The Addams Family Films Had To Create A Special Job For Cousin Itt's Appearance

Barry Sonnenfeld's "Addams Family" movies are truly some of the best family comedies ever made, but there were some unique challenges behind the scenes when it came to some of the kooky family's more unusual relatives. Beloved dismembered hand Thing took some work to create in the early 1990s, like using actor Christopher Hart's hand and a whole lotta rotoscoping to create the effect of a free-roaming limb. But one Addams family member that took a surprising amount of work was seemingly one of the most simple: Cousin Itt, who speaks in high-pitched gibberish and is covered in brown hair from head to toe. Itt was portrayed in both "The Addams Family" and its sequel "Addams Family Values" by actor John Salapatek, who was then working under the stage name of John Franklin. 

In a 20th anniversary retrospective of "Addams Family Values" for Buzzfeed, Salapatek shared the secrets behind playing Cousin Itt, and he revealed that those luxurious locks required a lot of work. So much work, in fact, that someone had to be hired just to maintain Itt's hair, brushing it and taking care of frizzies. There have been some wild jobs in Hollywood before, but getting paid to take care of a giant walking wig is certainly a new one. 

Cousin Itt appears in both of Sonnenfeld's incredible "Addams Family" films, though he has a bit more screentime in the second as he officiates the wedding of Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd) and his gold-digging bride, Debbie (Joan Cusack). Though the getup originally weighed close to 35 pounds, they thankfully lightened it for the second film, though Salapatek said that it still required significant maintenance: 

"There was a wrangler full time to take care of it and to make sure there weren't tangles and it looked good. I'm allergic to hairspray — which is ironic, of course (laughs) — so they had to use this lanolin spray to keep the tangles out, which is oil-based."

That oil-based spray meant that Salapatek was super flammable, which was almost a real hazard when a lightbulb exploded on set, but he was pulled away to safety. It's probably pretty hard to see under all of that hair, so it's a good thing that he always had someone looking out for him (and his locks). Cousin Itt's infant child, carried around in the film by Dana Ivey as his wife Margaret, probably also required a fair bit of styling and needed a bit of help from Cousin Itt's personal assistant, but hey, it's all in a day's work. And when you get to be a part of one of the most satisfying sequels ever made? That has to be worth it.