Heidi Klum says she spent a year on her ET costume – and then Janelle Monáe beat her to the punch
Heidi Klum may have shown up to her annual Halloween party with an out-of-this-world costume, but someone else used the idea first.
Klum and her husband Tom Kaulitz appeared on the red carpet at New York’s Hard Rock Hotel as a female and male version of the alien from Steve Spielberg’s classic 1982 movie E.T. the Extraterrestrial.
However, one day before Halloween, Janelle Monae had also dressed up as the extraterrestrial.
The America’s Got Talent judge spoke to E! News on the carpet, revealing that she spent over a year working on her Halloween costume. “It took one year to get ready,” Klum told the outlet. “We started at 10 am this morning. We just got ready, we just came down.”
She explained how much preparation went into the costume including the suits that were made with a 3-D printer and remote-controlled heads with her husband adding, “It took a whole team of amazing people and lots of planning.”
Klum explained in an interview with The New York Times that her inspiration for this year’s costume was because of how much she loved the Spielberg movie growing up, mentioning that she came up with the idea only a few weeks after her Halloween bash last year.
She specifically liked that the alien character in the movie wasn’t defined to one specific gender, saying, “They have no genitals.”
“I like the whole idea of, like, we’re all the same.”
As for Monae, she posted various photos of her in costume on Instagram with her face being unrecognizable as she was completely covered in a brown-textured suit similar to Klum.
“You finally came home. Welcome back E.T. Thank you Google Maps,” she captioned one of her posts, while others showed her acting out various scenes from the movie such as the alien seeing his spaceship with his signature glowing finger. Monae also appeared on The Jennifer Hudson Show in her costume for its Halloween special.
Speaking to Vogue, the singer admitted how often she thinks about Spielberg’s character and how much she loves the movie. ET follows the story of an alien landing on Earth and becoming friends with a boy named Elliot and his family as the two of them become increasingly connected.
“ET has lurked in my mind since I was a baby,” Monae told the outlet. “From Spielberg’s writing to the cinematography, the story of ET and Elliot has touched my heart deeply. This movie always leaves me in tears.”
“Since the movie came out 42 years ago, I thought it could be cool for the world to see what ET has been up to now,” she explained. “What kinda things is ET into now? I thought it would be even cooler if he invaded my world; a day in the life of ET in this timeless space.”
Last year, supermodel Klum donned a giant peacock costume with a little help from 10 performers from the iconic circus troupe, Cirque du Soleil. The acrobats were the ones who brought her elaborate wings to life. Klum’s husband Kaulitz was also in costume, with the 34-year-old opting for a gigantic white peacock egg to match the theme.