How The Don't Worry Darling Team Transformed Harry Styles For That Third Act Reveal
Note: This article contains spoilers for "Don't Worry Darling" so proceed with caution.
The big reveal of "Don't Worry Darling" wouldn't be the same without the hair and makeup team behind the moment. If you've seen the film already, you know that the Jack we meet at the beginning of the film — played by former One Direction member Harry Styles — is not quite the same guy we come to know by the time the third act starts to roll.
The internet can't stop talking about Styles' transformation from a Frank Sinatra-style leader of his own Rat Pack to a grimy incel with ulterior motives, but it wouldn't hit as hard if it weren't for hair department head Jaime Leigh McIntosh and makeup head Heba Thorisdottir, who spent two hours working on the look.
According to McIntosh, the finished product, and how effective it would be onscreen, "was about finding that balance and a fine line of pushing him in a different direction, but not so far," she told Variety in September 2022. The team didn't want him to come off as a joke, and he doesn't, save for the fact that you find yourself laughing in unsettled disbelief that someone's true ugliness could be so apparent like that — and you obviously don't expect it from someone as conventionally attractive as Styles.
Hair and makeup tests
In order to transform the singer, McIntosh's first order of business was to change up his hair. "I wanted to make it lank and more lifeless," she explained to the outlet and even revealed that she had no luck flat-ironing his signature curls. "I f—king couldn't. Harry's hair is just so full of volume." Ultimately, the team made a wig for Styles' incel persona. "When it's long and scraggly, that was two pieces stitched together," McIntosh added. "When he has the short back and sides, I used the top of the wig and trimmed it to blend with Harry's own sides and back."
As for his facial features — an element of his character that is strikingly different between the two versions despite it obviously being the same person in both — the team originally considered giving Jack a scar. "It's so obvious to do that," Thorisdottir told the outlet. "We felt that if there was a scar, we would need a backstory about where he got it from and how it happened, and you would understand why he did what he did."
Collaboration creates character gold
But director Olivia Wilde came up with a happy medium for the character that fits him well: acne scars, which are known to cause insecurity and self-consciousness. Thorisdottir enlisted Jason Collins, an Emmy-winning special effects makeup artist, to create the acne scars that make real-world Jack so different from his simulation. "He put them together really fast, and we tested them on Harry and he went for it," Thorisdottir explained.
They went through several different versions in an attempt to find balance and continue to make this persona a believable one. "One [version] was worse than the other. I remember [Harry] didn't say anything, but I remember feeling, we might be going too far with it." Thorisdottir told Variety. "I feel we were able to tell the story with it. We were not trying to make Harry look bad, we were explaining his insecurities and why Jack is the way he is."
Ultimately, the work of the hair and makeup team is half of what makes this version of Styles' character so plausible, and their dedication to crafting the intricacies of the character don't go unnoticed — not just with Jack, but with all of the residents of Victory. Hair, makeup, and costuming are so important to this visual feast of a film, and it's fun to watch because of the magic they created, even when some of that magic made an incel.