Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538122
LOCAL706.ORG • 39 PHOTOS COURTESY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT THE HAIR GAG B Y J O Y C E G I L L I A R D D E P A R T M E N T H E A D H A I R W hen I read the script, I didn't know the extent of the hair gags on The Naked Gun. I thought it would be easy and something that would be done with visual effects or in post. After speaking to the director, I realized that I needed to create hair gags to make it work and be believable in each scene it played. THE NAKED GUN The hair gag that was most challenging yet fun to design was when Liam Neeson separated Pam Anderson's bang hair and it stayed straight up in the air. It reminded me of the scene from the movie There's Something About Mary. I needed to design a hairpiece to stand straight up on top of Pamela Anderson's head after Liam separated it and it needed to stay in place. I also needed to be mindful of the resets when we were shooting it, so it didn't take too much time to get it back in its first state. I went to the special effects coordinator and asked if he had any wires I could use to do a test with the hair gag. He gave me different wire sizes to test. I tried. The larger wire seemed to work better as far as bending it to make it stay in the shape I desired. I had to make sure I had blonde hair extensions that looked exactly like Pamela's hair for it to look real and as natural as possible. I used a strong adhesive to shape the extensions around but making sure it bent or folded upward for the gag. I did several prototypes with different hairpieces to see which one worked best. I had a canvas wig head with six different pieces and did the actual test on a mannequin head before trying it on Pam. The process was fun and nerve- racking for me because I wanted it to work so bad! Once it looked good to me, I did a test with Pamela. She loved the results! We both played with the hairpiece and did the resets to see the durability of the piece. I sewed toupee clips on the wired extensions and clipped it in the bang of Pamela's hair, and used her natural blonde tresses to cover the weft. It looked realistic on Pam! L-R: Pamela Anderson as Beth and Liam Neeson as Frank