“Was Beyonce's Hair Real in 'Austin Powers in Goldmember'?

“Was Beyonce's Hair Real in 'Austin Powers in Goldmember'? - Showbiz Cheat Sheet” plus 1 more

Was Beyonce's Hair Real in 'Austin Powers in Goldmember'? - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Posted: 11 Mar 2021 12:00 AM PST

Beyoncé has had many glamorous looks throughout her career. On stage alone her look is always evolving. Then, in movies, she transforms for each role. Her very first movie, Austin Powers in Goldmember, cast Beyoncé as Foxxy Cleopatra. Foxxy was a '70s spy with a big afro, so was that Beyoncé's real hair? Beyoncé answered that very question at the 2002 press junket for Austin Powers in Goldmember.

Beyoncé and Mike Myers together on TRL — Mike Myers and Beyoncé | Theo Wargo/WireImage

'Austin Powers in Goldmember' hid Beyoncé's real hair

Alas, Foxxy Cleopatra's '70s afro was movie magic. Beyoncé openly admitted she wore a wig over her real hair. It was quite a process, as she described.

"It was an Afro wig," she said. "My hair was all under the wig. That's why it took an hour and a half every day to put the wig on, because we had to braid my hair up, pin it… Some days I just left that whole cap on the whole week. I'm like, 'I'm just leaving this on, I don't want to go through this every day.'"

More details on Beyoncé's 'Austin Powers' wig

Foxxy Cleopatra's afro sure looks like a lot of hair. One might worry it was a heavy apparatus atop Beyoncé's head, but she assured viewers it was not.

"It was very light," she said.

The producers of Austin Powers also promised to give Beyoncé the wig once the film came out. Unless she donated it or got rid of it since, she should still have it in her possession.

Beyoncé drives Austin Powers' car in New York — Beyoncé and Mike Myers | Bill Davila/FilmMagic

"I don't have it, but they're going to give it to me after the movie comes out," she said. "And they're letting me keep one of the outfits, so I think I'm going to put the wig and outfit on display."

Beyoncé claimed one of the Kimono's from the film's Tokyo sequence.

The hair is a holster

In one of Austin Powers' hilarious sendups of spy movies, Foxxy pulls a gun out of her afro. Beyoncé shared that guns were a touchy subject on the set. They were a part of the milieu of spy movies that Mike Myers was spoofing, but Myers himself shied away from firearms.

[embedded content]

"I got to be the secret agent and I got to have the gun," she said. "It was cool because I was almost protecting Austin more than he was protecting me because Austin's scared of guns, because really, Mike is scared of guns. So it was great. I got to pull the gun out of my hair. It was fun because I could kind of make fun of it, you know?"

Beyoncé: 'Austin Powers' Star Mike Myers Met Her Mother as Goldmember - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Posted: 12 Mar 2021 12:00 AM PST

Austin Powers in Goldmember gave Beyoncé her big break in movies. She was already a pop star with Destiny's Child, but after Austin Powers, Beyoncé was an actor, too. She played Foxxy Cleopatra in the third movie. Austin (Mike Myers) travels back in time to the '70s where Foxxy is his contact.

Mike Myers and Beyoncé with Car — L-R: Beyonce Knowles, Carson Daly and Mike Myers | Theo Wargo/WireImage

Beyoncé said Myers would stay in character whether he was playing Austin, Dr. Evil or Goldmember. That made things tricky when her mother, Tina Knowles, visited her on the set. Here's the story Beyoncé told at the film's 2002 press junket.

Beyoncé met Mike Myers, then she met Austin Powers

For her first movie, Beyoncé said she rehearsed with Myers before filming began.

"The first reading, I didn't read anything," she said. "I didn't really say anything either, because I was so nervous. The second meeting was a reading, and I read the script for him and it was great. Once we started reading, I got more comfortable. I responded well and it was great chemistry."

Once they were on the set, he was Austin Powers all day.

[embedded content]

"The first day I saw him, I was completely starstruck, because I had been doing the rehearsals with Mike Myers," she said. "And then Austin Powers walks in. He really just became him. He'd had the accent and everything before. But I was like, 'This is real. I'm really working on Austin Powers.' That was the day I realized that I was doing Austin Powers."

Beyoncé's Mother met Goldmember

Tina joined Beyoncé for those early readings and got along with the director.

"It was Jay Roach, Mike and my mom talking," she said. I was just sitting there."

In the third film, Dr. Evil conspires with another villain, Goldmember, both played by Myers. When Beyoncé's mother visited her, it was on a Goldmember day.

Beyoncé and Tina Knowles sitting next to each other — L-R: Tina Knowles and Beyoncé | Bennett Raglin/WireImage

"My mom walked in and he hadn't seen her," she said. "He only met her once and he was dressed as Goldmember. And he did not change his accent. And my mom was like, 'Wow, that is incredible.' It was, completely. He asked for water in the accent. He talks to everyone in the accent."

Goldmember was a Dutch villain obsessed with gold and eating his own dead skin. Myers even spoke Dutch.

"He said some Amsterdam greeting or something," she said. "I don't know, some crazy thing. She was like, 'Huh? OK.'"

Fat Bastard was real, too

Myers also invented the henchman character Fat Bastard in the second film, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Fat Bastard returned in Goldmember, and Beyoncé said the fat suit looked even more real in person.

"On the screen it looks crazy," she said. "In person it looks so real, and his stomach is there and the hair and the water. And the way he acts, he's just so dirty, like, he's just flirtatious and a dirty, freaky man."