#From Punk to Posh: Tracking Josephine’s Wild Hair Days in ‘Napoleon’

Hair designer Francesco Pegoretti and makeup designer Jana Carboni worked as a team to focus on the two leads of Ridley Scott’s historical epic Napoleon, about the eponymous French general and emperor (Joaquin Phoenix) and his free-spirited first wife, Josephine (Vanessa Kirby). In the scene pictured above, Napoleon meets Josephine for the first time at a candlelit party, days after she’s escaped beheading during the French Revolution.

“For the first part of the movie, she has to have short hair because she was in the prison waiting for the guillotine,” explains Pegoretti. In the real story of Josephine’s life, she was saved from beheading by only one day and had cut her hair off herself to prevent it from getting caught by the blade. “In the longer version [of the film, the director’s cut to be released on Apple TV+], we are going to see the scene when she’s cutting her hair off, hopefully,” Pegoretti adds.

To achieve the right cut on the wig, Pegoretti balanced historical accuracy and modern flair. “Ridley asked me [not] to be academic, to find something more natural and messy, to follow the character,” he says. “It’s like [she’s] going to a Cure concert,” adds Carboni: “The concept was to go with something edgy and decadent, kind of pixie punk. Josephine was so wild. Even when she becomes empress, she’s never going to be like the other [aristocrats].”

Josephine’s hair grows out later in the film, requiring another wig. “She created a new style for the hair,” explains Pegoretti. “She was very fancy, very fashion. [I needed something reminiscent of] the beginning of the 19th century but also more natural, sometimes messy, to follow the character.” 

Josephine was raised outside the aristocracy in Martinique, infiltrating her way into the French elite as an adult. As such, “we decided to keep her eyebrow quite strong because that’s part of the wildness she’s always been and she’s always going to be,” says Carboni.

Josephine wore her makeup heavy, almost as a coat of armor. “She has a very ‘lady of the night’ look. In a way, it’s almost to hide behind that makeup,” says Carboni. “She’s just coming out from prison. She uses beauty and sex appeal to survive.” She adds: “I didn’t want to do anything clownish because she still had to look sexy, but I wanted the heaviness of the makeup.”

When she first meets Napoleon, Josephine glistens as she crosses the room. For her body, Carboni confesses: “Vanessa has the most beautiful skin ever. That was a big help. But still, I put translucent [product] on her skin because the ambient lighting was very dark candlelight. I still wanted her skin to catch the light.”

For the smudgy black eye, Carboni applied shadow mostly with her finger “because it had to look like she did it so she didn’t have to be perfect.” She used a crimson red on Kirby’s cheeks and lip to flush Josephine with sensuality. 

Pegoretti and Carboni say Scott films with as many as 11 cameras shooting at once, with very few takes. “You really have to know what you’re doing, and you cannot be sloppy,” Carboni notes. “He only does one or two takes, so you don’t have the chance to say, ‘Oops, sorry.’ You have to be 100 percent right on the first take.” 

This story first appeared in a December standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.