David Tennant explains why Crowley has red hair in the Good Omens TV series
The actor says dying his hair ginger became the obvious choice when working on Crowley's look, despite the character having "dark" hair in the original book
David Tennant has explained why his version of Crowley has flame-red hair in Amazon Prime Video's adaptation of Good Omens.
In Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's original novel, the fast-living demon — originally the snake who tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden — has "dark hair" (in addition to snakeskin shoes and a pristine 1926 Bentley).
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However, fans were surprised when the first pictures of Tennant in costume were revealed, showing the former Doctor Who star with long ginger locks.
Revealing how the make-up and costume department originally conceived his Good Omens look, Tennant said: "It wasn't in the book, but red seemed quite appealing as he's from the flames. There's also a part of me as an actor who likes to transform."
In the present day, Crowley has a short hairstyle, but during flashbacks we see Crowley sport various haircuts, which Tennant admits was helpful during filming, both in terms of characterisation and figuring out the show's time-jumping plot.
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"We talked about whether having it long might make him look like a rocker, rather than of the moment," Tennant said in an interview for the show's accompanying book, The Nice and Accurate Good Omens TV Companion.
"Eventually we settled on a nice, short funky red cut. Then we see him moving through time with different lengths and styles. When I was reading through the script, just plotting through what happens when was quite tricky, and so it works as a marker.
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"And I felt that Crowley would do that in a way that perhaps Aziraphale [played by Michael Sheen] wouldn't as he's more steady through the centuries. So that shows how a conversation about appearance sparks a few ideas that feed back into the character, and you end up dyeing your hair red for five months! Still, it meant I wasn't wearing a wig every day, and all credit to Neil [Gaiman] who has lived with this but was still able to say, "Yeah, long red! That's a great idea!""
Judging from Crowley's Elizabethan-era goatee (above) — not to mention his pillarbox red bob for his evil nanny disguise — we can't wait to see what other styles Tennant has in store.
The Nice and Accurate Good Omens TV Companion will be published on 21st May 2019. Pre-order here
Good Omens will be released on Amazon Prime Video globally on Friday 31st May 2019.
