After Learning These Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Madame Tussauds, I'll Never See Wax Figures The Same

Chances are, you’ve heard of Madame Tussauds — the world-famous wax museum known for its life-sized celebrity figures.

We (Ajani and Terry) visited the New York location for a behind-the-scenes tour. We spoke with several key staff members: Marketing Manager Eliza Rose, Studio Manager Matthew Hilshorst, Studio Artist and Seamstress Taylor Hindersman, and Studio Artist Kendra VanAllen.

We learned a lot about how these figures are made — more than we ever expected. Here are our biggest takeaways.

Note: Quotes featured in this article have been edited for length and clarity.

1. The first part of the process is called a sitting, where staffers record the measurements and every detail of the celebrity's body.

2. Only the heads of the figures are made of wax. Their bodies are mainly cast in fiberglass.

"If it were all wax, it would be so heavy and also so brittle. There's no way the whole figure could be wax," Hilshorst said.

"When they first were making wax figures, they all had wax hands as well. Now, the bodies are mostly all fiberglass, because the wax fingers break off so easily," Hilshorst explained, adding, "People often bump into the figures, so a big part of the studio team's job has become casting hands and making resin versions to replace them more easily."

3. The eyes are handmade with acrylic.

During sittings, celebrities are presented with a box of artificial eyes to help find the exact color that matches theirs.

4. The creators use "ethically sourced" human hair on the wax figures, including for their eyebrows, eyelashes, and other body hair, with one caveat.

"It is all human hair. It's all ethically sourced, and then we process it; however, we have to create the exact style, look, color, and texture that it needs to be to use curling irons on it constantly," Hilshorst shared. "With synthetic hair, you can't do that. We have to be able to style it regularly so the wax figures look A-list, red carpet ready."

"The only time it might not be human hair is if it's an older person, like George Washington, or someone like that. Then they may be wearing a wig," he confessed. "You can't source that old texture of hair, so we'll generally use yaki hair, and you can still style it."

5. Putting in hair to create the eyebrows can take six to ten hours.

"We'll take the eye of an embroidery needle where the thread would usually go through, and we cut it in half so it turns into a teeny, tiny fork that you can use to hook each [eyebrow] hair with," VanAllen disclosed.

6. Depending on the texture, inserting the hair on a wax figure can take up to 500 hours.

During sittings, talent will work with staff to find the perfect combination of hair colors for the wax figure, "because everybody has undertones and highlights and low lights to make the overall color." Individual strands of hair are also presented side by side next to the celebrity to capture the exact hue of their tresses.

"The Martin Luther King Jr. figure on the floor right now came to us from San Francisco, and he had some sort of heat damage or something on some of his hair," VanAllen recalled.

"I had to remove all the hair to replace it with the correct texture," she added. "To do it, just about a third of a set, took 500 hours, roughly 19 full 24-hour days. It took three months, and it was all I was doing: punching in hairs one by one."

7. No makeup is applied to the wax figures. Oil-based paint is used instead.

"When celebrities come for their sitting, they generally have a makeup team and a glam squad, including their stylist. We won't use their actual makeup on their face," Hilshorst told us. "We'll find out what that makeup is, buy it, and then mix oil paint to match it perfectly so we can paint it on their face."

8. Some wax figures are challenging to paint.

"Some female figures, if they have [heavy] makeup on, to make them look like a real person, is complicated. For guys, you can put in veins and do different things with tiny detail brushes, but women have to look picture perfect," he noted. "Trying to keep [their makeup look] but also make it not look like a wax figure but look like a real person, that's always a real challenge."

9. Celebs are "very involved" in the process from start to finish, even if they can't physically be there for sittings.

"A lot of times, they'll donate things. They may not have time to do an actual sitting if they're filming movies or on tour, but they'll be very interested and [say], 'This is how I want my hair' or 'This is the outfit I want to wear,'" Hilshorst shared.

"If the wax figures are created from our research, we'll work with their team and get a lot of photographs," he added. "When making their sculpture, we'll have about 100 photos [in the studio], which looks like a shrine to that celebrity."

"The first part is the brief stage," Hilshorst explained. "We [say], 'This is the brief: This is what we want you to wear.' And then [the celebrity and their rep] will work with us. Next, we move to the clay stage, where we show the clay sculpture to them and ask, 'Do you have any changes?' If so, we make those changes in clay."

"Finally, we'll do the wax," he said. "We'll generally show the team how it's going, and they tell us, 'Yes! No. I love this. I don't like that.' So when we present the finished product, the reveal is perfect."

10. Sometimes, celebrities have difficulty remaining static long enough to get their wax figure pose just right.

"If they're in a difficult pose, they will have trouble holding it [for the duration of the sitting]," VanAllen told us.

11. The delicate wax figures can be heavier than you might think.

"It's surprising. Some of it depends on how sturdy the figures are. A lot of times, the smallest ones are the heaviest because they're the most delicate," Hilshorst pointed out. "The biggest figures have the most air inside of them, or the most space, so we'll usually pick one up and say, 'Whoa, it's super light.' The older figures are heavier because they used different methods."

12. Dressing the figures isn't as easy as it may look.

"Dressing the figures is a challenge, especially getting shoes on them. If it's a donated pair, that's the shoe they need to wear and the size. So then we'll have to get that foot in that shoe," Hilshorst told us.

Hindersman added, "[As humans] we have a lot of flexibility and can wiggle our feet into a shoe and our jeans. We can't do that with wax figures." Hilshorst continued, "We might have to take the figure completely apart, put it all together, and then realize they're supposed to have a vest on, too, and we need to take the whole outfit off again."

13. Creating a wax figure takes anywhere between six months and over a year.

"If we rush it, we can do it in six months. But that's when we're on a deadline. It usually happens when the celebrity has a big event, but otherwise, we generally give them a little over a year, which bakes in more time for approvals," Hilshorst explained.

14. Because they use their hands a lot, many wax creators use pressurized gloves to reduce the symptoms of carpal tunnel.

"I think almost everybody on our team has a little bit of carpal tunnel. We use pressurized gloves. They're supposed to be for old ladies who knit, but we wear them," Hindersman disclosed.

15. It generally costs $150,000 to create a wax figure, with most of the expenses coming from the cost of labor.

"It's like $150,000 generally. There are about 20 artists to pay. We sometimes get the real clothing. Usually, that's donated, but sometimes we have to buy it," Hilshorst clarified.

16. Beyoncé's wax figure includes the original Balmain bodysuit she wore during her 2018 Coachella performance, which was purchased for just a small (JK) fee of $10,000.

"We bought Beyoncé's Balmain jumpsuit, and that was $10,000 just for the little body suit that she's in. Then we had to have somebody hand-make her cape," Hilshorst shared. "She's also got tons of hair, so I assume the Beyoncé wax figure costs a lot more. It could almost be double [the typical cost]. Maybe $300,000."

17. Wax figures are updated whenever celebs have a notable change in their appearance, such as weight loss, skin-tone changes, additional tattoos, or just general aging.

"When they get a new tattoo, talent will reach out to us with a photo of it, and they might put a ruler next to it and say, 'Hey, can you put this on my figure?' And we can update those throughout time," Hindersman explained.

18. Celebs are typically notified if a change will be made to their figure.

"If it's a guy, we won't say, 'We're gonna put you in another black tuxedo.' That doesn't need to happen. But if it's a dramatic change, we do it just to stay in good graces with the celebrity," Hilshorst admitted, adding, "We have a celebrity liaison for a reason, so she can contact them and get the OK. And then sometimes, if [their outfit is] designer, we can't make full-blown copies of an outfit unless we get their permission."

19. Renowned soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo requested that his calf muscles look more "muscly" for his wax figure.

"We went to Manchester, England, to show Ronaldo his figure, and he said, 'My legs aren't looking quite as muscly.' So he took his pants off and flexed his legs. He said, 'You have to do my legs like this,'" Hilshorst recalled. "And so I had to come back and paint his legs to be more muscly, more defined."

20. Because fans can touch the wax figures, the clothing adorned on the figures is often sent to the dry cleaners for stain removal, especially the male wax figures.

"We bring things to the dry cleaners constantly," Hilshorst remarked. "We'll have a spare outfit, and once that one needs to go to the dry cleaner, we put the figures in the other outfits. We'll do two outfits for each figure, especially if it's a suit. Those show makeup. If women are grabbing on to guys and rubbing their faces on them, we have to bring them to the dry cleaners constantly. So, almost all men will have two tuxedos or two suits."

21. The wax figures can melt if placed under a specific temperature for a prolonged period.

"The wax is a mixture of Japanese wax and beeswax, so you don't want it to be hotter than 90 degrees for a prolonged period, or it will get soft," Hilshorst told us.

22. The wax figures can also crack if left in cooler temperatures.

"You don't want them to get under 40 degrees for a long period and then warm them up too fast, or else they will crack. But generally, we keep them temperature-controlled indoors, away from the sun," he said.

23. To no one's surprise, Taylor Swift's wax figure is most popular at the museum. She was very hands-on when it came to designing her wax figure, including requesting to see details about the clothing and her hair.

"We hired a photographer [about] five times to reshoot her, because she'd say, 'I've got to see it with her hair on this shoulder.' Or, 'I know the bangs need to be more separated,'" Hilshorst said. "So we decided to get a photographer here and pay him $1,000 to shoot the figure. And then we'd send it to Taylor Swift, and she'd say, 'Can you make the sleeves more poofy?'"

24. Right before the Eras Tour, Taylor Swift wanted to change her wax figures in North America.

"We try to keep our figures pretty New York-centric. Months before the Eras Tour, Taylor said, 'I want to change the look of all my wax figures in North America,'" Hilshorst revealed. "She got in contact [with us] and [we spoke] to NYU to put her in the cap and gown that she's in right now."

"NYU made two cap and gowns for the event when she received her honorary doctorate in 2022. We were thinking, 'This makes sense for New York,'" he said.

25. Wax figures of beloved Latin artists are also very popular at the New York attraction, and staff are constantly cleaning lip gloss off them.

"The Latin artists get a lot of love. Their fan bases are dedicated and huge," VanAllen commented. Hindersman added, "I mean, you can tell by their social media following. They have a bajillion followers."

"Anitta did her sitting right after she had just been on vacation, so her wax figure has a tan line on her hip from where her bikini was. The line is a little paler and darker on the edges," Hindersman pointed out.

26. There is a thoughtful process for removing controversial celebs who have wax figures.

"I don't know if I want to name names, but sometimes somebody has done something controversial that isn't seen in the best light ever. If it's not enjoyable for our guests to see that figure, we'll generally pull it," Hilshorst shared.

27. Because the devil is in the details, celebrities usually submit dental impressions of their teeth to get them right.

"Dental impressions are the funniest part," Hindersman said. "We get dental impressions from our talent relations rep. They'll say, 'Oh, I'm in touch with their dentist right now.'"

28. Michael Jackson liked his Las Vegas wax figure's outfit so much that he took it, wore it to the 2002 VMAs, and donated another outfit to Madame Tussauds to put on his wax figure.

"He saw his wax figure and said, 'I want that outfit. I will donate a new outfit, but I want that outfit,'" Hilshorst shared. "[Someone from the staff] in Las Vegas went to his hotel room to get his new outfit for his figure."

29. Sometimes there's a "heated" debate over which celebrities to include in the museum.

"Well, it's a fight sometimes. We get pretty heated about it, deciding who we think is the next up-and-coming star that deserves a wax figure. We create a list. We go back to the brand team. We talk to the team in London. A whole group decides, but we use a lot of guest feedback," Hilshorst explained. "At the end of the museum, there are machines that visitors can use to suggest figures. We use that information often to see who's on there [and we learn] who our guests want to see."

"We also use a brand calculator that compiles many different [metrics], and that's a driving force of how we choose," Rose shared. "From a marketing standpoint, many analytics based on social media following will go into it. It could be who's relevant at the time, who's being the most searched on Google... It's a lot of pop culture conversations. Who's coming out with something soon? If we know someone's about to go on a huge tour, we consider them."

30. The team will prioritize figures recognizable to most people, not just a particular age group.

"We'll take into consideration who's visually recognizable to the masses. With a lot of the TikTokers and a lot of the influencers, while they're huge for a certain demographic, it might not be for everyone," Rose noted. "That's where those big calculators [that measure metrics] come into play, because [someone] might be so relevant to Gen Z, but not a single parent knows who they are. In the end, the parents might buy the tickets. So you want to have figures that everyone in the family knows."

31. There's a pretty good reason why there aren't many wax figures of child stars.

"We also don't do a lot of kid actors or child figures [because] they will go from 6 to 8 years old and look completely different, then to 10 years old. So that child figure would have such a short right lifespan at the museum because they're gonna change so fast," Hilshorst explained.

32. The wax figure of The Exorcist character Regan MacNeil, played by 14-year-old Linda Blair at the time, is the youngest wax figure at the attraction.

33. Contrary to what you might think, celebrities do not pay for their wax figures to be displayed at Madame Tussauds.

"We're not paying them. They're not paying us," Rose declared. "It's truly just an honor. It's like an award to have a wax figure if you've reached that level."

34. Some of the jewelry donned by the wax figures is real...but the staffers will never tell. 🤫

"There's a lot of money hidden in plain sight within our museum," Rose confessed. "We secure it down. We have eyes on everything." Hilshorst added, "But sometimes we will have replicas made, too."

35. Queen Elizabeth II had 28 (!!) sittings for her wax figures. "She had her first one when she was 2, and throughout her life, she continued to have [figures created] as she got older," Hindersman said.

36. Sometimes the wax figures look so identical and lifelike that celebrities can use them to unlock their iPhones.

"The iPhone does open. The facial recognition is good enough that it opens," Rose claimed.

37. And lastly, because the Beyhive has been buzzing about it, the real reason why Beyoncé's wax figure is more complex to get right is that it's been 21 years since she sat for a sitting in person.

"She hasn't done any new sittings since her initial sitting in 2004. So we have her measurements, but obviously, she's had kids, she's changed. It's a huge team of people working to get it exactly right," Hilshorst shared. "And so she's just interesting or harder to capture, but we've worked with what we have and try our best."

🕯️ Ajani's final thoughts 🕯️: I haven't been to Madame Tussauds since I was a teenager, so it was so cool to see all the new figures they have now. The best part was learning all the fascinating, unexpected details that go into making them. The amount of work and level of craftsmanship that this team puts into bringing each one to life is beyond impressive.

🕯️ Terry's final thoughts 🕯️: I had fun visiting Madame Tussauds New York. I learned a lot and was blown away by how realistic and intricate every detail was. Who knew learning about wax figures could be this interesting? I plan to go back to experience it again with family and friends soon!

Thanks for the invite, Madame Tussauds. Be sure to stop by the New York museum and snap a photo with your favorite (wax) celebrity if you're in the area!