Industrious film star Nicole Kidman was everywhere in the information Sunday for her look on the Cannes Movie Pageant, however not as a result of she seemed wonderful as traditional on the crimson carpet, or as a result of she became one other daring, Oscar-worthy display efficiency.
No, Kidman was scrutinized for one more motive for which she has turn out to be well-known. As Vulture as soon as mentioned, she is a “Wig Actress,” a performer who is totally “committed to wearing every manner of wigs at any chance she gets,” whether or not it’s for an performing function or for a public look.
Sadly, Kidman additionally has turn out to be identified for carrying wigs that decision consideration to themselves, and never all the time in a great way. Kidman wears wigs a lot that it’s turn out to be arduous for followers to recollect after they final noticed her with no wig and caught a glimpse of her pure hair.
Kidman’s newest wig undoubtedly known as consideration to itself on Sunday, whereas she walked the crimson carpet on the Cannes Movie Pageant’s 2025 Kering Ladies In Movement Awards. Web page Six reported that her strawberry blond hairpiece, presumably blended into her pure hair, stood out as a result of it was a decidedly completely different shade than strands of her actual hair. The lace entrance of the wig cap additionally was clearly seen in close-up photographs of her, in any other case trying glamorous in a crimson Balenciaga robe.
Earlier this month, “The Perfect Couple” star sparked hypothesis that she additionally was carrying a wig on the Met Gala when she turned up in a two-toned pixie coiffure with lengthy facet bangs framing one facet of her face.
After all, it’s par for the course for actors to don wigs and hairpieces for various roles. It’s typically a part of the costume. Traditionally, balding male stars, from Humphrey Bogart to Frank Sinatra, felt they wanted to cowl up hair loss, whereas feminine stars may not have time to develop out their hair for a job, or they needed to reduce the hair injury that may come from dyes, permanents or hair straighteners.
Each feminine and male actors discuss how carrying a wig helps them slip into their characters, although some feminine stars have tried to show their dedication to their artwork by going to the acute of shaving their hair off. That features Florence Pugh for “We Live in Time,” Charlize Theron for “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Anne Hathaway for “Les Miserables” and Demi Moore, going again to “GI Jane” in 1997.
Nobody can say that Kidman has by no means been dedicated to her roles, however she appears to go for wigs even when it doesn’t appear crucial to make use of a specific coiffure for a personality. In 2022, Vulture documented 42 roles during which she clearly wore wigs, going again to 1995, when she performed a blonde femme fatale climate lady within the acclaimed darkish comedy “To Die For.”
However 42 is almost half of her 102 performing roles in movie and TV collection, and the Vulture listing doesn’t embody the plain wigs and hairpieces she wore within the more moderen “The Perfect Couple,” “A Family Affair” and “Babygirl.”
The Vulture listing really mentioned there have been only some “shining lights” in Kidman’s “wig collection,” with “the lackluster quality” of a lot of her hairpieces changing into memes of each followers and critics, added Ladies.com. These “shining lights” embody the brunette hair pulled again right into a bun — together with the prosthetic nostril — that she used to cover her magnificence whereas taking part in Virginia Woolf in “The Hours,” for which she gained her finest actress Oscar. There’s additionally the thick, wavy scarlet wig she wore in “Moulin Rouge,” which approximates what followers keep in mind of her pure hair.
Followers very possible noticed Kidman’s personal strawberry blonde hair with corkscrew curls in “Days of Thunder,” the 1990 film about NASCAR drivers that she made along with her future first husband, Tom Cruise. It additionally doesn’t appear to be she was carrying a wig in different Nineties motion pictures, reminiscent of “Malice” and “My Life,” or within the two different movies she made with Cruise — “Far and Away” and “Eyes Wide Shut” — earlier than they divorced in 2001.
Attract described the Nineties as “a glorious time in hair history,” together with for Kidman’s “voluminous, strawberry blonde curls.” However Attract speculated that Kidman started to more and more decide to for wigs within the new millennium, with “the advent of blowouts and flatirons.”
By the point Kidman met husband no. 2, Keith City, her go-to look was “heat-styled” and straightened,” Attract mentioned. It’s protected to say that, most of the time within the final 20 years, Kidman has most popular to be seen in non-curly hairstyles, Attract added.
Kidman admitted in a 2017 interview with The Sydney Morning Herald that she had broken her hair by straightening it on a regular basis. “Do I wish that I hadn’t screwed up my hair by straightening it all the time? Sure,” she mentioned.
Given such an announcement, it’s doable that Kidman has used wigs to take care of the well being of her pure hair, Ladies.com mentioned. Nevertheless, she additionally steered in a 2019 podcast interview that carrying a wig is “necessary for the character to be authentic” when she was requested about being prepared to generally look lower than lovely for a job.
Famed London hair stylist Adem Oygur instructed the Day by day Mail that Hollywood stars typically put on wigs and hair extensions to attain a younger look as hair thins and loses quantity with age. Kidman’s pure curls additionally might have been broken over time, whereas hormonal adjustments related to menopause and perimenopause can even result in hair loss and thinning.
“It’s incredibly common for women to experience thinning or dryness during this time,” Oygur mentioned. “Wigs can provide both a confidence boost and a low-maintenance way to manage these changes.”
However Oygur additionally mentioned it’s “empowering” for feminine stars to simply simply remodel their search for an evening or for a job with using a wig. “There’s also the creative freedom aspect,” he mentioned. “Wigs allow for instant transformation without the long-term commitment or potential damage. For many women, especially in entertainment, it’s a smart and empowering choice.”
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