Go Behind the Scenes With the ‘Labyrinth’ Cast: 11 Rare Photos From the ’80s David Bowie Fantasy Classic

David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly look like the ultimate ’80s cool kids in this promotional portrait. Looking back on her time sharing the screen with the late musical icon, Connelly told The Guardian, “His persona was so kind of elaborate and crafted and alien, but he just seemed kind of goofy. There’s something about how gracious he was, and how he was with me, which was so kind and gentle and comforting. I was really impressed by him, and how he behaved in that film. I’d been a fan of his, but became a super-fan after that.”

What do you get when you put the creator of Star Wars, the mind behind the Muppets, and Ziggy Stardust in the same room? Pure movie magic, as evidenced by this portrait of Labyrinth’s executive producer, George Lucas, director, Jim Henson and star, David Bowie. Lucas admired Henson’s work, saying, “Jim’s ability to combine old puppet techniques with state-of-the-art was his genius. He really understood how to make-believe and then make it real.”

Here, Connelly smiles as she poses with Hoggle, a dwarf who leads her to the labyrinth. The creatures in the film were created with puppetry and practical effects, and Hoggle was one of the most complex characters, as bringing him to life involved an actress in a character suit and a puppeteer operating radio controls for his facial expressions, as well as three additional puppeteers.

Connelly’s dark brows and flowing locks were the envy of many an ’80s girl, and she looks charming in this portrait from the set.

In this black-and-white candid, Henson kneels down to Hoggle’s level to set up a shot. While Henson’s puppet creations were fantastical, he was always committed to grounding them in reality, saying, “We try to work with a kind of performance that’s as lifelike as possible. We build these characters with incredible detail so that you can take close-ups of them and they'll be believable.”

Henson and Lucas appear to be deep in thought in this set photo. Henson gets a special shout-out for his psychedelic patterned shirt and overstuffed binder filled with creative and technical brilliance.

In one of Labyrinth’s most memorable scenes, Connelly finds herself trapped by Bowie in a room modeled after artist M.C. Escher’s work Relativity, which depicts an intricate setting wherein the laws of gravity cease to apply (Easter egg alert: Connelly’s character has a poster of the work in her bedroom). This photo shows the trippy set without the presence of any cast or crew. In a behind-the-scenes featurette, Henson revealed, “For a graphic artist, creating a two-dimensional optical illusion is difficult enough, but creating an optical illusion in three dimensions was a real challenge for our production designer, Elliot Scott. Scotty designed it so there's nothing that tells you what's up or down and everything intercuts. In other words, it's all lit so that there's no giveaway as to what's top and what's bottom. This means that you can never orient yourself to what you're looking at.”

Henson’s preliminary character sketches for Labyrinth, as pictured at a 2018 retrospective exhibition of his work at the Skirball Cultural Center in L.A., have an adorable mix of simplicity and expressiveness. If you look closely, you can also spot his list of character names, including Hoggle, Ludo, Didymus and Jareth.

The voluminous, shimmering gown that Connelly wears in Labyrinth’s masquerade ball scene (while dancing with Bowie, no less!) is the height of ’80s glam. In this shot from the aforementioned Henson exhibition, you can see the dress, designed by Ellis Flyte and Brian Froud, in all its exquisite detail. A lot of time and effort went into creating the gown. As Flyte recalled, “[The] ball gown took a lot of sampling and camera tests to achieve! We wanted her to look like an otherworldly princess and very different to the others at the ball. The ethereal effect was achieved by many secret devices including layers of lace, lamé and rainbow paper, spray paint and broken jewels.” The hard work definitely paid off, as Connelly said that being in the ball was one of her most treasured memories from the film, and countless crafty fans have attempted to replicate the costume over the years.

Naturally, Bowie’s costume was also on display at the 2018 Henson museum show. While most of the talk around Bowie’s look in the film centers on his scandalously tight pants, this closeup of his opulent waistcoat and collar shows that the rest of his costumes were just as impressive. Flyte said that this look was one of her favorites of the many she created for the film, and admitted, “The trickiest pieces were most of David’s as they were designed to be highly original and didn’t always transfer from sketch to actual garment!”

None other than Princess Diana was in attendance at Labyrinth's London Royal Premiere, and she looked quite entertained by meeting the large and fuzzy Ludo puppet. In a 2022 Stephen Colbert interview, Connelly looked back fondly on meeting the People's Princess, saying, “You can see how pink my cheeks are. I was so overwhelmed meeting her. She was impeccable. She was lovely.”