Javier Bardem’s sweet hairstyle in The Counselor was inspired by Brian Grazer

For those of us that follow the entertainment industry, Brian Grazer is almost as famous for being a super producer as he is for looking like Elvis Costello’s meth dealer. He’s arguably the most recognizable face among a class of people not usually known for reconizable faces. As it turns out, his famous look served as inspiration for Hollywood’s king of silly hairstyles, Javier Bardem, and his role in Ridley Scott/Cormac McCarthy’s The Counselor.

As Ridley Scott told the crowd at a CineEurope presentation:

The session began with Scott taking the stage to debut the international trailer for The Counselor and show footage. The 2013 fall film, about a lawyer who takes up with the wrong crowd, stars Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Bardem, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz.

“When Cormac McCarthy’s script came through my letter box, it was like a time bomb going off. It has to be one of the best screenplays I have ever read,” Scott said. “I called Cormac and said I had to meet him right away.”

Scott next brought Bardem — Spain’s biggest movie star — on stage. The director and his actor, who lives with a very-pregnant Cruz in Madrid, revealed that the inspiration for Bardem’s hair style in The Counselor was producer Brian Grazer’s famous mane.

“I called him [Grazer] and said, ‘he’s going to look like you,'” Scott said.

That’s funny, I thought one of the Scott brothers already directed a movie with a Grazer character:

Ha, classic Grazer. (Or so I imagine, based upon his pictures alone).

In addition to Javier Bardem’s hair, the other enduring image of The Counselor was all the cheetahs. As long as art’s imitating life, I imagine those were probably inspired by a trip to Michael Bay’s house. The models I’ve talked to who’ve been there say you can barely find your bikini top in that place without stepping on a cheetah. They say the whole jetski hangar is lousy with ’em.

Banner image: Mark Sullivan, Getty; 20th Century Fox.

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