The Dark Lord terrorized the magical world for years, killing innocent Muggles and wizards alike. His reign of terror and evil were mirrored by the horrible, disfigured image of his face. Truly, no dark wizard had ever delivered fear as he did. It just so happens that he did all of that while wearing garter belts.

On The Graham Norton Show, the host asked He-Who-Played-Voldemort, Ralph Fiennes, about his aversion to taking parts that require prosthetics, and from that question we learned that during most of his time as the dark Lord he was sporting garter belts under his flowing robes.

Fiennes said that he was wearing ladies tights under his robes to start, but that the tights would “work their way down,” making it hard to walk. So the solution was to cut them and use “some very nice garter belts” to hold them up.

That means when Voldemort straight up murdered Cedric Diggory, he did it while dressed like a 1940s pin-up model. Does that make it more evil or less? I can’t decide.

As for the original question, Fiennes said that Voldemort required less prosthetics than you’d imagine, with more of his evil look being the result of painting (and digital nose-removal).

But it worked all the same, as Fiennes told the story of scaring a small child on set. “I just looked at this boy, he just burst in to tears,” he said, before giving a big fist pump.

Well-played Tom Riddle. Well played.

Will you be able to watch the Harry Potter movies the same way now that you know what’s underneath those robes? Tell us in the comments below.

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Featured Image: The Graham Norton Show/YouTube
Voldemort Image: Warner Brothers