‘The Masked Singer’s Lemur Details Why Her ‘Fuzzy, Cute Little Costume Was a Beast’
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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Masked Singer Season 7, Episode 4 “Masking For It — The Good, The Bad & The Cuddly — Round 2.”]
A new round means five new contestants competing in hopes of continuing on, and in the latest Masked Singer, we said goodbye to a member of Team Cuddly.
Hydra, Lemur, Ringmaster, Miss Teddy and Armadillo all took the stage, and it was Lemur who was sent home. And under the mask was model and actress Christie Brinkley, whom panelist Ken Jeong did guess right.
Brinkley opens up about her time on the show, including the multiple challenges of that adorable costume.
Talk about getting the call to do The Masked Singer. What made you say yes?
Christie Brinkley: Obviously it looks like it would be a hoot to do. I love pretending to be a singer and I love the creativity of the show and how obvious it is that the show is there to create a really fun time. It just seemed like such a fun thing, so, much to my surprise, I just said yes, let’s do it.
Michael Becker / FOX
Let’s talk about that costume. What about the Lemur appealed to you?
I had a choice between two costumes and one was more serious and kind of fierce and possibly like something that maybe I might actually wear modeling someday. And the other one was the Lemur, this fuzzy, real cuddly costume. And I thought, well, I’ll never model something like that. So here’s my chance to be kind of a mascot-type animal, so I chose that. I think the guys who designed the costumes were actually a little disappointed at first ’cause the other one was very elaborate. It was more glamorous and glitzy, but again, Lemur is something that I never worn anything like and I don’t think I ever will again. I thought that would be more different for me, more just unexpected, but the costume was kind of my downfall.
It was really hard to move in. From day one that I tried on the costume ’til the morning of, we had issues. That tail looks fluffy, but it was actually quite heavy, and I had a strap that went across my upper chest then strapped under where the bra does. Then it strapped again around my waist, it strapped again around my hips. We needed all those straps to try and stabilize it. And when it would swing to one side, it kind of felt like it could really literally pull me right over.
Plus my shoes were built into my pants, so there’s not a chance of slipping the shoes off when your feet start to hurt, you just have to grin and bear it. So at a certain point, my feet were just like screaming at me, begging me to take my shoes off. But I couldn’t because my first layer is like a body suit. Then my second layer was the straps — the tail would get strapped on. Then I would pull my pants with the shoes attached over all those straps and then my furry body. And then my tail was so heavy and would throw me very much off balance. But the biggest problem was that it would hit my head and my head would rotate forward, and I was sort of looking through my nostrils to try to see out, but when my tail would hit my head, the solid part would literally cover my eyes, and that’s what happened to me during my performance.
Michael Becker / FOX
From my fall on Dancing With the Stars, my right shoulder still hasn’t come back. It’s kind of a frozen shoulder condition. So I couldn’t reach up with my right hand to try to push my head back. My left hand had the microphone in it, and so I literally couldn’t see and because I fell at Dancing With the Stars, I think I have like a little post-traumatic stress disorder when it comes to walking on elevated platforms and heels. I was like, “OK, just don’t fall, whatever you do, don’t let them tail pull me over to one side or the other.”
So it was quite a struggle and I was shocked at how it just — I’m not sure if it was the tightness of the straps around my chest or whatever, because I have pretty good stamina and breath, but I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I felt like I just couldn’t get my wind, like I couldn’t project, and I knew halfway down the runway that I was like, “I can’t see, I can’t breathe. This is a disaster.” But once you start, you never stop. You just keep trying to work it out and go along with it. But I just didn’t have any breath to sing. I was struggling so badly inside my little costume, pretty much blinded and my toes were curled up, just basically crying, like please flip the shoes off for a second. So my fuzzy, cute little costume was a beast.
I still enjoyed your performance.
Oh, you’re so kind. I haven’t seen it, but I absolutely felt like all I could hope for is that maybe it comes off funny and gives somebody a nice laugh. I just remember thinking, “OK, well, this didn’t go according to plan.” We also switched songs that day because I guess the other contestants were all choosing more upbeat songs, but I was prepared to start off with a different song that had a very charming — the show really does great production values and stuff, and I was so crazy about my first song but we got switched out that morning. That was a little unexpected as well, but that’s showbiz, you gotta be ready.
What was the first song?
It was gonna be “Dream a Little Dream,” and it was really cute because the stage turned into a sky full of stars and little astronauts floating around, dancing around behind me and stuff. So it was very cute. I was really looking forward to that. And I also memorized another song that I was gonna do, “The Girl From Ipanema,” but I learned it in Portuguese. So I was hoping to be able to sing that one, too. And they had a cute choreography for that number as well.
But I was disappointed in myself, for not being able to straighten my head and see and walk and breathe and get the job done. I was just overwhelmed by things happening. And I didn’t even mention the night before, I got food poisoning. I was up all night. So I was very shaky that day. So it just didn’t happen for me. It’s just a shame.
Ken figured you out. Did you come into this with a panelist in mind you expected to guess right?
I was so busy trying to just learned my songs and stuff that I never really got even around to thinking about [that]. But I have been on Jenny [McCarthy]‘s radio show a few times, so I thought maybe she might guess. And I also had just done Nick Cannon‘s show. He doesn’t do the guessing, but when I was face-to-face with him, I kept wondering if he could see through my nostrils and see me smiling inside here. Those were really the only two that I was thinking might know, but then your voice is disguised and the clues were very cryptic. So I was surprised actually when Ken did guess me.
The Masked Singer, Wednesdays, 8/7c, Fox
