At the beginning of production,
Jack Nicholson told Special Make-up Effects Supervisor
Rick Baker that he was allergic to spirit gum. While he initially didn't believe him, Baker agreed to use a specific medical adhesive on Nicholson which made hand laying the hair on him very difficult as opposed to using spirit gum. One day after he made up
James Spader using spirit gum, Baker unintentionally used the same bottle of spirit gum on Nicholson. Baker soon realized what he had done and hoped that Jack wouldn't find out seeing how nothing happened during the application. The next day, Baker was horrified to see that Nicholson wasn't lying as he entered the make-up trailer with large red swells on his face. Nicholson said, "Ricky boy, you used spirit gum, didn't you?" Baker apologized for the confusion and Nicholson stated, "Well, let's just hope it doesn't happen again." Fortunately for everyone, it didn't happen again.
