The Worst Wigs Nicole Kidman Has Worn On Camera

Nicole Kidman has spent the better part of four decades cementing herself as one of Hollywood's most legendary actors. With iconic films like "Days of Thunder," "Moulin Rouge!," and "Dogville" under her belt, she's a total chameleon, shapeshifting from role to role. This is in part because Kidman almost always hides one natural feature: her hair.

The actor came onto the scene in the '80s with her natural red curls, but she soon became known for rocking straight blonde hair. After over-straightening it for years, Kidman told WHO Magazine (via Refinery29) in April 2017 that her natural hair texture was now a thing of the past. "I wish I had my curls back," she remarked. "I tortured them to death. I always say, 'Don't ruin the ringlets!'" Still, Kidman continues to debut new hairstyles regularly, thanks to the magic of wigs. However, there have been many times the actor has worn a hairpiece that simply didn't work. Here are the worst wigs Kidman has worn on camera.

Nicole Kidman starred in Lee Daniels' thriller "The Paperboy" wearing a synthetic-looking yellowish-blonde wig. During an interview with The Film Experience in December 2012, Kidman revealed the truth behind her '60s look, divulging the director had her do her own hair and makeup for the movie. "To get it accurate for the era? That's the thing I was frightened of," she remarked.

"My new religion is Nicole Kidman's wig in 'The Paperboy,'" an X user wrote in July 2024. "I've never been more deeply fascinated with an object in my life."

In "Paddington," Nicole Kidman dove headfirst into playing a villain... and wearing the bonkers wig that came with the character. As she told Brite and Bubbly in 2015. "[Director Paul King] said, 'I want her to look like this and I want her to be kind of fun.'" 

The sharp, platinum blonde bob wig with bangs continues to make a splash. As a fan wrote on X in November 2024, "I am watching Paddington for the first time and I can't believe I've been missing out on this insane Nicole Kidman wig."

There have been countless celebrity wig fails caught on camera, and while it sometimes comes down to an unflattering shape or color, a wig also might look off because it's synthetic. That seemed to be the case with the overly shiny wig Nicole Kidman wore in the thriller "Secret in Their Eyes" in 2015. One Tumblr user shared their thoughts on how both Kidman's and Julia Roberts' wigs in the film looked strange. "Both of these wigs are awful. ... Kidman's is too uniform and glossy," they wrote.

When Nicole Kidman was first approached to portray Sue Brierley in "Lion," one of the first discussions was about her hair. As she told The Hollywood Reporter in February 2017, "When I met Garth [Davis, the director], he said ... 'Sue wants you to play her, but you'll have to have red curly hair like you used to.'" We love to see Kidman return to her original color and texture, but these '80s-style curls sat unnaturally on her head and the vibrant hue clashed with the rest of her coloring in the film.

The wild concept of "How to Talk to Girls at Parties," an A24 sci-fi rom-com set in 1970s London written by Neil Gaiman, was enough to justify the kooky fashion and makeup the cast donned. And Nicole Kidman, who played an old-school punk queen, would have looked wicked-cool if it weren't for the frizzy, two-toned hairpiece she wore. "Kidman can be seen doing her best Edward Scissorhands impression with a choppy gray-and-black wig," Melissa Minton of W Magazine wrote of the star in April 2018.

Nicole Kidman's no stranger to changing up her look for a role, and her transformation for "Top of the Lake: China Girl" is just one of many examples. She was given freckles, a tooth gap, prosthetics, and a messy, curly gray wig that all but swallowed the star whole. As makeup artist Noriko Watanabe told Vulture in September 2017, the goal was to convey "a beautiful, strong, feminist mother who is also vulnerable." Unfortunately, the wig looked like something you might find at Spirit Halloween.

We've said it before and we'll say it again: Nicole Kidman is the queen of transformations. She was completely recognizable when she played a tortured veteran cop in "Destroyer." But, although her mop of a gray-tinged wig demonstrated how haggard her character had become, the hairpiece was too obvious. In April 2025, when audiences were criticizing a wig from one of Kidman's other roles, an X user reminded them of this look. ""This is her worst wig yet' oh some of you haven't seen Nicole in 'Destroyer,' this is nothing," they wrote.

When it comes to the bad wigs featured in 2018's "Aquaman," we could fill a book about Amber Heard's over-the-top locks alone. However, Nicole Kidman earns an honorable mention for the wildly long, braided heap of faux hair she wore in the film. She almost wasn't in the film, but caved when director James Wan revealed he had drawn her face in all of his concept art for her character. "WHOMST chose Nicole Kidman's wig in 'Aquaman'" one perplexed viewer wrote on X in December 2019.

In January 2019, Nicole Kidman spoke with Deadline about Martha, the real woman she played in "Boy Erased." After sending her son to gay conversion therapy camp, Martha soon realizes the error of her ways. "You see the pain that she feels over that decision, and then you see her rectify it," Kidman said. Though the movie didn't garner any Academy Award noms despite some buzz early on, multiple outlets joked that Kidman's voluminous and overly teased blonde bob wig should've won an Oscar.

Given that the blonde wig Nicole Kidman wore to portray real-life broadcast journalist Gretchen Carlson in "Bombshell" cost between $7,000 and $10,000, it's disappointing that it didn't look more authentic. "Another Nicole Kidman drama, another wig that's actively trying to destroy her!" one person wrote online (via Now to Love). Around the time this movie came out, a rumor circulated about Kidman regarding her love of wigs: On a June 2019 episode of the "What's The Tee" podcast, RuPaul jokingly theorized that the Australian star is actually bald underneath her hairpieces.

When Nicole Kidman's "Nine Perfect Strangers" character, a wellness guru named Masha Dmitrichenko, first appeared on screen in Season 1, she looked like she could've been an elf from "Lord of the Rings." Her long, platinum blonde wig would have looked right at home in a fantasy movie, but Kidman was playing a human in this project — and her overly-manicured hairstyle looked beyond fake. "That wig is a disgrace," one Reddit user commented about Kidman's hairpiece. Another person agreed, calling it "a crime" and adding, "It's so distracting whenever Masha's onscreen."

Even though she's a natural redhead, Nicole Kidman's transformation into Lucille Ball didn't sit right with many audiences. It was an incredible career opportunity for her to portray the legendary actor, but there were concerns about the casting choice early on. In speaking to Today in December 2021, Kidman revealed that she nearly dropped out of the project. "There's times when you go, 'Gosh, maybe I'm not the right person for this,'" she said. Unfortunately, she simply couldn't pull off Ball's iconic strawberry-blonde perm.

Nicole Kidman's stunning transformation over the years has been heavily influenced by her many hairstyles. While some have been a hit, others fell flat like the short pixie cut wig she sported in the Apple TV+ anthology series "Roar." The actor shared a beautiful snapshot of herself from behind the scenes on Instagram in July 2021, and her fans were quick to criticize the orange hairpiece she was wearing. "Thank GOD it 's a Wig," one person wrote. Another user added that the wig "looks like crap."

Having rocked practically every hair color under the rainbow, it's clear that Nicole Kidman's skin tone and bright blue eyes suit a strawberry to sandy blonde hairstyle. But the banana-tinged locks she wore in Netflix's "A Family Affair?" Not even Kidman's steamy on-screen reunion with Zac Efron could take our eyes away from her distracting wig. One viewer shared their thoughts on the wig in a Reddit post, calling the wig "orangey yellow. It's terrible." Other users echoed that Kidman's hair in the movie was totally "distracting."

There's no question that Nicole Kidman always looks stunning, even when her wigs steal the show. However,  when she portrayed the sophisticated mother of the groom in "The Perfect Couple," her 'do was distractingly unnatural. "Nicole Kidman's wig in 'The Perfect Couple' is an absolute travesty. ... Fire the whole hair and makeup department," one person shared on X. As another person wrote on Reddit, "I kept thinking it was also obvious to the characters and it was going to be part of the plot somehow."

Nicole Kidman spoke on Australian network Channel Seven's "Sunrise" in May 2025 about her brand-new look in the return of "Nine Perfect Strangers." Masha traded in her long, ethereal hair for a short, icy bob for the second season. As Kidman put it, "[She's] coming in, like, boss," adding, "As you know, I love changing my hair." The dramatic shift from long and flowy to this severe chop may have worked if it wasn't pin-straight and one length, which makes it obvious that we're dealing with yet another bad wig.

Nicole Kidman has had so many iconic red carpet looks, but she made headlines for all the wrong reasons when she attended the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025. The star donned a gorgeous, lacy Balenciaga gown, but her wig stole the show. Kidman's natural hair appeared to be poking through the front of her pin-straight, strawberry blonde hairpiece, and the colors didn't blend well together. However, many of her fans stood up for her on X, with one writing, "And yet she's still serving."