Actress Tessa Thompson has been gaining momentum with roles in some of the most buzzed about movies and television shows, certainly keeping her quite busy. Recently, two of her most memorable looks, each distinctive from the other, were as warrior Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok and as Cassius Green's activist girlfriend, Detroit in indie-comedy Sorry to Bother You. When Thompson was shooting Sorry to Bother You however, she was also juggling reshoots for Ragnarok on the weekends, posing a bit of a problem -- Valkyrie doesn't have Detroit's neon-orange curls. Disney was then faced with having to make Thompson a $10,000 wig to replicate her natural long and flowing black hair to match the rest of the film, though the studio was apparently not too happy with the expense of this compromise. Awkward.
Sorry to Bother You writer-director Boots Riley told Huffington Post about the fiasco, admitting that he felt a little guilty about it. Riley reached out to Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi who assured him there were no hard feelings from him, even commenting, "It's not my money!" The Marvel film had a $180 million budget and has scored $853 million worldwide, so Tessa Thompson's wig should have barely made a dent in Disney's wallet. In comparison, Sorry to Bother You cost just $3.2 million to make and barely cracked $15 million in earnings despite its critical acclaim and public support from Get Out director, Jordan Peele, who bought out an entire theater in Los Angeles to show his love for it. The dark comedy follows a young African-American telemarketer who opts for a white accent to become successful at his job, set in an alternative reality of present-day Oakland, CA. Considering how well Disney makes with each new huge release, we doubt they were bothered by Thompson's wig cost for too long.
Disney didn't, however, have it as bad as the Warner Bros. did with "Mustachegate." Henry Cavill was in the middle of a similar issue with a much bigger price tag when he was shooting Mission: Impossible -- Fallout and had to also do reshoots for Justice League. Cavill's Mission: Impossible mustache had to be digitally removed out of scenes in Justice League, reportedly costing the movie studio $3 million. Fallout director Christopher McQuarrie recently explained the awkward situation between Paramount in Warner Bros. expressing how terrible he felt for the "unfortunate set of circumstances" which they couldn't find a way around.
In comparison, the $10,000 situation doesn't seem too bad. If the cost of Tessa Thompson's expensive wig debacle comes with the perk of getting to see her kill it as both Valkyrie and Detroit on the big screen within the same year, we're here for it, especially since Disney's big bucks are paying the bill.
