Brian Badie’s love of gritty hairstyles made him the perfect choice to work on HBO MAX’s The Penguin. From the distinct look (or looks considering Emmy nominee Cristin Milioti), he was able to present many complex personalities: not just of the characters but the world this show inhabits as well. Badie was able to capture the feel of The Batman film without copying it. Here, in an interview with The Contending, he reveals how he made this series its own intriguing story while still fitting perfectly within The Batman universe.
The Contending: When I heard I was going to be interviewing you, the first thing I thought of was Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone and her changing hairstyle. Her hairstyle reflects so much of what she is going through–her innocent look as the dutiful daughter, then her more flat stay-in-the-background look when she gets out of Arkham, and when she’s broken free, she has a much more wild look to her. What went into creating all those different looks for her?
Brian Badie: We definitely wanted to convey each phase of her arcs and her moods. We played with a lot of textures to make sure it wasn’t overly stylized and pretty. Starting from her most innocent when she was under the thumb of her father, we gave her a daddy’s little girl hairdo. But I always wanted to subtly hint at what she would become even at the beginning, so the hair is a little disheveled with not everything in place so we can see a little of what’s under the surface. Then when we go into the post Arkham with her elegant updo look that makes her appear unassuming, and not a threat to disarm Oz and all the men in her life. Then we knew she would start to slowly reveal herself little by little, so there we went into the wolf cut. The idea originally was that she cut her hair herself, and there was a part in the show where we actually filmed that, but didn’t make the cut.
That was another reason why I wanted it to look like it wasn’t from a salon, and have an edgy dark quality to her hair. Then, when she’s going full throttle releasing her fury, we get the ever-famous and controversial mullet. It was inspired by the ’80s mullet but I wanted it to be modernized, even futuristic, and trend-setting. That was the goal while telling the story, that her hair had a personality of its own like it was alive, and that end hairstyle was almost like tentacles. It was like her hair was a part of her moods, so when her energy changed her hair vibrated with it. That was my nod to the superhero element, that she has an inner thing that happens with the hair, even though that’s not in the story, but it was in my head.
The Contending: For the character of Francis Cobb, both Deirdre O’Connell and Emily Meade have a similar look to them to the point where I sometimes forgot we were watching a different actress. Then even at the end of the show, Eve is wearing a similar hairdo to Francis where for a minute I thought I was looking at a different actress again. How did you go about creating a hairstyle to let us know that character was present?
Brian Badie: We wanted to show with Francis that while she was disheveled she had a Hollywood glam element to her. So that would explain her updo but there was also a bit of cosplay involved too, with what happens with Eve, Oz’s lover. Oz was weirdly attracted to his mom so the whole Hollywood glam thing took on a starlet type of energy. One of my biggest inspirations was the charro, this messy updo that would reduce the glam element. Keeping everyone in that realm of edgy, disheveled Hollywood glam character was at the core of who the character was.
The Contending: The look of The Batman, the film that comes just before The Penguin, is all over this show. Was there any inspiration you took from the movie in creating your hair designs?
Brian Badie: I wouldn’t say I took inspiration from the movie as far as a direct inspiration. What I did do was take inspiration from The Batman look as a film overall. For everything I did in The Penguin I would ask myself, could this transfer into the world of The Batman or any potential sequel? Could it carry over into the film and be cohesive, and my answer to myself would be yes. The film had this edgy underground aesthetic that I really love, so it was very much in my wheelhouse when it came to doing that for the show. It was even to the point where I was even told to forget about The Batman movie, this is a HBO MAX show, and I would be, like, sure I got you. But in the back of my head. I thought, this is The Batman for me. I’m going to make sure everything is cohesive and that my designs could fit into the films in the future. So I was definitely inspired by the overall feel of the world of The Batman.
The Contending: When it came to Oz he has a hair design from the film, so was there anything that you got to play with in the show for his hair? Also, with Colin Farrell being under all that makeup, did that change the way you had to work on him?
Brian Badie: To answer the first question, we continued with the look from the film. Mike Marino did his makeup and I worked on his hair in the beginning but I ended up getting another hair stylist to cover him because I was being spread too thin in designing the look of the show. Colin’s call time would be about 3 hours before mine, so I would have to come to work super early just to take care of his wig. But overall his look is the same from the film, being this richly tailored dapper Italian mob look and his hairstyle is very neat to help look the part. It really was a direct take from the film to the show to keep the continuity going, which was very important.
For the young Oz that was where it shifted a little bit. We started backwards with okay, here’s the mature Oz. How do I deconstruct that hair into what he would be like as a kid? That was an interesting way to tell that story, because with his hairdo as a kid I thought he looked very much like he could have the monocle that the Penguin has in the comics.
The Contending: You mentioned liking that gritty feel in general. What is it that gets you so interested in that look?
Brian Badie: I think that style is a little bit more artistic and, in a way, abstract. With artwork itself I like abstract non-descript things. I don’t gravitate to matter-of-fact concepts. I like my brain to be thinking when it comes to an artistic visual. So for me as a hairstylist I definitely gravitate to the more artistic, edgy, rock and roll looks; there’s just a little more passion for me in that. I love beauty and Hollywood glamor but I also love the post-apocalyptic look. So for me as an artist the top of my list is an edgy Couture avant-garde look.
The Contending: As you were talking about that, the first thing that popped into my head was the club scene where they’re handing out the drugs. All the prostitutes have very distinct hairdos with so many different colors so they all stand out. What was that like to design?
Brian Badie: Actually that’s an interesting point because I was planning on taking that world and morphing it into a new kind of energy. We had constant back and forth about wig use because some of the higher ups did not gravitate to using wigs. In our business, people tense up when the word wig comes into play because people have wig horror stories from some point in their career. But I love a wig because it gives me 100% autonomy on creating a character. So I was literally going to put a wig on every one of the girls and change them completely from what they would look like walking down New York Street going to the supermarket. But we ended up working with their natural hair because the wig fight was going to be too much. I still wanted to give them each a personality because they’re like a gang and, to go back to the Batman reference, I wanted to create looks that could eventually go into the film and that set them apart from other characters we see in film today.
The Contending: The last main character we haven’t talked about is Victor, and I looked up that he has a New York style hairdo. What made you decide to take that route with his character?
Brian Badie: We took that look with Victor because he was an endearing and innocent character, kind of like a nerd. So I wanted his hair to have a New York vibe with a taper, but I wanted to play with the angles so I gave him a bowl cut with an upside down triangle shape. In my mind that was a way to convey a guy that got a haircut but you don’t really feel like he’s been in a barbershop every week. The shape to me is a little nerdy because I didn’t want him to come across as the number one cool kid because he’s going to end up as Oz’s gopher. When Rhenzy (Feliz) came in he had more of a round afro that had grown out. So I said, you know, let’s do a play on the modern cut called a broccoli top that younger kids have been doing. I wanted to add that angle to it to set him apart instead of keeping it round. I think we ended up in a good place where with that haircut he felt 100% Victor.
The Contending: It helped keep his innocence.
Brian Badie: Yes, it kept the innocence of him. He may not have been accepted into all of the cool parties, he wasn’t ostracized, but at the same time there’s something about him where you can’t tell if he’s accepted into the cool kids’ world or not.
The Contending: Final thoughts?
Brian Badie- I think the main thing about the show that I love that I would like to say is with these hair designs in a world where we spend all our time with hair, smoothing hair, and making hair look really silky all the time. I wanted to work in the world of The Penguin to add texture to everybody. So every character had something deconstructed about their hair, because they were in an underground world, and we didn’t want it to look like a world where people were going to salons to get their hair done regularly, but still incorporate that fashion element that could set a trend here or there. I was very happy with the outcome.
