Abhiroop Das
Helmed by Peter Farrelly, Prime Video’s ‘Balls Up‘ zooms in on a professional rivalry that ends up enveloping an entire nation. Brad and Elijah are both employees at Regal Blue Condoms, and their combined brainchild is the eponymous condom that covers the scrotum. However, when things go south and the two become bitter enemies, a World Cup finale between Brazil and Argentina very quickly turns into a horrorscape. One small accident is all it takes for seemingly every Brazilian football fan to go on a hunting mission, which forces Brad and Elijah to go into hiding.
At every corner, however, they seem to find more enemies than friends, that is, until they are kidnapped by a local drug kingpin by the name of Pavio Curto. Actor Sacha Baron Cohen, famous for classics like ‘Brüno,’ ‘The Dictator,’ and the ‘Borat‘ series, takes charge of the screen as this cartel head, whose actions are as enigmatic as his look.
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Long Hair in Balls Up Might Just be Real
While ‘Balls Up’ is filled to the brim with comedic gems from both the script and the actors, nobody steals the spotlight quite like actor Sacha Baron Cohen, who briefly appears on screen as Pavio Curto, a cartel kingpin who wishes to turn Brad and Elijah into drug mules. While the plan to use the Balls Up condoms for this is eccentric by itself, what truly stands out is Cohen’s long, blonde hair, which somehow fits into the larger story. Though the actor hasn’t confirmed anything about his hairdo as of writing, it is possible that he used a wig to achieve the look in the movie, or at the very least dyed his hair blonde.
In a conversation with Nerdtropolis, Cohen and his co-star, Paul Walter Hauser, discussed what it was like to share the screen together. Due to scheduling issues, Cohen had very little time to prepare for the role and memorize, and thus decided to improvise much of it. The first step in that was seemingly the look, and Hauser recalled that Cohen simply walked into the set with that hairstyle, much to everyone’s surprise. Chiming in, Cohen even said that the hair was real and that he’s “had a radical haircut since.” While this appears to confirm that his hairstyle in the movie is real, there is always a possibility that Cohen, a master of humor, was merely joking about the eccentricities of his character design.
This Isn’t the First Time Cohen Has Gone Blonde Hair For a Role
Going beyond the look, Cohen’s improvisational comedy truly shines when he is with Mark Wahlberg and Paul Hauser, who play Brad and Elijah, respectively. The latter two described it as a process of letting Cohen do what he does best, and then trying to keep the conversations flowing organically. Reportedly, director Peter Farrelly adopted a hands-off approach, specifically when it came to these comic sequences, and that is a big reason why the character of Pavio Curto is amongst the most memorable in the film.
Notably, this is also not the first time Cohen has adopted a blonde look on screen, as he did something similar in the film ‘Brüno,’ in which the titular character has blonde hair. For the film, Cohen chose to dye his hair blonde and went as far as bleaching his body hair to complete the look. However, things went wrong not long after, as the actor reportedly had an allergic reaction to hydrogen peroxide, which was used as a bleaching agent. Cohen had a hard time even sitting for three days, and ultimately had to make an emergency appointment with the doctor. Despite it all, Cohen’s sheer commitment to the craft means that he is always ready to stand up to challenges and physical transformations, whether or not they are achieved with a wig, are part of that creative effort.
Read More: Is Balls Up Based on a Real Condom? Is Regal Blue Condom a Real Company?
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