Downton Abbey Star Wears Wig to Cover Shaved Head
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Photo by Amanda Edwards/WireImage(NEW YORK) — The actor who plays the closeted gay under-butler Thomas Barrow on Downton Abbey says he’s been wearing a wig while filming the upcoming fourth season because he had to shave his head for another role.
Rob James-Collier told E! Online this week, “I shaved if off for a role where I played a crazy psychotic drug dealer.”
James-Collier says the wig he’s wearing while filming Downton Abbey costs more than $6,000. “It’s the king of wigs…As wigs go, it’s beautiful. And it means if I ever go bald, I can stick the wig on so I’ll always have work.”
As for his character, James-Collier reveals he finds a new “evil partner” in the fourth season because Miss O’Brien is no longer around. Siobhan Finneran, the actress who played Miss O’Brien, decided to leave the series.
The upcoming fourth season picks up with Lady Mary, played by Michelle Dockery, mothering a six-month-old son and mourning the loss her husband, Matthew, who died in a car crash.
Downton Abbey returns to the U.S. for its fourth season on January 5.
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