**Spoilers for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery ahead!**
Janelle Monáe is one of our most talented singers and they proved that they’re also one of the best when it comes to acting with their turn in Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion. Monáe played Andi/Helen, twin sisters whose story came to Benoit Blanc after Andi dies under suspicious circumstances. Helen brings her sister’s case to Blanc and asks for his help getting answers from billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) and the rag-tag group of friends her sister ran with, known as the “Disruptors”.
As Johnson is establishing with the twisty turns of his Knives Out mysteries, there are always more levels to be discovered with his characters. As it turns out, the twist of Monáe’s dual roles is hinted at early on, in the form of their characters’ hair. In a new interview with Variety, Monáe and Glass Onion‘s hair department head, Leslie Bennett, sat down to talk about the design of Andi and Helen. What they revealed is honestly pretty cool.
The two talked a lot about how Andi’s hair differs from Helen’s hair when she’s pretending to be her sister. Helen is putting on a disguise, but for Andi, it is her life and her world. And that difference is illustrated via the simple detail of their hair part.
And look, a hair part can make a world of difference. That’s clearly the case for Andi and Helen.
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The difference a hair part makes
According to Monáe, they had a lot of conversations with Johnson about how the wigs would work for both characters. “Helen’s wig is something Rian and I talked about,” Monáe said. “When she’s acting as Andi, and nobody knows it’s her, the parting of her hair is on the opposite side. The idea is that she is a mirror image of her sister.”
The mirror image is fascinating. The two characters are twins who both seem to have loved one another but were somewhat estranged. And Andi’s entire mindset is that she was a businesswoman who knew what she was doing. Bennett seems to imply that was her mindset in the decision to change the parts. “Rian wanted Andi and Helen to have two different looks,” Bennett said. “She was the corporate trendsetter type.”
That led Monáe to confirm how they worked with Johnson to figure out exactly what they wanted for Andi’s look. “She’s so together and she’s so sharp, so we wanted her hair to be as sharp as she was,” Monáe indicated.
Were you an eagle-eyed viewer? Did you see this and clock what it meant? Or is this news to you? Because it is news to me and just makes me love Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery that much more.
(image: Netflix)
