Seriously? OMG! WTF? » Why James Spader decided to shave his head for The Blacklist
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[ # ] Why James Spader decided to shave his head for The Blacklist
September 23rd, 2013 under James Spader, NBC


The Blacklist debuts at 10p tonight on NBC and James Spader has a new look for the drama. I will be honest, I don’t really know how to explain this show.
James Spader plays, ex-government agent Raymond “Red” Reddington, who is now one of the FBI’s most wanted. He suddenly comes out hiding and offers to work only with the very green FBI profiler, Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) to find some of the other most wanted ie The Blacklist. As they start to work together their lives will be put in danger, but all of this is worth if they make the world a safer place, right? But then again, how does a recent grad of Quantico handle working with one of the worst people out there. Tune each week to find out in this suspenseful drama.
Now one of the first things you will notice tonight is James Spaders blonde locks are gone. At the NBC TCA summer press Day, he explained it was his decision to shave his head. He said, “It was it sort of worked backwards from one moment, and that’s what I love in that opening sequence when he goes in and surrenders himself, the juxtaposition. I knew the very first thing when I got to New York to shoot the pilot — I had very long hair, and I knew that they were going to shoot a surveillance photo of Reddington to have on the wall there when he surrenders himself.” He wanted to make that moment even more impactful, so he “thought it would be just a great moment when he surrenders himself, he takes his hat off, and the juxtaposition of the shot of him with long hair and then like this…I thought it would be nice to take off my hat and it’s an entirely different person and a very different look to go with that.” He gave his character a background and told it to us as, “But working backwards from there, you know, the way his life has been for the last 20 years, he moves very swiftly through his life. He’s moving from place to place very quickly. I thought he should have a haircut, that he can do himself if he cares to or he can go to some barber shop in a little town in Cambodia and they can cut his hair in ten minutes.” It wasn’t only his hair that he thought of, “I just thought it was streamlined, and his clothes are like that, too, in that he looks well dressed, but traveling clothes. You know, he wears clothes that he can go from a bank to a cave and he’s dressed accordingly. And he’s also in a lot of different climates over the last 20 years, so I thought it would be appropriate that he that he dress and look as if he’s able to move through the world easily and comfortably.” So tune into watch as his backstory becomes current day tonight and every Monday at 10p.
And before you tune in for The Blacklist, watch the Emmy winning show that is on everyone’s best list! That’s right The Voice is back at 8p with all the original coaches, Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and the competition’s biggest winner Blake Shelton.

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