Yvonne Craig's Star Trek Makeup Almost Became A Huge Health Hazard

There are some truly iconic alien inhabitants in the Star Trek franchise. From those pointy-eared Vulcans to the hard-headed Klingons (even if they went through some changes), it's easy to spot which kind of species are from Gene Roddenberry's world of worlds. One standout race are the Orion — pea-green colored aliens that make their debut on "The Cage," the "Star Trek: The Original Series" pilot episode, which features tragedy for Captain Pike. Back then, Susan Oliver was the first to go green, sparking an arresting image for audiences that were only just joining the five-year mission. However, on Season 3, Episode 14 — "Whom Gods Destroy," Yvonne Craig was next in line to go lime, but the task became difficult and downright dangerous when no one could remember how they did it the first time around. 

Speaking to Pop Goes the Culture TV, Craig explained, "They couldn't remember what they did to make [Susan Oliver] green," as an effort was made to replicate her look from "The Cage." The first attempt to recapture the Orion people's appearance made Craig literally untouchable, as the paint would rub off easily. Another method saw them consider applying "liquid bandage," but that would then demand acetone to remove it, which would be dangerous to the actor over the six days of scheduled shooting. Craig explained, "You'll have no skin and no liver." Coincidentally, decades later, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" star Rebecca Romijn suffered a similar blue-tinted ordeal during her time in 2000's "X-Men."

She might be wearing that signature shade of gold on "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," but when Rebecca Romijn was the first to go blue for "X-Men," it led to some stomach-turning results. As the iconic shapeshifter Mystique, Romijn was tasked with wearing blue makeup from head to toe in line with her character from the comics. The process took nine hours to apply the prosthetics and two and half to take them off. In an interview with AOL, Romijn recalled that on the last day of shooting, she was ready to celebrate — only to encounter an unexpected and incredibly blue issue.

"I have not told this story very often. On the last night, when we finally wrapped, someone brought out tequila shots to celebrate. I did a shot and immediately vomited blue." The lengthy time as Mystique had led her body paint to seep into her skin, which led to the drastic and understandably startling incident. "There was all this blue paint in my stomach," she explained. Even after what might have been an understandably traumatizing event for some, Romijn still looks back on the character fondly. "The thing that got me through it was that it was most beautiful costume I had ever seen." To learn more about some horrible wardrobe issues, check out other movie costumes that made actors seriously sick.