Meet the Cast of Hairspray

If you didn't know Edna was played by John, you could easily miss the distinctive star under his makeup and curvaceous prosthetics, which took five hours every day to assemble. But he says it was worth it. "I do not want you for one second to think it's a man. … I wanted you to believe her." John says. "So I said, 'The bigger the breasts, the bigger the bust, the smaller the waist, the better we'll be.'"

John, who's so famous for his dance moves, says he worked hard to figure out how Edna should dance. "The trick with her was to behave as though she was 100 pounds instead of 300 pounds," he says. "And the more I could make you believe that she was light on her feet, I thought was the key."