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Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is the kind of movie where damn near everyone involved had to undergo some kind of massive transformation. Most of them involved make up and special effects, like Dave Bautista getting painted blue every day to play Drax, or Zoe Saldana undergoing a similar regimen for Gamora, only with green instead of blue. A few were more long term and time consuming, like Chris Pratt’s transformation from schluby comic relief on NBC’s sitcom Parks and Recreation to the chiseled, six-pack-having leading man you see in the film. And then there were actors buried under tons of practical and digital special effects. One of the most obvious changes, however, was Karen Gillan shaving off all of her hair, which you can now see in this video.
I had the patience to grow my hair long once in my life (and it wasn’t all that long in reality), and even though I hated it, the decision to hack it off was somewhat traumatic because I knew how much time it took to get to that point. And for someone as known for their hair as Gillan is for her lovely red locks, I can only imagine how hesitant she was to make this decision. I’m sure the fact that it was for an important role in a big film, on a scale she’s never worked before in her career, softened the blow a few degrees, but still.
And you can see that trepidation on her face in this footage. Okay, trepidation might be putting it a bit lightly, she looks like she’s preparing to have an appendage removed. As someone who has shaved his head many, many times (I only started getting real people haircuts because my clippers broke and there’s an awesome grizzled old barber a few blocks away from my house), let me offer this advice. First, it’s hair, unless there is something terribly wrong health wise, it will grow back (I’m sure she’s already figured that part out). And there are health things in play, you have more important things to worry about.
Second, it was totally worth shaving your head to play Nebula, who rules, and be involved in Guardians of the Galaxy, which also rules. And to be honest, she probably signed of for multiple movies, so she’s going to need to do this at least a few more times before she’s done.
And finally, Karen Gillan looks totally amazing with a shaved head. Some people look weird, present company included, but she is not one of them.
When Gillan first unveiled her drastic new look at San Diego-Comic Con in July 2013, it caused some ripples, as you can imagine. People were pissed, both at her for doing it, and at director James Gunn for “making her” do it, and that’s asinine. Again, it’s hair, it grows back, and she looks rad with a shaved head. Now that Guardians of the Galaxy is the biggest domestic movie of 2014, I think it has proven, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that she made the correct decision and all the naysayers can suck it.
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