All articles tagged with #prosthetics
On the New Heights podcast, Tom Cruise says the Digger transformation was trimmed from six hours to under one by having a team time each prosthetic with a stopwatch, using chalkboard planning and drills to speed the process for 12‑hour shooting days—a move that mirrors his broader drive to improve efficiency in filmmaking.
Tom Cruise revealed on the New Heights podcast that the extensive head-to-toe prosthetics for his film Digger originally required about six hours of makeup per day. He pushed the glam team to streamline with timed drills, using a chalkboard and stopwatch to time each piece, eventually cutting the daily prep to under an hour. He noted sweating under the prosthetics and the toll it takes on his body, while Digger is set to hit theaters on October 2.
Tom Cruise revealed his Digger transformation originally took six hours in makeup, including a fat suit, but he convinced the team to cut it to under an hour by timing each prosthetic and refining the process; the actor now endures long shoot days with cooling tech as Digger, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, premieres Oct. 2 with co-stars Riz Ahmed, John Goodman and Sandra Hüller.
A 20-year-old from Leeds with a long history of juvenile idiopathic arthritis developed severe CRPS that left her homebound for eight months. After more than two years of discussions with surgeons, she chose to have her right leg amputated. The decision, while debated due to her young age, has led to significant pain relief and greater independence, with her ongoing rehab including prosthetic fitting and a drive to raise awareness about disability and chronic pain.
A box turtle in Louisiana named Pedro, missing both back legs, was fitted with a lightweight, removable wheelchair built from a Lego car kit, syringe-case axles, and epoxy. Within minutes of being set down, Pedro could reverse and turn, demonstrating how creative, low-tech improvisation can outperform specialized hardware in veterinary care. The team weighed options, opting for wheels over 3-D-printed prosthetics for indoor use, and this case echoes a prior DIY wheelchair effort at a Maryland zoo as evidence that practical design often trumps complexity.
Jayne Hardman, who lost her nose to granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) after a dog accident, now uses magnetic, titanium-anchored prosthetic noses—more than ten versions for different skin tones and occasions—and shares her journey online to normalise facial prosthetics and raise awareness of GPA and vasculitis, while advocating early diagnosis and support for others with facial differences.
Jayne Hardman’s nose collapsed due to a rare vasculitis and was surgically removed; she now wears a rotating collection of magnetic prosthetic noses, including a pink-tinted “drunk nose,” and says she carries on with strength and joy while managing remission and chemotherapy every six months.
Penn State researchers created a washable, paint-on electronic tattoo using conductive ink that dries on the skin to form an electrode for ECG/EMG/EEG signals. The tattoo connects to a Bluetooth module via a porous silver textile and can control a robotic hand in tests. It can be customized with colors and is designed to stay attached during movement, offering a more comfortable alternative to traditional patches. Future work could include monitoring biomarkers like glucose or cortisol and even plant health, but the technology is not yet ready for consumer use or clinical diagnosis, and it has not been tested on heart-attack patients.
Former Paralympic sprinter and amputee John McFall may become the first disabled person to live and work in orbit, with UK funding via Vast for Haven-1 or a private ISS mission. The mission would use his body and prosthetic socket as a medical instrument to study fluid shifts, spinal loading, heat transfer, and prosthetic fit in microgravity, creating the first real datapoints in space medicine for an already limb-different body. While a two-week flight won’t yield broad statistics, it would establish a baseline for inclusive, physiology-informed spaceflight research and could influence future prosthetic design on Earth.
British Paralympian and surgeon John McFall, an ESA astronaut reserve, could become the first person with a physical disability to live in orbit aboard Vast’s Haven-1 in a 2027 mission, studying how space affects the body and prosthetics; UK Space Agency support would back sponsorships for his flight on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, with a private ISS option as well, potentially making him the first Briton in space since Tim Peake and challenging perceptions of what people with disabilities can achieve in space.
Veteran SFX makeup artist Mike Marino crafted Bad Bunny’s hyperreal old-age Met Gala look with 3D scans, silicone prosthetics, and hand-painted details, aided by a 40-person team; he’s known for transforming stars like Heidi Klum and The Weeknd, and notes live-event makeup challenges differ from film, while dreaming of reviving icons like Sinatra or Elvis.
Dwayne Johnson’s Maui in Disney’s Moana live-action remake wears about 40 pounds of prosthetics and a seven‑pound wig to achieve lift and a wet look on water; director Thomas Kail and Johnson discuss the demanding design and heat-heavy conditions, underscoring the cultural responsibility behind the July 10 release.
A deep dive into how The Pitt recruits and trains patient-actors to convincingly portray hospital emergencies, employing heavy makeup, prosthetics, and on-set medical guidance to create authentic, real-time trauma across Season 2.
Manjit Sangha, a 56-year-old Punjabi-origin woman from the West Midlands, fell critically ill last July after her family’s dog licked a minor wound; within 48 hours she was in a coma and doctors believe sepsis entered her bloodstream. She underwent quadruple amputations (both legs below the knee and both hands), lost her spleen, and battled pneumonia and gallstones. After 32 weeks in hospital she has returned home and is fundraising for advanced prosthetics, with over £22,000 raised so far. Medical experts say such infections are rare but can escalate rapidly.
The piece explains how Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights uses Margot Robbie’s Cathy and Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff to tell the story via transformative hair, makeup and prosthetics—Robbie with 35+ Cathy looks, freckles and era-specific wigs; Elordi shifts from a dirty, bearded “Jesus Elordi” to a slick, Darcy-inspired Heathcliff with a hand-laid beard and a gold-tooth prosthetic—plus ‘vagina plaits’ and other motifs. The look development, including tests against wind/rain, spanned a 51‑day shoot and was designed to convey jealousy, longing and tragedy, with Robbie even keeping her hair unwashed for a key scene.