As a new animated rendition of The Addams Family graces cinemas, it’s the perfect time to delve into the captivating history of one of its most peculiar characters: Thing, the disembodied hand. Long before CGI dominance, the 1991 live-action The Addams Family movie, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, faced a significant challenge: making a hand a believable, acting character. This is the story of how visual effects supervisor Alan Munro and his team ingeniously brought Thing, the iconic Hand From Addams Family, to life.
In a revealing account, Munro recounts his initial pitch for the project, highlighting his vision for Thing’s character. He recalls suggesting a unique reference point to filmmakers Scott Rudin and Barry Sonnenfeld to secure his role as VFX supervisor. His approach wasn’t about immediate technical solutions, but about understanding Thing’s essence within the Addams Family narrative.
“I have no idea,” Munro candidly admitted during his audition when asked how he would create Thing. “And right now, I don’t care. First, we need to decide who Thing is, and what he is doing. Once we know that, we’ll figure out how we’re going to make him come to life.” This unconventional answer piqued the filmmakers’ interest, leading to a discussion about Thing’s character.
Munro elaborated on his vision: “In the script, Thing has been conceived as a family pet. Not so much a faithful dog as a hapless hamster, who simply scurries about the house. To me, Thing needs to be much more. He needs to be magical. He needs to be Fred Astaire.” This comparison to Fred Astaire, the legendary dancer, was key to Munro’s concept. He envisioned Thing as possessing a similar grace and seemingly effortless movement, defying natural laws in a captivating way. This artistic direction secured him the job, setting the stage for the creation of the memorable hand from Addams Family.
Thing peeks from behind Gomez in a GIF from The Addams Family movie.
While Munro focused on Thing’s character, the visual design of the hand from Addams Family was shaped by production designer Richard MacDonald. MacDonald’s concept for Thing’s wrist was particularly distinctive. Inspired by the illusion of depth in a teacup, he proposed a wrist design that would appear bottomless and mysterious.
“The inside of his wrist should be like a teacup,” MacDonald described, explaining that the sloping porcelain of a teacup creates an illusion of infinite depth. Initially, there was a suggestion for Thing to be a puppet, but Munro firmly advocated for using a real human hand to capture the nuanced movements and expressions needed for the character. Despite MacDonald’s initial preference for a puppet, Munro insisted, “Thing will be a real person’s hand, with the rest of the body optically removed.”
The idea of a puppet for the hand from Addams Family was briefly explored. Munro recounts a memorable demonstration by a puppeteer who presented a marionette hand with a “teacup wrist.” However, this puppet approach was ultimately deemed insufficient to capture the life-like quality Munro envisioned.
A still image of Thing with a teacup wrist design from The Addams Family.
Casting the perfect hand for Thing was the next crucial step. Munro’s first choice was mime artist Don McLeod, known for his role as the “American Tourister Gorilla.” While McLeod’s mime skills were exceptional, his hand’s appearance didn’t quite match the envisioned aesthetic for the hand from Addams Family. “Amazing as his performance was, Don’s stubby hand simply didn’t look the part,” Munro explained.
The search then expanded to magicians, known for their dexterity and hand movements. A casting call attracted two dozen sleight-of-hand artists. Among them was Christopher Hart, an assistant to David Copperfield. Hart’s skills as a magician, combined with his tall stature, intelligence, athleticism, and “large beautiful hands,” made him the ideal choice to portray Thing. “Christopher Hart had been an assistant to David Copperfield… Aside from being a skilled magician in his own right, Chris was tall, smart, athletic, and had large beautiful hands,” Munro stated.
A GIF showcasing the puppet hand demonstration for Thing from The Addams Family.
With Christopher Hart cast as the physical performer for the hand from Addams Family, the visual effects team, led by Pete Kuran, tackled the technical challenges of making Thing appear disembodied. In the pre-digital era of 1991, creating this effect required ingenuity and meticulous practical techniques.
They opted for a two-pass shooting method. Shots were filmed twice: once with Hart performing as Thing and once without. For shots where Thing was seen from the front, top, or side, Hart lay on a mechanic’s dolly, arm extended and concealed by a black sleeve, with a prosthetic wrist attached. For shots from behind or when Thing needed to turn, Hart was positioned above the camera, using a prosthetic around his wrist to create a clean edge.
A still image of the puppet hand for Thing from The Addams Family.
In post-production, rotoscoping, a frame-by-frame animation technique, was employed to remove Hart’s body from the footage. Pete Kuran, renowned for his work on the Star Wars lightsaber effect, was a master of this painstaking process. The background footage, filmed without Hart, was then composited into the scene, replacing the areas where Hart had been rotoscoped out. This combination of shots was achieved using an optical printer, layering the elements together to create the illusion of a disembodied hand from Addams Family.
These shots of Christopher Hart as Thing were interspersed with shots of mechanical hand puppets designed by Dave Miller, known for his work on Nightmare on Elm Street. These puppets were used for specific actions and stunts that were difficult or impossible for a human hand to perform, such as Thing acting as a golf tee. This blend of live-action hand performance and puppetry kept the audience guessing about the techniques used to create the hand from Addams Family in different scenes.
A GIF of Thing using a finger as a golf tee in The Addams Family movie.
The initial days of filming Thing were not without their challenges. Munro recounts the first day of production, where the simple act of Thing playing chess with Gomez became unexpectedly complicated. The chess table on set was unstable, causing constant wobbling that disrupted the two-camera pass technique, which required absolute steadiness. “The first day of production we shoved Chris under a table so Thing could play chess with Gomez. Everything needed to be rock steady to make our two camera pass technique work. Unfortunately the chess table wobbled. And wobbled. And wobbled some more. Stabilizing it took forever.” This incident led to Munro having his own camera unit to ensure precise control over Thing’s shots.
David B. Miller works on the mechanical hand puppets for Thing from The Addams Family.
Creating Thing, the iconic hand from Addams Family, was a collaborative effort involving innovative techniques, skilled performers, and a dedicated VFX team. From Alan Munro’s initial vision of a Fred Astaire-like hand to Christopher Hart’s captivating performance and Pete Kuran’s rotoscoping expertise, the creation of Thing stands as a testament to the ingenuity of practical effects in filmmaking before the digital age fully took over. The enduring appeal of Thing is a direct result of this blend of artistry and technical prowess, making it one of the most memorable characters in cinematic history.
