Maleficent: Mistress of Evil – 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts You Never Knew

Despite a flawed screenplay and some creative problems, Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil was an interesting watch. Yes, most of the credit does go to Angelina Jolie and the costume department. Nevertheless, the second installment in the Maleficent series offers an intriguing, post-Disney take on fairy tales that’s incredibly relevant and timely. Plus, fans unanimously agree that the character design of Maleficent is impeccably fresh and empowering.

But pulling off something this audacious is certainly not easy, especially in an age where fans are just as eagle-eyed as critics, and perhaps even more so. There was a lot of homework, research, and planning involved with each scene, development, and set-up. 

10 The Reptilian Connection

Hollywood has often resorted to beastly motifs or dark pastoral elements to depict someone as dark, macabre, or even remotely mysterious. The costume designers in the movie had to work quite a bit to sort every single look worn by Maleficent because though she’s not a villain, she’s a really complex anti-heroine and sort of a looming matriarch over Aurora.

Maleficent’s first costume in the movie isn’t black or something too dark, but a curious medley of bronze and taupe, but the most crucial detail would be the elaborate reptilian collar. Costume designer Ellen Mirojnick revealed that the makers did not want to project something too ominous but then again, Maleficent will always have an intimidating dark aura about her and the collar accented her ensemble really well.

9 The Cheekbones Were Made of Silicone gel

Maleficent’s dramatic, high cheekbones were of course the work of an incredible makeup and prosthetics team, and Rich Baker, who was responsible for this specific prosthetic design shared that he worked with silicone gel to perfect the cheeks. Silicone gel is the same material that is used to create breast implants.

“It’s translucent and you can intrinsically color it to look like flesh without having to put much paint on it. People probably wouldn’t think it took three hours a day to achieve because it looks pretty simple, but smooth, beautiful skin is the hardest thing to do,” Baker said. 

8 Elle Fanning Wanted The Sleeping Beauty Dress

Fans were quite disappointed the original collared ball gown from the animated film wasn’t featured in the sequel. Mirojnick revealed that Elle Fanning actually wanted to wear the ‘Sleeping Beauty dress’ during the scene when she enters the Ulsted castle, but it wouldn’t sync with her backstory.

That collared number was actually not something the moor-dwelling Aurora would wear, it was too courtly, so Mirojnick had to introduce some updates. She changed the white-collar into a breathy rose pink boat neck silhouette and added hand-cut flowers on the bodice to make it look more pastoral.

7 Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Prosthetic Cheekbones Took Five Hours To Put On

Ejiofor who played a dark fae in the film was quite fond of his fake, striking sharp cheekbones. But he also revealed that they took five hours to put on every day, which is rather extensive. In fact, fans have often questioned the need for these prosthetic cheekbones which were a part of Jolie’s makeup detailing as well.

But Baker revealed that Jolie insisted on these cheekbones because she really didn’t want to look like herself and wanted her look and that of the forest cast to be less humanly and more creature-like.

6 There Was An Awful Lot Of Wire Work

If you’ve seen any behind-the-scenes footage from the sequel it’s impossible to miss all the harness-flying. In most superhero or sci-fi films, most of the flying happens through CGI or by digital manipulation, but the makers insisted every flight or mid-air conversation to be actually held with the actors flying in the air, held by wires and harnesses, to make the movements look more organic.

In fact, the costume department had to conceive each dress around prosthetic nubs and hidden harnesses to accommodate the technological gear.

5 Jolie Was Very Specific About The Flight Sequences

Jolie was very involved in the creative development and design of the wings and the flight sequences because they were integral to her character. Simon Crane, a stunt coordinator for the film revealed that the actor was invested in perfecting the flight-based stunts. The air-borne movements were achieved mainly by large pronged tuning forks and cable-driven movements.

The tuning forks have to be belted into the actors and they’re really flexible as they offer a 360-degree movement which can be very helpful with major battle sequences and make them look natural. “It’s for us to take the material after it’s done and to try to choreograph the animation of the wings to work with the body performance. That was a really important element for Angelina and she invested an enormous amount of time specifically to talk about the way her wings would perform,” Crane revealed.

4 The Horns Used Magnets

The costume department had to do a lot of homework before they could settle on the right pair of horns for Maleficent because they couldn’t look too obnoxious and had to be designed to fit in seamlessly. Plus, they are a foot long and can be quite heavy and neck-straining. So Jolie tested out several sets of horns before settling on a pair that had magnets attached to it.

After the initial design was complete they were worked upon by a leading British milliner named Justin Smith who draped them. “The initial thing was establishing the head shape and working around the horns. Once we figured that out, we could start wrapping and playing with the draping,” he was quoted as saying.

3 Queen’s Ingrith’s Costume Was Inspired By A Baroque Painting

Ingrith was a traditionalist, so it made sense for her to wear brutal corsets and stomachers, which are sharp geometric panels that used to be embroidered upon the bodice of women’s gowns between the 16th and 18the century. And in the dinner scene, Ingrith’s bejeweled Swarovski-studded stomacher makes quite a statement.

Mjornick revealed that the concept of the bejeweled 17th century-inspired gown was influenced by a Dutch baroque painting she saw. “It had a bejeweled stomacher and [the image] stayed with me,” she revealed. Moreover, Ingrith’s costume was a lot more old school and structural than Maleficent’s or Aurora’s to bring out the contrast of cultures between the women.

2 The Collar Upgrade

In the sequel, Maleficent ditches her feather collars because they wouldn’t be in sync with the royal set-up. Unlike the first Maleficent movie, Jolie’s character spends quite a bit of time indoors, and even when she’s out in the forest or at battle, she is seen wearing elaborate metallic collars, with animal-themed detailing, unlike the organic ones which had been designed by Manuel Albarran for the first one.

Mirojnick revealed that it was done to make her costume a bit more imposing, especially at the dinner scene where she’s meeting Ingrith for the first time, Maleficent wears a metallic collar lined with bird skulls.

1 Aishwarya Rai Dubbed For The Hindi Version Of The Movie

While regional or international dubbing of films is usually done by voice artists, It’s quite fitting that Angelina’s voice would be dubbed by Aishwarya Rai for the Hindi version of the movie considering the latter is an A-lister in Bollywood. And she co-incidentally also shares quite a few physical traits with Angelina – they both have green eyes, long dark hair.

Aishwarya even decked up in a Maleficent-esque, feathery black gown and dramatic hair for the promo. Bikram Duggal, Head of Studio Entertainment, Disney India, revealed that they wanted a name big enough to voice the role of Maleficent in Hindi to draw a bigger crowd. 

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