Stranger Things Star Explains How His Vecna Costume's "Pee Flap" Worked

Stranger Things Season 4 largely relied on practical makeup effects to bring the otherworldly Vecna to life, which required actor Jamie Campbell Bower to sport a highly detailed costume that took exhaustive work to apply. Given the number of hours he had to spend in the suit to film his scenes, his bathroom breaks could be a bit cumbersome, with the actor recently recalling how there was a "pee flap" built into the Vecna costume to make the process go a bit more smoothly, though wasn't without its obstacles. Season 4 of Stranger Things is now streaming on Netflix.

"The bottom half of the suit, sort of waist down, they're like a pair of trousers that I have to slip on. Everything else is glued, but the bottom half are trousers, and I have like a flap that like, this f-cking flap that goes from the chest, like, underneath my buttcrack," Bower revealed to SiriusXM's Caity Babs. "And it's like, poor Duncan Jarman, who also fitted the suit on me every day. He'd have to be down there. And if I needed to pee and I have to wear these ... I've got this big hand. as well, like these huge fingers. Then on the other side, I've got nails that are glued on. So I can't touch anything without everything f-cking falling apart." 

He continued, "So if I need to use the loo, I'm like, 'Duncan, can you just like unplop me?' And then there's like this tiny zip, it's like crotchless pants. It's like the whole thing." 

The actor detailed how the suit ultimately led to some intimate encounters with some coworkers.

"The worst part is like ... There's not a lot of room down there. It's not very easy," Bower explained. "And like, I'd have to get Tyler and, shout out to Tyler, if you're listening, because Tyler would have to stand outside the bathroom door because no one else could come in because I'm like hovering over the urinal. It's like a whole thing. Oh, my God. The shame is so real right now."

Knowing how complex the process would be just to go to the bathroom, Bower admitted that he often held it in for longer than he probably should have.

"There was only one day where like, you know when you're a kid and you are waiting for something and you need to pee, and you're like -- maybe this is just me, maybe I'm projecting here. If there's anyone else out there who's experienced this, please just let me know, because it'll be nice not to feel so alone," the actor joked. "When you're a kid and you're waiting, but you need to pee and you're like, 'I should just wait, I'll just wait. I'll just wait.' And it just gets worse and worse and worse to the point where you're like, 'I just gotta f-cking pee now. Like, I gotta run away.' That only happened one time on set. I can't remember who I was working with, I think it was with Sadie Sink, who plays Max, and we'd done so much great work and the camera was on me and [directors] Matt and Ross [Duffer] were like, 'Are you okay?' And I was like, 'No, I got a pee so bad.' But it takes like 15 minutes for the whole thing to happen. So I felt ... I didn't wanna break anyone. I felt really bad."

Stranger Things Season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.

What did you think of Vecna in Season 4? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!