s porn star] John Holmes was like…and this thing was down past my knee.”
He says, it is the ONLY prop he’s ever kept from a movie. As well he should. It is LEGENDARY.
I’ve had a post on my website for about 5 years now titled,
“THE INSIDE STORY OF MARK WAHLBERG’S GIGANTIC ‘BOOGIE NIGHTS’ PENIS“
It gets about 2,000 clicks a month (25,000+ a year!), far more than anything else on my site which is about my artwork. So, people ARE definitely regularly Googling,
“Mark Wahlberg penis”
A LOT.
(via Marie Claire)