Weeks and months of work went into creating Cynthia Erivo’s look to play Elphaba in the Wicked movie

Movies have the kind of grandeur that leaves audiences captivated for the hours they spend watching them in the theater and sometimes, long after. Bringing them to the big screen is a mammoth task that appears much easier than it is. Set decoration, film production and costume creation are only some of the reasons why movies take months and years to create. Wicked, which is based on the Broadway musical, has opened this week to glowing box office reviews. The cult film had been underway prior to the pandemic and as it finally finds its way to screens, details about the reality of bringing a film like this to life are being revealed by those who worked on the movie.

The hair, makeup and prosthetic designer of Wicked, Frances Hannon and wig-maker Samuel James played a key role in Cynthia Erivo’s appearance as her character Elphaba in the movie. In a post on Instagram, Samuel revealed that four wigs were made by their team, each of which was braided by hand. The desired texture and curl pattern of the wigs were paid close attention to and created by “many hours of knotting”. The fine lace that the wig is placed on was also dyed green to match Elphaba’s makeup so as to showcase the character’s green skin through the braids and from the scalp. Additionally, Elphaba’s baby hair in front looked as natural as it did by combining mohair and textured hair.

Frances Hannon spoke to Allure and shared more details about piecing together Cynthia’s hairstyle in the film, which were a huge expense to create. James’s hand-made wigs were braided on the set of the movie by a team of four braiders who spent over a week putting in all of the microbraids with three shades of hair colour. “It wasn’t the making of the wig that was so expensive, that was very normally priced,” said Frances and continued, “It’s a really long, slow process, so hugely expensive, but more than worth the end result.”