15 Actors Who Underwent Serious Hair Transformations For A Role (and If They Loved Or Hated It)
Hair often feels like a major part of your personal identity. Sometimes, actors have to give up their preferred style in order to fully embody the character they were cast to play.
Here are 15 actors who underwent serious hair transformations for a role (and if they loved or hated it):
1. Here’s Michael Cera in early 2024, before he bleached his hair for a role in the upcoming Wes Anderson flick, The Phoenician Scheme.
Ahead of his appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers that July, the producer told Seth that Michael wanted him to know beforehand that he’d gone blonde. The actor said, “Well, I kind of want to apologize for it a little bit. My hair is in a weird place right now. And I know this is going out on TV and everything, but that’s all I wanted to say, really.”
Here’s a before and after:
2. This is what Ariana Grande’s hair looked like a few years before she was cast as Cat Valentine on Victorious.
She “had to bleach [her] hair and dye it red every other week for the first 4 years of playing Cat…as one would assume, that completely destroyed [her] hair.”
Here’s a before and after:
3. Here’s Leon Thomas III’s hair in 2016, the year before he played Darryl in Detroit, which is set in the ’60s.
He had to cut his dreads for the role. In 2023, he told the Zach Sang Show, “I hated that. I hate that they made me do that.”
Here’s a before and after:
4. This is Rooney Mara’s hair before she cut it to play Lisbeth Sanders in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
In 2011, she told Style magazine, “My wardrobe has completely changed. It had to, partly because of my hair and partly because I stopped feeling comfortable in what I used to wear.”
Here’s a before and after:
5. Here’s KJ Apa’s naturally dark hair in A Dog’s Purpose, which he filmed before he was cast as the iconic redhead Archie Andrews in Riverdale.
Dying his hair and eyebrows red required eight hours in the salon, and keeping them that way required touch-ups every two weeks.
Here’s a before and after:
6. Here’s Joey King’s hair the year before she shaved it off to play Gypsy Rose Blanchard in The Act.
In 2018, she told Allure, “I’ve never really had an attachment to my hair. I couldn’t care less what happens to it. No part of me was nervous or was second-guessing it. So many people would ask me, ‘Are you really scared?’ or ‘Are you nervous?’ or say, ‘You’re so brave.’ And I’d go, ‘I’m not brave. I’m just cutting my hair off.'”
Here’s a before and after:
7. Here’s Tom Hiddleston’s naturally blonde hair before he played the titular role in Loki.
At Megacon Orlando, he said, “Both seasons of Loki, I’ve used my own hair. I’ve grown it out, and I’ve dyed it.”
Here’s a before and after:
8. This is what Daniel Radcliffe’s hair looked like before he got extensions for the role of Igor in Victor Frankenstein.
In 2013, he told The Graham Norton Show, “It’s real, dead human being’s hair…It’s from, I assume, a dead person or a person that donated their hair.”
Here’s a before and after:
9. This is what Cynthia Erivo’s hair looked like a few months before she was cast as Elphaba in Wicked.
