David Corenswet is not a natural blonde. His chiseled good looks and natural dark hair made him the right guy to play Superman. But when images of a blonde Corenswet started circulating online for the upcoming film Mr. Irrelevant, fans were one, shocked, and two, excited. In the movie, the actor plays John Tuggle, the New York Giants running back who was the final pick of the 1983 NFL draft, hence the name. To bring the real-life athlete to life, the key was to make sure that Corenswet had both the bushy thick mustache with overgrown stubble and blonde locks to match
“John Tuggle had quite an ‘80s surfer kind of feel, his hair blonde from the sun and super bronzed,” Nikki Gooley, makeup and hair designer for Mr. Irrelevant, tells GQ.
To create Tuggle’s center-parted fringe hairstyle, key hairstylist Chrissy Zemura referenced taped interviews from early in the NFL underdog’s career, as well as the Mr. Irrelevant parade, which honored the final draft pick with a public march in Newport Beach, California. Zemura says she dyed Corenswet’s hair into a sandy blonde and used Organic Suku’s styling cream to tame flyaways without making his hair look overdone.
“Back then men did a lot more to their hair, but he was a footballer at the end of the day,” Zeumra says. “He kind of just wore his hair how he wore his hair. So I used a lot of that Suku style cream and I used a little bit of sea salt spray in some of the scenes just to make sure that the hair sits in its own natural pattern.”
She recalls that during their time together, Corenswet would use his hairstyling time to get into character, repeating the line “Tuggle, Tuggle, California” to get the “ups and downs of John’s accent.”
The film follows Tuggle’s journey as a footballer as he’s diagnosed with cancer, so during the movie, there’s a scene where he ceremoniously shaves his head—first into a mohawk and then into a complete buzz cut. Because the film was shot out of order, Zemura says they also had to keep two wigs on standby, which looked identical to his blonde shag cut.
She recalls having one wig specifically for when Corenswet needed to wear a football helmet. The combination of the tight-fitting helmet with the friction of Corenswet’s buzz cut would have been detrimental to a standard wig’s integrity.
“We had to use a specific wig that we just needed the ends and some of the hair in the front [of the helmet,” she says. “So we just ruined one wig throughout the whole filming process.”
Judging from the early reactions to his look, sacrificing at least one wig was well worth it.
