Actors should be used to weird things they have to endure for this or that movie by now, but directors never cease to come up with even weirder ones.
One 1883 star can actually speak from experience. As part of Actors on Actors, a Variety series, Faith Hill, who played Margaret Dutton on the show, shared with fellow actress Courteney Cox what she had to do to stay authentic to the time period (and it said a lot about her dedication to her work).
You might have guessed it from the title, but 1883 follows the post-Civil War Duttons as they travel from Tennessee to Montana in the late 19th century.
Naturally, creator Taylor Sheridan wanted the production to be as historically accurate as possible, so he had his female lead stop shaving her armpits (underarm hair removal wouldn’t become the norm until thirty years later, in 1915).
The actress wasn’t happy with the request, especially considering how she received it.
Sheridan actually called Hill’s husband, Tim McGraw (who played James Dutton on the show), to ask him to deliver his wish to the star.
If you are going to ask one of your actors to change their personal hygiene habits for your show, the least you could do is ask them yourself, Taylor!
Faith recalled that they were at a wedding when the director broke the news, even telling the actress that she had to “stop [shaving] tonight.” That’s one way to kill the festive mood, we suppose.
Hill then asked Sheridan if she could use fake hair for filming since some of the men on the show did weak fake bears, but the creator wasn’t a fan of the idea, so the star had to stop shaving for months before the filming began.
The actress said that this time was “difficult for her” and the whole authentic experience “really grossed her out.” Well, to each their own, right?
Before you gang up on the poor woman for being an anti-feminist or something, let us tell you that Hill noted that she had a lot of respect for those women who chose to let their underarm hair grow out.
It’s just that she personally found that it wasn’t for her. The funny thing is that Hill didn’t even have that many scenes where her armpit hair could have been visible.
For the most part, Margaret was fully clothed, and there were only a few moments when she was in a bathtub or wearing something sleeveless.
Did they really make the actress not shave for months and then cut most of the scenes where it served the purpose? Poor Faith!
