Tropic Thunder Halloween Costume: Les Grossman

Halloween offers the opportunity to find creative ways to dress up as characters from their favorite stories, books, television shows, and movies. One movie that is an interesting choice to dress up from is the late summer blockbuster smash Tropic Thunder. The movie features a variety of characters that either represents or offends various groups of people. Either way, those who have seen the movie will get a kick out of the costumes.

I initially wanted to write up a costume guide of the four main soldiers being played by four acting diva stereotypes (The washed up action film star, the drug addict comedian, the overly dedicated character actor, and the self-promoting rap star trying to break into acting). But walking around in military battle dress uniform while armed with prop weaponry never appealed to me for Halloween. Instead, I'm suggesting my favorite character of the movie for a "Tropic Thunder" Halloween costume. He's balding, fat, and seriously foulmouthed. But he's rich, powerful, and a heck of a dancer.

Probably the easiest thing about forming a Les Grossman costume for Halloween is that most of the parts needed for him are already conveniently sold at the seasonal Halloween costume shops. For the fat belly, costume shops sell a beer gut costume to strap around your stomach. Or you can stuff a small pillow underneath your shirt and shape it into a fat belly. Now go to a thrift store to find a suit jacket, dress shirt (that will be worn primarily unbuttoned), and trousers to fit your new girth. A fake short beard can be purchased at the Halloween store and applied with spirit gum. A longer fake beard of the same hair color of the first fake beard can be used as the chest hair when applied with the same spirit gum. It is preferable to use a curly beard for the chest hair. A pair of glasses will help the look since Les wears glasses. How you learn to dance like a white person freak dancing to hip hop and how much cursing you choose to do is up to you. But the more over the top you dance and curse, the more accurate it is.

The hardest part will be the balding head. If your Halloween store sells a rubber wig with a few strands of hair forming a weak comb-over in the back, you're in luck. If you're not so lucky, prepare for some work. Most Halloween stores sell bald caps and wig caps and you should buy one of each. You'll also need some foundation make up that matches your skin color in case the bald cap's default color doesn't match your skin. Stuff your hair inside the wig cap to compress your hair into a smaller mass to conceal. Now place the bald cap over your head. Use the foundation make up to blend the edges of the bald cap onto your head to avoid looking like some guy wearing a condom on his head. An easy way to add some hair to the bald cap is to draw some lines on the cap with Sharpie marker.

Hopefully this simple costume guide to Les Grossman inspires you to try something fun for Halloween. At the very least, those who have seen the movie will give you kudos for being that crazy character. If Tom Cruise calls you up to compliment you on your homage to the character, you've done a really good job.