‘The Morning Show’ hair department head Nicole Venables on capturing ‘the essence of modern, contemporary hair’ in Season 3 [Exclusive Video Interview]
On “The Morning Show,” no two episodes are alike. As it tackles all sorts of headline-making political topics and events of our time, ranging from the #MeToo movement to the coronavirus pandemic to the Jan. 6 insurrection in its first three seasons, the Apple TV+ drama is constantly throwing its characters into new environments and situations. As a result, the show’s hair team always has to be ready to adapt the characters’ hairstyles to whatever new circumstances in which they may find themselves in a given episode.
“[It’s] mostly [about] staying in the moment, getting on top of reading scripts, really taking in what’s happening, from the actors to the environments they’re put in,” the show’s hair department head, Nicole Venables, says of her experience working on the ever-evolving series during a recent webchat with Gold Derby (watch the exclusive video interview above). “I have an amazing crew. I love my hair team — they are incredible and flexible and really roll with the task at hand. And every director, every writer, the talent — everyone is a 10. So everyone’s sort of collaborating and supporting and really owning what they bring to the show. It’s the greatest job I’ve ever had.”
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Season 3 of the topical drama picks up roughly two years after the events of the Season 2 finale, which chronicle the tipping point of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. While the leftovers of the pandemic may be discernible in some of the characters’ longer hair or grown facial hair, it didn’t necessarily influence the characters’ hairstyles in the season. “I felt like we were elevating. We were trying to capture the essence of modern, contemporary hair, especially that on-air, news-worthy [look], or the more polished, professional looks in the office with the men and the women,” Venables highlights. “And so I think we were just more focused on the office [look], then the off-camera look, then the undone-at-home [look], to the uber-chic event look that we had with the Valentino [party in the seventh episode].”
A modern, contemporary look is also the vibe for which the hair team aimed when it came to the hair style for Alex Levy, played by Jennifer Aniston, who had her own hairstylist, Janine Thompson, on the third installment and whose personal hairstylist, Chris McMillan, also contributed to her on-screen appearance in Season 3. “I feel like there were three looks that really stood out for Alex,” Venables shares. “She had her stunning, iconic powerhouse persona, if you will. And then for [her new variety show podcast] ‘Alex Unfiltered,’ [it] was a softer, lighter [look], bringing out her more feminine powerhouse persona. And then her off-camera looks were softer, sexier, with more of her own personal input, like her real look.”
Like Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, who plays Bradley Jackson, also has her own hairstylist on the show, Lona Vigi. “She wanted to raise the bar with Bradley’s hair, both on camera and off camera, and sort of [mirror] Bradley’s promotion,” Venables says about Vigi’s approach to Witherspoon’s character this season, which sees the former small-town field reporter and former co-anchor of the show’s titular daily morning news program at the top of her game, anchoring UBA’s nightly news. “[Vigi] wanted to show that her character had grown and [for her] to have that strong, professional look. And I think it came through with, like, that confident vibe and appearance.”
In the fifth episode, which flashes back to 2020 and early 2021, it’s revealed that Bradley was in Washington, D.C., to cover the certification of the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021, and was inside the Capitol building as it was being attacked by insurrectionists, capturing the mayhem unfolding therein on her phone. At one point, she films a fight between a Capitol police officer and a masked rioter, only to discover that this rioter is her own brother, Hal (Joe Tippett).
“It was unreal. I mean, it was sort of terrifying,” Venables recalls about the experience of recreating the insurrection. “When you’re on a set that’s really busy, and they’re trying to take care of business, you have to stay out of the way. But you’re trying to fix the hair, and then Hal is having, literally, a physical beef… And then we have our personal feelings, our living-proof world that we had experienced. So all of us were pretty shook. But we stayed focused. I thought they did an amazing job all the way around.”
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