How Heidi Klum transformed into ET for her Halloween 2024 party
Heidi Klum’s Halloween costumes get bigger and better every year, and 2024 saw her in one of her most elaborate yet.
The supermodel made jaws drop when she unveiled her and husband Tom Kaulitz’s matching costumes at her annual Halloween bash on Thursday 31 October. The couple were both dressed as E.T., from the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Both Klum and Kaulitz were virtually hidden under their costumes, which featured huge animatronic heads that could blink and move their mouths slightly to make them look even more life-like.
On closer inspection, the couple’s faces could be seen peeking out from around the middle of the E.T. costumes’ necks. They posed in a set that appeared like a ditch of grass and leaves, with smoke billowing around them.
Kaulitz's E.T. featured no clothes, while Klum's E.T. had an additional blonde wig, hat and blouse, straight out of the famous scene from the film where the character tries out a disguise.
Here’s everything Klum has said about the making of her epic costume, from when she came up with the idea to how long it took to put on.
Why did Heidi Klum choose E.T. as a costume?
Speaking to British Vogue, Klum said she wanted to dress up as "something nostalgic" for Halloween 2024.
After spending some time down memory lane, Klum found a mini figurine of E.T. and that’s how she decided on the idea. "It’s my favourite childhood movie of all time - I watched it a million times," she told the magazine. "It’s a movie that inspired me to dream and imagine the possibility of life beyond Earth."
When did Heidi Klum start preparing for Halloween 2024?
Klum’s love for Halloween knows no bounds, and she began preparing for this year’s Halloween almost immediately after last year’s event, during which she created a group costume of a peacock.
According to British Vogue, Klum called prosthetics artist Mike Marino and his team of 30 artists in November 2023 to start planning the E.T. costume.
Marino told the magazine they "3D-printed all the sculptures, moulded them, cast them in foam Latex, and reinforced them with Spandex". They also crafted all the details, including eyeballs, teeth, tongues, and fingernails, and airbrushed everything to perfection.
How long did the costume take to put on?
Both Klum and Kaulitz took a whopping seven hours to get into full costume.
In a TikTok video take during preparation, Klum showed the beginning of the preparations that began with carefully placing prosthetics on her face. "We have begun," she said, before asking Marino how much longer there was to go before the costume was finished.
"Six more hours," he replied.
Klum also praised her husband for his patience in another video, which showed Kaulitz getting his facial hair smoothed down as much as possible so the prosthetics could go on. “He is such a good sport,” she said.
Was the costume comfortable?
According to Klum, the E.T. costume was one of her most uncomfortable Halloween costumes yet.
Not only did the costume completely encase her and Kaulitz, which meant they were unable to turn their heads without turning their whole bodies, the animatronic E.T. heads were also heavy and difficult to balance.
"Balancing the headpiece was one of the biggest challenges," she told British Vogue. "It had to be secure without being too heavy, as I wore it for hours… This was a long, meticulous process, but it was worth it."
Even worse, neither Klum nor Kaulitz could remove the costume easily to go to the toilet.
In a new video shared to her social media on Friday 1 November, which promises more behind-the-scenes of the making of her costume, Klum joked that she would wear diapers underneath the costume.
"I will wear diapers, because I know my bladder - something goes in, it wants to come out immediately," she told her crew. "So I’m just going to wear a diaper, I don’t care."
Watch: Heidi Klum and Tom Kaulitz unveil their out-of-this-world Halloween 2024 costumes
Read more about Halloween:
Three ways to make use of your Jack-o-lantern pumpkins after Halloween (Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read)
Pumpkin soup and DIY fake blood: how to be more sustainable this Halloween (The Guardian, 7-min read)
Give children stickers or playdough instead of Halloween sweets, dental surgeons say (Sky News, 1-min read)
