‘Penises are all the rage’: Meet the king of Hollywood’s prosthetic peens

Ansel Pierce sat down on a toilet, parted his legs, and bore his manhood. Somewhere off camera, Sydney Sweeney was cowering behind a shower curtain. It was the actor’s TV debut and he wasn’t going to let a little – or big, or average, it doesn’t matter xoxo – thing like that stop him from landing a role on Euphoria, a series that once had 36 dicks in a single episode. Pierce’s penis was unique however, in that it was real. From Euphoria, to And Just Like That, to Pam and Tommy, a wave of prosthetic penises has transformed the silver screen into a faux-frontal haven.

So routine is the use of these turgid tailpieces that Pierce felt compelled to go public, informing social media that the appendage lolling between his thighs was, in fact, his own. Take for example, Cal Jacobs’ furious member, which he brandishes during an intense psychic break, covering the hallway of his family home in a smattering of amberous piss, during a later episode of the show. Then there’s Harry Goldenblatt of the Sex and The City reboot and his quite sizeable, geriatric penis, which peers out between his flies like a curious gecko, or a kindly slug, as his wife Charlotte begins to initiate oral sex. But perhaps the most berserk dispatch from this trend is that of Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, whose jumbo, animatronic cock is actually given dialogue during the Pamela Anderson biopic. 

Elsewhere, Elite, Sex Education, White Lotus, and Sex/Life, have all turned to FX studios to procure substitutes for its leading men, making HBO, Netflix, and Disney the home of cock-and-ball play. And why not? As independent platforms they can skirt all the rules and regulations of the puritanical Motion Picture Association, which still baulks at the sight of a little willy. For obvious reasons, plenty of actors feel uncomfortable about going full-frontal, but the use of a carefully selected, or otherwise bespoke, prosthesis comes at the expense of showing diverse and real penises. Penises that aren’t purposefully pendulous or pokey. Penises that inspire neither reverence nor revile. Just penis for penis’ sake. 

Besides, it’s high time that TV got its fill. How many times has Samantha Jones unleashed her breasts? Or poor Miranda been shamed for her bristling bikini line? After decades of seeing female flesh made gross, gratuitous, and aggrandised, the naked man is a levelling. And when male genitalia has historically been the preserve of arthouse cinema or broad blockbuster comedies, to see so many, all at once, everywhere, is to demystify the dick. In unbuckling the taboo of time-worn bodily standards, today, the prosthetic penis has become something of a cultural weather vane.

What is the golden chalice of prosthetic penises, anyway? Is it a great lolloping membrum? Or a smaller, grunting sort of thing, badgering its way out of a lovingly-shaped pubic weave? Here, connoisseur Matthew Mungle gives us the lowdown on what goes into making a prosthesis, his favourite specimens, and why they’ve seen such an upswing.

Hey Matthew! Could you tell me about the first time you got your hands around a prosthetic penis?  

Matthew Mungle: I’ve had a varied career and penises are just another creative thing I do. In the early 90s I was asked to do a pregnancy bump for Nicole Kidman that nobody would tackle and all of a sudden I became the pregnancy king. From pregnancy I did breasts and then in 2007 I was asked to do a very small penis with lots of hair for Harold & Kumar escape from Guantanamo bay. That same year I did Step Brothers where I made some very large testicles that Will Farrell had to smear over the drums of his co-actress. And now I see penises everywhere! It seems like penises are all the rage! 

Yes, they are! What have actors made of your handiwork? It must be a surreal experience to see your genitals rendered in rubber.

Matthew Mungle: Well, I had to make a body double of Patrick Dempsey in Outbreak for an autopsy scene and we ended up putting a penis on it. It was covered up in the scene but Patrick came onto the set, raised the sheet, looked at the penis, looked back at me, and said ‘thanks guys’, because it was obviously larger than he was. 

When did penises first begin to proliferate your work? 

Matthew Mungle: There was never any call for it on television until I did Little Britain USA in 2008 when Matt and David wanted these gym buddies with extremely well-built bodies but very, very small penises. There was one scene with Matt where he had this very, very small penis and it had to become erect. So we built the prosthesis with wire and it was my job to jump in between takes, kneel down, and put my hands on his penis, slowly moving it up. I have that image seared into my memory.

I guess the main question here is how much can you tell about a person from their penis? 

Matthew Mungle: I don’t know! Perhaps confidence? But also age, religion, nationality, culture. I’ve never been called on to make an old man’s penis, though, it’s always been young or middle-aged guys. Making a penis is certainly an interesting dilemma. 

So what do those initial conversations with a production studio look like?

Matthew Mungle: When I’m approached to create a penis, the producers and directors are all a little skittish but I’m not at all! It’s just another prosthetic that I have to create. I, of course, have to ask questions, though. How long do you want this? What’s the girth of it? What’s the testicle size? Would you like it cut or uncut? After sending them pictures of the prosthetics we already have stocked, they’ll either pick one or say ‘No! We want it bigger! Smaller!’ but most of the time, with the budgets today, they’ll just take a premade one. 

Could you talk us through the process a little? Where do you get your reference imagery from?

Matthew Mungle: Well, it would have to be from the internet, there is so much on the internet. I might ask producers to send over photos but that usually causes a dead silence in the room. You wouldn’t think the entertainment industry would be so squeamish, but it is! I do need a reference if they want a special penis though because a penis is not a penis, you know? Tell me what you like and what you don’t like. They usually pull the imagery from medical or more personal, porn sites.

What happens next? How is the sausage made? 

Matthew Mungle: Absolute realism is the goal. That it hangs correctly. That it moves realistically. That the testicles move a certain way. The penis has to have a weight to it. It needs to be hollow enough for the real actor’s penis to fit into it but it also needs to swing around like a real penis. So we reverse engineer it.

We sculpt our prosthetics from scratch out of oil-based clay, which means we can get lots of detail into the testicles and penis. Once a prototype is approved by the production team, we create a mould out of platinum silicone, usually a fleshed-tone colour, the same tone as the actor’s stomach. Then we airbrush the penis with silicone and pigments, get the veins on it, darken the head and the foreskin, whatever it needs, and then we glue hair onto it, which is usually a lace piece with virgin hair tied onto it. For the testes, the sack has to be hollow and we insert urethane balls so it feels realistic. For a pre-existing mould, they can cost between $850 and $1,200. If it’s from scratch, well, that can cost up to $5,000.

And would you say the size of the penis is given particular significance?

Matthew Mungle: Oh size is all character and story-driven. In Vacation it was all about the size of the penis and even though it was in shorts, it was to make the audience laugh. Then going back to Harold and Kumar it was about how small the penis was. Actually the penis was very small for that one but it had large testicles, and a huge bush. Filmmakers will always give a bigger penis to more manly, virile characters and smaller penises are usually just about the gag factor.

We are very much regulating how the penis is represented, then. What do you think this says about the power we bestow onto the phallus?

Matthew Mungle: It says a lot! Males are all about the size of their penis. It’s all about testosterone. When these politicians get into these fights it’s always about who’s bigger than who. It’s all about the struggle of the male ego. Prosthetic penises contribute to that, without a doubt! 

Do you think that we should be shifting our attention towards diverse, real penises in a manner that holds no symbolic meaning for either character or plot?

Matthew Mungle: Absolutely. I think that it makes people a little bit more comfortable with sexuality. You know, as a species we used to have relaxed attitudes surounding sex but somehow religion got into it and messed us up. It puts a taboo on everything. I think if we were all more okay with showing our bodies than we’d all just get along better. Sex is just sex! There’s love and then there’s sex! I think this is the beginning of a sexual renaissance.

Has making these kinds of prosthetics changed your relationship to your own body?

Matthew Mungle: No! Because I’ve always been comfortable with my penis. 

And finally, do you have a preference for a particular type of prosthetic penis? What would be the most exciting brief for you to receive? 

Matthew Mungle: I can’t think of one in particular but there are many nice penises out there I must say. Oh my… I did have to create a very large penis for an episode of Shameless in 2016. It was all about a stripper that comes to the house and you see everything from the back so it had to hang rather low and it had a Prince Albert piercing – they were very specific as far as that was concerned. Yeah, that was a fun one to make. And actually I did make Chris Hemsworth’s penis for The Vacation, that was hilarious. They asked if I wanted it back but I politely declined.