Yes, Don't Look Up Is About a World-Ending Comet, but Can We Talk About the Hair?

Lawrence’s character, Kate Dibiasky, spends most of the film begging everyone around her to take the aforementioned comet seriously. Her look, which includes red-velvet hair and micro bangs, is fierce and helps set her apart from DiCaprio as professor Dr. Randall Mindy. “I wanted to make sure they seemed like they were from two different worlds,” Dehaney said.

In pre-production, Dehaney spent a lot of time testing out different kinds of bangs for the character. For a while, no one was quite sure who Dibiasky was and how her personality would translate through her look. After trying every kind of bang out there – a swooped-over bang, long bang, and no bang – Dehaney had the idea to try one more: short bangs, more popularly referred to as baby or micro bangs. Turns out, while she was cutting the wig, costume designer Susan Matheson sent Dehaney a reference photo of a hairstyle she liked; it just so happened that the exact reference photo she sent, unbeknownst to Dehaney at the time, matched exactly what she had cut. Sometimes cosmic alignments do work out in our favor.

Of course, getting to this finished result wasn’t easy. It took 25 wigs, many of which were dyed a range of colours, including platinum and black, before Dehaney landed on the final look. When it came time to fit Lawrence for the wig, Dehaney suggested the actress take a stab at the hair – literally – offering her the chance to trim and shape any look she thought might fit her character. Eventually, the two moved onto another wig, the red one with micro bangs, and they immediately knew it as the one for Dibiasky.

One review for the film noted that Dr. Mindy may be DiCaprio’s most “sexless” character, but we beg to differ, mostly because of his natural wavy hair that takes centre stage. According to Dehaney, many of the cast’s personal hair and makeup teams were unable to be on set for filming, so her team had to step in when it came to designing and styling on a daily basis. Still, that didn’t stop her from creating this spot-on vibe for DiCaprio.

“We used the natural wave in his hair and kind of just let it go where it wanted to go,” she said. “It would be like a guy that doesn’t really bother; probably doesn’t even comb his hair, maybe just runs his fingers through his hair and lets it dry.” As we get further into the movie, said Dehaney, we do see his character put a little more effort into grooming due to, you know, professional appearances he needs to make in regards to the “planet-killing” comet.

It’s important to note that his facial hair did get some help from hand-placed extensions and the makeup department. “That’s all laid by hand. Maybe one to four hairs at a time,” she said. “It’s very time consuming.”

Understatement of the year: filming during a pandemic isn’t easy. Many actors were unable to get to set while the hair, makeup, and costume departments were developing the cast’s looks, so some wigs had to be sized and fitted from a distance. Cate Blanchett, who plays morning talk show host Brie Evantee, was in London up until shooting began in Boston, so she brought her own wig from home. Rob Morgan, who plays Dr. Clayton “Teddy” Oglethorpe, had a limited amount of time on set, too.

“I actually had to have a person on another show in Georgia to try different wigs on [Morgan] for me because he couldn’t come to us,” Dehaney said. “We tried probably four other wigs on [Morgan], some that were a little bit natural and then we just kind of liked the tighter look on him.” Like DiCaprio’s Dr. Mindy, Dr. Oglethorpe also goes through a small grooming transformation as the movie goes on.

“She wanted that hairstyle,” Dehaney said of Meryl Streep and her character’s blonde curls. “She was so curious about why so many women have that hairstyle, especially on the Republican side of the ticket.”

McKay originally suggested Streep’s character, President Janie Orlean, have a Suze Orman sort of look, but after fitting Streep with her outfits, everyone ultimately knew that the long barrel-curled wig was the one. “Any time Tony Ward [Streep’s personal hairstylist] did her wig and hair, any time he’d push it a little higher on top, she’d go, ‘Don’t try to make it look pretty. I like it when it has this flat weird thing!'” Dehaney said.

If you’re wondering why Evantee looks familiar, it’s the hair. When I told Dehaney Blanchett’s character reminded me of several characters in the 2019 film Bombshell, she confirmed my suspicions. That severe blonde bob with an unwavering flip is purposefully precise. The faux morning show, The Daily Rip, feels more like it belongs on CBS, but still, Blanchett’s Evantee could’ve been plucked directly from Fox News.

“The thing is, they all copy each other, and that’s kind of the point we were making,” Dehaney said. “That’s why we didn’t go with the Suze Orman look [for Streep]. [Blanchett] wanted to have that kind of put-together, her-hair-doesn’t-move sort of thing.”

Mark Rylance plays Peter Isherwell, a tech tycoon some critics are describing as an unbearable hybrid between Steve Jobs and Elon Musk whose look resembles neither. Although Rylance joined the cast at the last minute, Dehaney and team pulled together a very specific “Californian” look that paired a white-gray wig with super-white teeth and an I-spend-way-too-much-time-on-my-yacht tan. “Like Meryl, Jen, and Leo, Mark already had in mind what he was thinking [for the character],” Dehaney said, recalling a time when she brought Rylance to set and almost no one, including McKay and DiCaprio, recognised him.

It’s no secret that Chalamet doesn’t play a major role in the film, but I appreciate the cameo nonetheless, especially considering it involves him in a mullet. The unexpected source of inspiration: Don’t Look Up’s director of photography.

“It’s so hard to make [Chalamet’s] hair look different,” Dehaney said. “I kept looking at [our DP] and thinking about how it’d be kind of fun to have some long hair [on him].” And so the internet’s most polarising mullet was born.

Although Chalamet had some of his own ideas for Yule, Dehaney and Ward went with the long brunette mullet courtesy of wavy extensions. Chalamet, Dehaney said, liked them, but the look ultimately proved one thing: he’s very tender-headed. “He’s a person that can’t keep his hands out of his hair,” she said of the actor’s habit, one that, for continuity’s sake, can be a hairstylist’s nightmare on set. It looks like Denis Villeneuve was right, to direct Timmy is to direct his hair.