Grant Gustin Shares His Biggest Complaint About ‘The Flash’ Costume
Grant Gustin is not the first actor to wear The Flash costume. John Wesley Shipp, who plays his father in the series, wore it before him. Ezra Miller wore it after. Gustin has been The Flash for six seasons though, with a seventh on the way. It is one of the most iconic costumes in DC Comics lore, with its full red spandex and a lightning bolt emblem.
Gustin was a guest on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast on April 28. He revealed to Rosenbaum that, while The Flash may look cool, the costume has some noticeable flaws. The season 6 finale of The Flash aired May 12.
Grant Gustin says The Flash costume smells bad
Gustin does not run as fast as The Flash. However, he’s still wearing a full body spandex suit all day. He said they stink after only “one time wearing them.”
“They do their best to clean them, but they stink,” Gustin told Rosenbaum. “I, on a regular basis, go on location and take pictures with fans that are waiting on set. I immediately [am] like, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’”
Grant Gustin doesn’t have many Flash costumes to alternate
You’d think The Flash would have several costumes ready to go, given how integral it is to the show. Gustin says they’re down to two. There should be a third specially designed to attach harnesses, but now they sometimes harness him in the main costume.
“I think right now, with the current suit that I have, I want to say there’s two hero suits and maybe a third that we constantly mess up with pick points for harnesses,” Gustin said. “Sometimes I only have two or one because one gets destroyed and I’ll have to get a pick point in that with a harness that day. While it’s on me, they’re stitching it shut because we only have one suit. It kind of depends what week it is to be honest.”
Grant Gustin was more of a Superman fan anyway
Learning the ugly truth about The Flash costume wasn’t too heartbreaking for Gustin. The Flash was never his big hero. He grew up a Superman fan, but he’s happy to play The Flash.
“I never thought I’d get to be any superhero, I wouldn’t have believed it,” Gutin said. “I didn’t really read comics growing up. It was before digital obviously when I was still a kid. I didn’t know where to get comics. My parents didn’t know where to get me comics but I was a big fan of Christopher Reeve in that whole franchise.”
Superman actors before and after Reeve probably have similar problems with their costumes.
“I used to grow up arguing with one of my best friends in high school who’s a big Flash fan about why Superman was so much better than The Flash,” Gustin said. “It for sure wouldn’t have been my had to pick a superhero at the time. He’s grown into being up there with Superman now just because I’m so emotionally attached to the character now.”
