Why Are Movie Wigs Still So Bad?!
The Sam Sanders Show
KCRW & Sam Sanders
4.9 • 707 Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2026
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As awards season grinds on, we're revisiting a topic that really irks Sam – bad wigs on the big screen. Why do sooo many wigs look so wrong? Here to break down what’s going on is Hollywood hairstylist and wigmaker Dawn Dudley. Her work has been seen in A Star is Born, Rob Zombie’s The Munsters, HBO’s Westworld and tons more. She breaks down what’s really happening on Hollywood sets and says it’s often not the hairstylist’s fault.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey y'all, Sam Sanders here. |
| 0:06.9 | Thank you so much for listening. |
| 0:08.2 | It is awards season, which means that I get to spend a lot of time thinking and talking about |
| 0:15.1 | perhaps my hottest pop culture hot take. |
| 0:18.9 | It's a very simple take. |
| 0:20.5 | I think that most wigs on screen, |
| 0:23.2 | in TV and film, I think they're pretty bad. Be honest, you agree with me. You do. You do. |
| 0:31.3 | These wigs are bad, y'all. So through the power of journalism, I got to air my grievances over |
| 0:36.8 | Hollywood wigs to a wig expert. |
| 0:39.6 | Last award season, I called up Don Dudley. |
| 0:42.6 | She's a hairstylist and wig maker, and she has done work on HBO's Westworld, and a star is born. |
| 0:49.2 | List goes on. |
| 0:50.0 | She's done some big projects that you have seen. |
| 0:52.9 | So we had this chat last award season because I was yelling all about the bad wigs in the Brutelist for quite a while. |
| 1:00.7 | You remember the bad wig in the Brutelist. |
| 1:03.8 | Felicity Jones blessed that performance, but the hair was strange. |
| 1:07.0 | Anywho, that prompted this chat last award season, but the conversation still holds for this award season because there's still some bad wigs on the screen, y'all. |
| 1:16.6 | So, in this chat, Don tells me how and why Hollywood has such a hair problem, and she also shows me how I may be looking at Hollywood hair perhaps the wrong way. |
| 1:26.6 | This is a fun, quick, informative chat. |
| 1:28.8 | I think you'll like it. |
| 1:29.9 | And if you want even more, Don's chat with me is on YouTube as well. |
| 1:35.6 | And in the YouTube version, you get to see me put on a wig. |
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