Shadow and Bone star Jessie Mei Li has spoken about the "disgusting" prosthetic she had to wear while playing Alina Starkov in the Netflix adaptation.
Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, Jessie talked about how the Netflix series changed the amplifiers from being jewellery to something that was actually embedded in the person's skin.
"In the books, the amplifiers are kind of like jewellery, and Alina’s collar is more like a necklace made of antlers," Jessie explained.
Related: Shadow and Bone's Kit Young reveals Jesper secret you probably missed
"When I went out to Budapest and was looking at the different concept art, they then told me, 'OK, we’re thinking of embedding it in people’s skin.'
"I think that seeing that for the first time in the show... It’s a really great moment because it shows how invasive, and how much of a betrayal it is, rather than just a piece of jewellery."
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While it all looked very cool, Jessie admitted that it wasn't the most comfortable experience for her.
Related: Kit Young on Jesper and how Shadow and Bone handles queerness
"That prosthetic. I am such a fidget!" she said. "There were two different kinds as well.
"There was the one with the antlers that pointed out, and then for the end, even sometimes when we didn’t see it, I would have a different prosthetic which went underneath, after it’s gone into her skin. So I even had to have a prosthetic when you couldn’t see it.
"It was so itchy! I was always accidentally picking it. I can’t be trusted with a prosthetic," she continued. "But makeup gave me one as a gift, one of the last ones we didn’t use, so it’s mounted on the wall! It looks so disgusting."
Shadow and Bone season 1 is streaming on Netflix.
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Stephanie is a freelance news writer, who previously covered WWE and AEW for Digital Spy.
After graduating with a degree in history from Queen Mary University, London, she studied journalism at Birkbeck University.
Outside of her work at Digital Spy, she writes about pop culture, with a special focus towards Irish media and how it intersects with politics.
You can read more of her work on her Substack page.
After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.
