In The Sandman, we immediately meet Morpheus as he goes after the escaped Nightmare known as the Corinthian. However, he is captured by an occult ritual that was meant for his sister Death. The ritual renders Morpheus completely defenseless without his robes, revealing his shocking pale body.
It’s easy to assume that Morpheus’ pallor was the result of a lot of white body makeup but makeup artist Graham Johnston tells Netflix Tudum that it didn’t take a lot of work at all. “Luckily, Tom is very alabaster,” Johnston said. “So really, it was just enhancing that slightly.” It’s not all-natural, of course. Tom Sturridge admitted that he did make sure to avoid getting a tan before playing Morpheus. “I definitely stayed away from the sun,” Sturridge recalls. “It was the height of COVID, and we were all imprisoned in our homes, so that wasn’t very difficult.”
It wasn’t a huge effort but Neil Gaiman was clearly pleased with what Sturridge did to prepare to play the King of Dreams. After all, he already kind of looked the part. “Part of the thing when we were doing the camera test, Neil ended up kind of coming up to me and going, ‘The thing is, Tom, you are sickly pale, and your hair is always messy. And if I look very closely into your eyes, I can see the cosmos. So we’re good,’” Sturridge said with a laugh. We’re happy to know that Sturridge was perfect for the role even before he got it. With that in mind, we can’t wait to see more of Morpheus in The Sandman Season 2. All 10 episodes of The Sandman are now streaming on Netflix.
