Power is a dangerous thing for a woman to have, but in the cult classic film The Witches of Eastwick, award-winning actor Susan Sarandon dares to do it anyway—gossip be damned.
Loosely based on John Updike’s novel of the same name, the 1987 film adaptation starring Sarandon, Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Jack Nicholson is basically Practical Magic but kinky and subversive. Bored of their personal and professional lives, three single women—Jane, Alex, and Sukie—accidentally summon their ideal man: a devilishly handsome stranger named Daryl. Arriving soon after, as if by magic, Daryl seduces the women into a world of pleasure and potency, free from societal expectations.
The film wasn’t a critical or commercial success upon release. But it set Sarandon up for the breakthrough role she’d take on next. And in recent years there’s been renewed appreciation for the truly exceptional hair, makeup, and wardrobe looks she turns throughout the picture.
The moment: The ’80s were a career-making decade for Susan Sarandon. She was already a star when she appeared in The Witches of Eastwick. That said, she was still a year or so away from becoming a household name thanks to Bull Durham. Perhaps that’s why, decades later, Sarandon is still kind of miffed about losing the role she originally wanted to her Eastwick costar Cher.
“I initially was cast in Cher’s part, and didn’t find out till I got to LA—because I was living in Rome—that I was actually moved to a different part,” she told screenwriter Michael Cristofer in 2020. “I had to learn suddenly to play the cello, and I had never played an instrument in my life. They said they would sue me if I left, so I didn’t have much choice.”
Ultimately, Cher was cast as Alex, a sculptor yearning for creative fulfillment, and Sarandon was cast as Jane, a mousy-haired music teacher.
“Cher sort of muscled her way into that part,” Cristofer echoed. To which Sarandon replied, “That’s Jon [Peters, the film producer]…. [He] and Cher had a past liaison or something, so that was another element.”
The set of Eastwick was a toxic workplace in more ways than one. According to Sarandon, Peters—the self-described “Trump of Hollywood”—reportedly threw chairs in a rage at one point and director George Miller tried to quit twice. To survive the shoot, Sarandon, Cher, and Pfeiffer did their best to bond by having lunch with Nicholson in his trailer every day. Which feels incredibly mature, given that Nicholson and Cher had beef too. In 2018 the singer recalled receiving a call from director Miller—best known for the Mad Max film franchise—in which she was allegedly told: “I just wanted to call and tell you that I don’t want you in my movie and Jack Nicholson and I think you’re too old and you’re not sexy.” (For reference, Cher was 40 years old at the time.)
“There were a lot of reasons why we could not have gotten along, and everybody took a higher road,” Sarandon concluded in conversation with Cristofer.
The look: While Sarandon’s hair is naturally curly, she famously prefers to wear wigs on set. In one of the shoot’s warmer moments, she recalls Cher lending “a wig and dress for a scene in which Nicholson seduces her,” per Page Six. Throughout her career, Cher worked with legendary wigmaker Renate Leuschner—one of three hairstylists credited in Eastwick. So Leuschner is likely the person responsible, at least in part, for creating Sarandon’s mane of soft copper curls. Somehow managing to achieve the perfect balance of frizz and definition, you can just tell this hairpiece was made by a master of her craft.
Perms were popularized in the early ’70s before eventually falling out of style in the early ’90s, so Sarandon’s hairstyle in the 1987 was far from groundbreaking. Plus, she’d had already been a redhead off and on for years before playing Jane in Eastwick. But her scene-stealing spray of fluffy curls is undeniably the cult classic film’s defining image (although her fit during the tennis match scene might be a close second).
More so than any other character, Sarandon’s Jane transforms from the inside out over the course of the film. The narrative opens with Jane getting sexually harassed at work. And by the end of the movie, she’s a flame-haired femme fatale. The shift happens in part because Nicholson’s character ropes all three female leads, including Jane, into a witchy throuple that scandalizes the town. And feminist implications aside, I simply have to agree with the message here. Like a fresh dye job, good dick can change your life. But you don’t necessarily need anyone or anything to tap into that feeling. Embodied pleasure is a gift you can give to yourself (and others) whenever you want, as much as you want.
The legacy: Redheads, rise up. In recent years, ruby hues have been reigning supreme in terms of trend-worthiness. Last year Rumer Willis dyed her hair a warm shade of copper inspired partly by Sarandon in Witches of Eastwick. Gigi Hadid meanwhile went “code-red” as did Sarah Hyland around the same time. This year pumpkin spice hair and chocolate cherry hair are slated to be some of the most requested hues. And thanks to TikTok, the ’80s perm could be making a comeback now that formulas and techniques for application have advanced.
And who knows? Warner Bros. signed off on a reboot of the 1987 film last year. If Cher’s wig from The Witches of Eastwick is sitting in a museum, perhaps Sarandon’s hairpiece is still out there, waiting in the wings for its second act. This time around, I really hope it snags the Oscar nod it deserves.
Sarandon’s new show, Monarch, premieres September 11 on Fox.
