Celebrities are pretty familiar with makeup, costumes and going viral. So that didn’t stop them from playing dress-up on Halloween this year and going to elaborate lengths to promote their outfits.
Musicians, athletes, actors and many other stars put on their ghoulish costumes to celebrate Halloween and did so in ways to ensure that social media saw their outfits. Many costumes weren’t just get-ups for a party, but were professionally photographed and meticulously designed to be a viral post.
Kendall Jenner released a clip online that showed her re-creating the spin from the 1970s “Wonder Woman” TV show, sporting the superheroine’s costume. Similarly, Halle Bailey dressed up as Whitney Houston and shared a fake album cover of herself as Houston.
And while Kim Kardashian and her daughter North West dressed up as Cher and Dionne from “Clueless,” Kourtney Kardashian, who is pregnant, dressed up as a pregnant version of Kim from the 2013 Met Gala (an event Kim attended while pregnant).
Heidi Klum enlisted the help of Cirque du Soleil performers to complete her giant peacock look. She dressed in a blue bodysuit and a dramatic headpiece while the acrobats served as her feathers and feet.
Some played it more simple, like Ed Sheeran, who dressed as the murderous doll Chucky (though the makeup looked pretty extensive), and rapper Saweetie, who wore an outfit much like Edward Scissorhands’. Adele, meanwhile, dressed up as Morticia Addams. But her photos resembled a creepy family portrait fitting of the Addams family (and probably relied on some professional touch-ups and framing). Meanwhile, LeBron and Savannah James dressed up as characters from 1988’s “Beetlejuice” and posted photos of their get-up before a blue, star-filled backdrop.
Singer Chloe Bailey posted photos of her well-designed costumes of Daenerys Targaryen from “Game of Thrones,” Catwoman and Mrs. Incredible on Instagram. And Lizzo, who dressed up as the late Tina Turner, posted photos of her under a glowing auburn spotlight.
Ice Spice brought back the vintage costume of Betty Boop — or, as she called it, “wetty boop.” A video of her outfit has more than 2 million views on X, formerly Twitter.
Celebrity couple Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly made something of a show of their outfits as well. Fox dressed as Gogo Yubari, an assassin from Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill franchise, while her fiancé dressed as Uma Thurman’s character from the film. Fox’s photo caption was rather pointed: “@sagaftra.”
That’s because the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) warned in guidelines released in late October that actors shouldn’t flaunt their Halloween costumes on social media if they’re dressing as characters from projects on strike. Instead, the union recommended actors “choose costumes inspired by generalized characters and figures,” such as ghosts, zombies, spiders and more.
“Abbott Elementary” star Lisa Ann Walter scolded Fox and Kelly for their costumes on X, mockingly calling Fox a “rebel” for wearing a franchise-affiliated costume amid the strike.
Justin and Hailey Bieber had multiple get-ups over the weekend, dressing as Bamm-Bamm Rubble and Pebbles Flintstone on one occasion.
But Hailey went even further, dressing as a vampire, Rachel from “Friends” and Carmen Electra’s character from the 2000 film “Scary Movie.”
On Hailey’s Instagram, she shared photos dedicated to her Electra-inspired outfit — including professional shots that showed her covered in fake blood while standing next to the Scream killer Ghostface. The caption read “SCARY MOVIE,” even though the Ghostface killer in the photos is wearing a different mask from the one worn in the film.
But the inaccuracy may not have mattered, as the post has more than 2.7 million likes and counting.
Samantha Chery contributed to this report.
A previous version of this article incorrectly implied that Kendall Jenner re-created a scene from the 1974 “Wonder Woman” movie; the clip was inspired by the 1970s TV show. The article has been corrected.