As part of the storyline, Actor Anthony Carrigan plays bad guy Victor Zsasz, a supervillain and future arch-enemy of Batman, who features a knife obsession. The character is part of the 'skinhead subculture' and many would say Carrigan, who suffers in reality from alopecia, was born to play the part!
In an exclusive interview with BuzzFeed, Carrigan talks honestly about his Alopecia, how it affects his acting career, and how he found body confidence! It's safe to say that despite suffering from total hairloss (including eyelashes and eyebrows), Carrigan is a superb actor, has found his own confidence and does not let his hairloss hold him back!
You can read the full interview here, but some of my favourite parts of the interview include:
"There was one point where I was doing a job and we had millions of viewers every week, it was a TV job, and I lost half my scalp and both eyebrows and the majority of my eyelashes. I was covering up in order to look like this character. It was pretty terrifying to have to keep that secret and pretend like I looked this way, that I looked normal when I just didn’t. I was doing red carpet events and putting on my eyebrows before going out there and hoping that no one would notice. It’s a really weird thing to be seen while trying not to be seen. It’s a very strange thing."
Speaking of accepting his Alopecia:
"There was one point where I was doing a job and we had millions of viewers every week, it was a TV job, and I lost half my scalp and both eyebrows and the majority of my eyelashes. I was covering up in order to look like this character. It was pretty terrifying to have to keep that secret and pretend like I looked this way, that I looked normal when I just didn’t. I was doing red carpet events and putting on my eyebrows before going out there and hoping that no one would notice. It’s a really weird thing to be seen while trying not to be seen. It’s a very strange thing."
Speaking of body confidence:
"I think there’s always the opportunity to accept yourself exactly where you are. I think a lot of people feel that they will accept themselves as soon as they go to the gym, as soon as they clear up their skin, as soon as they address a certain issue, then they’ll feel OK about themselves. I think they can always accept themselves exactly the way they are and that’s a practice. In each moment you have a choice where you can build yourself up or tear yourself down, and choosing to build yourself up is always within your power."
"I think that our culture is so obsessed with body image and with being this completely unrealistic ideal, and that ideal looks different to every single person. It’s in their head as what they should be or should look like, this ideal. Ultimately, isn’t it better to just feel good about yourself, than to try to look good first and feel better that way?"
I really enjoyed reading this article and believe it demonstrates that noone should feel ashamed of who they are or how they look! I know many alopecians / baldies struggle with adapting to their new identities, but it shouldn't really change anything, and it certainly shouldn't hold you back!
If I'd been in charge of the interview, here's a few questions I would like to have asked Carrigan... If he does manage to read this interview, then maybe he'll tweet us the answers @PrettyBald ;-)
- Has your alopecia ever lost you an acting part, or even resulted in you being cast for a different part to the one you auditioned for?
- If a miracle cure existed (one that had no side effects), would you opt to have your hair back?
- Karen Gillan had to shave her head to suit her new role; have you ever been approached to act a part simply because of your unique look?
- We've launched our #100HairFreeDays challenge; if you could share one positive of your hairloss, what would it be?
www.prettybald.co.uk Twitter: @PrettyBald
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