The actor, 36, plays Fiyero in the big screen adaptation of the beloved musical
Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey has revealed that he had to wear a toupée for his upcoming role as Fiyero in Wicked after his hair suffered damage from consecutive projects.
The British actor shared that his brunette locks took a beating when he first had to perm it reprising his role as Anthony Bridgerton in the third season of the Netflix series.
The 36-year-old actor had no downtime between shoots, moving directly from the Regency-era Bridgerton to the 1950s-set miniseries Fellow Travelers, where the on-set hairstylist had to straighten his already damaged hair.
He told Naomi Watts for Variety’s Actors on Actors: “I had four days holiday in between finishing in Canada and finishing Bridgerton and then I had four days of Christmas and then went straight into Wicked.
“I went on holiday and my hair looked like coral like — as in, it was underwater, just floating around.”
To which Bailey replied with a smile: “I had a big old toupée!
“That’s a big spoiler alert, but yeah, it’s a toupée [as Fiyero in Wicked]. I’m in the choreography so it’s flapping about!”
Wicked: Part One stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, a green-skinned witch who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, and her unlikely friend Glinda the Good Witch, played by Ariana Grande.
Fans of the long-running musical have had their first look at the movie adaptation, with the trailer debuting during the Super Bowl.
Wicked: Part One will be released in the UK on November 27, 2024, a month earlier than anticipated. Wicked: Part Two, the second and final part of the production, is expected to follow a year later on Friday 26 November, 2025.
Director Jon M Chu last year announced on social media that the film would be in two parts, explaining that it “became impossible to wrestle the story of ‘Wicked’ into a single film without doing some real damage to it.”
Aside from Wicked, Bailey is expected to start filming his role in Jurassic World 4 in Thailand.
