STAY PUFT: How Did This Movie Monster Come To Life?

When asked of people, “What comes to mind when you think off GHOSTBUSTERS?”, a lot will tell you, The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The giant with a smile on his face that will crush you as soon as he gets the chance. But what’s the story behind this fluffy giant?

Well the story is as interesting as the movie character itself and includes Rick Baker, Steve Johnson, breaking the norm and a disfigured crotch.

The story begins when Rick Baker and his assistant, Steve Johnson, got back from London after working on the ape make ups for Greystoke’s :Legend of Tarzan for six months. When they got back Rick gets a phone call from Richard Edlund who had just started the new effects company EEG who later would become Boss film. He was wondering if Rick would be interesting on working on the practical effects department of EEG on a new movie that’s soon gonna starts shooting called Ghostbusters. Rick said that he wasn’t interested because he was so tired after the work he had done in London. Rick did however have an assistant working for him that could take on the job because “I don´t got anymore work for him at the moment. It was Rick’s way of getting rid off me” Steve Johnson said in a interview when he recalled the moment.

So Rick Baker sent Steve Johnson on his way down to EEG. When he got there a lot of people where disappointed. They where expecting Oscar winner Rick Baker and in walks this 22 year old kid. He met up with Edlund who was very skeptical of the young Johnson. Edlund said to him if you can create this puppet that we have in mind for this movie then you can have this job.

So Steve went back to his apartment and he created this puppet there from scratch and then went back to Edlund with it. Edlund was very pleased with the puppet and he got the job and that puppet become the cab driver zombie seen in the movie.

So after he got the job he started working on slimer, which is a story for another day, and after that Stay Pufft. Steve created the hat and the head using the Rick Baker method that all the Rick Baker former apprentices used. The method is first you sculpt it, then you cast it, then you mold, then you cast it in foam latex and then you paint. So he had done the hat and the head but he got stuck on making the body. That’s where Bill Bryan comes into the picture.

Bill Bryan was a former costume desinger for NBC that had done a lot of animal costumes for them. He was called in to help out with body and when it was done , he was gonna play Stay Puft in the movie. Bryans idea for the body was to construct it out of foam. In a interview, Billy Bryan said that he told Johnsson “ if we stretch that last layer we can get past the horizon. Then we don´t have to stop at the halfway line of the body so there won´t be a seam halfway through the suit” But Johnsson kept fighting Bryan on it because doing something that wasn’t the Rick Baker way was not acceptable in his eyes. After a lot of convincing he managed Bryan to talk Johnsson into constructing it out of foam. But after they made the body and did a test on it they realized that the crotch looked weird and deformed on it. After going over the suit they realized that the foam they used was too soft so it lead to deformities in the suit.

Jon Berg, one of the special effects consultants said that they have to make a fiberglass shell to keep the suit smooth. But Bryan was against the idea because it was going to be too uncomfortable for him to wear.

So he started thinking about what else he could do and then realized that they could use L200. L200 is a stiffer foam that dosen’t create these deformities because it is so stiff but it is still as comfortable as regular soft foam and he went with that as a suggestion to the rest of the crew. They accepted that offer and that lead to the Stay Puft you see in the movie.

A head and hat made with the Rick Baker method and a body constructed out of L200 foam. There you have the story of how the beast was made. It was more complicated then Gozer doing a spell.

About The Author

A Swedish Horror Nerd: Hails from Sweden, loves all things Special Effects and a regular contributor to Macabredaily.com