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Halle Berry’s ‘Poodle’ Hairdo the Real Emergency in ‘The Call’

Halle Berry's normal 'do, left, and her curly hair in 'The Call'
Halle Berry's normal 'do, left, and her curly hair in 'The Call'

If you've seen the trailers for the new Halle Berry telephone-themed thriller "The Call," you may be wondering: What's up with her hair?

Berry – who plays a 911 operator forced to deal with a killer call – said she intentionally ditched her signature pixie cut to make her character more believable.

"We tried to find a hairstyle that was kind of very pedestrian that would kind of take away the me of me and be something that made sense for the character," she recently told the Associated Press. "This isn't a girl that spends time doing her hair every day."

Berry said she usually switches up her look when she takes on any movie role. (She was unrecognizable altogether in last year’s Cloud Atlas.) "This hair is so specific," she told the AP of her usual cropped 'do. "It's not like I have long, non-specific hair that I can just pull in a ponytail and be a different [character]. This is so specific to me, especially, that the first thing that has to go is this hair."

And people are taking notice.

Asked about media reports regarding her look, she joked, “I don't even know what they're saying, what are they saying? I look like I have a poodle on my head or what?!" One media outlet used her curly hair as an excuse to reminisce about her "bad hair days" on film, posting photos of her wildly tall, platinum blonde hair in the 1997 comedy "B*A*P*S*" (Black American Princesses) and her stringy locks in "Gothika" (2003).

Her hair isn’t the only thing getting panned – the movie is as well. "Can’t someone come up with screenwriting software that signals when a script has made the fatal slip from hyped-up suspense to sheer ludicrousness?" wrote Ann Hornaday for the Washington Post. The Los Angeles Times assessment was that Berry was great, but the script needed "911." One reviewer went so far as to call "The Call" a "cinematic crime," adding, "unfortunately there's no number to call to ask for help."

But hey, don't let that stop you from watching it this weekend. According to Rotten Tomatoes' math, 74 percent of audiences have deemed the film watchable. One critic, who liked it, may have said it best: "Yes, it's cheese, but it's good cheese," wrote Adam Graham for the Detroit News.

"The Call" is playing now in theaters.

Watch 'The Call' Clip, Lock Yourself In:


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