Hear our full conversation on my podcast “Beyond the Fame.”
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is nominated for five Academy Awards on Sunday night.
That includes Camille Friend and Joel Harlow for Best Achievement in Makeup & Hairstyling.
“I’ve been on the shortlist three times, then you go on to the bake-off three times, then you wake up in the morning of Oscar day three times and two times I woke up and no go, so you go back to bed and cry,” Friend told WTOP. “Third time was the charm! … I heard ‘Black,’ and that’s all I heard, I saw it on the screen and I was just over the moon. It’s so, so exciting!”
Last time, Ruth E. Carter became the first African American to win the Oscar for costume design for the original “Black Panther” (2018), which Friend also worked on for the hair.
“‘Black Panther 1’ was a love letter to Black hair,” Friend said. “We got to experience so many things building our tribes, using so many looks from braids to locks, all kinds of Black hairstyling on natural hair. That was something that hadn’t been done or people hadn’t seen, so on the first one they were probably shocked, but now they’re with us on the hair.”
After the death of Chadwick Boseman, Friend wasn’t sure the franchise would continue.
“There could have been no ‘Black Panther 2.’ When a franchise loses its star, Marvel could have scrapped it and go on, they have many great properties, they could have just moved on. A lot of people felt that way like, ‘What are you guys gonna do?’ When they announced they weren’t going to recast T’Challa, that really helped the fans and it gave us all a sigh of relief.”
Instead, T’Challa’s sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) assumes the Black Panther mantle after visiting the ancestral plane and redesigning the superhero suit. As such, Friend’s goal was to change Shuri’s hairstyle from a youthful look to a more mature appearance.
“In the first one, she had braids but shaved sides. She was a young kid,” Friend said. “In this movie, she’s a different woman who is evolving, who is in the grieving process, who is discovering who she is. We wanted to give her something more grown-up, so we used her hair texture, still a 4C texture, two-strand twisted it, but we left the side and back shaved.”
It was also a fun challenge styling T’Challa’s grieving mother Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Friend said.
“In West African culture, people cut their hair in mourning, so if we went into that theory, what would Shuri and Ramonda look like if they were in mourning and cut their hair?” Friend said. “Ramonda in the first movie had this beautiful platinum silvery locks … but giving her hair a shape that mimics the crowns that she wears, so making her hair look like a crown.”
Friend insists that “this is the time” for Bassett to finally win her Oscar, adding, “Go, Angie, go!” If she does indeed win Best Supporting Actress on Sunday night, it’ll be the latest Friend-styled performance to win an acting Oscars after past wins for Jamie Foxx in “Ray” (2004), Jennifer Hudson in “Dreamgirls” (2006) and Octavia Spencer in “The Help” (2011).
She’s also worked in the hair departments of such blockbusters as “The Hangover” (2009), “Django Unchained” (2012), “Captain America: The Winter Solider” (2014), “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay” (2014-2015) and “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2” (2017), the original “Black Panther” (2018), “Captain Marvel” (2019), “Us” (2019) and “Tenet” (2020).
“‘Winter Soldier’ is my favorite Marvel movie,” Friend said. “I so remember we were right there going to the Smithsonian at lunchtime like running from the trailer to get into the museum and do everything in the short time we were there. I love D.C. I was also in D.C., Madam C.J. Walker’s Foundation gave me an award there, shout out to D.C., I love you guys!”
Hear our full conversation on my podcast “Beyond the Fame.”
