# If you were painted gold, as in the movie "Goldfinger," would you die? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [July 21, 2004, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-painted-gold-as-in-the-movie-goldfinger-would-you-die/256127 "2004-07-21T03:19:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![imhullu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d07c76/32.png) [@imhullu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imhullu)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-painted-gold-as-in-the-movie-goldfinger-would-you-die/256127/1 "2004-07-21T03:19:22Z")
Cecil, I make no claim to being a medical expert, but I remember from an aviation physiology class I took that the pores in our skin release nitrogen that naturally builds up in our bodies. This is why a diver gets decompression sickness (the bends) when he surfaces too quickly, the high pressure makes it impossible for the nitrogen to escape, and the rapid removal of the pressure causes the nitrogen to bubble through the pores (and also can cause bubbles in the joints). My question is could the nitrogen build up in the body cause asphyxiation? -Bruno, Corpus Christi ---
**Author:** ![imhullu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d07c76/32.png) [@imhullu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imhullu)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-painted-gold-as-in-the-movie-goldfinger-would-you-die/256127/2 "2004-07-21T03:22:33Z")
Sorry forgot the link [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_221b.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_221b.html) ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-painted-gold-as-in-the-movie-goldfinger-would-you-die/256127/3 "2004-07-21T04:41:36Z")
That’s not why the bends occur at all. They are caused by nitrogen dissolved in the blood coming out of solution and forming bubbles in the blood as the pressure decreases. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-painted-gold-as-in-the-movie-goldfinger-would-you-die/256127/4 "2004-07-21T08:12:59Z")
Note that the actress who was painted gold in the film is still alive & well. OTOH, on Mythbusters, the dude who was painted gold did have some odd things happen to his blood pressure & pulse, so it could be bad for your health. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-painted-gold-as-in-the-movie-goldfinger-would-you-die/256127/5 "2004-07-21T11:28:26Z")
One of the things that bothers me about the first **Mythbusters** attempt is that they painted the guy gold by mixing metal powder in with liquid latex. I’ll bet that they didn’t use liquid latex as the vehicle for the metal covering in **Goldfinger**. They probably used some sort of greasepaint. Liquid Latex would be a lot more efficient at sealing up pores and things. I suspect it was the latex, rather than the metal, that was giving that guy problems. Recently **Mythbusters** has been revisiting its older shows, and they covered the _other_ guy with gold. (They still used latex to hold it). IIRC, he didn’t have any problems. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-painted-gold-as-in-the-movie-goldfinger-would-you-die/256127/6 "2004-07-21T16:36:04Z")
> [@](#): > > Note that the actress who was painted gold in the film is still alive & well. **The version I heard** was that they knew enough on the movie set to leave a bare spot on her back or something, but that dancers or strippers at small clubs that were copying it weren’t leaving a bare spot, and they were the ones who were dying. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-painted-gold-as-in-the-movie-goldfinger-would-you-die/256127/7 "2004-07-21T22:19:24Z")
The bare spot on the back is part of the myth as stated in the novel. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-painted-gold-as-in-the-movie-goldfinger-would-you-die/256127/8 "2004-07-22T05:48:04Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > **The version I heard** was that they knew enough on the movie set to leave a bare spot on her back or something, but that dancers or strippers at small clubs that were copying it weren’t leaving a bare spot, and they were the ones who were dying. There is a **very important document** in movie making called _the budget._ Movie makers (who want to continue in that profession) pay lots of attention to it. And that dictates that only things that show on camera are important. So they are not going to spend money on completely coating an actress in expensive gold makeup, when she is only seen on camera from a couple of angles. Only the parts that showed were made up. And not because the producers believed this silly urban legend. Because they believed in the bottom line.