'Black Panther': Danai Gurira Talks About Shaving Her Head to Play Okoye

Signing on to play a major part of a superhero movie also comes with the implication that a performer might have to get into extreme physical shape for the role, yet in the case of Danai Gurira joining Black Panther, it also came with an extreme hairstyle. The actress might have been prepared for having to cut her hair off, but had a harder time coping with how cold she'd get.

"It could even be a distraction, so why have it?" Gurira shared with Jimmy Kimmel Live about her military character. "The beauty of it was we get to wear these awesome tattoos on our heads, so I was one of the first people in there to start training. I was feeling it out, growing my 'fro out a little bit, and [director Ryan Coogler] said, 'It's coming,' and I was like, 'I got you, but for now I got my 'fro.' And you can't really prepare for it. And then they gave you 24 hours, like, 'Danai, it's tomorrow,' and I was like, 'Huh? Tomorrow? Oh, okay.' I thought I was ready, I thought I could take this, then you start seeing these chunks falling to the floor."

Even after her hair initially began to be cut short, a member of the crew alerted her that it would have to get even shorter for the makeup to be realized.

"I've had a short cut for a long time, but there's a big difference between a short cut and dolphin-smooth bald," the actress noted. "At first, I was like, 'Okay, this is good,' but then the astounding Mr. Ken came in, who did my design on my head and he needed to get the mold of my skull, and he said, 'Oh no. No, no, no. That's not short enough.' And he started to do a little shavey-shave."

Gurira may have been the first member of her army to get her head shaved, but as each member joined, a bond grew amongst the actresses.

"Day by day, all my wonderful women in my army, started to come in with long hair one day and like me the next. We just started to have some solidarity," Gurira admitted. "You don't see a lot of bald women walk around all the time."

One unexpected consequence of the hairstyle is losing warmth, with the actress noting, "It's cold. This was in November, this was late November. It was a little cold."

An unexpected advantage, however, was the time it took to get ready, with Gurira joking, "You just roll out of bed and cannot have a bad hair day. There's some ease with that, I'll tell you right now."

You can see Gurira's new 'do in Black Panther, hitting theaters on February 16.

[H/T YouTube, Jimmy Kimmel Live]